Henry Saw: The Princess and the Frog

Ah shucks...


This was not what I hoped it would be.

I'm part of a lucky group that got to grow up during one of Disney Animation's heydays. There's a group that was there for Snow White, Dumbo, and Bambi. Another group that witnessed the release of films like Cinderella, Peter Pan, and The Lady and the Tramp. Then there is the group I'm in, the one that was amazed by The Little Mermaid in 1989, and for whom Beauty and the Beast (not my favorite), Aladdin, and The Lion King remain an integral part of our childhoods. 1995 saw the release of Pocahontas, a film that failed in every aspect except its soundtrack and animation, and which began the fall of 2D animation.

1996's Hunchback of Notre Dame is a horrifying fiasco; an astonishing misfire that includes a song about rape, little humor, and an unsatisfying conclusion for our hero (one that differs from the original text by the way). 1997's Hercules has its moments, it's definitely a movie I like more than I hate, but it doesn't reach the heights of their films of the early 90's. The animation is the weakest of any Disney film since the early 1980's, they completely butcher the myths (they don't even mention 12 Labors...), and the music is boring.



1998 saw the release of Disney's last "great" 2D animated film: Mulan. Mulan is a deeply underrated movie. It's legitimately funny (Eddie Murphy actually outdoes his "Donkey" performance from Shrek as Mushu the Dragon), beautiful to look at (the shot of the army rushing over the snowy mountain is the first shot I remember thinking of as "epic"), and has a few catchy tunes (the music was definitely an afterthought).

1999 saw the release of Tarzan, scored by Phil Collins, and featuring the voice of Rosie O'Donnell. The animation was awesome, I'd still love to see a Spider-Man cartoon that had him swing around NYC like Tarzan swung around the jungle in this movie, but the movie is a big ball of lame. It's passable, some of the action beats do really work, but it's a very forgettable film. After Tarzan...it is some sad ass s***. Have you heard of any of the following films:

Fantasia 2000 (Actually the first Imax movie I saw in my favorite movie theater New Roc City. All I remember about this film is seeing a 100 foot tall Steve Martin and a semi-cool Gershwin sequence)

The Emperor's New Groove (I think this featured the voice of David Spade...?)

Atlantis: The Lost Empire (No idea what this movie is...I think Michael J. Fox was involved...but I don't know one thing about this movie)

Lilo & Stitch (Ah...spoke too soon...this I've heard of. And I've heard it's kind of cool. My cousin Jack LOVED this movie. Maybe this is cool - thoughts from the peanut gallery?)

Treasure Planet (Again...no idea)



Brother Bear (...Really?)

And finally, in 2004, Home on the Range (Seriously? Disney released this film? Holy lord.)

So that was it for 2D animation from Disney for awhile. We got some animated Disney films (note that Disney is a separate entity from Pixar) like Chicken Little, Meet the Robinsons, and Bolt...but those were poor CGI imitations of Pixar films.

So finally John Lasseter, the leader of Pixar, was named the head of all Disney animation in 2006. One of his first decisions was to bring 2D animation back (which is pretty awesome considering he founded Pixar...the CGI kings). And that brings us, finally, to the first 2D animated release we get under John Lasseter's hands: The Princess and the Frog.



Disney's plot description of the film: Walt Disney Animation Studios presents the musical THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG, an animated comedy set in the great city of New Orleans. From the creators of THE LITTLE MERMAID and ALADDIN comes a modern twist on a classic tale, featuring a beautiful girl named Tiana (ANIKA NONI ROSE), a frog prince who desperately wants to be human again, and a fateful kiss that leads them both on a hilarious adventure through the mystical bayous of Louisiana.

So, sadly, one of the first things that needs to be mentioned about this movie is that it is the first Disney film to star a black lead. This isn't sad because it is such a terrible injustice that we haven't had a black star of a Disney film. Yeah, Disney had some rough racial moments in the 1940s (Dumbo [although were the crows really that bad? They're so positive and they have the best song in the film] and Song of the South [...yeah there is no defense...it's horrible...so horrible that this movie is unavailable on DVD...or video...Disney all but used an MIB Mind Eraser on the world about this one) and the 1960s (The Jungle Book - If you want to continue to love this movie don't look too much into the scenes with King Louie and the monkeys) but...was anyone really crying about Disney being racist over the last 30 years? Yeah, Ariel and Belle were white as a ghost but Aladdin featured an "Arab" lead and Pocahontas was a "red-woman" (...you might also want to avoid Peter Pan if you're racially sensitive). Hunchback featured a gypsy (and she didn't throw her baby at anyone to steal their purse!), Hercules featured a non-sweaty Greek woman, and Mulan starred a Chinese girl...if anything Disney has gone out of the way to feature very P.C. non-white leads over the last 15 years.



