The Princess and the Frog
Movie Review
"The Princess and the Frog"
Review by Eric D. Snider
Grade: A-
Rating: G
Released: Friday, December 11, 2009
Directed by:
Cast:
The people at Disney have been candid about their hopes that "The Princess and the Frog" -- their first old-fashioned hand-drawn cartoon since 2004, and their first full-blown Broadway-style musical since 1998 -- would recapture some of the magic that used to be associated with Disney animated films. But like the heroine in their story, the Disney folks knew it wasn't enough to make a wish on the evening star -- they needed to work hard, too.
And so it is that after drifting for the last several years through enjoyable but unremarkable computer-animated stories like "Meet the Robinsons" and "Chicken Little," Disney literally went back to the drawing board. Under the guidance of Ron Clements and John Musker, who wrote and directed "The Little Mermaid" and "Aladdin," a variation on the old "Frog Prince" fairy tale was devised, set in 1920s New Orleans and featuring all the old hallmarks of a Disney classic: magic spells, talking animals, princes, princesses, and plenty of singing. They got Randy Newman, whose New Orleans upbringing and Dixieland jazz style make him a perfect fit, to write the songs.
The result is an absolute delight, the first Disney film in well over a decade worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as "The Little Mermaid" and "Beauty and the Beast." Some characters and situations are reminiscent (but not ripoffs) of "Cinderella," "The Jungle Book," and other tales from the Disney pantheon, but it has the feel of something new and invigorating, too. Funny, sweet, and perfectly pitched for both children and adults, it moves Disney animation into the 21st century without selling out its history.
Our heroine is Tiana (voice of Anika Noni Rose), a young black woman (Disney's first!) whose lifelong goal has been to open her own restaurant. Determined to save up enough for the down payment, she works double shifts as a waitress, with no time for friends or fun, barely enough time to see her dear widowed mother (Oprah Winfrey).
For Mardi Gras, super-wealthy Big Daddy La Bouff (John Goodman) and his spoiled daughter, Charlotte (Jennifer Cody), longtime acquaintances of Tiana and her mother, are hosting a masquerade party. Expected to attend is Prince Naveen (Bruno Campos), a handsome, jazz-loving playboy from the nation of Maldonia (his accent puts it somewhere between Italy and Brazil), who's visiting the Crescent City because his parents cut off his allowance and he wants to find a rich girl to marry.
Meanwhile, Dr. Facilier (Keith David), a deep-voiced voodoo practitioner called the Shadow Man by those who fear him, has sinister plans of his own. Pledging to give Prince Naveen and the prince's valet, Lawrence (Peter Bartlett), what they want, he makes them a deal that results in Naveen being turned into a frog and Lawrence being transformed into a handsome prince, the better to woo lovely ladies with. Frog-Naveen, believing Tiana to be a princess when he hops up to her at the masquerade party, requests a kiss -- which turns her into a frog, too. Whoops.
The rest of the film follows Naveen and Tiana's odd-couple adventures through the bayous, where they dodge frog-eating creatures and befriend a trumpet-playing alligator named Louis (Michael-Leon Wooley). He tells them of Mama Odie (Jenifer Lewis), a blind old voodoo lady who works good magic, not the dark kind, and might be able to make them human again. Whereas Dr. Facilier gives people what they want and always has tricks up his sleeve, Mama Odie gives them what they actually need. Also involved is Ray (Jim Cummings), a Cajun firefly whose illuminated rump guides the way, the Deep South equivalent of Tinkerbell.
In customary Disney fashion, much attention is paid to the details: what people wore in New Orleans in the '20s, what the buildings looked like, what the artistic styles were, the funny way Cajuns talk. There's a "Streetcar Named Desire" reference, of course, because as soon as you see Tiana on the streetcar you want there to be one. Tiana and Naveen, both strong leading characters, become better people through their association with one another, perhaps falling in love in the process (spoiler alert?). The supporting characters are colorful and funny; the villain is appropriately nefarious (Keith David is well cast); the man-hungry rich girl is silly; the ending is happy.
There are enough subtle variations on the classic Disney model to let you know the filmmakers are aware of it, but not so many that the template is changed beyond recognition. Somehow, the result is both magically old-fashioned and wonderfully modern, the natural evolution of the heartwarming, rib-tickling, toe-tapping Disney treasures of yesteryear.
Grade: A-
Rated G, with content on a par with the traditional Disney cartoons, plus a fart joke and the word 'butt'
1 hr., 37 min.
Copyright © Eric D. Snider.
This work may not be transmitted via the Internet, nor reproduced in any other way, without written consent from Eric D. Snider.
This item has 18 comments
December 11, 2009 at 7:11 pm
". . . and their first full-blown Broadway-style musical since [Enchanted]."
December 11, 2009 at 7:18 pm
idk, the whole time watching it i kept picking up on things that seemed like direct retreads to previous Disney films. i think the pc police beat this project so down from the start that the creators basically cut and pasted to patch this together, so that if anyone starts hollering they can be like "we did the same thing with [other movie] and there was no problem with it then". the songs were especially forgettable, and the humor relied too much on slapstick. i mean i don't think it was bad, just tepid and a little boring at times. i think the best thing about it was the animation which is not a good thing for a movie. pixar knows that much and though i was thrilled with the return to 2D cell i had thought (hoped really) they would have benefited by bringing in some of those great writers on the pixar team.
December 11, 2009 at 7:39 pm
". . . and their first full-blown Broadway-style musical since [Enchanted]."
The review is comparing this to other animated films in Disney's history. That one sentence could have been more explicit, but in context I think it's pretty clear we're talking about Disney cartoons, not all Disney movies in general.
