(Source: thealistmagzine.blogspot.com)
Back in December, I scored a look at the casting sheet for the Princess and the Frog (working title: The Frog Princess). This flick, due in 2009, will become Walt Disney Feature Animation’s first full-length cel animated movie since shutting down the division since 2005 (and the ignominious Home on the Range).
In the cast sheet, there was a run-down of several proposed characters, including Maddy, a 19-year-old black chambermaid, Charlotte, a spoiled 18-year-old Southern belle, and Dr. Duvalier, a voodoo priest.
Further news hit the radar when the movie was officially announced in New Orleans last March. Then, word that Tony Award-winning actor Anika Noni Rose had beat out both Dreamgirls costars Jennifer Hudson and Beyoncé Knowles, plus Alicia Keyes and Tyra Banks to score the role of Maddy, the central character. At that point, Disney mentioned that both Rose’s character, and the movie, were undergoing a significant name change. The Frog Princess would become The Princess and the Frog and, as for Maddy . . . well, we weren't sure.
Now, according to Disney spokesperson Heidi Trotta, that original casting sheet was completely bogus to begin with.
"While it is a Studio policy that we do not comment on our animated films while they are in the early stages of production due to the nature of our evolving development process, it has come to our attention that there is incorrect information being circulated about Disney’s 2009 motion picture The Princess and the Frog,” Trotta told fan site A-List Magazine.
“The central character is a young girl named Princess Tiana (Ha-ha! We have a new name for Maddy!). The story takes place in the charming elegance and grandeur of New Orleans’ fabled French Quarter during the Jazz Age. She is the newest addition to the Studio’s royal family of Disney Princesses. Princess Tiana will be a heroine in the great tradition of Disney’s rich animated fairy tale legacy, and all other characters and aspects of the story will be treated with the greatest respect and sensitivity.
“This American fairy tale is several years away from completion and the creative process is ongoing. No other details regarding the film have been released at this point, and unfortunately much of the information that has surfaced, including the casting breakdown . . . is inaccurate. When we do casting calls we frequently use substitute information as we don't want details out about the movies. Therefore that information you have is incorrect."
Okay, so how much of this statement is legit, and how much is the Mouse House covering its ass? I’m inclined to give it the benefit of the doubt for two reasons. One, there’s a lot of copycatting going on in Hollyweird. If word gets out that one studio is doing a zombie flick (for argument’s sake), then another studio is bound to try and rush their zombie flick into theatres to get one-up on the first studio.
Number two: movies do change. Filmmakers, actors, writers, producers (or even worse, executives) get bright ideas which changes the course of the flick. A lead actress wants a role for her current man-toy (eg: thanks to Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Affleck gets into Shakespeare in Love). Anything can happen, and quite often does.
So yeah, we’ll take that original casting sheet with a large grain of NaCl. But there was some real information on it: Ron Clements and John Musker are directing this sucker, and Randy Newman is doing the music. So I'd suggest you watch it carefully as more The Princess and the Frog details comes out: it may hold important clues as to the future of this flick.
Dominic von Riedemann - Dominic is the Animated Film Feature Writer, and winner of 11 Suite 101 Editors' Choice Awards.
