The Princess and the Frog

It was a very courageous thing for a company to attempt to revive a genre from the past for a new generation when every other company has given up on such a genre. Such was the case with the hand-drawn animated musical or hand-drawn anything for that matter in 2009. Computer animation in the middle of that decade was doing better than traditional animation and Disney was about do what other companies were doing: completely switch from classic animation to computer animation forever. Pixar was credited in a positive light by others as a company that was responsible for replacing 2D animation with 3D but Pixar viewed that as a negative thing and was upset with the "compliment". John Lasseter understood that it is not the media or tools that make a film great. It is the story & people telling it and that is what makes Pixar successful. When Disney bought Pixar in 2006 and the geniuses at Pixar became executives at Disney, they wanted to stop the removal of a genre that has done so much for the company. “The Little Mermaid” resurrected the animated musical genre for Disney in 1989 and so Lasseter recruited the creators of that film to pull off another “rescue mission”. “The Princess and the Frog” I feel was successful in showing to the world that all you need to create a good family film is a great story with great characters. Walt Disney had these ideals and his company re-embraced them back in the Disney Renaissance. Pixar also understood the importance of these elements and when John Lasseter was put in charge of Walt Disney Animation, a resurgence began (a parallel can be drawn with the corporate change in the company back in the 80's). "The Princess and the Frog" deserves to categorized beside other classic Disney films with the help of songs and a musical score by Randy Newman.

The directors of this film, Jon Musker and Ron Clements, had a lot of pressure on the shoulders but rather than try to create something better than their past work, it appears to me that their goal was to instead try to match their past masterpieces and they succeeded. The story is very much like a classic fairy tale and is influenced by many other well-known stories but originality is well integrated. I like how African-Americans are the central characters and that early 20th century New Orleans is the setting. The film explores a lot of the state of Louisiana and the city of New Orleans but that is not the focus of the film thankfully. The locations support the classic story being told. “The Wizard of Oz” appears to have had the biggest influence on the story. You begin to realize this as the two main characters meet up with two others to find Mama Odie. Also, the lead characters by the end of the both movies have come to realizations of what is really important in life. There are other comparisons but because of the location, the goal of the characters and other elements, the story stays fresh. This film departs from the Frog Prince story that we know about and not subtly either as evidenced by its inclusion in Charlotte’s room on two occasions. The scene where Facilier offers Tiana her dream is one of those great scenes that remind us what the whole movie is about. It is fitting how the vision of Tiana’s father and her past family life is actually backfiring on the Shadow Man. Tiana finally understands everything people have been telling her such as her promise that she made to her father and what both Mama Odie & Tiana's mother were trying to tell her. The theme of cherishing what is really important in life can mean different things and the film illustrates this. I understand how the inclusion of voodoo bothers some people but consider where this film is taking place. Also, we have seen magic (both good and bad) in cartoons since the 30’s. Only now when a more real kind of “magic” is used do we hear shouts of criticism. Voodoo’s reality to me is nothing different from any other kind of “magic”. “Aladdin” is still Musker and Clements’ best work in my opinion while “The Little Mermaid” is one of the most important films in animation history. I also appreciate their other Disney films: "The Great Mouse Detective", "Hercules" and "Treasure Planet". Their work on this film however is not to be overlooked in the least. A full analysis of the story of “The Princess and the Frog” however cannot be thorough without an analysis of the characters

