The Princess and the Frog

Tiara is a young woman living in New Orleans striving to make her dream of owning her own restaurant come true, applying her fathers advice that "dreams come true with hard work", as she works two jobs and saves every penny. A lazy, out-of-money prince comes to town and pulls Tiara into an adventure that changes both of their lives...in more ways than one.

Disney hand-drawn animation is back! It's an exciting thing to see since the overwhelming success of 3D animated films the past 15 years and the underwhelming 2D films that came out of Disney the past 8-10 years, almost proved the death of hand-drawn animation. But this film puts it back on the map. The story is fun and engaging, the animation beautiful and the music is the best since the 2nd Disney golden age of The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King. You'll leave the theater humming many of the songs that have a great New Orleans/Jazz flavor to them. It's quite obvious that this movie will soon be a play on Broadway, and will probably work quite well as one.

The minor complaints I have are first the character design. There's not a defined "look" as in most Disney animated films, i.e. the curls and loops of Aladdin and Hercules, the sharp edges of 101 Dalmations and Sword in the Stone, etc. It seems each character's look is kind of borrowed from a different style. Some look great (the villain, Dr. Facilier) and some are a little too bland looking (Tiara's parents). But overall it works enough and probably wouldn't be noticed by most viewers. There are also some important plot points that aren't made quite clear enough at the beginning. But in the end this is a huge triumph for Disney and the art form of hand-drawn animation.

***1/2 out of 4 - Must See (Rated G)