The Princess and the Frog [DVD]

Wow. That's one word to sum up everything about this movie: Wow.

Since Emperor's New Groove, Disney slowly went downhill until it was nothing but low-quality crappy sequels and badly made CGI movies, not to mention nothing but teenybopper shows on the Disney Channel. As for Toon Disney, I think the people working there confused themselves with Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon; something that is not their style.

However, Michael Eisner got fired and Robert Iger took his place as CEO of the Disney company, promising to get Disney back to the way it was supposed to be. Since then, I noticed improvements with movies like Enchanted and Bolt, but not to the point where everything was good again all of a sudden. I guess Eisner had some projects already set in motion that couldn't be stopped. But that was all right, because movies were the most important, and they would eventually get everything right.

With The Princess in the Frog, what a movie to start another era out of the second Dark Age! This movie has EVERYTHING: great story, superb animation, great humor, excellent acting and singing, thought-provoking lessons to learn throughout the movie, the list goes on and on. I think it truly deserves its place as a true Disney classic. To top it all off, the newest Disney Princess, Tiana, has spunk, intelligence, and determinations. She is a great example for kids to look up to. She just needs to learn to relax once in a while, which Naveen teaches her. In return she teaches him that life isn't all parties and women.

Movies like this make me realize that I can't wait for Disney to come out with greater stuff in the future, like Rapunzel in 2010. I am really curious for the stuff they will do in the future. They have already done so much, but there's so much out there that they haven't done yet. It's also interesting to see them write original movies like they did with Lady and the Tramp, Enchanted, and Bolt. This movie definitely deserves 5 stars; it was that good. I totally recommend it for anyone.

I thought this film was excellent and had been looking forward to taking my three and a half year old for weeks! Visually, the film was 'old school' animation but included some psychadelic sequences which were impressive. The voodoo character and the spirits he conjours are spooky and my daughter was a bit scared of them but not enough for me to be worried - and they weren't in the film that much.
The princess character was in frog form for the majority of the film which led to my daughter asking on several occasions when she was going to be human again, but it was kind of the point of the film - looks aren't everything.
The supporting characters were brilliant - Charlotte the spoilt but sweet rich girl, Louis the jazz-loving alligator and Ray the lovesick firefly. I particularly loved Mama Odie who wasn't in it enough for me. There were several laugh-out-loud moments and it was quite fast-paced so neither of us got restless.
It was good to see a black lead character (even though she was actually green for most of the film) and great to have a princess who's feisty and independent rather than a victim waiting to be rescued - a much better role model for young girls, I think. Overall it was a fantastic film and I can't wait for it to come out on DVD.

The last Disney Princess to be introduced was in the mid 90s. Soon after this time it started to feel like Disney had lost some of their magic. They started to put out a lot of rather average animated films and unoriginal, uninspiring sequels (The Little Mermaid II: Return to The Sea, Cinderella III: A Twist In Time, Beauty & The Beast: Belle's Magical World etc). A lot of adults had given up hope and most children had turned to CGI films. So when it was announced that Disney were going to release a new animated film and introduce a new princess in 2010 the world knew they needed to pull something special out the bag.

In February 2010 I took my daughter to see The Princess & The Frog at the cinema (we have since also purchased the DVD). I was left with one big question - who loved it more, me or my 4 year old!? The story, the characters, the animation, the songs - all spot on.

Let's start with the story. The story was so much different to what I expected - I expected to sit through 97 minutes of the popular fairytale 'The Frog Prince' (Princess kisses the frog and he turns into a handsome prince. The end) but boy, was I wrong! It wasn't a predictable storyline, even for adults, and had twists and turns all the way through. There was plenty of suspense, plenty of laughs and plenty of emotional scenes - the only way Disney know how!

The film includes 7 original songs. It had been a long time since I had seen a new Disney film (or any kids film for that matter, with the exception of Enchanted) with singing and dancing in it, so this was quite a treat. Many of the songs were a mixture of jazz, blues and zydeco and were really catchy (I saw more than a few toes tapping in the cinema!) - they really captured the mood of the film perfectly. There were also a couple of slow songs sung by Anika Noni Rose (the voice of Tiana, best known for her role in Dreamgirls) who has a beautiful voice and makes for easy listening.

All of the characters are likable from the moment they are introduced. My personal favourites include Louis the alligator (imagine a huge alligator with a big heart and a love of trumpet playing!), Ray the firefly (a hillbilly bug who's in love with a star!) and Mama Odie (an old blind lady that dabbles in voodoo and lives in a boat up a tree!). I also think Dr Facilier is one of the best Disney villians ever, everything is sinister about him - his looks, his walk, his talk and his connections with the dead. Yet this voodoo con man still manages to draw unsuspecting victims into his scams with an odd mix of charisma and manipulation.

Tiana is a lot different to earlier princesses such as Snow White and Aurora. She doesn't sit around in forests waiting for her prince to whisk her away - she's definitely a 21st century girl. Tiana is strong willed, hard working and determined, with good values and a heart of gold. She's a good role model for young girls. Prince Naveen on the other hand is spoilt, lazy and has never done a hard days work in his life. Sure he's handsome, fun loving and full of charm but he has no grasp of responsibilities and is somewhat shallow. It was good to see the relationship of these two opposites develop throughout the film.

The animation is brilliant and just how a proper Disney film should be. I don't have a problem with CGI as such but everybody knows that all Disney classics are in 2D hand drawn animation. Everything looks so unmistakably Disney.

The Princess & The Frog is classified as a U and is suitable for everybody to watch. There are a few spooky scenes featuring Dr Facilier but nothing scary enough to avoid the film.

The extras on the DVD are quite average and include audio commentary, deleted scenes (which are drawings rather than actual scenes from the film, along with lots of talking), a princess portrait game (where you have to guess which Disney princess the fireflys are making) and a Ne-Yo video for 'Never Knew I Needed' which is played over the end credits of the film (an unnecessary extra in my honest opinion).

Will this remembered as a Disney classic? Well only time will tell. But The Princess & The Frog has all the makings of a Disney classic so I can't see why not!