Disney returns 'hand-drawn' musical with 'Princess and the Frog'

AT THE MOVIES WITH F. JOSEPH WILSON

Movie: "The Princess and the Frog"

Cast: Anika Noni Rose, Bruno Campos, Keith David, Michael-Leon Wooley, Jennifer Cody, Jim Cummings, Peter Bartlett, Jenifer Lewis, Oprah Winfrey, Terrence Howard, John Goodman

Original Story by Ron Clements, Greg Erb, John Musker, Jason Oremland

Screenplay by Ron Clements & John Musker and Rob Edwards

Directed by Ron Clements & John Musker

Release Date: 11 December 2009

Genre: Animation / Family / Fantasy / Musical / Romance

MPAA: G -- General Audiences -- All Ages Admitted

Runtime: 97 min.

Official Site: http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/prin...

"The Princess and the Frog" (2009, G, 97 min.) is Walt Disney Picture's 49th animated feature film; however, it's Disney's first cell, or "hand-drawn," animated feature in five years, since "Home on the Range" (2004), and it's first animated musical in 12 years, since "Hercules" (1997).

Written and directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, the writing-directing team responsible for Disney's "The Little Mermaid" (1989), "Aladdin" (1992), and "Hercules," it features music, including some catchy musical numbers, from Academy Award-winning composer Randy Newman, responsible for the music in several Disney/Pixar animated features, including "Toy Story" (1995), "A Bug's Life" (1998), "Toy Story 2" (1999), "Monsters, Inc." (2001), and "Cars" (2003).

In a sense, these and other Disney/Pixar features, animated by Computer Generated Imagery, or CGI, led to the demise of hand-drawn animation at Disney and other studios. While most of the new CGI animated feature films are as good as earlier cell animated classics, especially in terms of the writing, (the 2009 Disney/Pixar collaboration, "Up," being a good example), it's a treat to have Disney return both to musicals and hand-drawn animation.

Like the Louisiana bayous in which much of the story takes place, "The Princess and the Frog" is lush and colorful. Like the City of New Orleans, another of the story's settings, the movie is exciting and full of life.

For an animated fantasy created primary for families, "The Princess and the Frog" stirred up a great deal of controversy prior to its release. Long before this project was announced, some feminists have been critical of Disney's princess characters as old-fashioned and out-of-touch with modern heroines. The characters put too much emphasis on physical appearances, and they rely on the support of men for their happiness.

In the 72-year history of Disney animated princesses, beginning with the protagonist in "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937), the heroine of "The Princess and the Frog," Tiana (voiced by Anika Noni Rose), is the first African American princess. The filmmakers and studios executives tried to handle this history-making character carefully, and her story changed often during the writing process.

Loosely based on "The Frog Princess," a 2002 novel for young adults by E. D. Barker, which was inspired by the Grimm brothers' fairy tale "The Frog Prince," the movie was originally titled "The Frog Princess." After complaints of racial insensitivity, Disney executives changed several key elements. They re-titled the story to avoid the implication that the first Disney African American princess was somehow ugly or animalistic. Since her original name, Maddy, sounded too much like "Mammy," her name was changed to Tiana. Also, a subplot about her working as a maid was dropped to avoid negative stereotypes.

Then there's the issue of Tiana's romantic interest, Prince Naveen (voiced by Bruno Campos, an actor of Latino descent, originally from Brazil). The Prince is from Maldonia, a fictional kingdom in the Mediterranean, and while he's clearly a "person of color," the Prince's race and ethnicity are never specified. Why, some protested, couldn't Disney's first black princess have a black prince?

Most recently, since the movie's release, some Christians have expressed outrage at the lack of Christian themes and imagery in a family film in which dark magic and voodoo figure so prominently.

If you can get past the controversy, I believe you'll find "The Princess and the Frog" is solid entertainment and a relatively harmless diversion for children of all ages. If you enjoyed most of the other Disney animated features referred to in this column, then you're likely to enjoy this movie, too.

(italics) The columnist can be reached at (712) 332-5043 and FJosephWilson@aol.com. His weekly column is published in the Dickinson County News and the Okobojian. It's also featured online at www.dickinsoncountynews.com, as is his blog, "Arts & Entertainment Matters."