The Princess and the Frog
Submitted by Sarah D. Bunting on February 22, 2010 – 3:31 PM14 Comments
It’s nice to see a heroine of color in a Disney movie, but I don’t know if Tiana spending the bulk of the story as a frog necessarily strikes a great blow for multiculturalism, not when the story feels so formulaic. Every trope from Sidekick Central Casting is accounted for, the songs vanish immediately from the memory when they end…with the exception of the firefly-funeral sequence towards the end, which is pretty and restrained, it’s unobjectionable, but unmemorable.
Sarah 33, Death Race 25; 9 of 24 categories completed
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The Guardia made the same point about Tiana and the prince spending most of the film as frogs. It was one of the few bad reviews.
Sorry, meant Guardian (UK)
It ain’t “Mulan,” I guess, but it’s a start. (I’m sure there were issues with “Mulan” that I’m not aware of, but I loved it, my family loved it, and the 7 year old girl I introduced to it last summer loved it. And my dad loved Mushu. So I’m sold. :))
It didn’t really hold my three-year-old daughter’s interest. She had very little sense of urgency during her bathroom breaks. On the last one, she insisted on sitting in my lap so we could play Crazy Taxi together before going back into the theatre. She did enjoy “the mean man,” though. She much preferred Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, as did I.
My daughter really liked it (she’s 3). The firefly funeral was the first time she ever cried during a movie (which made me cry, but I’m a sap like that). I actually liked the music a lot. I thought it was cute, but not anywhere in the same league as Beauty and the Beast or The Little Mermaid. It was by no means horrible, though. As a mom, I’d rather watch this one 3 times a day than, say, Hercules.
I… felt about the same way: “I don’t regret spending $6 to see this but I have no need to own it.”
(Yes, $6. It was a Tuesday morning… that, or it’s the movie theater’s way apologizing for the fact that the people in their market live in Ohio.)
I enjoyed the songs, but it probably says something that my mother and I were the only people in the audience.
…That said, it was nice to see Disney make a return to traditional animation, and I really enjoyed the restaurant song sequence.
I saw it in the theater and liked it, but left without being able to sing any of the songs which was a big ol’ WTF for my choir geeky self, but then, I’ve never really gotten the Randy Newman appeal. According to IMDB trivia they were gonna go with my hero Alan Mencken and whoever the hell his current lyricist partner is, but stupid John Lassiter wanted stupid Randy Newman. Shut up, John Lassiter.
Yeah, It’s enjoyable, but hardly a classic. Although, truth be told I did blub to an embarrassing degree over Mr Firefly (blame PMS).
Ms Almost 3 spent the first half of the movie asking non-stop “where’s the frog?” and the second half asking “where’s the princess?” Remind me never to let her watch Law & Order, or even Will & Grace.
That said, after a week of watching Disney’s The Princess Stories vol 1 DVD from the library, I’ve seen how shitty their product can get (crappily edited together stories from particularly b-grade spin offs of successful movies like The Little Mermaid. Some parts, I kid you not, are still pictures), I’d take Princess and the Frog any day
I had most of the same issues that everyone else did, but I think this one gets a small automatic bump from me for being traditional 2-D animation. Also for keeping my heavily pregnant sister entertained and distracted for an hour and a half.
I wish the songs had been stronger and longer, though I did download the soundtrack and have listened to it a fair amount. Anika Noni Rose’s pretty voice was way underused. I liked the tweak of having the manhunting “princess” not be a complete jerk, but overall the storyline was weak.
My 6-year-old was nearly peeing-in-her-pants excited to see this movie, and she was terribly disappointed, because Tiana spends too much time in her frog state. The movie ended, the lights went up, my husband turned to her and asked her how she liked it, and she burst into tears. He asked her what was wrong, and she said, “I was waiting and waiting the whole movie for Tiana to be a princess again, and then she was finally a princess again, and the movie was over!” (Also, our 3-year-old was scared of the Shadow Man.)
Most of the related PatF merchandise (books, coloring books, etc.) focus primarily on Tiana though, so maybe Disney realized their error?
I think that everyone’s attitude towards this is “hooray, it didn’t suck!”
Things that I thought were interesting:
*For all the buzz about a black heroine, the story seems to go out of its way to not bring up the issue of race. The closest they get is when the Evil Bankers don’t want to give the heroine a loan, and they claim that “someone of her background” wouldn’t be able to handle owning a restaurant. If everyone had been white as Jefferson Davis then the story wouldn’t been a bit different. They wouldn’t even have had to change the dialogue!
*The film goes out of its way to establish the place and time, which is uncommon for a Disney animated film. I think the only other one that did this was Pocahontas. And, surprise, both of these films have characters who are clearly members of American minority groups.
Which is, I think, the idea; Disney is saying “this is happening in New Orleans in the 1920s so IT IS OKAY THAT PEOPLE TALK WITH VAGUELY-EBONIC ACCENTS PLEASE DO NOT SUE US.”
*The bad guy is barely in the film and feels more like an obligation than anything else. When he stomps the firefly guy, it feels…unearned, almost, like he wasn’t a significant enough character to waste a Friendly Sidekick like that.
*I was surprised that the Rich White Girl didn’t become either an antagonist or an outright enemy. Kudos to Disney for not taking this easy out.
This movie didn’t rank up there with the best of Disney, but I enjoyed it, overall. Of course, watching a matinee at the second run theater helped ($2 tickets!).
Things I liked:
– Charlotte not being totally evil. Like other people, I liked that she was a brat and annoying, but basically good. That’s pretty deep character development for a Disney flick.
– I liked the general message of the movie — work hard, but not so hard you have no life. It’s a nice moral for kids.
– I liked the sidekicks. I liked that Naveen’s sidekick turned out to be evil; I was expecting him to be helpful and goofy, so it was nice to be surprised there.
– I thought the shadow monsters were scary in the best tradition of Disney scariness.
Things I didn’t like:
– The villain. He was scary, but I didn’t really get him or what the source of his nastiness was, really. He seemed contrived, I think.
– Prince Naveen’s character could have stood some more fleshing out, I think. I know it’s Tiana’s movie, but I could have used a bit more Naveen up front.
Things I was neutral on:
– The music. I liked it during the film, but couldn’t remember any songs after I left.
– The fact that Naveen and Tiana were frogs most of the time. It seemed like an odd choice, but I didn’t personally mind it. Neither did my 5 year old.
I have to admit, having family from New Orleans, I know a few southern belles that are exactly like Lottie (the man-hunting rich girl). Thus, I totally appreciated them poking fun at her, but also not making her a total monster. Plus I think “Awww cheese and crackers!” is one of the best lines in the entire film…