How do you feel about fairy tale princesses? Have you outgrown them, and left them in your "little kid" past? Have you handed all of your cartoon DVD's over to younger sibs or cousins? Or have you started feeling nostalgic for the days when you believed in magic, and spells, and wishing upon a star?
Whatever your attitude about the whole princess thing, there's no denying that over more than 70 years, the folks at Disney have mined this theme to create some truly colorful characters, compelling stories, and groundbreaking animated masterpieces. Now, with the DVD and Blu-ray release of "The Princess and the Frog," they offer up a beautiful gem that not only adds to their princess collection, but actually offers up some clever commentary on the royal young women they've presented in the past.
The very first scene in P&F shows our main character Tiana as a little girl, listening with best friend Charlotte as her seamstress mama tells a typical Disney-style fairly tale. The girls are enthralled, and are even surrounded by dolls and dresses that look like they just came from the local mall's Disney Store (even though those didn't exist in the 1920's). It's a wink and a nod to all the classic heroines, and a great way to start a brand-new princess movie. Because Tiana, as we soon find out, is a little bit different. And why shouldn't she be? After all, it's the 21st century, and we deserve a new kind of princess.
Movies, even cartoons, are reflections on the eras they're made in. Fairy tales are usually set in far-off lands in the distant past, but they can actually be pretty good way to understand the changing times, especially when it comes to attitudes about women. Check out these song lyrics:
Snow White (1937): "Someday my prince will come."
Cinderella (1950): "A dream is a wish your heart makes."
Aurora (1959): "I've walked with you once upon a dream."
Ariel (1989): "I want to be part of your world."
Belle (1991): "There must be more than this provincial life!"
Jasmine (1992): "A whole new world, with new horizons to pursue."
Pocahontas (1995): "Why do all my dreams extend just around the riverbend?"
Mulan (1998): "When will my reflection show who I am inside?"
Tiana (2009): "There ain't nothin' gonna stop me now, 'cause I'm almost there!"
See what happened there? The ideal of what a "princess" ought to be changed quite a bit over the decades, from a beautiful but fragile girl who dreams of being rescued by a prince, to a tough, resourceful young woman who dreams of a different and better life, and takes matters into her own hands to make it happen. These attitudes changed in real life, too...between 1937 and 2009, women in most parts of the world found their liberties, along with their opportunities and responsibilities, grow.
As for our latest entry, Tiana...like Belle and Cinderella, she's not a princess at first. She's a working class girl from the poor side of town, and she knows that, in the real world, you can't rely on a twinkling star or a magic wand to grant you your wish; you've got to find a way to make your own wish come true. This is a great theme for any movie, and particularly powerful in an animated fairytale. But it's far from the only thing we like about "The Princess and the Frog."
Here's what else we liked:
New Orleans. A lot of animated movies never really give you a sense of place, but here, New Orleans comes to brilliant, jazzy life. It's as if the city and the surrounding bayous are some of the best characters in the film. They're that entertaining!
The Frog Stuff. Tiana and Prince Naveen spend more time as frogs than they do as people, and we think this is great. Their amphibious adventures in the lush Louisiana swamp make up the meat (frog's legs anyone?) of the movie, with laughs and scares and romance.
The 2D. Hey, we love Pixar-style computer animation too, but sometimes fabulous 2D is the best way to tell a story...particularly a fairy tale. This isn't just a movie; it's artistry in the tradition of all the great cel-animated films of the last century. Yeah, we know that this was painted with computers, but it still LOOKS hand-painted, and we love that.
The Humor. There are a lot of funny moments in this story, but here's out favorite joke: "It's not slime! It's mucous!" Man, that cracks us up.
The Message. Love is more important than money. It's not the most original moral to a story, but it's worth repeating. Greed leads to no good in this tale, and that's a message we'll listen to any day.
Okay, as much as we like this flick, there are a couple things that could've been done better:
The Songs. The musical numbers in this movie are fun and rollicking, as they should be in a story that's set in Jazz-age Louisiana. But there's some spark missing...there's nothing that's quite like "Kiss the Girl" or "Under the Sea" from The Little Mermaid, or "Be Our Guest" from Beauty and the Beast. In the words of American Idol judge Randy Jackson, the songs in "The Princess and the Frog" are "just a'ight, dog." Good, but not spectacular.
The Baddie. Again, we like the Shadow Man as a bad guy. We just don't love him the way we love Malificent from Sleeping Beauty. He's spooky and creepy and the swirling, twirling colors that accompany him are very cool to watch. But he never really says "evil" in quite the way we want him to.
Overall, the strong outweighs the weak in this latest Princess movie, and Tiana is now one of our favorite princesses, in part because she defies the old Princess stereotype so well. You go girl!
