'The Proud Family’ Creators Received Warnings From Fans Not To Change The Theme Song
Fans warned the creators of the rebooted Disney Plus animated series The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder not to change the original theme song that Solange and Destiny’s Child initially sang, Insider reports.
"One of the things that really is sacred within 'The Proud Family' universe we discovered is our theme song, co-creator Bruce W. Smith said. “ We were getting just short of death threats of not changing this song [saying,] 'You better not change this song.'"
The early 2000s series followed 14-year-old Penny Proud tackling issues as she stepped into her journey as a young Black teen. That hasn’t changed in the reboot.
Despite the warnings, the producers said they made some changes in the show’s animation style and theme song. But they didn’t want to make too many changes to avoid alienating the show’s many diehard fans.
"We certainly acknowledged the fact that we had a legion of fans of the original show, but we certainly wanted to give it an upgrade," co-creator Ralph Farquhar explained.
Fans on social media have given mixed reviews of the new theme song.
Kurt Farquhar composed the theme songs for the original and reboot series. He said the plan was to modernize the song for a new generation. So he gave it a new beat, and the team selected a new vocalist, R&B singer Joyce Wrice, 29, who was a fan of the original series.
"There's no greater new talent than Joyce Wrice to take the reins of this from Beyonce and Destiny's Child and Solange," Kurt said. "Destiny's Child was on a meteoric rise, and Solange was at the beginnings of her career. They spoke to that generation, and now, in a way, they're being handed off to Joyce, who's going to speak to her generation."
Wrice described the opportunity to record the reimagined theme song “a dream come true.”
"It's kinda mystic because two weeks before I got an email from Disney, I had written my goals down, and I put that I want to do more film and TV, and I wanted to be on a nationwide commercial,” she recalled.
Shortly after that, her team received an email from Disney asking her to record the new theme song.
She added, “We couldn't believe it. I just thought it was pretty wild that I set that determination, and then it came through, and it's such perfect timing."
