Eye Candy #378 - "The Princess and the Frog"

The Princess and the Frog:  Anytime anyone automatically attaches some sort of racial milestone to an animated film, particularly in the 21st century, I just cringe.  Why?  Because it’s a CARTOON, and people who base their self-image on animated characters are equally as shallow as people that over-identify the blue people from Avatar or hobbits.   Nor can you truly display racial attitudes when you paint one group as almost entirely greedy or foolish (all the White people portrayed in the film are HUGE caricatures).  Me, I prefer scripts with well-rounded characters who are more than the sum of their skin color.  Now, all that being said, I was interested in this movie because it was a step-back from the full CGI features that are crammed down our throats quarterly, most of which aren’t very good.  And I also like Disney returning to the musical aspect of their films, where characters sing in the context of the story.  I enjoy that.  Those are the Disney films I remember.  This time around we are in New Orleans in the first half of the 20th Century.  Tiana (Anika Noni Rose) , a young African-American woman, works multiple jobs to help realize her dream of opening her own restaurant.  Prince Naveen (Bruno Campos) is visiting foreign royalty who runs afoul of the Samedi- like Dr. Facilier (Keith David), who wants Naveen’s power and turns Naveen into a frog.  While attending her friend’s gala, Tiana kisses Naveen in an effort to help change him back and she too is turned into a frog.  Both escape the city into the bayou to find a way to return to normal, befriending a jazz-loving alligator Louie and a family of fireflies led by Raymond, all while learning who they are and what they want, most of which has is Disney boilerplate.  The animation is smooth, the musical numbers better than average, without being exceptional.  And I like their choices in voice talent (Bruno Campos does sound a lot like Diedrich Bader) and Keith David acquits himself the best out of the bunch, and the film has some fairly dark moments (evil shadow creatures, and such).  Entertaining, but not iconic.  Woodchuck sez, “Good, not great.”