Salt Lake Tribune Review
For all the whiz-bang perfection of computer animation, it's difficult to top the hand-crafted ink-and-paint animation of classic Disney films -- a legacy that is well protected and even enhanced by the luminous fairy tale "The Princess and the Frog."
Directors
Ron Clements and
John Musker, who ushered in the last Disney renaissance with "The Little Mermaid" in 1989, return with a warm and witty reimagining of the familiar "Frog Prince" story. It's funny and touching, visually inventive, and manages to both pay tribute to the Disney canon and carefully update it.
It's New Orleans in the 1920s, a time of jazz music and Mardi Gras revelry. But for Tiana, there's only work. A determined African-American waitress, Tiana (voiced by "Dreamgirls' "
Anika Noni Rose) is saving her tips to create the restaurant she and her late father (voiced by
Terrence Howard) always planned to open. A financial windfall hits when her rich white childhood friend Charlotte (voiced by Jennifer Cody) orders a massive order of Tiana's sugary beignets for a Mardi Gras party -- where the guest of honor is the visiting Prince Naveen of Maldonia (voiced by Bruno Campos).
Before the party, though, the vain Naveen falls into the clutches of a voodoo practitioner, the sly Dr. Facilier (voiced by
Keith David), who casts a spell that turns the prince into a frog. A kiss from a princess will turn him human again -- so when Naveen sees Tiana in one of Charlotte's regal gowns, he puckers up. But when Tiana reluctantly kisses the frog, the spell works in reverse, and suddenly it's Tiana who's feeling green.
What follows is a fast-and-furious trip through the Louisiana bayou, an encounter with a jazz-loving alligator, and a hate-turns-to-love relationship for the now-amphibious couple. All of it set to the rollicking songs of New Orleans native Randy Newman.
Tiana is a breath of fresh air among Disney's pantheon of princesses, furthering a progression launched by the warrior Mulan in 1998. Tiana is a mature woman driven by a career and not particularly interested in finding a man, and her work ethic would make the porcelain Snow White and wishy-washy Ariel faint with exhaustion. Yet with her grace and beauty, she's every inch a princess.
The character design -- from the creepy Dr. Facilier to the love-struck firefly Raymond -- and detailed artwork combine to create a New Orleans that has one foot in realism and one in fantasy. In other words, it's in that Disney dreamland, a place we haven't visited in a long time and didn't realized how much we missed.
Charming
Submitted by: tivogirl
I agree with retrobot - charming is the perfect word to describe this film. Disney gives its films a heart that nobody else seems able to match. The characters are fantastic, especially the feet-on-the-ground Tiana and the hilarious Louis. The animation is beautiful and creatively played with to help tell the story scene-by-scene. I LOVED the first musical number done in Art Deco and the sequences with the Shadow Man and his demons. Each visual change helps enhance that part of the story.
Sure, this is no "Beauty and the Beast" but it's at least an "Aladdin" and a lovely surprise.
Hand drawn animation makes a triumphant comeback
Submitted by: retrobot
Disney is back in true classic 2-D form. Beautiful colors, wonderful character animation and a humorous and charming story make this one of the biggest surprises for me at the movies this year. While not as great as Pixar's Up or some of Disney's past gems like The Lion King, it still made me feel like a kid again and made me realize how much I had missed Disney at their best.
The rundown: Disney both honors and updates the fairy-tale formula, with this luminous tale of a modern heroine who's not waiting for her prince to come. 97 minutes. (SPM)
Synopsis: A female twist on the traditional Frog Prince tale that takes place in New Orlean's French Quarter.
