49 – The Princess and the Frog
It's finally time for Disney's return
to traditional animation, 2009's The Princess and the Frog. The
story is about a young waitress named Tiana who lives in New Orleans
and dreams of fulfilling a dream of her's and her father, opening a
restaurant. Her rich friend, Charlotte, has always wanted to marry a
prince and live happily ever after, which she might when Prince
Naveen comes to New Orleans. Before she can get her chance, however,
a voodoo witch doctor named Doctor Facilier turns him into a frog and
gives Naveen's servant, Lawrence, a chance to pose as the prince.
Knowing the story of “The Frog Prince,” Prince Naveen attempts to
get Tiana to kiss him because he thinks she's a princess. This ends
up turning her into a frog as well which means they now have to find
a way to turn back into humans and stop Doctor Facilier.
Tiana
is a ridiculously hard working girl who is trying to save money to
fulfill her dream of opening a big restaurant in New Orleans, like
her father wanted to before her. She's a bit more cynical and serious
than most other Disney Princesses and doesn't really believe in the
whole “wishing upon a star” thing. She's a very driven character
and makes many sacrifices to fulfill her dream. Naveen, on the other
hand, is very laid back and spoiled. He has spent so much of his
parent's money that they have cut him off so he is trying to find a
rich girl to marry. Both of the characters grow during the movie,
especially Naveen. While Tiana grows and changes in the movie as
well, her changes are a bit more confusing, which I'll get to later.
Of course, they also fall in love during the movie, and I thought
they handled it pretty well. It doesn't seem unrealistic, they spent
just enough time on it, and I think they work together well.
Tiana
and Naveen are helped in their quest by quite a few people. Louis is
an alligator who loves playing jazz trumpet. He wants to be human and
helps Tiana and Naveen try to find Mama Odie, another witch doctor.
There's also Ray, a firefly who is in love with a star who he thinks
is a firefly named Evangeline. He helps when he realizes that Louis
is bad with directions and is taking them the wrong way. Honestly, I
felt like Ray was a bit superfluous and unneeded, but he wasn't in
the movie so much that I thought he took much away from it. Mama Odie
is basically just there to bring up one of the themes, which is
whether or not the characters are going after what they really need.
Charlotte also helps them a bit. She's a very shallow girl who fully
believes in wishing on stars but doesn't realize the hard work that
comes with it. I'm really glad they didn't turn her into another
villain as she's still a good friend to Tiana. It does make you
wonder why Tiana didn't just ask to borrow the money to open her
restaurant from her in the first place but then there wouldn't be a
movie.
Doctor
Facilier is a really fantastic villain. He's dark and scary and
practices some pretty powerful voodoo magic. He has a really cool
unique style and there are great little touches like his shadow
moving independently of him. In addition to his powers, he can also
spot anyone's weaknesses and desires and exploit them, which is how
he gets the support of Lawrence, Naveen's servant. Lawrence was sick
of being treated badly so Facilier gives him the chance to take
Naveen's place. It's definitely interesting to see a “stick in the
mud” character like him turn out to be a villain. That usually
doesn't happen. It's almost like if Cogsworth turned on Lumiere or
The Beast from Beauty and the Beast.
This
movie really nails the visual and musical style of New Orleans.
Everything is vibrant and gorgeous, with really great jazz music. It
also let them play with that setting with great Mardi Gras style
parties, dark swamps, and voodoo magic. They really set up the style
well in the beginning though they don't utilize it was well as they
can as the story moves on. At some point, the story just gets really
muddled and the message is lost. The third act, in particular, is
very weak though it did have a great scene where Tiana is tempted by
Facilier with her restaurant.
Where
I really had problems with this movie was it's themes. I feel like
they didn't really deliver on what they presented at the beginning.
The movie starts off really great with the idea that Tiana has these
dreams that she knows she needs to work hard for. It's really great
that they're trying to build on these old Disney ideas and give them
a realistic approach. It's not so great that they sort of dismiss
“wishing upon a star” because it just feels like they're trying
to distance themselves from past works. It's certainly not a bad
thing to wish for things so long as you're willing to put in the
effort to attain them. If they had just stuck with that idea, that
would be great but they added the wrinkle of whether or not Tiana was
really fighting for what she should be fighting for. They basically
imply that her dream of opening a restaurant isn't what she really
wants and she seems to be perfectly happy giving it up in favor of
being with Naveen. That's just garbage. She should have fought for
both but she just gives up on the restaurant, happens to turn into a
human and get it anyway.
This
movie starts off so well and just bleeds style throughout the whole
thing. I really liked it but it started coming apart at the seams. If
they had just focused, pared down on the themes and cleared them up,
it could have been so much better. I'm glad Disney is trying to
evolve and change but they need to remember to keep things simple too
and remember what's really important. Which is ironic, since that was
basically the theme of this movie.
49
down. 4 to go.
No comments:
Post a Comment