And They Lived Happily Ever After.

Disney magic is pratically part of who I am as a person at this point. From my five years with the company, to my almost 9 years as an Annual Passholder, and my ridiculous amounts of visits to Disneyland. I have seen ever animated movie that has come out in my lifetime since Little Mermaid (excluding Home on the Range, which by the way was the 50th animated film ever made and I have NO idea why I still haven't seen it...). I use to glitter, well I still do sometimes, because of the glitter in the princess dresses and t-shirts at work and we would all joke that it was just the pixie dust. So as a bonfide Disney Fanatic even I admit that the latest few films have been missing a bit of that disney magic. Let me make something clear though, I was never one of those people that thought that the magic was lost because the movies were no longer in traditional 2-D hand drawn format. Don't get me wrong, I adore the original format and find it to be a great artistic treasure that we shouldn't lose just because we fear the market has outgrown it. My problem laid in the idea that Disney animated films had somehow lost their way in terms of how they told their story. The sincerity of the story and the power of the characters and the beauty of their setting, the universal themes that ring true from Snow White to Lilo are what I believe to be critical to the Disney legacy.

So Princess and the Frog had me excited for a lot of reasons. Yes, yes, like everyone else on a soapbox about the movie the beautiful art of hand drawn animation was something that I was excited about. It's not joke my friends, it's absolutely beautiful. The detail of every seen is beyond incredible, from the patterns of the wallpaper on walls to the delicacies of the dresses in the little Charlotte's room. Or the bayou, it's breathtaking, just breathtaking. Another reason for my excitement, it was a princess movie! And not just any princess movie, it was an American princess movie! From everything I read and watched (which was a lot) she was actually going to be a real princess, because I was worried it being in New Orleans it was going to be some fakey Mardi Gras princess thing. But no, Princess Tiana is indeed a princess not like Giselle who is NOT a princess at any point during, before or after her movie. What else could really have me excited you ask? There is going to be an evening star! There is wishing! There is singing by the characters! The director's are the men who shaped my childhood with the Little Mermaid and Aladdin. They brought to life two of my all time favorite princesses. And the music was being brought to life by Randy Newman (for those of you unfamiliar with him, he has done every Pixar film so far, so you know amazing). What else is so special about this movie, the entire company seemed to be behind it.

As you might have been able to tell, yes I have seen the film already. I went to one of the special advance screenings that were taking place at the Disney Studio in Burbank, just last night. The Disney Studios is one of two places in the world that wash me with a sort of calm and serenity while also instilling a sense of urgency and exicement. I'm not even sure if that's the best description to what I feel when I'm on the lot, but I walk around sometimes just taking in the fact that one man created this entire empire, this entire story and he walked those streets through those halls, etc. It's actually become one of my life goals to somehow achieve getting a Disney Legends award, because how cool would that be? Anyway enough about that for now, back to the movie. The audience for our screening last night got one great honor and surprised (though I don't think half the audience realized it, but the 30 cast memebers with me did) John Lassater actually introduced the film. John Lassater is the Walt Disney of our age, he's the man that created Pixar and is currently in charge of the films of the company. So he's part of the reason we're getting these new back to our roots stories from Disney. He did his little speech about Princess Tiana being a go-getter and a girl after her own dreams not waiting for her prince. I'm really not going to go into how much that particular description bothers me (because he's not the only one to be touting this statement). And though I love Tiana and I completely agree she's a hardworking girl that is working hard towards her dream and not just sitting around waiting. I can already hear the critics objections that she still compromises herself for the prince and that she is willing to give up everything for a guy. Not that I agree, I just can hear those Disney critics on their soap boxes shouting disney movies depict women as submissive girls, always slave to the men in the movie. I've got news for them though, their watching the movies wrong. Snow White protected herself by running away and finding a way to survive away from evil step mom. Cinderella didn't wait for her prince to come to her, she went right up to that palace and got him herself. Belle actually ran back to save the Beast from the angry mob of townspeople. Ariel found a way to get what she wanted and even without a voice was incredibly resoureful to her cause. Each one of our Disney Princesses didn't just wait around for anything, and even more so each one has been strong in her own way and it's absurd to claim otherwise.

Ok that might have been my little rant about that but really now onwards to the movie. The interesting thing about the Princess and the Frog is that it sort of starts where other fairy tales have ended. I don't want to give away to much but as you can tell from the trailers Tiana kisses Naveen the frog she turns into a frog herself. So the adventure isn't about the relationship so much as about getting back to being human. The love story stems from them getting to know each other. I found it to be a somewhat refreshing approach that here they were a very pretty girl and a overtly handsome prince (that was inspired by the Jonas Brothers) find a way to fall in love as frogs. I really liked the idea that they were falling in love with each other and not just with their titles, their looks, or their material objects. The story really is driven by the individual characters, by their adventure to self-discovery and like I said before I think that's what drives disney stories into our hearts. The audience can grow with the characters on screen as they go through a self-changing process of some sort that always involves some kind of magic that usually comes from themselves.

The setting and the music are as much characters in the film as are only of the actual characters. The city of New Orleans is beautiful and full of life and culture in every moment of the film. There was a moment when they were talking about gumbo that I think I could hear my stomach growl because I was straving. The colors are vibrant the backdrops are gorgeous. And the music! I was in love with the song that Tiana sings about almost being there from the first note. And the evening star is ever present in the sky and the resident firefly of the movie even has a crush on her (his Evangeline, as he named her). Aside from those aspects, I was thrilled to see a real bad guy. Dr. Facilier was evil, he wasn't a sugar coated verison of some bad guy that won't scare little kids. No this bad vodoo witch doctor was the real deal, reminding me of Scar or Malificent. He was dark, his numbers were creepy and the little girl sitting in front of me had to close her eyes during one of his songs (I think it was Friends on the Other Side). Now I don't need things to scare kids, but at the same time what is the struggle worth unless its actual against something truly evil? The bigger the bad, the harder the struggle, the sweeter the victory.

I could go on and talk about how Charlotte was a whimisical humorous character, that was somehow just perfect. Or about how the clothing was just perfectly matched and you're all going to wish you were a nine year old girl that could fit into that Bayou wedding dress. But really I leave you with these thoughts, go see the movie, promise at least one thing is going to make you smile or warm your  heart. Get the soundtrack because that is surely worth it. And get excited because we might be entering Disney's next golden age, I can not wait for Rapunzel next year...