The Princess and the Frog

While Disney was going through another slump in terms of animated movies, The Princess and the Frog was released and brought back the hype and magical wonder that Disney is so well known for, and though it was forced to contend with another Disney film that came out around the same time in Tangled (which a lot of people seemed to prefer), it doesn’t devalue this film in any way.  Set in the Roaring Twenties in New Orleans, Tiana (voiced by Anika Noni Rose) is a workaholic waitress who is desperately working through several jobs in order to gain enough money to one day get herself her own restaurant in honor of her deceased father, which has prevent her from forming a social life or interacting with any other people outside of her childhood best friend and incredibly rich Southern belle, Charlotte (voiced by Jennifer Cody). When she’s at her lowest moment, she comes across a frog who turns out to be Prince Naveen (voiced by Bruno Campos), a foreign prince whose arrogance and foul-hardy personality left him as an easy victim to be turned into a frog by Dr Facilier (voiced by Keith David). When she kisses him and tries to reverse the spell, she is accidentally turned into a frog herself, leaving both of them deserted in the bayou with very little idea of how to return to their human forms. Now stuck in animalistic forms, both need to find a way to get back to normal with the help from a music playing gator named Louis (voiced by Michael-Leon Wooley), a swamp dwelling firefly named Ray (voiced by Jim Cummings) and a blind old bog dwelling lady called Mama Odie (voiced by Jenifer Lewis) before the villain succeeds in overthrowing the town using his special demonic friends. Loosely based on the 2002 novel, The Frog Princess, written by E. D. Baker and German folk tale, The Frog Prince, The Princess and the Frog was a giant risk that in many ways didn’t entirely pay off, as although it was well received critically and did make it money back at the box office, it was seen as an under performance by Disney and not many people talk about this movie in comparison to some of the other big Disney princess films. Overall, while the film is muddled in certain sections that might make it hard for many to get into it, it still has some great updates to the Disney formula, memorable characters, a few nice songs, beautiful traditional 2D animation, and a very nice return to form for the company after a pretty bad spot.

One of the clear signs that they wanted this movie to be a return to form for usual Disney was the choice of John Musker and Ron Clements as directors, both of whom helmed big impactful Disney flicks like The Little Mermaid and Aladdin, and were brought back to Disney specifically to make this film. This along with the return to a traditional 2D hand-drawn animation style (which they hadn’t done for one of their own films since Home on the Range in 2004) as well as Broadway-style musical numbers, you feel the desire to produce something that is more in line with their Golden Age material, and in some ways, they managed that while still updating their formula pretty nicely with tweaks to their usual concepts and cliches to make them a little less formulaic by today’s standards and make them work in a more meaningful and proactive manner (wishing on a star is still okay, but you have to work for that wish to come true as well). It also cleverly improves upon its source material and constructs it in a way that puts it from an African-America experience within Louisiana, America, as opposed to working with a very generic outline from another European fairy tale. By completely engulfing itself in the time period, the environment, the atmosphere and creating a more alternate version of the tale instead of an actual portrayal, it easily feels like its own thing. It resulted in a lot of cool firsts for Disney, including making Tiana the first black Disney princess, and that pushes to change things up while retaining their old magic is admirable. However, despite the various things that this movie does brilliantly, the film’s plot is one of its worst elements. Its made to be incredibly overly complicated in its execution and its lay-out, which feels very different from the more streamlined and digestible plots of other Disney princess films of old. It becomes way too crowded with multiple different storylines to focus on, as well as characters that need to be be developed and given satisfactory arcs, and it all concludes in a manner that, while satisfying enough, does seem a little confused with how it got this point.

