Movie Review - "The Princess and the Frog"

Disney has a lot riding on this movie. Not only is it their first hand-drawn animated feature since the best-forgotten "Home on the Range," it's also the newest "princess" film which I'm sure they're banking on spurring some Disney Princess merchandise sales through the holiday season. In fact, the marketing for this film has been going gonzo for quite some time now. Fortunately, "The Princess and the Frog" is a good movie. It is entertaining and enjoyable.
For their latest animated effort, Disney wisely went back to draw from a well where they've had their most success: Disney versions of classic fairy tales. This time Disney puts their spin on the classic tale of a princess kissing a frog who turns into a handsome prince and they live happily ever after. In this version, however, there a few more complications and misadventures before we get to that happily-ever-after part, but that's where the fun lies. This is pretty familiar territory for Disney, the whole retelling of a classic fairy tale, and they show they can still traverse it competently by delivering some memorable characters, a surprisingly engaging story, and some pretty good tunes along the way.
If there's one major flaw with "The Princess and the Frog," I'd say it's a bit of an identity crisis. The "Princess and the Frog" isn't sure if it wants to be a dignified fairy tale story in along the lines of "Beauty and the Beast" and "Sleeping Beauty" or a more manic comedic film like "Aladdin" or "The Emperor's New Groove." The film switches between the more whimsical fairy-tale tone and the high-energy, manic, zany, slapstick comedy tone quite often, and the transition is almost always jarring. Now let me be clear, both are done well. The fairy-tale mood is appropriately soothing and wishful and the comedy is manic, fast-paced, and very often quite funny. However, it feels like there are two movies here that got shuffled together. A slightly more even tone between the two would have helped this latest princess seem a little less awkward arriving at the party so late.
The villain sings a song about his friends "from the other side" making it very plain this isn't just magic that's being used but the powers of hell and its minions. This is serious stuff, and the light-handed manner that it was often handled with made me a bit uncomfortable. One should never lightly toy with the spiritual world, especially the world of demons and their dark powers. Having a show-stopping Broadway-like song about dalliances with dark forces in an animated movie may make it seem like doing such things is really no big deal; not something I want my child to pick-up on.
Truth is playing around with such spiritual forces is extremely dangerous, be it voodoo, black magic, Ouija boards or whatever, a truth that is highlighted at the end of the film as the villain discovers the evil forces he thought he was in league with and was in control of were really the ones in control of him. Let's just say playing with "friends from the other side" didn't end well. I'm glad that the consequences were shown, but I still feel all of that was a bit too dark and extreme for this kind of childrens film.
Setting those issues aside, "The Princess and the Frog" is a very enjoyable fairy tale in the Disney tradition. Executive Producer John Lasseter's influence can definitely be felt in this film, and I'd have to say having him oversee Disney animation was one of the smartest moves the studio has made in recent years. Despite the uneven balance with some elements, there's a lot of heart here, some strong, memorable characters, and some very touching scenes and some very funny scenes. Maybe more direct involvement would have helped smooth some of the unevenness out, but this is still a solid effort by Disney and I'm glad they're still in the hand-drawn animation business.
Speaking of that, perhaps one of the film's strongest attributes is the way it looks. This is a lush, colorful, beautifully-drawn and -animated film. It's easily one of the best-looking animated films Disney has done without computers. I especially appreciated how the artists were allowed to toy with different styles of animation during the songs, giving some variety and visual spice to the look of the film. While most of the film left me a bit underwhelmed, the visuals blew me away. "The Princess and the Frog" is worth seeing on the big screen if only to see what can be accomplished in presenting rich, gorgeous visuals through traditional animation.
Disney is taking every marketing opportunity it has with this movie. They've also produced a pretty good movie. I don't think it's really a true "Disney Classic," though it is pretty good and I enjoyed myself when I saw it; but it's not a movie that I'd run out and see again. Then again, I'm not really the one Disney is trying to get into the theater with this movie, my son is. He's three and he laughed, trembled and cheered and was swept away at all the appropriate moments while never doubting that the Princess would eventually marry the Prince and live happily ever after. In short, he enjoyed it, and for this type of movie, I guess that's what matters most.

 

Oh, yeah, the merch has been selling well!

 

hhmm - interesting review - Thanks for posting. ; I just saw the flick with DD3, DD10, and hubby. ;

I LOVED it - as did family. ; Loved the light-heartedness with the heaviness - Disney's movies generally have a heavy-handed theme somewhere (and it's interesting that mamma didn't die this time - from Ariel to Snow White to Cinderella - there's never a mamma around...) ; The dalliances with the dark side have been seen before (think Ariel, or Jungle Book...) ...

At first, I wasn't sure there was enough stuff in it for it to be classic - Tiana ain't no Mulan (my Fave princess!) - but when I thought about it a bit, I realized she's got soul, spunk, love that she doesn't want prince, driven by own goal and being her own gal, and driven her father's dream (so that makes her mulan-esque), love the frogs, music by Randy Newman, and the story - love the New Orleans' flav... I think it can be a classic after all (maybe if I see it another dozen times or so, like Mulan...). ;

Thoroughly enjoyed it, good all-around tale... ; and I think the frogs are enough to keep boys entertained as well as girls in audience...