Review - The Princess and the Frog

Five years after the lacklustre “Home on the Range,” Disney return to classic animated features with this charming if slightly by the numbers take on the classic “Frog Prince” tale. Tiana (Anika Noni Rose) is a fiesty young girl living in New Orleans, who dreams one day of running a restaurant in honour of her father and his top class gumbo. However her plans are thrown into turmoil when she meets a talking frog who claims to be Prince Naveen (Bruno Campos,) who has fallen victim to a scheme by delightfully evil witch doctor Dr Facilier (Keith David). Naveen has confused Tiana for a princess, and asks her to kiss him to break the curse. After kissing sadly the curse isn't broken and Tiana becomes a frog herself. There's then a mad dash through New Orleans to find a way to change them both back, along the way meeting lovable crocodile Louis (Michael Leon-Wooley) and being chased by Dr Facilier's creepy voodoo goons.

The story is cookie cutter Disney and there are few surprises in the plot. What makes The Princess and the Frog a delight to watch are the colourful characters, excellent animation and pleasant songs. It's great to see some detailed and highly polished animation back on the big screen, which has a certain charm that CGI animation can't quite capture. Perhaps it's the joy of seeing the product of obvious time and effort screen, and there's clearly a lot of love put into the animation. Screenwriters and directors Ron Clements and John Musker (with writing help from Rob Edwards) are Disney veterans and are more than capable of bringing the well crafted cast to life. Tiana is headstrong and independent but never annoying, and the folk Naveen and Tiana meet in the Bayou including jazz loving crocodile Louis (a winner of a character) and elderly firefly Ray (Jim Cummings) are fun to hang around with. Dr Facilier is cerrainly one of the more memorable Disney villains, both camp and creepy, and his henchman may be giving young children nightmares for a few days after seeing the film. The film is a little bit fuzzy on his villainous motives but he's so much fun to watch it's not to much of a problem.

Along the way there are plenty of laughs and drama, punctuated with some decent if not very memorable songs by Randy Newman. The finale is pure Disney schmaltz and a scene towards the end will either have you cringing or bawling like a baby (I teared up a little.) The Princess and the Frog is not going to win any awards for originality but this is Disney on good form and there's plenty to entertain both the young and big kids at heart. Recommended.