The Princess and the Frog was originally announced as The Frog Princess in July 2006,[1] and early concepts and songs were presented to the public at The Walt Disney Company's annual shareholders' meeting in March 2007.[2] These announcements drew criticism from African-American media outlets, due to elements of the Frog Princess story, characters, and settings considered distasteful.[23][24] African-American critics disapproved of the original name for the heroine, "Maddy", due to its similarity to the derogatory term "mammy".[23] Also protested were Maddy's original career as a chambermaid,[24] the choice to have the black heroine's love interest be a non-black prince,[23] and the use of a black male voodoo witchdoctor as the film's villain.[23] The Frog Princess title was also thought by critics to be a slur on French people.[5] Also questioned was the film's setting of New Orleans, which had been heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, resulting in the expulsion of a large number of mostly black residents.[26] Critics claimed the choice of New Orleans as the setting for a Disney film with a black heroine was an affront to the Katrina victims' plight.[23][26]