Reviews for The Princess and the Frog

I saw this film in the theater with my family the 1st week it came out. I enjoyed it, but I was not strongly moved by the animation (just my opinion).

Take a minute and consider the incredible task that Disney (or any major studio) has with respect to making a film in 2009. I am referring to the film being adequate for children and politically/socially correct(in addition to entertaining).

A couple of notes...I thought several of the "evil" segments were too strong. I looked at some of the very young children sitting near us and wondered what they were thinking. Then I looked at the mothers and fathers of these youngsters and knew they must be saying "oh my gosh...is this too scary for my child." Then I realized that most very young children probably do not have a clue about those particular scenes and I relaxed (Similar to some of the "evil scenes" in The Lion King and Hunchback of ND films).

Now for the controversial segment of my review. I never thought of Disney as embracing Christianity in the films, however; in this case I saw it (accidental or intentional?)

I read several reviews by Christian organizations that did not like the evil scenes. What I saw in the film was numerous views showing huge magnificent churches with crosses, a church wedding and a star named Evangeline. (Evangelist...hello !). Look up the word roots of Evangeline and you will see it comes from "the good news".

Disney was far overdue for another 2D film, and far overdue for a character that would allow them to sell a truly multi-cultural Disney Princess doll collection. Does that sound cynical? Sorry, it's just my love/hate relationship with Disney. Bet you anything their next Princess movie features someone Hispanic.

Anyway, let's depart from the cynicism and get on to the movie, which I actually quite liked. The Frog Princess was fun, a comedy full of whimsical characters and entertaining scenes. While the villain and his minions were menacing and even slightly scary, they never managed to put a very big dent into the cheery good humor that marks this film. The characters were likable, and even endearing. There was a welcome lack of typical Disney sidekicks and glib catchphrases. The main character's mother even survived! All in all, a good time was had by all at the movie theater.

The down side: the movie didn't quite manage to engage my emotions. Even at the most tragic moment, when I should have been bawling like a baby, I just said, "Awww..." No tears were jerked. Was it that Disney was afraid to lay on the pathos and make the kiddies cry? Or was I just emotionally jaded at the time? (I sneaked into this right after Avatar 3D--shh, don't tell--and it was in a theater with a dinky screen and bad sound.)

It also seemed a little odd to me that Tiana's entire dream rested on acquiring that specific building. What, she couldn't open a restaurant anywhere else?

Disney is notorious among animation geeks for getting lazy and copying/ripping off their own and other movies scenes and animation. I won't even mention that a music-loving alligator came to the rescue in All Dogs Go To Heaven (Oops, mentioned it) but in the Princess and the Frog, I felt that the main character designs were noticeably derived from previous Disney characters, either because they were based on them or because animation was copied that implied it to my brain. There was at least one scene where Tiana was channeling Belle of Beauty and the Beast. In several scenes, the Prince totally looked like Prince Eric, sending me into Little Mermaid flashbacks, and the villainous witch doctor looked like a very close relative of Aladdin's Jafar. Note that these blinding flashes of character deja vu only happened at certain scenes, not all through the movie. They probably were recycling animations at those times.

But all in all, this is a good fun film. Not as good as Disney's best, but better than a lot of their mediocre features. Part of me only wants to give it three stars but...oh, what the heck--another half star. For Evangeline!

I'm glad that 2D is coming back to Disney, because as I said: I grew up with the 2D Classics and I'll always love them for years to come...I mean 3D's great and all but it's artistically beautiful as 2D. I think The animation is beautifully done, and the music is awesome; the film is also the return to the classic Disney animated musical. After seeing it, the film instantly became one of my favorite new millennium Disney animated features, along with Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Treasure Planet, Brother Bear and Home on The Range...I don't why everyone hates it, some people do love it, you know. The film retells the age-old "Frog Prince" story; with a slight twist.

This story starts in New Orleans in the 1920s. A young lady named Tiana works two jobs...Yes she works two waitress jobs: one at night and one in the day. She works to earn money to own a restaurant, because it was her and dad's dream of owning their very own restaurant; but sadly her dad died during World War I.One day, during her day-shift, her rich best friend Charlotte LeBouff is excited because Prince Naveen of Maldonia is coming to New Orleans, and is invited to her family estate for a masquerade party. Then Charlotte pays Tiana for catering at party. Excited by the amount of dollars Charlotte had given her, Tiana was sure she got money to the buy the old sugar mill to transform it into her dream restaurant.