But yes, in the post-Obama America we have to acknowledge that this is the first Disney movie to feature an African American...and one of the best things about The Princess and the Frog is that it doesn't mean a goddamn thing. There was only one time that I considered the fact that this film was made up of mostly black "cast" members. It was a brief moment where I wondered whether a character was too much of a caricature, but I quickly dismissed it, and went on to watching the movie as just another Disney movie.

That out of the way...let's finally get to an actual review.

The Princess and the Frog is a small movie. And that was actually my biggest issue with the film. I wanted this film to be Disney's grand return to 2D animation. I wanted this to be the equivalent of what James Cameron is trying to do with Avatar. Apparently after seeing The Return of the King James Cameron became obsessed with one-upping Peter Jackson. Cameron, in his mind, had made the "biggest" film of all time with Titanic but felt out-done by Jackson's Return of the King. Cameron spent the next 6 years trying to take back the crown as the "King" of epic cinema. That's what I wanted from The Princess and the Frog. I wanted the creators behind the film to see all the fantastic work that Pixar has done since 1995 as a direct challenge. I wanted them to prove why 2D animation, and animated musicals, are still the progenitor of all the cartoon films we've seen since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

What we get is a film that is about on par with The Rescuers or Oliver and Company. The Princess and the Frog is a good movie. It has some funny moments, some fantastic animation, and a satisfying plot...but it's not great. And I wanted great.



I'm running long and I've barely said anything about the movie so I'm going into a lightning round:

- The first half-hour is boring. We get a long introduction to our principle characters and it's all soporific.

- I've read in multiple places that if one was given this film, and told that "it is from the Disney vaults", that one wouldn't know when it was made. This is wrong. The animation is fantastic, especially the background work on New Orleans, but this is definitely a 2009 film. There is nothing "classical" about the look of this movie. Overly large eyes, fluid movement, popping colors...there is nothing timeless about the animation here. Kudos for the animators for doing it all by hand...some of the work is amazing.



- The very best parts of the film involve the villain Dr. Facilier (voiced by the awesome Kieth David who already appeared in an excellent animated film this year...he was the cat in Coraline). The way his "friends" and his shadows are animated is awesome and he has, perhaps, the best song in the film (there's only one competitor for that honor).

- The heroine is a strong character. Tiana is a developed, strong, and modern character. I thought the love interest Prince Naveen was kinda...dull. And his decision to go from narcissistic greed to love and (redemption?) just kind of happens without exploration...nice role reversal but still kinda lame.



- Randy Newman's music is...underwhelming. I wanted an Under the Sea, or Be Our Guest, or Friend Like Me, or Circle of Life. I wanted something that, for lack of a better or under-used term, went for it. The two best songs we get are Friends On the Other Side and the "big" number Dig a Little Deeper. The latter elicited applause from the audience tonight. Solid song, and the most classic "Disney" sequence of the film, but still not near as good as the best of Disney's best. I was in a very excited audience and I think they were just happy to get one song and sequence that echoed the "old" (read: The Lion King) brand of Disney cinema.

- There are a lot of references to other Disney films scattered throughout. It was a little distracting actually. By my count we got overt or subtle nods to Snow White, Pinocchio, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Rescuers, Lady and the Tramp, The Jungle Book, The Little Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and The Lion King. It was never a Where's Waldo-esque "spot the reference" situation but it was a little strange.

- The supporting characters are fairly strong. Michael-Leon Wooley is solid as an alligator who wants to play horn in a jazz band (his character has one of the funnier moments of the movie) and Jim Cummings kills as a lightning bug who has more heart than anyone else in the movie. John Goodman, Terrence Howard, and Oprah Winfrey are not recognizable, and haven't been used in the marketing too strongly, which means they just wanted to be in the film because they liked it... that's kind of cool.



I just wished I liked it as much as they must have. It's a good movie. It's much better than anything Disney (on its own) has done since Mulan. But it's still not good enough. We got a perfectly solid film. I liked my 90+ minutes in the theater; but it wasn't what the medium or the studio needed. We needed, if not a lesser verion of The Lion King (the most successful 2D animated film since Snow White), than at least a lesser verion of The Little Mermaid (The best 2D animated film since Snow White). Instead...sigh...all us folks who saw The Lion King in theaters should raise a glass to an art-form that I'm afraid died this weekend. The film only made 25 million at the box office, and though I'm sure Disney will end up making money on the film due to DVDs and toys, it's not the number the studio wanted. So we might get a few more 2D animated films that were already in production but after that...

So I'm a little bitter about The Princess and the Frog. Unless I'm wrong, which is certainly possible, I'll soon have to explain to my nephew why all my favorite Cartoons don't look like Monsters Vs. Aliens...

The Film deserves a B+ probably but I'm a little dissapointed so

Grade: B

Best Scene: Kieth David's "Friend's on the Other Side"