The Princess And The Frog

Disney’s newest movie introduces a new princess to the scene, Tiana. This movie brought back the fairytale musicals Disney had been known for in the past. And they did a very good job with bringing it back. The movie is centered around the old fairytale about a princess kissing a frog and making the frog turn into a prince. But, things don’t go so easy for Tiana like they did for the princess in the old story book. Tiana has a harder time of getting her “happily ever after”. But as they did bring back the classical fairytale musicals, was this still following the innocence they kept in their movies? Or did they make it darker and more evil than the fairytale princess movies from the past?

This movie is set in 1920’s New Orleans. The movie starts out with a little background information about what Tiana’s life was like when she was a little girl. Then it quickly changes to when Tiana is an adult trying to earn a restaurant to make her and her dad’s dreams come true. But it’s not that easy, Tiana comes from a poor family and earning just the down payment for the restaurant is hard for her. Tiana soon learns from her friend, Charlotte, who comes from a rich family that Prince Naveen is coming to New Orleans to wed Charlotte and take her fortune. Charlotte is the classic girl that has wanted her prince charming since she was a little girl.

The movie takes a break from Tiana, Charlotte, and her life to take a look at the next main character. Prince Naveen. Naveen is a jazz loving person and that’s where the musical part of the movie really gets started. This whole movie is centered around music as well. Eventually, Naveen’s butler, Lawrence, convinces him that enough is enough and if he wants his money back, he’d best hurry to Charlotte’s or get a job. But the pair is side tracked when they run into the villain of this story, Dr. Facilier. Dr. Facilier is a voodoo magician who convinces Naveen and Lawrence into his house for a little fun with voodoo. Naveen is easily fooled by the fortune Dr. Facilier gives him and Dr. Facilier is able to steal the prince’s blood and turn him into a frog. Lawrence turns on Naveen and agrees to help Dr. Facilier with his plot to rule New Orleans.

This is when the main part of the movie comes in; Tiana gets bad news that she may lose the restaurant she planned to buy. Tiana goes back to her childhood days and wishes on a star for help. Naveen, now a frog, jumps up and mistakes Tiana for a princess. After a small fight, Tiana agrees to kiss Naveen hoping that it’ll break the spell. But it doesn’t and Tiana is turned into a frog herself. That’s when their adventure starts. Tiana and Naveen take an adventure through the bayou meeting new people like Louse, the alligator, Ray, the firefly, and Mama Odie, the old witch from the bayou.

This movie may be a classic fairytale love story from Disney, but it’s not as innocent as they have made before. The Princess And The Frog is a much darker themed movie including such things as voodoo, spirits from “the other side”, and other things. This movie isn’t like the other movies they’ve released in the past. The movie was much so darker than the innocent movies they released in the past.

However, the movie created a lot of trouble with the main character being a poor African American woman. There have been many bad comments made to Disney about the way they made Tiana’s character hard working and how hard they made her life. I however don’t think they had any intentions of offending people. Disney has made characters with hard lives in the past, Cinderella is a prime example of that. But no one had a problem with that, what is so different about Tiana?

I personally loved the movie. I’d give it 9 out of 10 stars. It’s one of Disney’s best works they’ve released. It’s a great children’s move, but if you do go take children to see it, some scenes may be a little too much for the kids. But I do recommend you go see it. The movie has realistic characters in it and it shows both sides of the stories. A person coming from a poor life and a person coming from a rich life. It shows voodoo in a negative way, Dr. Facilier’s way, and in a positive way, Mama Odie’s way. It’s a very good movie and Disney did very good on it.