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If you were unaware of its 2009 release date, you could easily believe that The Princess and the Frog was created in the late 1980s or early '90s, alongside The Little Mermaid and Aladdin. All the proverbial Disney elements are in place - a loose connection to a time-worn fairy tale, Broadway-style music numbers, animal sidekicks, a type of fairy godmother, and a mixture of comedy & romance. More importantly, The Princess and the Frog marks Disney's return to the realm of hand-drawn 2-D animation following a five-year hiatus. While this is all well and good, The Princess and the Frog merely comes across as a well-meaning but overly calculated effort to please everyone, and the result feels like a formulaic direct-to-DVD effort as opposed to a triumphant return to form.
The titular princess is an African-American named Tiana (Rose), who is in reality not a princess at all but rather a working-class waitress in New Orleans who aspires to someday open her own restaurant. Tiana's life suddenly takes a turn when Prince Naveen (Campos) visits New Orleans. After a run-in with the shadowy Dr. Facilier (David), Naveen is turned into a frog and believes a kiss from a princess will bring him back to his human form. Unfortunately, Naveen mistakes Tiana's ball costume for the dress of an actual princess, and, when he convinces Tiana to plant a smooch on his lips, the lip-lock results in Tiana becoming a frog herself. With Tiana and Naveen stuck together as frogs, they navigate the backwaters of southern Louisiana in search of a certain Mama Odie (Lewis), who may be able to restore their human form.
Not leaving anything to chance for their hand-drawn animation comeback, Disney hired animation directors Ron Clements and John Musker to oversee The Princess and the Frog, as well as bringing Randy Newman on-board to take care of the songs. Speaking from a visual standpoint, there's little to differentiate this picture from the likes of Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid. The animation is, of course, delightful, with the streets of New Orleans and the dangerous backwaters of Louisiana being imbued with the same subtle magic which gave life to the main locations of esteemed Disney classics. Most impressive, though, is Dr. Facilier. Speaking from a narrative perspective, he's a one-dimensional villain, but he's genuinely sinister and interesting. In addition, the voice cast is fantastic. The little-known voice actors do a superb job in their respective roles (Anika Noni Rose as Tiana in particular), while the big-name actors (Oprah Winfrey, Terrence Howard and John Goodman, to name a few) are equally terrific.
The Princess and the Frog was heralded as a breakthrough due to two particular factors: it's Disney's return to hand-drawn animation, and it features Disney's first African-American heroine. But really, it was only five years since Disney's last hand-drawn animated feature (Home on the Range), which, in the grand scheme of things, is not a particularly lengthy hiatus (especially if one considers the lengthy production periods on these projects). Secondly, Disney pictures have always featured diverse heroes, so the notion of an African-American heroine is nothing groundbreaking. If one removes these two elements from the equation of analysing The Princess and the Frog (they are, after all, more marketing concerns than artistic concerns), all that remains is a passable but entirely forgettable and unremarkable addition to the Disney canon.
The set-up for The Princess and the Frog is entertaining and interesting enough, but the execution of the story fails to bring it to life in a grand or memorable way. While the animation is colourful, there are only a few select moments in which the artists have brought true dynamic colour to the screen. Pacing is also an issue, as is the stale, clichéd nature of the entire narrative. From the outset, the narrative's conclusion is terribly predictable, and the ending is even more saccharine-coated than you'd expect. While recent Pixar movies such as WALL-E and Up were predictable too, they were mature, fun, and each film managed to pack a tremendous emotional punch. These aforementioned positives are generally absent from The Princess and the Frog. Additionally, the inert love story between Tiana and Naveen never develops the type of romantic traction which other Disney classics benefitted from. And sure, while the characters burst into song and dance more than a couple of times, these musical numbers feel obligatory (this is a Disney movie!) more than anything else. Randy Newman's jazzy songs are entirely unremarkable, as they merely reassert information already established outside of the music.
Formula is, of course, a Disney staple - it's required to help develop a sense of comfort for young viewers. While there's a sense of nostalgia watching all of these generic elements playing out once again, the recipe no longer feels fresh. In fact, it feels as if those behind The Princess and the Frog were perpetually on autopilot. Thus, a strain of fatigue mars the movie; preventing the material from exploding into brilliance. Instead, it's just a mediocre, merely watchable effort.
6.1/10