For the next part of the story: Yes, Prince Naveen did arrive in New Orleans. But not just for an invite to a masquerade party, but to marry Charlotte LeBouff for her dad's fortune. You see, his royal parents cut him off for his spoiled, play-boy, jazzy lifestyle. While on the streets with his butler Lawrence, they come across a voodoo magician Dr. Facilier referred as "The Shadowman." Facilier invites them into his emporium, and "reads" their future through the tarot cards. Seeing what the two men each want - Naveen wants the free, jazzy lifestyle; Lawrence who was pushed around his whole life wants to be in Naveen's shoes. Facilier cuts a deal with the Voodoo gods for the special powers that will enable him to turn Naveen into a frog, and use a voodoo talisman to fill Naveen's blood with to make Lawrence look like Naveen and marry Charlotte. But really,The Shadowman plans to murder Lawrence and LeBouff, seize the fortune for himself, and turn the city over to the evil Voodoo gods, who will feed on the souls of the citizens.

Meanwhile while working at the LeBouff's grand masquerade party, Tiana learns that someone else put down a higher offer on the old sugar mill, and is now left with nothing unless she can top him after Mardi Gras...now that is just bull-s**t! Having given up hope, she desperately wishes on the evening star, when Naveen-the-frog appears. Thinking that she is a princess, for she is costumed as one, he convinces her to kiss him in order to break the curse and turn him back into a human again, but the spell backfires (because Tiana is not really a princess) and Tiana becomes a frog as well. The two are chased out as Lawrence impersonates Naveen and win the heart of Charlotte. But the talisman filled with Naveen's blood slowly starts to drain away. So Doctor Facilier sends out his shadows to retrieve the prince, who has escaped to the bayou with Tiana.

In the bayou, Tiana and Naveen encounter Louis, an alligator who wants to become human so he can be a jazz musician and Ray, a Cajun firefly who is in love with the evening star (whom he has named Evangeline), which he thinks is another firefly. They take them to see Mama Odie, the good but eccentric voodoo priestess of the swamp. Along the way, despite their earlier disputes, Naveen and Tiana fall in love with each other, though Tiana chooses to hide her feelings and pursue her goal of having her own restaurant.They eventually reach Mama Odie, who insists they need to "Dig a Little Deeper" to get what they need. Naveen realizes this means being with Tiana, but Tiana misinterprets this as having to work even harder for her restaurant, much to everyone's disappointment. Mama Odie reveals that for the two to become human, Naveen must kiss Charlotte, who is the Mardi Gras Princess before midnight, when Mardi Gras ends...Princess since her dad had just been maded Mardi Gras King. That's all I could tell you folks, you will have to see the film for yourself how it ends.

This is Disney's best film! And I think Dr. Facilier should join other great Disney villains like Chernabog (Fantasia), Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty) and Judge Frollo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame). To me the Dr. is like someone out of a story to scare kids into being good...like: "Don't stay up late, or the Shadowman will get you." "Eat your vegetables, or the Shadowman will get you." Or..."Come inside now! or I will tell the Shadowman." So my last word is that this film is awesome!

I think I'm gonna be one of the few people here that does not give this movie a four star rating. Now I did enjoy this movie but I just felt it was lacking "Disney magic". I didn't really feel much for the character, the movie felt a little flat. Now I'm not sure where I want to start with this review. I suppose I'll go after the music first.

The songs, they weren't bad but they were just blah. Typical type songs, forgettable, but I find most of Randy Newman's work kind of bland to begin with. This movie is no exception. Darnit why couldn't they have snagged Menken? I also don't enjoy jazz type music or that particular type style so I guess I'm also a bit biased there.

The story, it suffered badly from side-kick-itis. Too many side characters. There is one scene *oop spoiler* where the frogs are being "hunted" (I use the term loosely) by some southern... rednecks I suppose you could call them. It was a pointless scene, the characters were unneeded, and annoying. They could have had Tiana and the prince figure out they love each other through a better way but they just HAD to add in some "comedic" relief. Even though we already have the Gator and lightening bug. On a side note I really really loved the Gator and all his silly facial expressions.

The main characters are like-able. I like the polar opposite personalities the prince and Tiana have. I also like that it's not just a typical princess movie. The woman doesn't rely on the prince for everything etc.

