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I was going into this film with high expectations because it is Disney's first animated musical in a decade (last one was Tarzan) and after reading production diaries and reviews, it is another Disney Renaissance. It was a 2D animation which is tradition Disney animation and is one of the hand-drawn animated films which hasn't been done for many years. I was nervous about it as well because ever since Tarzan, the Disney classics have been either really bad or just disappointments. When I saw The Princess And The Frog, I was in awww just as I was walking out of the cinema and I absolutely loved it! The Princess And The Frog certainly brought back something from Disney that I didn't think we'd ever see again. They bought characters that are full of jokes, which have both adult and child humour involved and most importantly, feeling the magic of the chemistry between the characters and the mesmerising score. The Disney Classics that this reminded me a lot of are Aladdin, Tarzan, The Little Mermaid, Lady And The Tramp and Beauty And The Beast.
Pretty much every single actor who provided their voices in this film I had not been familiar with except John Goodman who played a minor role in the film. The Princess And The Frog tells the story of a young woman called Tiana. She is a waitress and she dreams of owning her very own restaurant. Tiana just wanted her restaurant with a simple name: "Tiana's Place". Prince Naveen arrives in New Orleans where he is turned into a frog by evil voodoo master, Dr. Facilier. To become human again, he must kiss a princess. When he comes across Tiana, thinking she is a princess they share a kiss and Tiana herself turns into a frog. After that one simple kiss, everything starts to change around and in come the new extraordinary characters. Tiana is now one of the 9 Disney Princesses, being the first African-American Disney Princess. When Prince Naveen is a frog, he reminds me a lot of Lumiere from Beauty And The Beast because of his accent and the smile as well when he shows his teeth. Louis the trumpet-playing alligator is like Tantor from Tarzan who has a taste for music as well. Louis is very loosely based on jazz musician Louis Armstrong. Ray the lovesick Cajin Firefly made me laugh in this film too.
Ron Clements and John Musker as directors of this film are another reason why my expectations were pretty high on this film. They both previously directed Disney Classics Basil The Great Mouse Detective, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules and Treasure Planet. Together they revived something that I thought I was never going to see again and that I thought was dying: a beautiful, heart melting and smart Disney classic. They will be remembered even more now for reviving Disney animated films again (dropping Pixar aside). 2009 has been a FANTASTIC year for animation so it has been quite hard to decide which animated film is the best. The Princess And The Frog perhaps isn't as good as Up or Ponyo but deserves to be up there with them.
Overall, The Princess And The Frog is an amazing film that has revived Disney again and we saw something in this one like we did in Beauty And The Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King etc that we didn't think we would see again. No other animated Disney can take that away from Princess And The Frog. Walt would have been proud of this! Definitely the best Disney animated film (excluding Pixar) since Tarzan.
9/10
