A Thomas Bess review of:
Directed By: Ron Clements, John Musker
Starring: Anika Noni Rose, Bruno Campos, Keith David, Michael-Leon Wooley, Jennifer Cody, Jim Cummings, Jenifer Lewis, Oprah Winfrey, John Goodman
Run Time: 97 delightfully animated (sorry, sorry OW, OW! I said I was sorry!) minutes.
When considering the bulk of the films I’ve reviewed for Atomik this year, it probably comes as no surprise that yours truly was raised on a steady diet of USA’s Up All Night, TNT’s Monstervision and every bit of luridly illustrated goodness the video store’s horror section had to offer. What might surprise you is that on the non-Harvey Dent-ified side of my childhood coin was a love for Disney animated flicks. Yep, I could easily watch The Fox and the Hound or The Jungle Book with the folks, then wander into the back room and see what sort of carnage Jason Voorhees happened to be inflicting that particular weekend. And while my interest in Disney’s animated fare post Hercules did some serious flagging, I’ve never really forgotten how good some of the old flicks were (The Great Mouse Detective anyone?) and so when it was announced that the Mouse House was coming out with a new, mostly hand drawn feature, I was eager to check it out and even willing to overlook the presence of the word “Princess” in the title. I gotta tell ya, methinks The Princess and The Frog belongs right up there with the likes of The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King.
Plot goes a little something like this — It’s New Orleans in what I think is supposed to be the twenties, but could just as easily be referred to as the “Great American Yesteryear” and our heroine Tiana (Rose) is busting her ass at two dead end jobs in hopes of saving up enough money to buy a place to set up her own restaurant. About this time is when the dashing but rather shiftless Prince Naveen wanders into town and proceeds to sweep all the ladies off their feet. Alas, it doesn’t take him long to run afoul of the wickedly charismatic Dr. Facilier, (Keith David, kicking even more ass than usual) better known to residents of the Big Easy as Shadow Man. Before you can say “Who do voodoo?”, the Prince has been turned into a frog and the Shadow Man is making his move to take control of the whole city. Naveen hasn’t been a frog for very long when he meets up with Tiana and convinces her that a kiss will break the spell. Wrong. His would be rescuer gets a dose of the same mojo and after some bickering they’re off the swamps in hopes of finding the reclusive Mama Odie (Lewis) to reverse their condition. Along the way they will meet a horn playing Alligator, a Cajun Firefly and plenty of other amusing bayou denizens before heading back to the city for a final showdown with the Shadow Man and his ghoulish “friends on the other side”.
So what’s good? As a bit of an amateur animation geek, I gotta say I marked for the visuals in this film in a big way. While this version of New Orleans is probably a damned sight cleaner, brighter and well, Disney-er than the real world incarnation it never struck me as being “too” neat and the nice gets out of town for the finale that takes place in the center of the city and a crumbling graveyard. And if the city is great then the swamp is just beautiful, so much so in fact that I had to draw myself back to the dialogue several times, not because the story wasn’t entertaining (because it was), but because I was so busy looking at the little nuances of this animated world. Also, the horror fan in me has to mention Dr. Facilier’s Living Shadow henchmonsters, they were just awesome. Voice-wise, leads Rose and Campos do a fine job as the bickering frogs / people but the show is most definitely stolen by Keith David, Ed Cummings and Jenifer Lewis who bring excessive amounts of personality to the Shadow Man, Ray the Firefly and Mama Odie respectively. Special praise also goes to Jennifer Cody for taking a character who should be brain crushingly annoying (Tiana’s man crazy friend Charlotte) and making her oddly endearing. Oh, and while I wouldn’t consider any of the songs on the soundtrack to be quite as good as say, Gaston or Friend Like Me, there are a few that’ll I’ll wager will keep you humming afterward, lord knows I’ve still got Friends On the Other Side rattling around in my noggin.
But what’s not good? Well, while it seems rather silly to note that a Disney film feels too much like a Disney film (it’s kinda like complaining, “Hey, there’s raisins in this box labeled raisins!”) The Princess and The Frog struck me as an especially easy story to anticipate when just about everything was going to happen. From the musical numbers to the introduction of the kooky animal sidekicks to just how things are going to turn out, it’s all apparent from early on. Think of a classic car with different paint job — sure it looks new, but you’ve definitely been on this ride before. Of course, that’s not necessarily a bad thing as the film knows exactly what it’s capable of and doesn’t try things it probably shouldn’t. Oh and I will give them credit for a swerve in the last act that I wasn’t expecting. Sure they brought it back by the time credits rolled, but the fact that they even had to do so was a pleasant surprise.
Should you see it? All you have to do is answer yourself one question. Do you like Disney flicks? If the answer is yes, get yourself to the theater posthaste as you will not be disappointed. And if the answer is no, ask yourself what sort of monster doesn’t like hand drawn animation, then check it out anyway with the goal of self-improvement in mind.
Til next time, always remember that the calls are coming from inside the house.
Tom Bess has sideburns that are so big they might be considered a beard shaving accident from afar. He blames his current mental state on Stephen King, Mike Nelson, Seth McFarlane and Vince McMahon but bears them no ill will. He passes his time writing movie reviews, but will flee the interwebs forever as soon as Allison Mack starts returning his calls.
