Hand-drawn animated musical comedy featuring Disney's first African-American heroine aspires to the greatness of classic Disney and (mostly) succeeds. Living in New Orleans during the Jazz Age, orphan and aspiring chef Tiana (Rose) finds a talking frog in the bayou who claims to be Prince Naveen (Campos), under a curse until a kiss can break the spell and turn him human again. Of course, there's a twist, and with the help of some bayou animals, the two must find a way to stop sinister voodoo priest Dr. Facilier (David) and break the curse before it's too late. Kids and adults will like this charming story supported by animation in the old Disney style and inspiring musical numbers.
I have to admit to being one of those old-fashioned critics who thinks that the technological advancements in the world of animation have not always been for the best. There's something about the hand-drawn, two-dimensional approach to animated storytelling that has been crushed by computer generated imagery and 3D. Don't ...Read More
Not What We Expected stikki at 2009-12-14 00:10:01
Today my family and I went to see the much anticipated first African American Princess movie, "Princess And The Frog." We had heard just before attending that the movie had racial undertones, however, we thought we'd check things out for ourselves. After 10 minutes into the movie it was clearly understood why people would feel this way. We were absolutely offended. None of us expected to see the old slave mentality from older movies in this film. Instantly you see the very well dressed white child, and the under-dressed black child, the black nanny/mammy and then the overbearing white slave mentality father, and not to mention the big pot of gumbo, and "don't forget to add the hot sauce!" It was entirely too much! We requested a refund, however the theater worker tried to get us to take a pass instead. Well, we insisted on the refund as we did not want Disney to reap the benefits of us NOT seeing this film. There were a hundred different ways Disney could have depicted this story without going into the 1920's and using old negro stereotypes to do it. My family and I are a melting pot and we understand the need for positive change with regards to race relations, but this film, if anything, takes us back to that old negro slave mentality. It was really hard to overlook what went on in the first few minutes of the movie to go any further. I personally believe that the writers thought setting the movie in the 1920's and in New Orleans, would excuse the fact that the movie is to a great extent, demeaning. Hyping this movie up to be the first African American Princess and hand-drawn 2-D Disney film in ages is not enough to overlook the thinking and sensitivity that did NOT go into the making of this film, respectively.