The characters in “The Princess and the Frog” help the move the story so much because that is what they were created to do. Tiana was animated by Mark Henn who has helped animate many Disney characters that have become world famous such as Ariel, Belle and Jasmine among others. This “casting” choice subconsciously makes Tiana a classic Disney heroine for us the audience. Tiana is trying to make her father’s dream come true but in doing so, she has lost the value of love in her life (which is what made her father special). She is caught up in her work so much that she has forgotten the true spirit of her father’s dream. Ray, her adventure and eventually Mama Odie’s advise teach her that success is nothing without someone to share it with. Naveen spends the first half of the film providing humor and charm. But then when he explains his regret for not knowing how to do things for himself, we realize that we care for him as well as for Tiana. Naveen falls in love first and this helps him understand Mama Odie’s message before Tiana does. He learns, as Tiana does, that success is nothing without love in your life. When Naveen decides to put Tiana’s dream ahead of his love for her, I could relate to that. Fortunately for Naveen, Tiana realizes that she loves him and would rather be with him than have her original dream. Their love ends up making them human again and their original dreams come true after all. I love how Naveen teaches Tiana the importance of fun in life while she in turn teaches him about the importance of working hard to create happiness. I have come to realize that my favorite villainous characteristics are a sense of humor and style. Facilier is funny but his most appealing quality is his style. We like him but the filmmakers do an important thing to remind us of his evil nature when they have the Shadow Man kill one of our favourtie characters. Keith David is good on the vocal front while Bruce W. Smith achieved his goal of creating a villain reminiscent of Captain Hook and Cruella. The best part about Louis is Eric Goldberg’s animation. I am not surprised seeing as how Genie and “Rhapsode in Blue” among other things came from Goldberg. I am also a fan of Andreas Deja’s work and he did a good job with Mama Odie. As hinted at before, she is like the Wizard of Oz in that she helps our main characters in a way they were not expecting. Mama Odie also has similarities to Yoda because her old age and limitations have made her eccentric. She is also like the Fairy Godmother in “Cinderella”. One little touch that is nice in this film is that the voice cast does all their own singing.

I was introduced to Randy Newman through “Toy Story” and some of my favorite Oscar moments were when he finally won his first Oscar and when he won his second. Most of the time, his songs get stuck in my head for days afterwards. This was the case with songs from “Toy Story”, “A Bug’s Life”, “Monsters Inc.” and “Cats Don’t Dance”. I like all his songs and musical scores and “The Princess and the Frog” is yet another well done film of his. I wish he had won an Oscar for this movie with "Almost There" and "Down in New Orleans" getting nominations. When I first saw the film, “Almost There” wowed me and after that point, all the songs impressed me. “Ma Belle Evangeline” is very beautiful and represents the heart of this film for me. Randy Newman’s musical scores tend to be almost interchangeable and I don’t mind that. The music playing during the passage of time from Tiana’s childhood to adulthood for example sounds like it is from "Toy Story" and the feelings of that film are evoked, maybe even subconsciously for other people. Another great moment in the score is when Tiana is on her way home with her mom because it sounds so Americana. Jazz is so dominate to New Orleans that it pours out onto the streets and in this film; jazz finds a place outside the songs and musical score through Lewis.

Some critics have compared the legacy of this movie to that of "The Great Mouse Detective". Both films showed the world that Disney was on the verge of something new and big. When I saw this film for the first time though, I was comparing it to “Up” and I should stop comparing original films. It is an unfortunate thing that “The Princess and the Frog” had to follow that Pixar summer hit but that film also paved the way for this Disney fairy tale. Carl Fredrickson’s story had similarities to Tiana’s story and so audiences that loved “Up” also loved this 2D film. While "The Princess and the Frog" was nominated at the Academy Awards for Best Animated Film, it is no surprise which film won instead. In my opinion however, "The Princess and the Frog" officially kicked off a third wave of success for Disney Animation. The studio may have switched over to 3D animation after all but the style of animation, beginning with "Tangled", reflects a 2D animated world. For example, the characters are designed on paper and then translated into 3D with very little difference. This makes "The Princess and the Frog" one of the last 2D films to be made by Disney and while that is a little sad, they didn't turn their backs on the past during the transition. The music and characters add to this movie’s appeal. I enjoyed the little tributes to past Disney films such as the Magic Carpet in the background during the opening title. I also saw allusions to “Fantasia”, “The Jungle Book”, "Mary Poppins" and “Peter Pan”. “The Princess and the Frog” proved to me that “Enchanted” wasn’t just a one-time reminder of the Disney Renaissance. Disney realized with the success of these two films that audiences still want the kind of magic that they saw in the 90’s.

4.5 Stars