The bad guy was pretty cool, I loved his design BUT he wasn't really creepy or scary enough for the movie. At least my friend and I thought so. He had really great potential but fell a bit short. And most of the other characters in this film were "ok".

The message in the movie was a good one, but for some reason it didn't really feel like a Disney movie. It just lacks something, I can't really put my finger on it. It has all the technical aspects a Disney film has, beautiful animation, good voice acting and decent music, I just think there was something lacking in the story.

This movie is decent, I would say go see it in theaters just to support 2D, but I'm not going to say you'll be amazed by it. Disney is back, but not quite up to snuff with what they have produced in the past. It is a step up from their last 2D theatrical release, "Home on the Range" But it's no "Beauty and the Beast". It's a fun, decent holiday movie. It's worth seeing a couple times.

Everything I know about life I learned from Disney movies.

-When you’re a princess, you always have your head in the clouds. That’s all you need, for your prince will always come for you, you don’t need to lift a finger and go to them.

-As long as such characters aren’t evil, everyone always gets along with the secondary characters, and it’s all sunshine and happiness.

-Princes are daring, handsome, and will fall for you at first sight. They’ve always been bored with other women; all it took was to find the right one.

-Snakes are always evil, no exceptions.

-No protagonist, not even a supporting protagonist, will die. If a protagonist must die, no protagonist will die if they survive the first half of the movie.

-The main villain in any modern plot will always be rail thin and sinister, with few exceptions.

-And whenever you wish upon a star, your wish will always, always magically come true.

I don’t know about you, but I think it’s time for a new lesson. Keep in mind, there are spoilers ahead, so here’s the spoiler-free, tl;dr version: I liked this movie a lot, found that it was sufficiently different from past material that Disney has put out, and feel that they’re going in the right direction by throwing out the usual formula and shaking things up a lot. Anyway, spoilers, you have been warned.

You know, Disney was promoting Tiana as the first African American princess, but she spent about half the movie as a frog and not as a person. It’s hard to claim that you’ve made a main character black, when she’s green for a substantial part of the story. Still, I doubt that the prince could’ve made the kinds of leaps in character that he did as a person, so it’s acceptable. And you don’t have to be black to be African American anyway.

Tiana is not your ordinary Disney princess. Instead of being born into royalty, like Ariel or Jasmine or Snow White, she’s more like Cinderella (and Snow White) in that she’s a hard-working girl. Unlike Cinderella (or Snow White), Tiana has a goal she’s working towards, and is very down to earth. She knows better than to rely solely on magic to get what she wants. Instead, she relies on her hard earned savings to help her achieve her dreams. She works two jobs, has been saving all her tips, and has grand dreams that are still realistic enough to come true. She is pretty overworked, but is so full of energy that it makes me wonder whether or not she’s sneaking a Red Bull in between scenes. For someone who is graceful on her feet and moves around the restaurant with ease, it makes me wonder why she says she can’t dance. Probably just shy.

Right when Tiana is about to achieve her dreams, her African American background bites her in the ass. It’s still early in the movie, so she should’ve known it wouldn’t be quite so easy. It’s actually pretty daring of Disney, after making movies for years and pretending racism didn’t exist (which is pretty easy when you tend to draw nothing but white characters and change the subject whenever Song of the South is brought up), to see them openly acknowledging that during the time of the movie’s setting, black people were at a disadvantage because of their skin colour. I suspect that Tiana’s father didn’t have a choice when it came to serving in the Great War, but we never see enough of him to judge if he did want to serve the country in such a way or not.

Prince Naveen comes to town near the beginning of the movie, and he is definitely not Prince Charming, Prince Phillip, or even Prince Eric. Naveen has an eye for the ladies and openly flirts with anyone that does not have a Y chromosome. Even after becoming a frog, he seems to look upon other females with a favourable eye, as he did during one musical number, where he was surrounded by a redhead, brunette and some blondes, and mentioned so in the lyrics. He’s more willing to play around all day than to do any sort of actual work, which is part of what causes him to be drawn in by the villain in the first place and changed into a frog. This doesn’t change his personality at all, since all that seems to be on his mind are kisses, for he is far too happy to take advantage of old fairy tales if it means he gets attention from the ladies. He might’ve been a cliche if not for the fact that this is the 49th full length theatrical animated feature from Disney, but only their first to include a prince who only cares that the ladies are breathing and have a steady heartbeat. If I recall, it’s usually characters like Gaston who possess such a character flaw (and even Gaston favoured one lady above the rest). Modern princes like Simba and Aladdin have only ever had their eyes on one girl. In creating such a character as Prince Naveen, Disney shows a willingness to throw out their playbook and change the rules.

