'The Princess and the Frog' Review

Story in brief:

Young Tiana is a hard worker in 1920s (?) New Orleans, struggling to see her late Daddy's dream of a restaurant come to life. Her rich friend Charlotte has none of her concerns, only working to meet and marry Prince Naveen so that she can be the royalty she dreams of being. Prince Naveen is a happy go lucky sort of Prince, fascinated with the music surrounding him, but fails to mention to others that his royal folks have cut him off and he's broke. This pocketbook failure leaves him vulnerable to the slick talk of the Shadowman who promises him a lot of green and provides it in Naveen's skin, as he's turned into a frog. Bumping into Tiana at a masquerade ball and mistaking her for a princess, he talks her into kissing him and the spell backfires, turning her into a frog as well. Their quest to regain their humanity begins!

Thoughts:

The basic plot of the film is no great surprise. Two people on a quest grow a group around them as they search for the way to reach their goal. On the way, they learn something about themselves and the others around them, leaving them better people at the end. There are a few twists in the way the story is told here and therein lies the fun. Having established the rules of this world, the story remains logical within those rules, with resolution of the problems coming in clever ways.

The music is good, fitting itself in the jazzy, zydeco style of the city and period in which the movie is set. The second song comes a bit quickly after the first but, in large, the timing of the songs is fine, not overwhelming the story nor feeling repetitive. The movie is also funny, sweet, tender, and occasionally sad, playing all the emotional notes you'd expect from a Disney film.

The visual style is impressive. This movie is Disney's return to 2D hand drawn animation but also features computer assisted art. The backgrounds look painted in a fine art style and appear to have some depth to them. A dream sequence during the first song is in a style totally different to the rest of the film as well as different to the standard Disney style. This experiment was interesting and fascinating. I hope this is the start of something.

The characters all have motivation for their actions, even if some of them are very subtle. The only real villain is the Shadowman and he is spooky. Some of the Shadowman related sequences, while cool to me, could be rather terrifying for the younger set so, be warned.

Is this the best thing ever? No. Is this a good film, a solid return to Disney film-making? Yes, I think this is a good film and a good sign for further movies to come.

Recommended.