The Princess and the Frog

We’ve been all excited about Disney’s The Princess and the Frog, and its release this week on DVD. Kelly picked up a copy a few days ago, and that means we’ve already watched it through about five times. I’m not annoyed yet. I need to develop some firmer criteria for reviewing kids movies.  Still, not being annoying is a pretty good starting place, especially for something that’s going to be watched, or at least overheard, a couple dozen times.  Besides that, I’ve got three quick observations.

First, I really like the music throughout the film.  I think a lot of Disney’s music is so pop oriented that it comes off lame and watered down, but the jazzy New Orleans soundtrack of this movie has really kept our girls dancing, and I keep finding myself humming through the tunes.  There’s a lot of upbeat, almost dixieland jazz in the whole movie, part of the way they set the scenes as an old school New Orleans movie.

The second thing is that there is some weird voodoo stuff in the movie, and the villain, Dr. Facilier, is pretty easily nailed as a flat evil character from the beginning.  I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the way evil is portrayed to young kids.  The mechanics of his voodoo powers and the consequential risks he takes may be ambiguous in the movie, but the evil nature of his actions are not.  Kids readily identify this evil nature in movies, even if there isn’t a whole lot of motivation or clarity of how the character became corrupted in the first place.  Dr. Facilier just is evil, and kind of scary.  Like Captain Hook or Cruella De Ville, the important thing for a movie like this is the reason of the evil, it’s just the recognizable nature of the evil.

Finally, it may be just that I’m in a sentimental phase of life, but it looks like I’m going to be a sucker for a story about a little girl with hopes, dreams, and the willingness to overcome adversity.  the opening scenes with princess Tiana and her dad are pretty heart wrenching.  If that’s just this Daddy being sentimental, so be it.  I thought it was pretty sweet, though.  I also love the way Tiana approaches her dreams throughout the movie.  She isn’t wishing on stars – she intentionally and passionately pursues her goals with action.  She might lose her way a little on the journey, but in the end she’s a character with a lot to teach.

This is a pretty good adventure movie, and I’m glad.  It is of course significant as Disney’s first film to feature a black princess, but there’s a lot more to this movie  The music, story, and characters are all worthwhile, and I think there is a couple of critical messages about taking shortcuts and losing sight of what’s important.  I think The Princess and the Frog is something I won’t mind having in our dvd player for a while, and I think you might like it too.