The Princess and the Frog

After a decade of plastic animation with computer-based characters, Disney has finally returned to its roots, with the new animated movie “The Princess and the Frog”. Hand drawn at the inspiration of the Pixar partnership, Dinsey has succeeded in creating or better said, re-creating, the fantasy world of famous and beloved characters like the Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, or Aladdin.

Perhaps this success is also attributed to directors Ron Clements and John Musker, who also helped design the Little Mermaid's and Aladdin's worlds. So from an underwater world and ancient Baghdad, we now turn to busy New Orleans (the era is not exactly specified, could be the colonial period  or early days of the city) where Tiana, a waitress working double jobs struggles to gather enough money to accomplish her dream, that of opening a restaurant. Pretty down to earth we might say. We certainly liked that Princess and the Frog portrays a “modern” princess, a normal usual girl with plausible aspirations that sets a positive example for young girls today. Well, that's at least until she's persuaded to kiss a frog and turns instead into a frog herself. That's a no no, girls.

But all in all, Tiana is a beautiful character and earns her spot next to Belle, Ariel, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. While she is the first African American princess for Disney, she is not the first “foreigner”, we also had an Arab girl, Jasmine from Aladdin, a Native American in Pocahontas and a Chinese girl in Mulan. While it may not matter for toddlers and young ones what flavor is Tiana, the fact bears a significance in the history of Disney animation, as it is a statement that their traditions are in tune with the world around (the first African American president of US, the hurricane Catrina and the aftermath tragedy from new Orleans).

So Tiana (Anika Noni Rose) is a hard working New Orleans waitress. Her dream was fostered from childhood by her father (Terrence Howard) and mother (Oprah Winfrey). She has a best friend, Charlotte (Jennifer Cody) with a more mundane goal in life: to marry a prince. Luckily enough, Prince Naveen (Bruno Campos), a foreign dignitary, comes to visit New Orleans. Unluckily, he is trapped in the voodoo spells of Dr. Facilier (Keith David) who turns him into a frog. At a costume ball where Tiana is dressed as a beautiful princess, she meets the frog. He manages to convince her into kissing him, but as the saying goes, no good deed goes unpunished. She too turns into a frog (and spends the majority of the movie in the frog outfit) and with the help of a loony crocodile, Louis (Michael-Leon Wooley) and the firefly Ray (Jim Cummings), the two embark on a journey to find the voodoo priestess Mama Odie (Jenifer Lewis) who might help them regain their human forms, meanwhile avoiding evil creatures sent by Dr. Facilier.

The Princess and the Frog has everything it needs, from the magical fairy tale part (The Frog Prince), to animated musical numbers in Broadway style (orchestrated by Randy Newman, a Disney classic), a lovely heroine, cute animal secondary characters, and a bundle of romance and comedy. It's so attuned to the golden oldies of Diensy that people might even say that Princess and the Frog is a 90s creation.

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