Princess and the Frog Review

[pasithea]

No spoilers.

Watched this film last night with Stacey and I think it's one of my favorite Disney films in a while.

Going in, I was somewhat concerned that they'd be heavy on race issues and overdo the political correctness. Surprisingly, this was not the case. Nor was it ignorant of race issues. Race was a non-story in the story yet they also didn't dismiss it entirely or make me feel as if the characters were basically white people in blackface with a few cultural stereotypes thrown in.

They did something I've never known Disney to do before. I think it's called subtlety. The Disney I know and have seen in other Disney films says "You can't do X because you're Y." This Disney said, "You can't do X because of *pause* your background...." It made the situation more real, hiding the hate behind soft words but at the same time, didn't beat you over the head with the subject.

Another subtle way they made it work was that there were some stylized animated sequences which were absolutely beautiful that were done in the style of New Yorker artist Michael Roberts. Very enjoyable to me because I really like his work anyhow, but again, it was a very subtle touch. Disney of yesteryear would have done stylization in African tribal motif. Roberts is a black artist but he's a very american artist with a really clean graphic style. I've really enjoyed his work in the past so it was great to see it ported so beautifully to animation.

The musical scoring was less bad than the majority of Disney films with the pieces ranging between 'rather tolerable' to 'actually appealing'. ... I can't remember if there's ever been another Disney film that's managed that.

Everything else was also pretty solid. The story was fairly engaging and moved nicely. The pacing was really good, the character designs were GREAT and loaded with tons of appeal and the animation was absolutely fabulous! I could watch it several more times just for the animation. It was awe inspiring.


It's definitely my favorite of their 'princess' films (beating out Sleeping Beauty *gasp*) and perhaps one of my all-time favorites. Way to go 2D department!!!!

Comments

[idragosani.livejournal.com]

I liked it a lot, too, and really loved the music. I especially liked the scene you are talking about immensely, the highly stylized segment, it was gorgeous.

And Dr. Facilier definitely ranks as one of my favorite Disney villains... the animator who worked on him described him as the spawn of Captain Hook and Cruella Deville.

[doctorpinkerton.livejournal.com]

Me too!!! (and astonishingly, they also managed to pronounce the name of my beloved city correctly!)

[kinkyturtle.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing you mean New o-LEANS, as opposed to n'AW-lins?

[doctorpinkerton.livejournal.com]

Actually I mean 'Neworlins' as opposed to 'New Orleens', which NOBODY down here says!

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

Noir Lense?

[kinkyturtle.livejournal.com]

I liked it too! I love all the juxtapositions of normal and weird. Naveen, with his vaguely Pepe Le Pew-esque attitude and accent, is "cartoony" enough not to seem out of character as a frog prince. But Tiana, oh now, she's this hard-working realist who's working two jobs to earn the money for this restaurant, and she doesn't have time for nonsense like dancin', or bein' turned into a frog... oops, but then she gets turned into a frog. I love the weirdness of it!

And I agree with everything you said here. :}

[paka.livejournal.com]

stylized animated sequences

Oooh, ooh, ooh. That hooks me right there.

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

They're pretty great. I think they're likely done by the same crew as did the credits at the end of The Incredibles and Ratatouille. Felt like the same pacing and same hand in some of the work. I really liked both of those sequences and I really like Robert's art (I have a book of it if you're interested in looking at it some time) so together they were pretty attractive to me.

[paka.livejournal.com]

Please, yeah. I'd never heard of the guy before!