Directors: Ron Clements, John Musker
Starring: Anika Noni Rose, Bruno Campos, Keith David, John Goodman
Review: 3 stars (of five)
Man, I wanted to love The Princess & The Frog. Disney finally offers up a black princess, which is a major step forward for fictional African Americans, and is likely to be an important thing to a lot of young girls who’ve been subtly left to the side of Disney’s pink-swaddled “princess” marketing machine. (We’re pretending now that this is a bad thing for those girls.)
The movie has some highlights, of course, but mostly it’s a tedious mess, 97 minutes that feel like two and a half long hours. The whole middle of the story meanders through uninteresting obstacles that distract from, rather than move, the underdeveloped plot. As our heroine, Tiana, and the prince she’s destined to redeem seek help to escape the story’s essential predicament (a bit of a twist on the standard froggy legend), they just wander through a swamp without interesting consequence, with way too many lackluster musical numbers (hang it up already, Randy Newman), one after another, designed to mask with glitter the flabby storytelling.
Top this off with the fact that, early on, the lovely Tiana gets into princess drag and is, far and away, the most fetching princess in Disney’s pantheon, but then spends about 70 percent of the film in not-princess-like circumstances, to such an extreme degree that shows a pretty staggering misunderstanding of what these starry-eyed young girls are here to see.
The movie has way too many credited writers (suggesting a lot of uncredited writers probably have their fingerprints on the final material, too). Six credited writers (including the co-directors) listed for original story, screenplay and story supervisor. Maybe that’s why the movie feels so muddled, like several drafts were thrown into a blender, without adding even a pinch of good villain (with a remotely comprehensible motivation, for that matter).
On the upside, the film is set in 1920s New Orleans, which is nicely evoked and marks, to my memory, the first time one of these fairy tale extravaganzas has existed in a recognizable and near-contemporary “real world” setting. That helps in walking a fine line between contemporary social relevance and pure fairy tale. The film makes slight nods to racism, for instance, but mostly works to create a world that’s recognizable enough for those aware of such issues, but still a sweet, kid-appropriate romantic adventure.
The voice cast is solid, particularly Anika Noni Rose as our princess-to-be, and the principal characters are a nice balance between familiar caricature and well-rounded, engaging characters. Except for the villain, who is boring, has motivations that make no sense, and, seduces the prince’s butler into a B plot that is as interesting as watching gumbo simmer.
Most amusing is the film’s blatant swipe at Disney’s princess marketing juggernaut: The film opens in a little girl’s bedroom filled with princess dolls, princess dresses, and a spoiled, hyperkinetic brat in full princess costume. Lot of chaperoning parents in the theaters will nod knowingly. Our main character, of course, wants nothing to do with things princess-y, and of course ends up with everything she wants, and then some.
In the final analysis, there’s no way this film belongs in the same pantheon with Beauty and the Beast or The Little Mermaid. But when my screening in Emeryville let out, an audience in which I was almost the only person not black and not accompanying a small child poured into the lobby. And little girl after little girl lined up in front of the large cardboard cutout promoting the film to have her picture taken with Tiana. Who, as noted, is a really pretty princess with a good head on her shoulders. So maybe the movie does the job it sets out to do.
