The last time Disney tried its hand at hand-drawn animation was “Home on the Range” five years ago. Remember it? Anyone?
So it’s almost a dream come true to see the studio return to its roots with a memorable movie. “The Princess and the Frog” can’t match the brilliance of the “Little Mermaid”-“Aladdin”-“Beauty and the Beast”-“Lion King” renaissance, but it still shines.
Unless you’ve been living in a swamp you know that our heroine, Tiana, is Disney’s first African-American princess. She’s voiced by Anika Noni Rose (the sweet one in “Dreamgirls”), and she even has Oprah Winfrey for a mom (going by the name Eudora here).
And yet race isn’t the issue — did you really expect a Disney musical fairy tale to take on civil rights? No, the film treads safer, familiar ground, more of a Cinderella story about a poor girl with big ideas.
Like her father (a silky Terrence Howard), little Tiana has always wanted to own a restaurant in their hometown of New Orleans. But the closest they come is occasionally ladling out tasty gumbo for the neighborhood.
Flash-forward to Tiana all grown up in the 1920s Jazz Age and striving to carry out Daddy’s dream. She knows she can’t count on an evening star or gallant prince for start-up funds, so labor is her love.
“Do your best each and every day,” she sings at one point, “and good things are sure to come your way.” Preach, Disney!
Her work, work, work ethic is a far cry from that of her rich, very blond childhood friend, Charlotte (Broadway star Jennifer Cody). (They’re friends? In the segregated South? Hey, it’s a fairy tale.)
Charlotte wants to marry into even bigger money in the form of Prince Naveen, who is visiting town from far-off Maldonia. He’s on the guest list for her family’s Mardi Gras costume ball (in a gorgeously rendered New Orleans Garden District).
Naveen (Brazilian actor Bruno Campos of TV’s “Nip/Tuck”) may be handsome, but he’s broke — a slacker cut off by his royal parents and looking for some quick cash. He falls in with the oily Dr. Facilier (say it fass-ILL-ee-ay — that’s French in the Big Easy), a shadowy voodoo shaman who ends up turning Naveen into a frog.
Facilier is voiced by character actor Keith David and, like any proper Disney villain, steals every scene he’s in.
Needing to kiss a princess to become human again, Naveen spies Tiana at the ball, all dolled up in one of her friend’s gowns. But in a twist on the Brothers Grimm, Tiana smooches the frog prince (reluctantly, eww) and, presto, she’s a slimy frog, too. They may be the same species now, but can these opposites attract?
The frog pair must seek a cure from a voodoo priestess (Jenifer Lewis) while avoiding redneck hunters and predatory gators (one voiced by chef Emeril Lagasse). They pick up some sidekicks — a trumpet-playing cream puff of an alligator (Michael-Leon Wooley, mildly funny) and a lovelorn Cajun firefly (Jim Cummings, surprisingly charming through rotting teeth and stereotypical accent).
But this slow sojourn in the swamp bogs down the film.
What jumpstarts this “Frog” is what Disney does better than anyone: whimsical, over-the-top, eye-popping production numbers. Singer and composer Randy Newman’s upbeat jazz, zydeco and gospel tunes are varied but unremarkable. Still, you won’t forget Facilier singing “Friends on the Other Side” accompanied by Day-Glo dancing voodoo masks (the creatures might scare only the youngest of viewers), or the two frogs rafting through the bayou amid swirling fireflies and blooming lilies.
Source:kansascity.com/