- scene from Princess and the Frog trailer - copyright 2009 Walt Disney Company
With all the hoopla and controversy surrounding The Princess and the Frog – Disney's (hopefully) triumphant return to cel animation – there still remains one basic question: can the storied studio unleash an animated film that ranks with classics like Pinocchio or even Aladdin?
Disney Animation creative chief John Lasseter hopes so. He collared Ron Clements and John Musker – the same writer/director team that dished out The Little Mermaid and Aladdin – to put the flick together and spared no expense to give The Princess and the Frog the same vibe as previous Disney classics. Certainly the flick looks good, but will it live up to its promise?
Judging by the first trailer for the flick, things are looking pretty freakin' good. With any luck, moviegoers will have another great animated film to look forward to this winter.
Disney's The Princess and the Frog Stars Anika Noni Rose, Bruno Campos, Keith David
It's interesting to note that Disney Animation – despite talking about "75 years of magic" – is only acknowledging the last 20 years when putting together this trailer. There are images from Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid and The Lion King, but nothing from 101 Dalmations (the 1961 film) or even Peter Pan. Very strange.
However, things look up when we meet Princess Tiana (Anika Noni Rose) and her frog suitor (Bruno Campos), who claims – after Tiana clubs him with a book – to be Prince Naveen of Maldonia.
A quick cut to Dr. Facilier (Keith David) and his dastardly minions, and then back to Naveen who's trying to convince Tiana to give him a kiss in order to break the terrible curse Facilier has placed on him. However, the fairy tale then turns on its head: instead of breaking the curse, Tiana's kiss results in her turning into a fetching female frog as well. A few more gee-whiz shots in order to get everyone salivating, and out. Good stuff.
Lasseter, Clements and Musker - Doing it Right
Whether the rest of the film lives up to this build-up remains to be seen, but when it comes to the visuals and the voice casting, Lasseter, Clements and Musker are doing everything right. Neither Campos, Rose nor David are marquée names, however it's clear just from a 2.5 minute clip that all three can bring the goods as voice actors. Rose and Campos seem to play off well together, especially impressive if Disney recorded their voice parts separately, which is par for the course in animation.
And the art looks stunning. No big surprise there: even the not-so-great Disney films (Oliver & Company, for instance) looked pretty good next to the competition. But the Mouse House's artists have really captured the flavour of New Orleans. If the character designs resemble Disney's early 90's output, that's no great calamity: they're allowed to ape their earlier films, especially since they're trying to get back in the game.
The big question becomes whether Disney is capable of messing with the formula when they bring out Rapunzel in 2010. Let's hope so for their sakes.
The Princess and the Frog comes out on December 25th.
Dominic von Riedemann - Dominic is the Animated Film Feature Writer, and winner of 11 Suite 101 Editors' Choice Awards.
