Princess and the Frog, The

Disney is a cold calculating corporation that has childhood down to a science. They know what they are doing. But before they were a media conglomerate that ruled your children’s brains, Disney was known for making great animated movies. There was a renaissance of hand drawn animated musicals that started in the late eighties and petered out in the late nineties. No one did it better than Disney. It was similar to the way Pixar is these days, every movie they make is almost guaranteed to be great and highly anticipated. And while there is something marvelous about Pixar’s charm, there is nothing like a good old fashioned Disney animated musical.

The latest one is a return to form, reinventing a fairy tale and infusing it with wonder. This time it’s “The Princess and the Frog”. It’s the story of a young woman in 1920s New Orleans who gets turned into a frog along with a prince and must find a way to change back so that she can realize her dreams of being a restaurateur (clearly they took some liberties with the fairy tale). If America was ready for a black president then I guess Disney finally realized they were probably ready for a black princess. Disney has not had the best track record when it comes to race in their previous films. There are things in this film that conjure up their last venture into southern folklore "Songs of the South." And it was possible that they might have fallen into ridiculous stereotypes, but they didn’t. This story takes what Disney does best and turns it on its ear. Not only does it offer a princess for a new era, but it pokes fun at the films it succeeds while subverting the message of those films. This princess is not waiting for her prince to save her; she is doing things for herself. It uses familiar plot points to send young girls of today the right message and creates a new role model, reinventing the so called “Disney Princess.” This is a bold move by the filmmakers to take these kinds of films in a new direction. These films thrive on melodrama. And they are rich with storytelling power. There is something for everyone here. The villain is a particularly inspired vision. This film captures a New Orleans which surely doesn’t exist anymore thanks to hurricane Katrina, much in the way that “Benjamin Button” did a year ago.

If there is one thing that keeps this film from being great it’s the music. Disney music is usually instantly iconic. With New Orleans jazz as the obligatory style you would think this film would naturally have great music. The music however was a disappointment with not one memorable song in the film. But while it isn’t perfect there are things about this film that go leaps and bounds beyond the others. This is the fairy tale I want my daughter to watch someday if I ever have one. I sincerely hope Disney is able to jumpstart the next phase of these films, but I fear they are running out of public domain stories to rip off. Either way they are off to a great start.