Review of The Princess and the Frog (2009) by Ritikas — 31 Jan 2011

Disney has done it again! 90 minutes of true inspiration. A story about a strong young lady, Tiana (Anika Noni Rose) who wants to open a resturant, in her father's memory. However as fate has it, when Tiana meets Prince Naveen (Bruno Campos), 'duped' and turned into a frog by the evil Dr Facilier (Keith David), she kisses him, thinking that he would turn Naveen human again. However, she turns into a frog herself. Now setting off to see Mama Odie (Jenifer Lewis), to make them human again, with their friends Ray (Jim Cummings) and Louis (Michael-Leon Wooley), the audience discovers along with Naveen and Tiana, that what you want, isn't exactly what you need... you just have to look deeper.

A absolute wonderful film, which the family can sit down and watch over and over again. As with any other Disney film, 'The Princess and the Frog' focuses on the theme of not giving up and finding true love. This gives today's youth a positive message of 'when the going gets tough, the tough gets going', as shown by the Fenner brothers, when they reject Tiana's payment for her resturant. In my opinion, I think that the directers, Ron Clements and John Musker has taken inspiration from their past films like 'The Little Mermaid' and 'The Lion King' which they have incoparated into the film. For example, the scene in which Ray sings 'Evangeline' seems inspired by the scene in 'The Little Mermaid' when Sebastian sings 'Kiss the Girl'. I thought that this was very clever and I must say, Musker and Clements shot it beautifully. Set in 1912, New Orleans it can be seen that the crew of the film have definately done their research and they show what life was like during that time wonderfully. I think everyone, old and young will definately enjoy this film, as the songs and storyline are so gripping that you can just forget everything happening in your life, whether good or bad and experience Naveen and Tiana's journey.