The Princess and the Frog (2009) Film Review: The Best Of The Disney Revival Era!

The Disney Revival Era is also known as the second Disney Renaissance, a period where the company put out hit after hit from 2008 to the current year, critically or financially. It started out with 2008's "Bolt" and was followed up by what Disney hoped would be their grand comeback after years of disappointment, as well as the return to 2D animation after a five year hiatus. However, "The Princess and the Frog" didn't set the box office on fire and when "Tangled" was released the year after, Disney completely separated itself from hand-drawn animation. "The Princess and the Frog" is not seen as a modern classic or even that relevant ten years later, but I personally believe that this is in fact the best film Disney had made over the last decade. The story follows Tiana, a workaholic waitress who hopes to open a restaurant for her late father's memory in New Orleans. At a friend's costume party, she encounters a frog who turns out to be Prince Naveen who hopes that a kiss from a princess would break the spell. The kiss backfires as Tiana turns into a frog herself due to her not being a princess in the first place. The two of them now have to work together in order to break the spell as well as thwart a local voodoo witch doctor who is planning to take over the city. What works so well about the story is all of the creative liberties given to the source material. The original fairy tale was way too short to adapt into a full-fledged movie, so they have to completely rework the entire story by the setting of New Orleans and the character development of the leads. The story isn't the easiest to follow though as from the villain's plan to the reversal of the curse and all of the technicalities in between. To be fair, it makes for a more interesting narrative and outcome compared to the average family film, but more younger audiences will be way more confused by all the twists and turns. The tone however is pitch perfect. You got the above-average humour and the lighthearted adventure, but there's a hidden element of dread whether it's the villain's actions or the pressure to remove the curse. It's no "Tarzan" or "Hunchback" by any means, but I love the slight adult edge it carries.

Tiana is perhaps the best princess character Disney has created. Not only does she have a fiery and loveable personality, but she goes through a very interesting character arc. Tiana is a workaholic, obsesses about trying to open a restaurant up for her father's sake, but she has denied finding love or cutting loose in the process. However, as she spends more time with Naveen, she realizes that what she wants is not what she needs, and what she needs is love. Prince Naveen is also the best prince character Disney made as well. Naveen has a fun-loving, energized personality that conflicts with Tiana's more serious and judgy character. Naveen also starts to realize that money isn't everything and his goal to marry a rich woman starts to go away once he starts to fall in love with Tiana. The film's strength are the leads and the romance between them, which many Disney films tend to have a hard time perfecting these elements in one film. It's the most believable when it comes to chemistry and it's the one you root for the most, since you love both of the characters, not because you love just one of them. Dr. Facilier or the Shadowman as the locals call him is a solid villain. He's a man who just want riches in exchange for the souls of New Orleans, but has voodoo magic and allies from an unholy place in order to aid him. He's not the strongest villain that Disney made, but he is largely helped mainly by his animation and Keith David's vocal performance. Side characters range from Louis, an alligator who plays the trumpet and wants to perform on stage, Charlotte, Tiana's best friend who is a rich, spoiled woman who wants to marry Prince Naveen, Mama Odie, a blind, old witch doctor who helps guide the characters on how to break the spell, Ray, a Cajun firefly who is in love with the Evening Star, and Lawrence, Naveen's valet who works alongside Facilier in order to marry Charlotte and inherit her wealth in the process. All of the characters are actually enjoyable in their own way. Sure, Charlotte and Ray can get a tad annoying, but you tend to slowly warm up to their antics. However, it's Tiana and Naveen that remain the most engaging characters.

This film was the last Disney film to use hand-drawn animation with a big budget, and man, does it look beautiful. I always prefer hand-drawn animation more than CGI due to the impressive work and skill required to do it. One can appreciate hand-drawn since it needed the animator to bring characters and locations to life with passion driving them. New Orleans looks great and recognizable and the 1920's setting makes it very unique for the medium as this is the most modern time period Disney ever did with 2D animation. The bayou location is mainly just a dark swamp, but it still looks pleasant to be in. The colours pop with the expressive characters, backgrounds and effects. It's a very lively movie to say the least. The character animation is also fantastic, mainly due to the variety of humans, species and age groups involved. They all move so fluently, even more than the CGI animated films. Speaking of CGI, there's practically no special effects for it in the film. Outside of perhaps a few carriages in the background during the beginning, there's no CGI effect that stands out, which helps you to appreciate the hand-drawn work even more. The score and songs are by Randy Newman, which is the mixed-bag of the otherwise flawless film. The music sounds very much like Toy Story, and it pulls me out from the film. To be fair, it's not bad and it does work on occasion, but I just feel that Newman's music is just not the greatest match for this film. The songs are also a mixed bag as it ranges from quality. "Down in New Orleans", "Almost There" and "When We're Human" are pretty good songs, but it's "Friends on the Other Side" that shines as the best song in the film which is once again due to David's fantastic vocal performance. However, there are quite a few stinkers in here. "Dig a Little Deeper", "Gonna Take You There", and "Ma Belle Evangeline" are just bad in my opinion as they feel the most like filler songs and just don't match the others. I feel that if the soundtrack and music were done much better, I believe that this film wouldn't been looked down upon as much compared to "Tangled" or "Frozen".

"The Princess and the Frog" is a film that rivals many of the CGI films made by Disney during the decade from its great update of the story,  a tone that's geared towards both older and younger generations, very good humour all around, extremely loveable leads and chemistry, a memorable villain with a fantastic song of his own, enjoyable side characters that never get you annoyed, beautiful hand-drawn animation, and some catchy songs in between. The only issue the film has is Randy Newman's score and the few bad songs thrown in, which does impact the soundtrack negatively for sure. The film as a whole though is brilliant and I feel that it's the last great Disney film that they put out, not because of hand-drawn animation being completely thrown away, but the creative stories and well-written leads as well.

Verdict: 9/10. An amazing film only hampered by some awful music every now and then. If you haven't seen this film yet, please do by any means!