It is fully justified to consider "The Princess and the Frog" a milestone as the first Disney film to feature an African-American heroine: Tiana (Anika Noni Rose). Thinking about it, it took sixty years to get to the first non-White Disney Princess with Jasmin and the first Native heroine three years later (not counting Tiger Lily who had a rather small role in "Peter Pan") and she'd be followed by Esmeralda in "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame", now all these female characters had darker skins but there weren't of African background.
Interestingly, the term "African-American" is totally appropriate as the cultural heritage of Tiana -as well as her ethnicity- bring (no pun intended) its color to the story which resets the famous Grimms' tale in New Orleans. And we sure get all archetypes (except for the Gospel): jazz, bayou, swamps, French-sounding names, Cajun accents, gumbo, the texture is so authentic that the prospect of Disney modernizing a classic fairy tale is as exciting as its revolutionary "casting". Two birds with the same stone... now, they could have used a traditional African tale as well, but the voodoo (over?)played in the film does borrow elements from the African heritage.
And the film starts well: Tiana's mother Eudora (Oprah Winfrey) tells the original tale to Tiana and her friend Charlotte. Charlotte is dressed as a girl who's been brainwashed by Disney movies and the constant glee of a spoiled Daddy's girl who's got the latest Barbie. Tiana finds the frog story nauseating and has the most realistic reaction: "Yukk". And that's what I liked about Tiana: she felt real, writers made an effort to develop her as a person. Tiana is a waitress and a gifted cook whose dream is to open a restaurant, her Dad (Terrence Howard) tells her about the little star in the sky that fulfills your wishes but that doesn't diminish the value of hard work. Before "Frozen", Tiana was a right role-model and didn't need an on-the-nose dialogue to tell viewers what to do but the best thing to do.
Tiana is a character who grows up in a sane family environment, Charlotte might be her best friend but growing up calling your father 'Big Daddy' has awkward resonances although he's indeed a big bear-like man voiced by John Goodman. Of course, Tiana's got to go through the usual patterns: her father dies during the Great War and in her environment, she's a misfit. Her background is regarded as a handicap to start a business on her own and she's surrounded by nay-sayers (including friends and her mother), she's an underdog and gives us a lot to root for. The film is set during the preparations of Mardi gras and the little town is ready to welcome the arrival of Prince of Moldania Naveem (Bruno Campos), it seems like a South-East Asian country and so in a way the prince is also a fine new step, though his resemblance to Prince Eric is startling.
All goes well until the first little faux pas with the joyful introduction song. I guess it doesn't exactly sound like a compliment if you say it feels like a Randy Newman song, which means an umpteenth variation on "You got a friend in me". The townspeople obligatory song serves to introduces Doctor Facilier (Keith David) who looks like a cool animated version of Samuel L. Jackson with top hat and spats. Facilier makes a pact with Naveen and his servant Lawrence (Peter Bartlet); in the end, Naveen becomes a frog, it's a little complicated plot involving some pre-established deals with ghouls and whose only outcome is that Tiana mistakes him for a legitimate prince and then instead of getting him back to his normality, becomes a frog as well.
Now, two things: Tiana as a person with human preoccupations was such an endearing character that the whole magical spell felt like a cheat. A second was: for once that you have a dark-skinned princess (and prince too) they spend most the time as frogs, which -let's face it- don't make for the best-looking creature despite the animators' effort to make them cute and appealing, and slightly less cartoonish than the singing frog in "One Froggy Evening". I understand that there had to be a frog, but the title is misleading "The Princess and the Frog" suggests that there's only one frog. So we got through a long middle-section set in the animal-world, one that lingers on extremely lengthy big musical lectures that don't offer many catchy themes to hum afterwards.
Don't get me wrong: the visuals are stunning and the hand-drawn animation is a fine return to the roots but the swamps/night setting aren't the landscapes we expected no matter how hard they make the characters colorful: from Louis, the giant alligator (Michael-Leon Wooley) to Ray, the Cajun firefly (Jim Cummings) or the little witch Mama Odie (Jennifer Lewis), a blind woman and an extra-milestone for disabled characters. In the best case, the film looks like "The Rescuers" and doesn't live up to the potential showed during the first act.
Maybe worse: even within the frog part, the chemistry between Tiana and Naveen seems too forced to be believable, one scene they berate each other and the next one, they fall in love for no particular reason. In fact, the whole frog / human magic is extremely confusing for we never know what powers have Facilier, even the whole "kiss a princess" premise has sets of rules that differ according to circumstances and when you have so many possibilities left, anything can happen anyway. When they become humans again, there was no way the Tiana we left would abandon herself to a Prince just like that. Now I understand why they made Anna the feminist heroine... but Tiana deserved a little more.
