Disney Movie Challenge
The Princess and the Frog (2009)
WHAT IS THE DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE: With Disney+ making available almost all of their films from the vault I thought it was a good time to watch all the theatrically released feature length Disney Studio Animated films. That’s a lot of qualifications so what does it all mean? It must be a film developed and released under the Walt Disney Animation Studios (so no PIXAR or Tim Burton stop motion films). Must have been released in theaters (no direct to video releases). And feature length (no shorts that played prior to the features). Currently there are 59 films. Starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 going to Raya and the Last Dragon in 2021.
After the failure of Home on the Range (2004) Disney said they would never make a traditional hand drawn animated movie again. Five years later and under the supervision of John Lasseter things changed.
The Princess and the Frog is an updated version of the Grimm's fairy tale The Frog Prince. This version takes place in New Orleans and involves a waitress and a prince who get turned into a frog. Tiana (Anika Noni Rose), a waitress in New Orleans is working extra hard to raise money to buy a restaurant. When she gets real close to succeeding at her dream it gets snatched away from her. At this low moment a talking frog seems to magically appear from nowhere. The frog says that he is Prince Naveen (Bruno Campos) and that he was turned into a frog by a witch doctor (Keith David). Remembering fairy tales she was told as a kid she figured what's the worst that could happen if she kisses the frog. Well unlike the fairy tales this kiss turns her into a frog also. They embark on a journey to turn themselves back into humans and along the way meet a variety of friends and of course fall in love.
When John Lasseter moved from Pixar to Disney everyone expected that was the end of traditional animated films. But as a film lover in general he knew that traditional animated films were Disney's signature and decided he wasn't going to give up on that. Since many of the traditional animators had left Disney in the 5 years since Home on the Range, Lasseter had to go and rehire them. The top of his list was John Musker and Ron Clements who had directed some of the biggest hits during the Disney Renaissance, including The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and Hercules. Lasseter made them a deal, come back to Disney and make the film however you wanted. They came back and chose hand drawn animation. The biggest problem was that a lot of the technology they had pioneered during the renaissance was now outdated (specifically the CAPS program) so they had to look for new ways to make the films. After making a few shorts they decided their best was to hand draw it and scan it into a program called Toon Boom which they could use to manipulate the drawing similar to the way CAPS did. In the end it had a classic feel but still felt fresh.
Originally Musker and Clements wanted to work with frequent music collaborator Alan Menken, but Lasseter wanted Randy Newman. Newman had worked with Lasseter on the Toy Story films and was from New Orleans . Lasseter felt that Newman could bring some authenticity to the music. Mixing the score with Jazz, Zydeco, and Blues the music really had a distinct New Orleans feel. As the first musical in years it definitely felt like a return to form for Disney. My biggest complaint is that the song "Friends on the Other Side" sounded a lot like "Friend Like Me" from Aladdin.
This is the first Princess movie that takes place in a modern city in the U.S and it surprisingly worked really well. I had my doubts because it doesn't make sense for a Princess to be in New Orleans, but the story sold it to me. I loved the independent spirit and drive of Tiana and how she doesn't fit the normal mold for Disney Princesses. The Prince on the other hand is the one that comes off ditzy and out of touch with the normal world. At first, Tiana wants nothing to do with him and he is the one forced to change if he wants to marry her. The rest of the characters were fun and loved their little quirks, like the alligator that wanted to play the trumpet. The voice cast was top notch. I loved everyone involved in it.
Being the first Disney Black Princess the film had a lot of controversies prior to being released. First thing that was changed was the name of the film. During production the movie was called The Frog Princess, but many people felt that it felt a bit degrading that the first black princess was referred to as an animal in the title. Also changed was the name of the character and her occupation. Originally she was named Maddy and worked as a maid. This was felt to be too close to the racial stereotype of "Mammy" being a maid. Her name was changed to Tiana and she became a waitress. Another controversy surrounding the film was that it took place in New Orleans. Some felt that it was insensitive to the city as it was still struggling rebuilding post Katrina. To me the film felt like a celebration of the city and more I'm glad they kept that aspect.
Overall: A fun music filled movie that has good songs and a great cast. Definitely more similar to the Renaissance films of the 90's and maybe it felt too out of date when it was released, but looking back on it it's a really good film that deserves more attention.
Random Facts
While the movie was a critical success it didn't "ignite the box office" the way Disney thought it would. There were some in Disney that thought having Princess in the title affected the box office. Their thought was that it turned away the male demographic because they all assumed it was a "girly" princess movie. This thinking would affect the names and marketing of their next two princess movies. Rapunzel title was changed to Tangled and marketed as an action movie not a Princess movie. The Snow Queen title was changed to Frozen
Another factor affecting the box office was that it was released one week before Avatar which pretty much sucked up all box office money.
The movie was nominated for 3 Oscars. Best Animated Feature Film, and 2 Best Song nominations. This was the most nominations any Disney film had received since The Lion King received 4 nominations.
According to IMDB Tiana and Naveen kiss each other five times which is more than any other couple in a Disney princess movie. I didn't count to verify this fact.
Beyoncé and Jennifer Hudson were both at one time considered for the role of Tiana, before Anika Noni Rose was cast. Alicia Keys actively campaigned for the role.
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