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A fairy tale set in Jazz Age-era New Orleans and centered on a young girl named Tiana and her fateful kiss with a frog prince who desperately wants to be human again.
Anika Noni Rose: Tiana
The Princess and the Frog is a 2009 American animated family film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, inspired in part by E. D. Baker's novel The Frog Princess, which was in turn inspired by the Grimm brothers' fairy tale The Frog Prince.
It is the 49th animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics line, and the first of these films to be traditionally (2D) animated since 2004's Home on the Range. The film was directed by John Musker and Ron Clements, directors of The Great Mouse Detective, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules, and Treasure Planet, with songs and score composed by Randy Newman and featuring the voices of Anika Noni Rose, Bruno Campos, Keith David, Michael-Leon Wooley, Jennifer Cody, Jim Cummings, Peter Bartlett, Jenifer Lewis, Oprah Winfrey, Terrence Howard, and John Goodman. Tiana, the main character, is also notable as Disney's first black princess.
When I first heard about this film back in 2009 I felt somewhat nostalgic. Having seen the Directors had worked on some Disney offerings from my childhood; Aladdin & The Little Mermaid.
I was willing to give the film a chance, I was however not excited enough at the time, to rush down to the Cinema and see it.
Thank God I didn't. Disney's latest has the same tired formula that the 49 films previously have all touched upon; The fact remains the pacing is slow, the depth and meaning relatively non-existent, and the characters are hardly easy to understand or warm affection upon.
The Princess and the Frog certainly proves that if you have seen one Disney film you have seen them all. Girl and guy argue, they fall in love, and then the flat villains are defeated by the good guys. Everything wraps up nicely, to the extent, one feels sick with intrepidation.
Running to the defence, the film does have some gorgeously drawn frames and animation. Unfortunately the unmemorable songs negate the charm and charisma that is necessary to propel the story and characters into the memory. It is simply forgettable, dull and somewhat pointless in it's pretentious self righteousness.
The visual effects and backgrounds for the film were created digitally using Cintiq tablet displays. Perhaps the best aspect of the film and the smooth animation rates.
The backgrounds were painted digitally using Adobe Photoshop, and many of the architectural elements were based upon 3D models built in Autodesk Maya. Nicely done.
The former trend in Disney's hand-drawn features where the characters and cinematography were influenced by a CGI-look has been abandoned. Andreas Deja, a veteran Disney animator who supervised the character of Mama Odie in Princess and the Frog, says "I always thought that maybe we should distinguish ourselves to go back to what 2D is good at, which is focusing on what the line can do rather than volume, which is a CG kind of thing. So we are doing less extravagant Treasure Planet kind of treatments...''
Deja also mentions that Lasseter was aiming for the Disney sculptural and dimensional look of the 1950s: "All those things that were non-graphic, which means go easy on the straight lines and have one volume flow into the other – an organic feel to the drawing." Lets save these people time explaining because the finalised piece is a disappointing slog. A 2D farce with no proper storytelling elements to back its style. The substance is lacking.
Overall, The Princess and the Frog feels a waste. It also has the good and evil themes concerning black and white. Voodoo is unjustly labelled as devilry while doctrines are sadly stereotypical.
Woefully sad the experience becomes because I had some high expectations from Disney as always. It doesn't retain the former glory of previous instalments. The Little Mermaid had charm, Aladdin had charisma, even Beauty and the Beast had heart and passion...So why on earth does The Princess and the Frog have none of these elements?
I'm actually still in a state of flux and fuming rage due to the lack of provocative the Picture takes with it's A to B simplicity. Mindless children and witless adults may indeed lap this rustic affair up, but I energetically see the charade for what it is...A complete travesty only saved by luscious animation and drawings. Seeing past the surface, The Princess and the Frog neither pleases musically or with the unoriginal storytelling it divulges.
6/10
