Disney's: The Princess and the Frog
I (like a lot of children) grew up on disney.
Aladdin is one of my favorite movies of all time, and I have seen just about every (good) animated movie that disney has produced.
So I have to admit, when the trailer first came out for this movie, I was very very skeptical.
I figured the new management at Disney (who are the wonderful men and women who gave us Hanna Montana and the Jones brothers) were just trying to cash in on my childhood again.
But when I heard Keith David was going to be the bad guy I just had to see it.
Damn am I glad I did.
If any one of you has ever loved a Disney movie, you will LOVE this movie!
Its a little too early to tell, but this movie just might be my favorite Disney movie of all time, ill have to watch it a few more times to see.
Okay so here is the story.
ARE YOU READY?!
You'll forgive me, I didn't catch the very beginning, but here it is from when I came in.The time is 1912, and the setting is New Orleans, Louisiana, one of the most fascinating, lively, and scariest places I have ever been to.
Tiana is our protagonist, she is a hard working woman and, works two jobs as a waitress.
Her dream is to realize her fathers dream, and open not only the finest restaurant in New Orleans, but a restaurant that people will come from miles away to eat at.
She however has absolutely no money, so that might prove to be a problem.
Our other hero is Prince Naveen from the fake country Maldonia.
He is a care free man who only wants to have fun and party every day.
However he has been cut off from his rich, royal parents because he spends all their money, so like Tiana he needs money too.
Naveen is also accompanied by his servant Laurence who is pretty sick to death of Naveen's shenanigans.
They are confronted by the voodoo shadowman, Dr. Facilier, he offers to read their fortune but instead turns the prince into a frog and turns Laurence into a fake Prince Naveen.
His plan is to use the fake prince to take over New Orleans and take everyone's souls for his "Friends on the other side".
Meanwhile Tiana is catering at a masquerade party and is dressed like a princess, the prince(remembering the story of the frog prince) convinces Tiana to kiss him, with the bribe of money for her restaurant.
She however is not a princess and the spell backfires, turning her into a frog as well.
From there they decide to work together to turn back into humans.
She works hard, shes talented, educated, and just a well rounded, lovable character.
Naveen is just as lovable but hes a lazy good-for-nothing, scoundrel.
The minute hes on screen hes partying and having fun, showing everyone a good time.
These two characters are almost polar opposites of each other, so when their together the chemistry is off the walls.
They are joined by Lewis, a trumpet playing gator who wants to be human so he can play in a jazz band (Disney remember?) and Ray a Cajun fire fly they meet in the bayou.
Toward the end of the second act they meet Mama Odie, a lovable little ol blind voodoo witch who might be my favorite out of the bunch.
Then entire cast of characters are absolutely wonderful, laugh out loud funny, and come to life on the screen, there is even a sad part where I (a 22 year old man) got a little teary eyed, you'll know what part I mean.
Out of the entire cast There is one man who steals the show, Keith David as Dr. Facilier, the Shadow man.
This one of the best Disney villains sense Jafar from Aladdin.
This man has some serious "friends", most Disney villains have an annoying sidekick, this man has Shadow demons to do his bidding.
Usually when you think voodoo, you think zombies, but from now on ill think of demon voodoo dolls wielding needles
Its a nice contrast to Mama Odie's good voodoo, and yes there is good and bad voodoo, just like any other magic.
He's definitely in league with something evil, and in the end he gets a fitting punishment, just wait.
Trust me this dosnt ruin anything, on screen is ten times better
Lastly I want to compliment the music and art.The music in this has a jazz overtone to it that works well with the setting.
Every thing is very well done, the only complaint I have is in the second act there seems to be a song after every paragraph.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing but I can see it annoying some people, but make no mistake, some of theses might become Disney classics.
Finally the art blew me away, I haven't seen animation this good outside of Japan in a long time., the colors just leap off the screen and the different art styles they showcase for each musical number are well done and merge seamlessly with the main art style.
Please if you have a chance to see this do so.
Disney put out this movie to see if the 2D animation could still make them money, sorry to be so blunt but that's what the CEO's want.
So lets give it to them, they will take that money and give some to animators and writers and make more great movies like this.
Everyone gets what they want.
So that's it, go see the movie, I think your ready.
oh and merry christmas.
Badonka DAMN!