December 12, 2009 at 12:13 am
I'm so happy this got such great reviews! I've been looking forward to this since I saw the trailer a few months back. I'm thrilled that they've gone back to the traditional draw style. I'm glad it turned out so good!
December 12, 2009 at 9:45 pm
I'm so glad they decided to make more traditional animations! (Thanks Mr. Lasseter.) I enjoyed watching this one!
And to Jacob, should we really call a movie with three musical numbers a Broadway-style musical? Not that I have anything against it. I loved Enchanted. But I would have liked more Steven Schwartz in it.
December 13, 2009 at 9:05 pm
Great to hear that it all turned out as well as it did! After seeing the trailers, it looked to me like it could've gone either way...
Also, Eric, you usually give an indication of what the MPAA rating is for, and you didn't this time. Perhaps you just assumed that since it was "G" it didn't matter, but I'm wondering about the appropriateness of letting my 4 year old see this, and Kids In Mind isn't terribly helpful. Any cautions?
Thanks!!!
December 13, 2009 at 10:12 pm
Alaska-Boy: if you don't mind spoilers (I'm making them as ambiguous as I possibly can)...
Dr. Facilier can be a bit scary at times (but then again, so was Scar), and there's the permanent death of a main character near the end (with a funeral scene afterward!), but it's probably nothing that a four year old can't handle. After all, if Sesame Street can show an episode based around the concept of death, then I'm sure The Princess and the Frog is fine for a four year old to see.
December 14, 2009 at 8:32 am
My 4-year-old is usually scared of bad things, but she only put her fingers in her ears once during the movie and didn't hide her eyes at all. I was glad that the main villian was bad but not scary.
I was a little disappointed at the length. It seemed a little short and I didn't feel really connected to any of the characters besides the firefly. He was the only one not based on a single characteristic (i.e. lazy, hard-working, greedy, etc.)
Good overall; I think I would give it a B+.
December 14, 2009 at 8:58 am
I loved it. The music was great, I laughed a lot, and the story was very touching.
December 15, 2009 at 10:41 am
Can stories make up a pantheon? I think Eric was looking for another word here to signify a body of mythical stories, but can't think of it myself. Mythos doesn't seem quite right, but technically fits.
Anyway, just trying to do my part.
*fart noise*
December 18, 2009 at 7:21 am
The review has me interested. Can anybody tell me how large the Oprah role is? I was under the impression is was significant, which had this on the Likely Never Watch list, but now it's up to Eventually Netflix if I Run Through the Other 120 Movies.
December 18, 2009 at 2:25 pm
First, I totally agree with Eric's review. Very accurate.
Neil, the Oprah role was actually smaller than I expected. She's the mother, and you only have her in about 1/4-1/2 of the film.
My wife is a Disney elitist, and she said this was...good. Not bad, but not Disney's best work. She said she would 100% recommend to anyone, but doesn't put it on par with Beauty and the Beast nor Lion King.
I think the bigger picture is Disney is trying to reclaim the families they lost with flops like "The Hunchback..." According to Wiki, they are planning to do Rapunzel in 2010 and The King of the Elves in 2011. Perhaps we're seeing a Disney resurgence?
December 18, 2009 at 8:34 pm
I took my 3-year-old and 2-year-old to the theater for the first time to see this - they handled the villain scenes fine. Two-year-old got a little more snuggly on my lap during those sequences, but there was no crying. Overall, we really liked it. Fun story and great music.
I'd say the Oprah role was even smaller than Brandt's designation. She was at the very beginning and the very end but nothing through the bulk of the movie. In fact, if I hadn't read on Eric's review that she was even in it, I never would have known from watching it.
Having recently moved to this part of the country (grew up on the West Coast, now live 3 hours from New Orleans), the best line of the movie was when the frogs meet the firefly and tell him they're from "far away." His response - "Oh, you're from Shreveport?" BWA HA HA!
February 10, 2010 at 9:02 pm
I'm sorry to have to say this (and it's certainly only my opinion), but I found all but the first half-hour or so of this movie to be a mostly joyless slog. It really has no momentum of any sort or idea of where it's going, which after a bright beginning was disappointing.
Around the moment the Comic Relief Racial Caricature showed up to shower broad humor down upon me, I felt like leaving. The animation even seemed to get worse as the script lost focus, and I started to feel that the movie had no point to make other than "Disney is back!" Pretty drawings can't salvage a so-so script, which seems to be all Disney brought to the table here.
February 19, 2010 at 4:40 pm
After watching the movie again in a better mood I can see that I was WAY too hard on this movie the first time. It's much better than I gave it credit for, though I still hope it can lead to a resurgence of the pitch-perfect animated comedy/musicals Disney put out in the late 80s and early 90s.
March 14, 2010 at 10:24 am
It's kind of funny that I was the first person to comment here, and I finally saw the movie yesterday. Oh well. Great show. Also: did anyone else think that Big Daddy / Big Dan T would grab a frog and and crush it in his bare hands like it was just a little horny toad, then throw it against a tree?
July 9, 2010 at 5:34 pm
I'm surprised at all the good reviews. This movie was a sad excuse compared to other Disney animated films. The story was weak and forgettable, along with all of the songs (maybe you would love it if you're from the south and love jazz, but it sure didn't sway a non-fan like myself). Character development was terrible too, they just appeared, changed as needed, etc. The only depth to main characters was pretty one dimensional. Editing was bad as well, many scenes led you to believe there were important themes being developed, only to never be revisited. Overall, I would have given it a C, maybe.
November 24, 2010 at 1:05 pm
I'd have to agree with Jeremy (and Clumpy's first post) Maybe I'm just not a fan of the whole jazzy New Orleans' world, but this movie is unbearable. I guess I'm in the minority on this though, it seems to have had great reviews. Even my kids (4 and 2) get bored and want to turn it off.