The Princess and the Frog

Monday, January 11th, 2010, 6:55 pm

I liked The Princess and the Frog a lot more than I thought I would. I don't begrudge it its place on the list of nominees for the Best Animated Film Golden Globe. I'm not putting it on my top ten (it's not better than Julie & Julia), but if I had kids, I'd feel fine about having them watch it without worrying that I was corroding their little minds with garbage.

I still only gave the movie three stars on Netflix (out of five) because the story wasn't quite as tight as you find in the best kids' movies, and some of the songs didn't really land with me. But it earned the three stars in part with a couple of very good songs, including one gorgeous animated sequence at the beginning when Tiana, the heroine, sings to her mother about her dreams of opening a restaurant. In general, the animation was up to Disney's historic standards, and occasionally (like in the aforementioned musical number) exceeded those expectations. Also, and I wonder whether the emergence of Pixar has anything to do with this, I thought there were more seeded moments for the adults to enjoy than you usually find in classic Disney movies, including one "throbbing ... heart" joke. Most of the jokes weren't quite that adult, but there were a number of areas where I chuckled or even giggled when I wouldn't expect small children to. As an adult sitting alone in a movie theater (a mother-very-young-daughter team was there as well, but I went alone is what I mean), I was grateful for these moments. It made me feel less creepy.

Don't read this if you haven't seen it and actually care what happens to the characters, but I have to say that I misted up a little bit when Ray the Cajun firefly actually died after being stepped on by the evil shadowman, Dr. Facilier.

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