The Princess and the Frog

The Princess and the Frog (2009)

Runtime: 97 minutes

Directed by: Ron Clements/John Musker

Starring: Various voices, including famous ones like Oprah, Keith David, Jim Cummings and Terrence Howard

From: Disney

One day I’ll ride Tiana’s Bayou Adventure at Walt Disney World; that may not be the best reason to see a film, but The Princess and the Frog is a picture I enjoyed anyhow. Those that ignore the Disney parks (for a variety of reasons) should know that Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is a log flume ride that replaced Splash Mountain. While the characters in Splash Mountain were based on those presented in the works of Joel Chandler Harris that put folklore to paper, they look like how they were presented in a film Disney (in the past 40 years) have been petrified to release, at least in the United States. I have seen Song of the South and that is not too good, although the animated bits were the highlight.

Who knows when I’ll get the chance to ride Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, except “eventually in 2025.” The presumption is the ride will be better if Frog was viewed first. The movie was quite entertaining, a New Orleans 1920’s version of the Brothers Grimm tale The Frog Prince. It’s a nice tale which has various life lessons which are nice for the kids, and the tale featuring Black characters felt necessary for the setting instead of it being shoehorned in, which is the not as controversial way to state what is a huge ugly source of controversy in these modern times.

It was easy to root for Tiana as the teen waitress who dreams of her own restaurant, working 24/7 to the detriment of having any fun… then there’s the hilarious scoundrel Prince Naveen, the voodoo witch doctor Dr. Facilier, the jazz-loving alligator Louis, etc. The presence of a Cajun character (the firefly Ray) was a nice touch to represent the region. Ray also happened to be my favorite character. Those three frog-hunters present for a few minutes: turns out that I wasn’t the only one who thought “The Three Stooges” with those characters.

Frog was a nice love letter to the region. The jazz songs, the score done by Randy Newman-part of his childhood was in New Orleans, the opening song from Newman plus two area legends-The Dirty Dozen Brass Band and Dr. John-the local cuisine, the city of New Orleans itself, the swamp, zydeco music, a riverboat and voodoo are part of this gumbo stew. A shame that 2D animation died at Disney because this movie had the misfortune of opening right before Avatar.

I was apparently part of the problem too in not seeing the movie theatrically. However, movies like Chicken Little and Meet the Robinsons made me ignore their animated division; of course I haven’t viewed those. At least The Princess and the Frog is the sort of movie that could be enjoyed by my nephews & nice, along with it being appropriate for them.