Day 49: The Princess and the Frog

The Princess and the Frog (2009)

Starring: Anika Noni Rose, Elizabeth Dampier, Bruno Campos, Michael-Leon Wooley, Jim Cummings, Keith David, Jennifer Cody, Breanna Brooks, Jenifer Lewis, Peter Bartlett, John Goodman, Oprah Winfrey, Terrence Howard, Frank Welker, Dee Bradley Baker, Corey Burton, Jerry Kernion, Ritchie Montgomery, Don Hall, Paul Briggs

Songs: "Down in New Orleans," "Almost There," "Friends on the Other Side," "When We're Human," "Gonna Take You There," "Ma Belle Evangeline," "Dig a Little Deeper," "Never Knew I Needed"

The Princess and the Frog is the forty-ninth Disney animated feature.  Inspired by the E.D. Baker novel The Frog Princess and the Frog Prince fairytale, it is Disney's first traditionally animated film and first fairy tale film in a number of years.  It tells the story of Tiana, a hard working young woman who dreams of opening a restaurant but is turned into a frog when, dressed as a princess during Mardi Gras, she kisses a frog who is in fact a playboy prince.  The two journey through the Louisiana Bayou together (with the help of a jazz playing alligator named Louis and a Cajun firefly named Ray) to try and find a way to turn back into humans.

In 2006, Disney and Pixar were both developing movies based on the Frog Prince fairy tale, so the projects were merged and development continued from there.  Originally Tiana was to be maid named Maddy, and the title was going to be The Frog Princess.  The visual look for the film was based on Lady and the Tramp, and the backgrounds for the bayou were based on the look of Bambi.  Because most of the traditional animation departments had been closed and the artists laid off after Disney decided to focus on CGI films, they had to be rehired and reassembled for this film.  Because the movie was successful (though unfortunately not to the levels of the renaissance films of the 1990s) the studio decided to do traditional and CGI animation, though they later announced that the traditional animation departments had again been closed.

I love this movie, truly.  It's easily one of my favorites and one of Disney's best.  Best animated film since The Lion King, maybe since Beauty and the Beast, and I don't say that lightly.  

What I Liked: To say that there being a black princess was a dream come true for me, a lifelong Disney fan who happens to be a black girl, wouldn't exactly be accurate because I never even dreamed that there could be or would ever be a black Disney princess.  So the fact that there is one... wow.  It just means so much to me.  And she's an amazing character, too.  Very close after Aurora on my list of favorite princesses.  Plus she is voiced by a stunning black woman, Anika Noni Rose, who totally looks like the character.

What I Disliked: Nothing, honestly.  Maybe the fact that this movie is often so ignored by the Disney fandom.  *massive side eye*

Should You Watch This Movie:  Yes.  Without hesitation.