The Princess and the Frog

The Princess and the Frog

Jan 14

I found The Princess and the Frog to be a more interesting film that I first expected it to be.

We had decided it would be our toddler’s first real moviegoing experience, so I saw it shortly after opening. Initially it seemed somewhat forgettable but it’s been knocking around my brain for a while now. (Of course, being recruited on a daily basis to play “Prince Naveen” to my daughter’s “Princess Tiana Frog” hasn’t hurt.)

The Princess and the Frog was heavily marketed as the first new Disney Princess film in years and a return to not just the hand-drawn 2D animation that Disney made famous over the course of seventy years, but a return to an earlier style of filmmaking. The initial trailer created connections primarily to the Disney renaissance films of the nineties, including Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and The Little Mermaid. On top of that, it boasts the first African American Princess, which is itself long overdue.

It turns out the “Princess” stuff is really just a front and tail end to a pretty entertaining animal buddy road flick, owing a lot more to the more esoteric and rambling Disney films of the seventies than to anything released since then. I’m thinking of flicks like The Jungle Book, Aristocats, and 101 Dalmations, where there’s definitely a “plot” and “conflict” but it’s really just an excuse to string together some memorable characters, great songs, and comedy bits. It gets a bit serious and bittersweet in the final act but somehow that fits in spite of the film’s overall loose structure.

I also don’t think you can say enough good things about Randy Newman’s score and songs. Given the many amazing records he’s put out, it seems a bit odd to call an animated movie soundtrack “the work of Newman’s career,” but I’m tempted to call it just that. Pop, Broadway, New Orleans Jazz, and Newman’s own sly wistful take on the world are all gumboed together into an ideal mix that reflects not just what’s best for the story and the setting, but what’s best about the man’s own music as well.

It was just a relief to see a Disney animated film that was playing fast and loose with the whole kinda stuffy “magic princess fairy wonder pixie dust POOF” aesthetic that’s been so sharply identified with the company’s output (aside from the Pixar films). This is a film with a lecherous frog, thinly-veiled innuendo within the first four lines of the opening song (“Where the women sure look pretty/and the men DELIVER…”), and a “fairy godmother” whose idea of “magic” is basically telling the lead characters how full of shit they are (though not in so many words). It’s packed with energy, elegance where needed, and masterful animated fun everywhere else.