Where do I even start when it comes to Disney? On one hand, you have Pixar and all that John Lasseter has done to revitalize the company. On another limb – I'm going to say a foot – you have the tween flicks like Hannah Montana, which deserve to be banished to the realm of the television network they own. Then there are the cheesy knock-offs of amusement park rides and terrible remakes.
However, the redeeming genre is their crown: hand-drawn animation. The company was founded on that style, and a reemergence in the '90s of high-quality stories ("Beauty and the Beast," "The Lion King," and "Aladdin") helped to keep the art alive. However, the new millennium brought about a change to computer animation for the majority of their work. After a half-decade hiatus, Disney returns with another modern hand-drawn classic in "The Princess and the Frog."
I can't even formulate how magical it is to see hand-drawn animation again. And with a strong story to back it up, "Frog" makes a great movie to go see. It isn't an inventive story by any means; it has a classic Disney structure.
The ingenuity resides in the wonderful song, setting and characters that refresh the Jazz Era setting. My favorite has to be the trumpet playing alligator named Louis. The styles of music also reflect the setting and character. The music all has a Southern flavor with heavy African American influences, including jazz, soul and hillbilly for the bayou characters.
The plot itself is a twist on "The Frog Princess" story that all of us know. In this instance, the princess, Tiana, turns into a frog when she kisses the bewitched frog prince, Naveen. She has to venture around Louisiana to find a witch doctor, Mama Odie, who can dispel the voodoo curse. Chasing them are the greedy characters of the prince's manservant and the voodoo shadow man. They meet a variety of characters, including the alligator Louis and a whacky firefly.
I think this might be Disney's most transcending film of the year. What the script achieves is a hybrid of stories Disney has already told. The best images from classics, such as wishing on a star, making dreams come true, talking animals and princesses, all are warped here into a new twist of a story. Wishing upon a star is the most referenced part of this story, and I almost could imagine Jiminy Cricket singing his song to Tiana.
Along with this, there is the theme of making dreams come true. Disney has changed that romantic and outdated saying into a theme for the modern audience: You can make your dreams come true with a little luck and a lot of work. Achieving your dreams isn't a Disney fantasy in this film. It's about living and making them come true. I have to applaud Disney for maturing their themes to help kids not be brats, as well as steer away from love struck vampire tweens.
The voices actors are all top notch. Anika Noni Rose voices the lead, Tiana, and she has an amazing voice. She sings every song as well; no skimping on actors who can't sing. My favorite voice is John Goodman though, who plays Big Daddy La Bouff, just because it's John Goodman.
As for the cultural impact of the film, it stands as Disney's first African American princess movie. After all this time, and dancing around every other culture, Disney finally has caught up with the times. It is funny that Disney represented every other culture as a princess – Asian, Native American and Middle Eastern – before they did an African American princess.
Oh well; at least they did it right and created an immersive world of beauty mixed with reality. The songs all entertain and hopefully might be up for Academy Awards, although it may be too late in the season to garner those nods.
And be glad that it took the top box office spot over the weekend. This might mean that Disney will dig deep to find other great stories to make using old-fashioned animation.
Grade: A-
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