The Princess and the Frog

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I’ve always said that Princess and the Frog just came out at the wrong time – if it had been released in 2018, it would have been a much bigger hit. Not only were people (unfortunately) less interested in diverse media ten years ago than they would be now, but it came out at a time when Disney animation was in desperate need of a shake-up. As beautiful as the film was, it didn’t offer anything new to audiences whose attention needed to be really captured with something completely different.

Princess and the Frog is a renaissance classic in every way, a musical with hand-drawn animation and really fun bad guy who isn’t a surprise villain, (I know that might be shocking to read now, but it’s true). The first thing I always enjoy about this film is how beautiful the animation is – every frame looks stunning and it breaks my heart a little that this was the last hand-drawn film that Disney made. It of course has the first African American princess in Tiana, who makes for a very likable lead. Prince Naveen is a lot of fun and I also really enjoy the way that both of the leads are flawed characters at the beginning of the film, who help each other to grow into happier and healthier people. In addition, the plot is an interesting twist on a classic fairy-tale, but it still manages to feel like an old-school straight adaptation of an existing story.

I also find a lot of the music fun, although for the most part it’s not as good as the best music of the Renaissance, unfortunately.

But overall, Princess and the Frog is a fantastic film and I’m so happy that it’s finally starting to get the love that it deserves. 

Ratings

Good guys: Tiana and Naveen are both really great characters who have really interesting development together, so the good guys get 8/10

Bad guys: Dr Faclier is a really fun villain, so the bad guys get 7/10

Animation: Visually one of Disney’s best films, the animation gets 10/10

Music: It has some really good songs and some more forgettable ones, so overall the music gets 7/10

Plot: An interesting twist on Disney’s usual fairy-tale formula, the plot gets 6/10

Overall score: 38/50

Next review: Tangled