Interestingly, the term "African-American" is totally appropriate as the cultural heritage of Tiana -as well as her ethnicity- bring (no pun intended) its color to the story which resets the famous Grimms' tale in New Orleans. And we sure get all archetypes (except for the Gospel): jazz, bayou, swamps, French-sounding names, Cajun accents, gumbo, the texture is so authentic that the prospect of Disney modernizing a classic fairy tale is as exciting as its revolutionary "casting". Two birds with the same stone... now, they could have used a traditional African tale as well, but the voodoo (over?)played in the film does borrow elements from the African heritage.
And the film starts well: Tiana's mother Eudora (Oprah Winfrey) tells the original tale to Tiana and her friend Charlotte. Charlotte is dressed as a girl who's been brainwashed by Disney movies and the constant glee of a spoiled Daddy's girl who's got the latest Barbie. Tiana finds the frog story nauseating and has the most realistic reaction: "Yukk". And that's what I liked about Tiana: she felt real, writers made an effort to develop her as a person. Tiana is a waitress and a gifted cook whose dream is to open a restaurant, her Dad (Terrence Howard) tells her about the little star in the sky that fulfills your wishes but that doesn't diminish the value of hard work. Before "Frozen", Tiana was a right role-model and didn't need an on-the-nose dialogue to tell viewers what to do but the best thing to do.
Tiana is a character who grows up in a sane family environment, Charlotte might be her best friend but growing up calling your father 'Big Daddy' has awkward resonances although he's indeed a big bear-like man voiced by John Goodman. Of course, Tiana's got to go through the usual patterns: her father dies during the Great War and in her environment, she's a misfit. Her background is regarded as a handicap to start a business on her own and she's surrounded by nay-sayers (including friends and her mother), she's an underdog and gives us a lot to root for. The film is set during the preparations of Mardi gras and the little town is ready to welcome the arrival of Prince of Moldania Naveem (Bruno Campos), it seems like a South-East Asian country and so in a way the prince is also a fine new step, though his resemblance to Prince Eric is startling.
All goes well until the first little faux pas with the joyful introduction song. I guess it doesn't exactly sound like a compliment if you say it feels like a Randy Newman song, which means an umpteenth variation on "You got a friend in me". The townspeople obligatory song serves to introduces Doctor Facilier (Keith David) who looks like a cool animated version of Samuel L. Jackson with top hat and spats. Facilier makes a pact with Naveen and his servant Lawrence (Peter Bartlet); in the end, Naveen becomes a frog, it's a little complicated plot involving some pre-established deals with ghouls and whose only outcome is that Tiana mistakes him for a legitimate prince and then instead of getting him back to his normality, becomes a frog as well.
Now, two things: Tiana as a person with human preoccupations was such an endearing character that the whole magical spell felt like a cheat. A second was: for once that you have a dark-skinned princess (and prince too) they spend most the time as frogs, which -let's face it- don't make for the best-looking creature despite the animators' effort to make them cute and appealing, and slightly less cartoonish than the singing frog in "One Froggy Evening". I understand that there had to be a frog, but the title is misleading "The Princess and the Frog" suggests that there's only one frog. So we got through a long middle-section set in the animal-world, one that lingers on extremely lengthy big musical lectures that don't offer many catchy themes to hum afterwards.
Don't get me wrong: the visuals are stunning and the hand-drawn animation is a fine return to the roots but the swamps/night setting aren't the landscapes we expected no matter how hard they make the characters colorful: from Louis, the giant alligator (Michael-Leon Wooley) to Ray, the Cajun firefly (Jim Cummings) or the little witch Mama Odie (Jennifer Lewis), a blind woman and an extra-milestone for disabled characters. In the best case, the film looks like "The Rescuers" and doesn't live up to the potential showed during the first act.
Maybe worse: even within the frog part, the chemistry between Tiana and Naveen seems too forced to be believable, one scene they berate each other and the next one, they fall in love for no particular reason. In fact, the whole frog / human magic is extremely confusing for we never know what powers have Facilier, even the whole "kiss a princess" premise has sets of rules that differ according to circumstances and when you have so many possibilities left, anything can happen anyway. When they become humans again, there was no way the Tiana we left would abandon herself to a Prince just like that. Now I understand why they made Anna the feminist heroine... but Tiana deserved a little more.