The Princess and the Frog

Well, it’s time for a great Disney flick today because we are going to look at “The Princess and the Frog,” released in 2009. This is how Roger Ebert described the opening segment of the movie: “The opening scenes of Disney's "The Princess and the Frog" are like a cool shower after a long and sweaty day.” What he means to say is this is how traditional animation looked like. This is back when there was no 3D, no glasses, no extra charge on your ticket, and no hysterical emotions of mindless action. Goodness gracious, this film has a story, characters, a plot, it’s set in a certain time and place, and it uses amazing hand-drawn animation that moves at a human pace, instead of racing with odd efficiency. Ebert went on to say, “I'm just gonna stand here and let it pour over me.”

This movie is quite an entertainment and doesn’t quite live up to the opening parts. Ebert described, “But it's a demonstration that the Walt Disney Studio still shelters animators who know how to make a movie like that, in an age when too many animated films are like fast food after memories of mom's pot roast. My guess is that afterward the poor kids won't feel quite so battered by input overload.” The film moves on the screen and doesn’t jump into the audience and forces them to like it.

The story is set mostly in an African-American community in New Orleans, America’s most strong city, before and after World War I. We meet a little girl named Tiana (Elizabeth Dampier), who is appreciated by her mother Eudora (Host who now has her own TV Channel, Oprah Winfrey) and father James (Terrence Howard). Her mother is a seamstress while her dad is a hard-working restaurant owner who makes some great gumbo. He gets enlisted in the Army and never returns home. Now that Tiana is an adult, now voiced by Anika Noni Rose, her life is a struggle, but she keeps holding on to her dream of opening a restaurant and serving her dad’s gumbo (with just a touch more red sauce).

Here’s what Ebert said about the music: “This is all shown in flowing, atmospheric animation and acted with fetching voices, but the songs by Randy Newman are -- I dunno, do you think he's getting sort of Randy Newmaned out? And the absence of a couple of terrific musical numbers is noticeable, I think, although younger viewers will probably be drawn into the story.”

You know this story. A princess kisses a frog, and it turns into Prince Charming. How about this for a twist: she turns into a frog after kissing it? (Spoilers: that’s what happens.) Tiana and the Prince Naveen of Malvonia, voiced by Bruno Campos, are now frogs, although, obviously, they keep all of their moral values and do not act the way frogs do other than croaking and eating flies.

They’re under a spell that has been casted by a voodoo villain named Dr. Facilier, voiced by Goliath from the Disney cartoon “Gargoyles,” Keith David. Life in the swamp is the house of two friends, Louis (Michael-Leon Wooley), an alligator who plays jazz saxophone, and Ray (Jim Cummings), a firefly who is just like Jiminy Cricket. They look for the occult Mama Odie, voiced by Jenifer Lewis, who might have the ability to counteract Facilier, and whether Tiana and Prince Naveen are turned back into humans and be able to have a happy life eating gumbo, I will let you find out for yourselves.

Ebert noted, “It is notable that this is Disney's first animated feature since "Song of the South" (1946) to feature African-American characters, and if the studio really never is going to release that film on DVD, which seems more innocent by the day, perhaps they could have lifted "Zip-a-dee Doo-Dah" from it and plugged that song in here. Though the principal characters are all black (other than the rich man Big Daddy, voiced by John Goodman, and the Prince, who is of undetermined ethnicity), race is not an issue because Disney adroitly sidesteps all the realities of being a poor girl in New Orleans in the early 1920s. Just as well, I suppose.”

“The Princess and the Frog” brings back those memories of Disney’s Golden Age it doesn’t quite live up to, as I’ve already mentioned, but it’s spritely and high-spirited, and will let kids enjoy it without visually attacking them.

Personally, I think this movie is great for the whole family to watch, especially with the nice twist it has on the classic children's fairy tale. Stay tuned tomorrow for another great movie for "Disney Month."