IML's rating: B+
"The Princess and the Frog" is rated G. The Blu-ray and DVD come with a nice selection of extras, including behind-the-scenes documentaries, deleted scenes, and a music video by Ne-Yo. Here's a great clip that further explains how the filmmakers approached Tiana's version of the classic "fairy tale":
Whatever your attitude about the whole princess thing, there's no denying that over more than 70 years, the folks at Disney have mined this theme to create some truly colorful characters, compelling stories, and groundbreaking animated masterpieces. Now, with the DVD and Blu-ray release of "The Princess and the Frog," they offer up a beautiful gem that not only adds to their princess collection, but actually offers up some clever commentary on the royal young women they've presented in the past.The very first scene in P&F shows our main character Tiana as a little girl, listening with best friend Charlotte as her seamstress mama tells a typical Disney-style fairly tale. The girls are enthralled, and are even surrounded by dolls and dresses that look like they just came from the local mall's Disney Store (even though those didn't exist in the 1920's). It's a wink and a nod to all the classic heroines, and a great way to start a brand-new princess movie. Because Tiana, as we soon find out, is a little bit different. And why shouldn't she be? After all, it's the 21st century, and we deserve a new kind of princess.
Movies, even cartoons, are reflections on the eras they're made in. Fairy tales are usually set in far-off lands in the distant past, but they can actually be pretty good way to understand the changing times, especially when it comes to attitudes about women. Check out these song lyrics:Snow White (1937): "Someday my prince will come."
Cinderella (1950): "A dream is a wish your heart makes."
Aurora (1959): "I've walked with you once upon a dream."
Ariel (1989): "I want to be part of your world."
Belle (1991): "There must be more than this provincial life!"
Jasmine (1992): "A whole new world, with new horizons to pursue."
Pocahontas (1995): "Why do all my dreams extend just around the riverbend?"
Mulan (1998): "When will my reflection show who I am inside?"
Tiana (2009): "There ain't nothin' gonna stop me now, 'cause I'm almost there!"
See what happened there? The ideal of what a "princess" ought to be changed quite a bit over the decades, from a beautiful but fragile girl who dreams of being rescued by a prince, to a tough, resourceful young woman who dreams of a different and better life, and takes matters into her own hands to make it happen. These attitudes changed in real life, too...between 1937 and 2009, women in most parts of the world found their liberties, along with their opportunities and responsibilities, grow. As for our latest entry, Tiana...like Belle and Cinderella, she's not a princess at first. She's a working class girl from the poor side of town, and she knows that, in the real world, you can't rely on a twinkling star or a magic wand to grant you your wish; you've got to find a way to make your own wish come true. This is a great theme for any movie, and particularly powerful in an animated fairytale. But it's far from the only thing we like about "The Princess and the Frog."
Here's what else we liked:
New Orleans. A lot of animated movies never really give you a sense of place, but here, New Orleans comes to brilliant, jazzy life. It's as if the city and the surrounding bayous are some of the best characters in the film. They're that entertaining!The Frog Stuff. Tiana and Prince Naveen spend more time as frogs than they do as people, and we think this is great. Their amphibious adventures in the lush Louisiana swamp make up the meat (frog's legs anyone?) of the movie, with laughs and scares and romance.
The 2D. Hey, we love Pixar-style computer animation too, but sometimes fabulous 2D is the best way to tell a story...particularly a fairy tale. This isn't just a movie; it's artistry in the tradition of all the great cel-animated films of the last century. Yeah, we know that this was painted with computers, but it still LOOKS hand-painted, and we love that.
The Humor. There are a lot of funny moments in this story, but here's out favorite joke: "It's not slime! It's mucous!" Man, that cracks us up.
The Message. Love is more important than money. It's not the most original moral to a story, but it's worth repeating. Greed leads to no good in this tale, and that's a message we'll listen to any day.
Okay, as much as we like this flick, there are a couple things that could've been done better:
The Songs. The musical numbers in this movie are fun and rollicking, as they should be in a story that's set in Jazz-age Louisiana. But there's some spark missing...there's nothing that's quite like "Kiss the Girl" or "Under the Sea" from The Little Mermaid, or "Be Our Guest" from Beauty and the Beast. In the words of American Idol judge Randy Jackson, the songs in "The Princess and the Frog" are "just a'ight, dog." Good, but not spectacular.
The Baddie. Again, we like the Shadow Man as a bad guy. We just don't love him the way we love Malificent from Sleeping Beauty. He's spooky and creepy and the swirling, twirling colors that accompany him are very cool to watch. But he never really says "evil" in quite the way we want him to.
Overall, the strong outweighs the weak in this latest Princess movie, and Tiana is now one of our favorite princesses, in part because she defies the old Princess stereotype so well. You go girl!
IML's rating: B+
"The Princess and the Frog" is rated G. The Blu-ray and DVD come with a nice selection of extras, including behind-the-scenes documentaries, deleted scenes, and a music video by Ne-Yo. Here's a great clip that further explains how the filmmakers approached Tiana's version of the classic "fairy tale":
