The Princess and the Frog (2009)

[baumer]

Discuss

[Morieris]

The music is okay, "Almost There" and "Friends on the Other Side" being the best, and it's a nice location change, but...Since Disney considers a 'one and done' approach to making movies about non-white people, can black people get a redo on this one where the main character is not an animal for most of the movie? 

 

It felt like they were so worried about not stepping on toes that they just fumbled into something that, personally, felt shortchanged. The original idea of Tiana being Maddy the maid was...not good. No. But this isn't that much of an improvement, and I could never get over it enough to enjoy this.

 

D

 

It's kind of surprising, the only Disney Princess movies I love from 2009 - present are Tangled and Moana.

[Blankments]

The Princess and the Frog has its heart in the right place, but that's not enough for this would-be return to traditional animation. Let me be blunt: if this had been released alongside the Disney Renaissance, it'd be among the more forgettable films like Hercules and Pocahontas. The vision of New Orleans as the setting for a Disney movie is a really cool idea, which is why the film spending most of the time at the bayou is disappointing. The color palette is disappointingly dull, and it mostly ignores the historical context that could really make the story interesting.

 

The biggest problem with the movie is the character changes that are necessary to the plot. Tiana and Naveen's human forms are fantastically designed, yet we only see them for about 20% of the film, changing their strong human characters into very stale animal characters. Their frog forms are also much less expressive than their human designs, and a chore to really just look at on screen.

 

With the exception of the villain song, all the songs sound exactly the same. Some are more memorable than others, but they all blend together into a very blah soundtrack. Louis is also a horrible, useless animal sidekick, and honestly, the whole style of the movie feels like Clements and Musker are trying to harken back to the 90s while also making something thoroughly the 00s, which leaves a confused tone to the overall production. The only thing truly great about this movie is Dr. Facilier, although he also feels underdeveloped and predictable. The Princess and the Frog is a throwback project that ultimately fails thanks to cliche characters and story that doesn't embrace at all what makes it unique as a film. A very sad end to Disney's traditionally animated musicals. D+