Depending on the movie, Disney protagonists tend to be very durable. Mufasa was able to endure a stampede of wildebeest in The Lion King, and he probably would’ve survived being flung from the cliff as well if not for being trampled to death by the very same herd of wildebeest. Exactly zero characters died in prison in Robin Hood, even though food was scarcely provided and the cells didn’t look too clean. In fact, no characters died at all during that movie, despite at least one madcap fight scene, and the scene at the end where the villains ran crazily into the burning castle). And Captain John Smith’s musket wound in Pocahontas wasn’t even animated (also, he didn’t die from it, and the fight scene that was imminent late in the movie was averted). Likewise, Prince Naveen survives being whacked by two books, and Mama Odie herself has lived 197 years. She is rough with her snake, who seems not to mind such treatment and endures it well. Tiana’s father does die off screen fighting in the Great War, but his durability was never shown on screen and so it’s not known how much effort it took to kill him. He was also a supporting protagonist, and as the movie 2012 recently indicated, extreme peril will kill exactly one secondary character per scene. This rule isn’t followed in The Princess and the Frog, but Disney does one up every single animated film they’ve done to date by first alluding to the father’s death early on in the movie, and then showing the villain murder one of the main characters late in the movie. Because of the Walt Disney Company’s past attitude towards character death, when said character was dying, all I could think was, “If you don’t want the ending to completely suck, this character had better stay dead.” The character was well written and extremely likable, and I wouldn’t have minded if he survived the movie, but the moment he was mortally wounded, I felt that a death bed miracle would’ve weakened the movie and shown that Disney was still a company full of cowards. I think that’s just sad.

The villain... okay, so Dr. Facilier is the most rail thin villain (physically, I mean) Disney ever came up with, so he still fits the stereotype that’s existed since Jafar from Aladdin. When Jafar came along, it was clear that Disney had tossed their overweight villains away. Somehow. They probably needed Hercules’s help. But anyway, Disney had tossed their overweight villains away and chose to use a new breed of slender, anorexic villains. Ratcliffe was a heavy exception, but still, most modern Disney villains look like they could desperately use a sandwich. I think the best villain they’ve had to date has been Gaston. Handsome, muscular, popular, and if not for his nasty jealous streak and pompous attitude, he could’ve easily been a prince. Dr. Facilier, though, isn’t that strong a villain. He’s more of a tempter than a true villain, kind of like Satan in the Bible, and is very limited in his power. If anything, Prince Naveen’s valet, Lawrence, could’ve been the main villain, but his purpose in the movie was to illustrate that there are consequences when you take a title you didn’t earn, consequences that Aladdin never faced when he used similar means to become Prince Ali.

I’m not sure that a stronger villain was needed, though. The Princess and the Frog is a down to earth movie, one which presents a main character who doesn’t rely on magic or wishes or other people to help her meet her goal. She is strongly independent, and so when other characters are blindly wishing on a star and waiting for their princes to come, Naveen works hard, and even when she’s a frog, she still works towards her goals and doesn’t let something as silly as an amphibious transformation get in the way. Apparently it is easy being green after all.

I really liked that Tiana was taught at an early age that wishing isn’t enough. A few years ago, Rhonda Byrne wrote a book called The Secret, and a movie was made to further promote the ideas within the book. When I watched it, it seemed to me like they were promoting the idea that if you just sat around and thought happy thoughts, those thoughts would magically come true, and if they didn’t, it was entirely your fault for not believing hard enough. The Secret is nothing more than a modern day When You Wish Upon A Star, and helps to show how shallow those early Disney movies truly are. Cinderella thought real hard about her dreams as she scrubbed the floor and her fairy godmother suddenly appeared one day. Snow White thought real hard about the prince that would some day come and as she lay in a kind of magical death, her prince did come. Although Princess Aurora was asleep for a good portion of Sleeping Beauty, I bet she dreamed about her prince during her long sleep. In contrast, The Princess and the Frog shows that wishing is only the first step. After wishing comes doing, although a little bit of stargazing never hurt anyone.

