Blu-Ray Review: Excellent Release For ‘The Princess and the Frog’

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CHICAGO – The importance of Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog” should not be underestimated in that it not only successfully brought back hand-drawn, 2D animation in an era dominated by CGI but it presented an American fairy tale for African-American children and adults everywhere. It’s a lovely little film with a few flaws that are easy to overlook with such a marvelous Blu-ray presentation.

HollywoodChicago.com Blu-Ray Rating: 4.0/5.0
Blu-Ray Rating: 4.0/5.0

Only the most cynical critic could look at the video transfer of “The Princess and the Frog” with its bright colors, perfect line detail, and gorgeous backdrops and not marvel at one of the best-looking releases of the year to date. At home, “Princess” is a more beautiful film than I remember it being in theaters and it’s starting to feel like Disney films might actually be a more complete experience on Blu-ray than they are on celluloid.

Thr Princess and the Frog was released on Blu-ray and DVD on March 16th, 2010.
Thr Princess and the Frog was released on Blu-ray and DVD on March 16th, 2010.
Photo credit: Walt Disney Home Video

“The Princess and the Frog” can be considered old-fashioned for those of us raised on the resurgence of Disney in the late ’80s and early ’90s with “The Little Mermaid,” “Beauty & the Beast,” “Aladdin,” and “The Lion King”. The film could fit squarely in that award-winning and crowd-pleasing era of Disney even if it’s not quite as good as any of them. It still mostly works and is proof that there can still be animated life without 3D glasses.

Thr Princess and the Frog was released on Blu-ray and DVD on March 16th, 2010.
Thr Princess and the Frog was released on Blu-ray and DVD on March 16th, 2010.
Photo credit: Walt Disney Home Video

As made clear by the excellent special features, directors John Musker and Ron Clements very purposefully set their new fairy tale in New Orleans (almost all such fables are set in European castles) not long before the levees broke. Tiana (Anika Noni Rose) is a lovely young lady who was raised with the right set of values by her hard-working parents (Oprah Winfrey and Terrence Howard). Raised on their lessons on what’s important in life, Tiana works multiple jobs to make her dreams of opening a restaurant of her own come true.

Through a series of events too convoluted to get into here that involve voodoo, mistaken identity, and a lavish party, Tiana ends up kissing a frog in the hope that he will become her prince. Of course, that would be too easy and Tiana is actually turned into a frog herself. The two humans stuck in frog bodies are forced deep into the bayou to try and return to their rightful species. While there, they make friends with a gator and a firefly and, of course, fall in love.

It may be trendsetting in some ways but “The Princess and the Frog” plays with themes familiar to Disney fans of any era — be true to yourself, don’t judge a book by its cover, good deeds will be rewarded, etc. Heck, Ray the firefly could be a cajun version of Jiminy Cricket.

As for negative, the music by Randy Newman is not as memorable as it should be. Having seen the film twice, I still can’t hum a single tune even if the visualizations of his numbers, especially the voodoo ones, are very well-done and interesting. I especially like the first act of the film with the bustling city of New Orleans brought to visual life.

It may not be perfect, but you can something about “The Princess and the Frog” that’s certainly not true of most recent animation in that every single minute of it is enjoyable as it unfolds, even if it’s not as memorable as one would hope later. 2009 was a landmark year for animation and it’s fantastic that a mostly hand-drawn Disney film will be a part of the story when history books write about this great time for the form.

The spectacular Blu-ray release, which also includes a standard DVD and digital copy of the film, contains some interesting deleted scenes still in storyboard form, a silly music video by Ne-Yo, and a great collection of behind-the-scenes featurettes like “The Making of a Princess,” “Conjuring the Villain,” “The Return to Hand-Drawn Animation,” “The Disney Legacy,” “Disney’s Newest Princess,” “Bring Life to Animation,” and more. It even includes a “Princess Portraits” game for the little ones. Disney continues to set the bar for Blu-ray animated releases.

‘The Princess and the Frog’ was released by Walt Disney Home Video and features voice work by Anika Noni Rose, Bruno Campos, Keith David, Michael-Leon Wooley, Oprah Winfrey, Terrence Howard, and John Goodman. It was written by John Musker, Ron Clements, and Rob Edwards and directed by Musker & Clements. It was released on Blu-ray and DVD on March 16th, 2010. It is rated G.

HollywoodChicago.com content director Brian Tallerico

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

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