Review of The Princess and the Frog (2009) by Frisby 2 — 17 Jun 2013

After watching the trailer to this movie when it first premiered, I almost cried. I was so moved to see that Disney was finally getting back to making their 2D films, & putting aside their mediocre, shitty CGI movies (except Tangled), because that's when Disney is at their best.

This is good-old Disney with a completely new twist (of course) on the old fairy tale "The Frog Prince". And wow, what a piece of genius it was.

"The Greatest Disney movie since the Lion King!" said Saint Bryan. Bullshit! This is the greatest Disney movie since "Mulan". Now, I will say that I did love "Fantasia 2000" & "Tarzan", those were their lesser good ones in the Renaissance era (though the weakest ones are definitely Hunchback & Rescuers). ANd also, why are other critics saying that it doesn't come up to par to Pixar's films? (the comparing to the 90s films is debatable, but Pixar, really?) Since when has Pixar ever had a movie that ignites even the slightest of a spark to a Disney hand drawn movie? If anyone can mention a Pixar film that comes close to being as good as any of Disney's movies, then please let me know (except for Cars, which is technically comparable to Disney's Chicken Little).

Characters: I loved each & every one of them. Tiana, Disney's first ever black Disney princess, is a hardworking, but big dreaming girl. Now I don't really like a girl who doesn't know how to have much fun, but the fact that she works hard for what she wants, & dreams BIG makes up for it. And she is also one of my favorite princesses, & one of the hottest (I just love black women :D). Prince Naveen is a free-loving & music-loving man who simply wants to be free & rich again, but I liked him. Then we have Charlotte "Lottie" La Bouff, a rich, spoiled, but lovable characters who only wants everything, but not by money, but wishing for it. I normally can't stand spoiled girls, but Lottie here is different; she is sweet, funny, energetic, a good friend, unselfish, & even considerate.

We then have Dr. Faciler, a voodoo witch doctor, & the villain of the movie. Not only is his design extremely elegant & genius, but he is different from other Disney villains. And unlike the other Disney villains, he doesn't own a small sidekick or talking animal ally, but instead, he has his shadow[s]. He is also a very cunning, & sinister villain for that matter as well, definitely one of my all time favorite Disney villains. And to finish this off, the guys gets eaten by his own theme song; how much more badass does that get? No other Disney villain gets eaten by his/her own theme song!

Louis is a friendly, neurotic alligator who plays the trumpet! And he sings too! How can you not love a singing alligator?! But he is also hilarious! "I found the stick!" Then there is Raymond "Ray" the firefly, who is not only a helluva singer, but is also another comedic character who serves for the love & sooner in the movie, our tears.

Then there's Mama Odie, another character with voodoo on her side, only she is blind, good, & a priestess! She is also the fairy godmother of the story, & is also funny as heck! Oh, & did I mentions she has a pet snake (an anaconda possibly) named Juju?

And finally we have Tiana's mother, Eudora, & her father, James, who serve as the inspiration to the story to Tiana's character.

Cast/Acting: The cast members in here are not only great, but also do a spectacular job on their roles! Anika Noni Rose voices Tiana, & she does a fantastic job at it; you may remember her from "Dreamgirls". Oh, & even Oprah is in this movie guys :D.

Animation/Coloring: The animation is as beautiful as it should be. However, I was pissed off to the Disney use a large quantity of unnecessary CGI in this movie. Pretty much everything they used CGI in could have easily been done by hand, but they were that lazy. Anyways, the coloring in here is beautiful, & even warm to the feel.

Plot/Story: It contains the same premise as most of the other Disney fairytales, only this one is a bit different. It may seem like a typical boy meets girl & love at first sight gig, but it's different than that, in this one, the two characters earn each others' love over their adventure. And the point of the movie is to love someone no matter what they are or what they look like.

The story is straight forward, the two main characters must change back into humans, however, there is plenty of fun in this movie to make it better.

Music/Score: This movie's musical numbers replaced "The Little Mermaid" in my #1 spot of my top 6 favorite Disney soundtracks of all time. Yes, the songs were that amazing. Every song in this movie is memorable, catchy, & unforgettable. With some nice old school Jazz, R&B, soul. & even gospel music in the soundtrack, it couldn't possibly not have landed there. And the score, while not my favorite, was just fantastic. It had that old school, new Orleans feel to it.

So, all in all, this is a piece of genius Disney movie! Disney finally got their act together, & got back to doing what they did best, & this movie is proof that Disney can still make beautifully animated films. Definitely #3 on my top 6 favorite Disney movies of all time, & one of the greatest Disney/animated movies ever made. It also happens to be one of the greatest animated movies of the past DECADE; the others being Tangled, anything by Studio Ghibli, anything by Laika, Frankenweenie, & Corpse Bride (that's it; nothing more).

But sadly, since this film didn't perform as well in the box office as the guys at Disney WANTED it to, the plans of making a hand drawn movie every two years (with the exception of Winnie the Pooh) never happened; all because the greedy workers at Disney give more of shit about making a quicker buck rather than films that they're actually good at making, so the stick with more ugly, shitty CGI & Pixar movies (again, except for Tangled). It's because of this level of stupidity from Disney (who has Lassetter as their creative director, & clearly isn't give two shits of a cent for 2D animation like he says he cares about) that I won't find any work with them as an animator with my now useless degree in animation.