Princess and the Frog Response

First off, I think this is one of the most underappreciated Disney films.  Maybe it’s partly because it was the last Disney 2D film and right after they started using new, exciting CGI animation(I do wish they’d do another, even though their 3-D CGI stuff gets cooler looking every time they release a movie), or maybe because it got overshadowed by Tangled and then the behemoth that is Frozen.  At any rate, I think it’s a quality film.  The music is fun, the storyline is cute, and there’s a lot of good, funny quotes.  

Second, I think Tiana is a great princess (she also happens to be my little sister’s favorite Disney princess).  She’s the only princess I can think of who actually has a career in mind and works to achieve it.  She knows what she wants to do, and she goes for it.  She also pushes those around her to do better and work harder (looking at you, Prince Naveen).  I also really like the fact that she wanted to own a restaurant (10-year-old me wanted to grow up and open a bakery.  Maybe that’ll still happen after I retire.  We’ll see).

Some of the other things I like about this film, in no particular order.  Naveen’s sass and one-liners make me laugh every time.

I also like his character growth, and how he goes from being a bit (a lot) of a jerk to learning how to be a nice person (and to mince).  

I think it’s cool how everyone gets to fulfill their dreams, even if it's not quite how they thought it would happen (except maybe Lottie, who doesn’t marry a prince, but her life seems fine already).  It’s also really cute how they tied Ray’s storyline into a few past films.  

Ray and Evangeline at the end also kinda look like the "second star to the right" in Peter Pan

This is just me, but I also think the use of shadows in this movie is really interesting.  Like how Facilier’s shadow and his minions can trip, grab, or manipulate other people’s movements by grabbing the shadow.  It’s an interesting power for the villain, since he’s the only one who is able to interact with his own shadow, and he can use this against other people.  He’s actually known as the “Shadow Man.”

On to some of the more controversial stuff.  The 1920’s was before the Civil Rights Movement, so segregation and racism would have been rampant, especially in a southern city like New Orleans.  This is touched on slightly, in the stark contrast between Charlotte and Big Daddy’s huge mansion and the run-down houses in the neighborhood where Tiana’s family lives, and is implied in the conversation Tiana has with the realtors when they back out of selling her the sugar mill she wants for her restaurant (“A young woman of your background…").  However, the movie really doesn’t address the issue any more than that.  Most of the movie centers around the protagonists as frogs interacting with other animals, so the movie gets away with avoiding that conversation in a lot of scenes.  I get that it’s a pretty complex issue to discuss effectively in a kids' movie, so Disney’s in a bit of a sticky place here, but it also reads somewhat as a Disney-fication of history.  I’m sure we’ll cover this more in-depth in class, and I'm interested in discussing this further.