With Disney’s line up of memorable characters, this film has a solid cast that while they might not all be as strong as some of their previous, they are still pretty memorable. In a bizarre twist, this film actually allows both of its lead characters to be some of the strongest roles in the film. Tiana is probably one of the most developed Disney female leads they’ve had in this kind of film, being given a fast thinking and strong willed attitude underneath a snarky positive side and a complete workaholic mindset. Her passion to own her own restaurant is endearing and fresh, Anika Noni Rose is great as the voice, and while her lesson does feel a little odd with how it tries to present falling in love as more important than her career goals, it does still end with her achieving her dream, so that’s very nice to see. Naveen is also a great character, his fun loving, more innocent rich kid demeanor works very well-off of Tiana’s more serious personality and during a time and genre of Disney flick where the main leads were mostly just used for arm-candy, it was nice to see a film that gave both memorable personalities, arcs to overcome and character and chemistry to bounce of off one another. The side characters are enjoyable, even though there is a chance some may find them annoying and they aren’t as good as some previous examples, but they still work, with the strongest example being Tiana’s best friend Charlotte, who is a really solid side character, with a hyperactive rich girl persona that still comes off as nice and friendly and is given some truly entertaining over-exaggerated expressions and outburst that offers a lot of entertainment. Most of the others are kind of half and half. as they have memorable designs, good voice talent and an occasional good line, but it does also feel like the film doesn’t really know what to do with them, made especially clear during the ending of the film where something happens to one of them that, depending on your tolerance for them, will either be a moment of clarity or regret with the outcome for this character.  The villain kind of falls into this same boat. He’s not bad by any means as his design is stylish and distinct, his power set with a connection to voodoo allows for a lot of fun creative visual, Keith David as the voice offers a lot of presence and coolness, and in a time of mostly forgettable to downright poor Disney villains, seeing a return to form of this kind was refreshing, but his plan is both generic as well poor explained under the overwritten script, and his weak motivation and limited interaction between the main characters leaves him feeling a little wasted.

Being the last full length 2D traditionally animated cinematic film that Disney would release from this point forward, its a shame that it was discontinued as this is a very nice looking film. You can tell where some of the inspiration came from in the layout and background designs with films like Lady and the Tramp and Bambi, but it still feels distinctly its own with the updated smoothness to the animation, as well as the popping color palette and distinct New Orleans feel.  The colors are so full of warmness and perfectly capture each environment flawlessly: to the more golden-brown and cluttered action of New Orleans, the harsh blues and mosey greens of the bogs, or the vibrant purples and murky greens of voodoo witchcraft. The expressions are amazingly fast and fluid, the line-work is very nice and it ranges from a traditionally nice-looking 2D film with some nice colors and backgrounds, to borderline gorgeous moments with an almost 3D looks to them with such vibrancy and motion. Considering how many veteran Disney animators were brought back into the fold to help make this film, it explains the level of craft and attention, but also willingness to evolve that was showcased in this film. While it was to return to a classic Disney musical after so many years away from it, the songs by Randy Newman are very split in quality. Randy Newman can be a little divisive when it comes to his music, and in this film, he arguably works better and worse than usual strangely enough. While none of the numbers are awful and each one does really match the New Orleans style of music from the melody, beat and instrumentation (given the fact that Newman was a jazz composer who grew up in New Orleans), a decent chunk of them aren’t the most memorable pieces. Two songs stand out as quite good; Friends on the Other Side is a great villain song with a cool jazzy beat to it, a fun wicked sense of humor and energy, and a electric showcase of a fun villain, and Tiana’s song, Almost There, has a very memorable upbeat rhythm that makes it very hummable, acts as a great ”personal desire” number, has a softer more mellow pace to it, and features a great Art Deco graphic style presentation that looks fantastic. While they might not all be hits, it thankfully doesn’t ruin the film too bad.

The Princess and the Frog has a lot of great aspects that led way to Disney’s next giant successful run and saved them from the underwhelming secondary animated films at the time, yet is not held to the same kind of praise and appreciation as ones that carried the torch previously. It might have something to do with the fading out of 2D animation against the more alluring 3D animation (shown pretty clearly in the fight between itself and Tangled) or the somewhat controversial elements that came from the inclusion of the African-American experience in this story (Tiana’s original job as a chambermaid and the film tap-dancing around racism during the Jim Crow era of the Southern United States is a little uncomfortable), but it doesn’t remove what it does well. It has the spirit and charm of the classic princess movies like The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, as well as changes up certain tropes that would later be followed up on by Tangled and Frozen. If the story was little more condensed, the villain was developed a bit more, and more than two songs were any good, it would easily fit in with the greats. Most of the characters are pretty good, the 2D animation is very nice, the colors are beautiful, two songs are really fun and memorable, and after a slog of at best unimpressive and at worst detestable films from the company (Home on the Range should never have existed), this was a good change of pace. Though nothing game changing and being quickly forgotten by the public against the Disney movies that would come out later on, it is still a great return to Disney tradition that was only the beginning of great things to come.