Princess and the Frog, The

Release date: December 11, 2009
Director: Ron Clements, John Musker
Story by: E.D. Baker
Screenplay by: Ron Clements, John Musker, Rob Edwards
Cast: Anika Noni Rose, Bruno Campos, Keith David, Michael-Leon Wooley, Jennifer Cody, Jim Cummings, Peter Bartlett, Jenifer Lewis, Oprah Winfrey, Terrence Howard, John Goodman

The Princess and the Frog, Disney’s return to classic 2D animation, takes on the well-known story of the princess who kisses the frog, who in turn magically transforms back into a prince… and gives it a little spin. And it’s obvious that the princess, who isn’t really a princess, turns into a frog instead.

There’s a lot of history-in-the-making on this one, sadly. Why sadly? It took Disney decades to finally have an African-American princess… who isn’t really a princess at all, and who’s not African-American for the most part of the film. The good thing? Well, Tiana is a feisty character with a backbone. She doesn’t mope around and gets things done with hard work.

Prince Naveen, on the other hand, is the prince you never dreamed of. He’s a bum that’s been raised by his castle’s staff, until mom and dad decided to cut him off. And check out Dr. Facilier, who actually got me thinking about being scared, but then I remembered kids nowadays watch a lot of other sick stuff on TV. However, two side characters where the ones that made the film for me — Louis the crocodile and Ray the firefly. Unlike Tiana and Prince Naveen’s happy ending, I thought that there was such a bittersweet magical ending to Ray and Evangeline.

Of course, you can call this a review for the sappy viewer who misses Disney, but you can’t deny that what makes Disney so successful is that it makes you feel home.

Nevertheless, am I the only one thinking that Tiana could have gotten her dream restaurant without actually falling in love with Naveen? Something like, “Wow, she doesn’t have to get married to be happy!” Now, that would have been a progressive fairytale.

Oh, why! Did you watch that Chipmunks film more than once instead of this one…

Rating: ★★★½☆ 

amy

YAM Magazine editor, photographer, blogger, translator and part-time web designer. Film junkie, music junkie… and lately series (a.k.a. TV) junkie.

8 Responses

  1. May 1, 2014

    […] on this issue? Well, we’ve got reviews for Bright Star, Nine, Princess and the Frog, New York I Love You, Anvil: The Story of Anvil, Sa Dingding’s sophomore album Harmony, SNSD, […]

  2. May 27, 2014

    […] what modern spin they would give their re-telling in Maleficent. After a mix bag of Enchanted, The Princess and the Frog, Tangled and Frozen, anything was game- Would they go for the True Love Kiss ending, mirroring the […]

  3. July 29, 2014

    […] the success — or not-success — of The Princess and the Frog, Disney decided to give the old fairy tale of Rapunzel a spin, called it Tangled and amped the male […]

  4. October 31, 2014

    […] éxito de la cinta se basa en El Malo, y Archibaldo no nos asusta (como lo hizo Doctor Facilier en La Princesa y el Sapo), pero se presenta como un engañoso villano a quien -tal vez- queremos ver lograr un mayor estatus […]

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    […] film relies on its Bad Guy, and Archibald doesn’t exactly terrorize (like Doctor Facilier in The Princess and the Frog) but presents himself as a sneaky villain whom we want to -maybe- see reach a greater status (until […]

  6. January 25, 2016

    […] remember Home on the Range being touted as the last Disney title traditionally animated, then came The Princess and the Frog), the proliferation of Dreamworks animated movies, the birth of Illumination Entertainment and the […]

  7. June 13, 2016

    […] that’s a great team (Ron Clements + John Musker behind Aladdin, Treasure Planet and The Princess and the Frog. plus Taika Waititi) that has gotten together behind what will be Disney’s second stand-alone […]

  8. June 13, 2016

    […] he ahí un gran equipo (Ron Clements + John Musker detrás de Aladino, El Planeta del Tesoro y La Princesa y el Sapo, además de Taika Waititi) detrás de lo que será el segundo lanzamiento de -solo- Disney de lo […]

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