Review: The Princess and the Frog

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Disney's animation bread-and-butter has been the fairy tale, with princesses in peril and a happy ending. The Princess and the Frog delivers, but with less heart than usual, despite the merger of Pixar and Disney animation concerns.

Set in early twentieth-century New Orleans, Tiana (Anika Noni Rose) and Charlotte (Jennifer Cody) are childhood friends because Tiana's mother is a seamstress for "Big Daddy" La Bouff (John Goodman), a wealthy, overindulgent widower. The girls have very different reactions to a fairy tale: Charlotte can't wait to find a prince, and Tiana has more vocational dreams. The girls grow up in their separate but connected worlds with obvious results -- one spoiled, the other an overachiever working drudge jobs. 

Equal opportunity stereotypes is not what I look for in child-oriented animation but that's what Disney delivers with The Princess and the Frog, from the girls' roles to the gap-toothed Cajun insect, and just about every other character. Disney isn't exactly known for subtlety in its animation, but the exaggerated characterizations wear thin very quickly.

It's not completely hopeless -- while the animation varies from crude to sophisticated, there are moments that are mesmerizing, particularly Tiana in the old sugar mill. Her songs in particular, performed by Anika Noni Rose (Dreamgirls), are entertaining, as well as her feisty voice. But while Bruno Campos has made bank on his chemistry on television (Royal Pains, Nip/Tuck), it doesn't seem to translate as Prince Naveen in The Princess and the Frog. 

It's hard to believe anyone who had been with Pixar was involved. John Lasseter was the executive producer, but neither Andrew Stanton nor Pete Docter were and it shows. The Princess and the Frog is likely to do well at the box office based on the Disney name alone. This return to "sincere, classic Disney fairy-tale storytelling" isn't Beauty and the Beast, it's more Tarzan. Go see Fantastic Mr. Fox instead.