The Princess and the Frog

I'm so glad that John Lasseter reopened the hand drawn animation department when he took over as the head of Disney animation. It's hard to believe that it's been five and a half years since the last hand drawn Disney animated film (and even longer than that since the last good one, I'm not a fan of Home on the Range). It just feels right to have Disney doing this classic style of animation, and even better that they're doing it with such a charming, fun, and sweet film as The Princess and the Frog.

Tiana (Anika Noni-Rose) is a nineteen year old waitress working two jobs in jazz-era New Orleans, saving and dreaming of opening her own restaurant. The city is all aflutter over the visit of Prince Naveen (Brunos Campos), a charming, if arrogant and kind of lazy, noble on the lookout for good times, and just maybe a wealthy wife to help him with some minor financial difficulties. He falls in with voodoo magician Dr. Facilier (Keith David) with the ultimate result of his being transformed into a frog. His hope is that a kiss from Tiana will reverse the spell. Instead it does the opposite as she's transformed into a frog too. They have to work together in a journey across to the bayou in the hope that they can reverse the spell.

When I first saw that Disney was going to have it's first African American princess I almost groaned at the thought that they'd just be shoehorning it in somewhere where it wouldn't make sense. It felt like the ultimate PC move. I was sure wrong. Everything about the setting, the characters, and the feel ofThe Princess and Frog fits together perfectly. It's an organic, perfectly natural decision to have an African American princess in this setting, and what a setting it is.

The time period and city of New Orleans are the real stars of the film. With a soundtrack that has a mixture of jazz, blues and zydeco inspired songs and a real feeling of the food and flavors of the the city I was blown away. It isn't everyday that you see a film that has both a jazz trumpet playing gator and a deep bayou cajun firefly. I just ate it all up.

But it isn't just the setting that makes The Princess and the Frog wonderful. It's the characters and the messages that the film is trying to get across. Tiana is a strong, honest and sweet person that isn't afraid of a little hard work. It's awfully refreshing to see a Disney princess teaching that it isn't enough to just wish for something, but that you have to work hard for it too. Prince Naveen is kind of unlikable. He's closer to the idea of what I think Prince Charming would really be like, arrogant, lazy and a little full of himself. And then you have Dr. Facilier, who may be the most frightening Disney villain in quite some time. Not only does he want money, and power, he's more than willing to sacrifice other people's souls in the process. It's great to see these great characters voiced by great voice actors instead of just using big name stars that don't really fit the roles. Just one of many great decisions made by the film makers.

The Princess and the Frog may not be as good as the films from the last Disney golden age (like Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid and The Lion King) but only just barely. The only thing I can see that it's lacking is a truly great song. All of the songs are interesting, and very good, but none of them have the breakaway pop hit potential that the true classics do. But this is a more than worthy return to the classic Disney animation style and something that you should really go see.

Grade: A-