A few things I’m just going to touch upon: the supporting cast was wonderful, since it consisted of characters that weren’t one-dimensional or just thrown in to advance the plot. The music was decent enough to work, and the songs seemed like they were intended to be a celebration of early 20th century jazz rather than an attempt to be the next Be My Guest or Under The Sea. Plus, although Disney chose a popular R&B singer to perform their end song, they did not choose one of their Radio Disney stars like they did for The Lion King 1 1/2 and for that I am truly grateful. None of the cast members chewed the scenery, not even John Goodman. Keith David did a great job as the villain, a role he seems well suited for and has been indulging in a lot lately (he was not exactly a protagonist in the Numb3rs episode he guest starred in, and he lent his voice to the final boss of Dissidia: Final Fantasy, among other projects he’s done). Somehow, the animation quality was even better in this movie than it was in Brother Bear, which leads me to believe that there are still places that Disney can take hand-drawn art. And the payoff at the end of the movie was kinda predictable, but for the target audience it was perfect. When I watched it, many people in the audience at the theatre were surprised when it happened, whereas I could see it coming from a mile away. It wasn’t predictable in a cliche way, though. It felt more like the feeling of figuring out a mystery novel and then reading the end and being satisfied that I was right.

Lastly, this movie features a lot of subtle (and not so subtle) references to Disney’s past animated movies. One scene looked like it was lifted from Sleeping Beauty, right down to the camera angle, and I couldn’t help but wish that the dress in the scene started changing colours. In the same scene, you could see a mermaid costume, and in another scene, one of the jazz musicians was wearing a lion costume. There are many other interesting touches and references that can be picked up by ardent Disney fans, but aren’t obvious enough to ruin the movie for casual fans.

In the end, The Princess and the Frog did nearly everything right and was a very enjoyable film to watch. I would definitely watch it again in the theatre. Disney showed that they’re willing to do things they’d been too afraid to do in an animated feature, and if this continues, they may enjoy another golden age like they had in the early 90’s. They might even be able to re-release The Black Cauldron in a few years, possibly with its deleted scenes restored to the film, but I suppose that’s idle wishing.

I wonder if Tiana’s Palace survived Katrina.

For animation fans, I don't think any one film has been quite so hotly anticipated as The Princess and the Frog. Disney's (we really, really hope) triumphant return to classic 2D animation.

So, the big question is, does this film deliver on all that pent up hype and anticipation?

By and large, I would say it does although perhaps not in ways that audiences expecting a Little Mermaid or Cinderella story might expect. This is not your childhood Disney fairytale, but a tale that brings that fairytale into the modern age.

For one thing, our Disney princess isn't a Snow White singing about how "someday her prince will come" to save her and make all her dreams come true. Tiana has be raised to believe that making wishes on stars isn't enough and that you have to put in some hard work in order to make your dreams come true.

Prince Naveen however is a spoiled rich boy who has grown up in the lap of luxury. He wants nothing more than to dance, sing and paint the town red with a lady on each arm. Yes, that's right, this is a Disney prince who is a bit of a womanizing cad. Believe it or not, this is surprisingly refreshing because it makes Naveen one of the more multi-dimensional Disney princes we've had grace the screen. Naveen is also far funnier than the princes of the past and you can see why even workaholic Tiana could eventually warm up to him.

So right there you've already got a major difference between many of the Disney movies of the past--the proverbial ant paired up with the grasshopper--and the story unfolds from there.

The sidekick characters also weren't half as annoying as I thought they'd be. The cajun firefly, Ray, who I was expecting to hate, turned out to be an intelligent and quite endearing character in large part because he wasn't what I expected.

Animation... well, it almost goes without saying that it was beautiful to watch, although almost too frenetic in places. I came out of the theatre feeling like I really needed to see that movie again just so I could have more of an opportunity to absorb it all.

And finally the music... well, this is honestly where the film lost its half star for me. There was only one or two musical numbers that really stood out for me, and the rest just left me with a bit of a 'meh' kind of feeling. Alas these are not the catchy, toe-tapping, can't get them out of your head songs of yester-year. I think in any other animated musical I wouldn't have noticed, but this is a Disney movie and I expected a bit better.

So is this Disney's triumphant return to 2D? Well honestly, that's ultimately more of a box office question than an artistic one. That said, if this is the kind of movie that we can expect from the revitalized 2D department, then I sincerely hope that this is the first of many films to come.