THE PRINCESS & THE FROG

2009, Disney Animation

Animated

Rating: G

Approx. 97 mins.

THE STORY:

Raised in New Orleans, the daughter of a maid and a father who worked himself to an early death, Tiana has a mission: to open her own fabulous restaurant/ cabaret. Not only does she love to cook, but she has seen the opulence that money can bring first-hand through the life of her best friend, Charlotte, the spoiled daughter of her mother's employer. Tiana has been single-minded in pursuit of her dream, sacrificing all social life in order to save up the money she needs to buy her place.

One day, fun-loving playboy Prince Naveen rolls into town. He too is on a mission: to marry an heiress to support him now that his parents have cut him off. He runs into Dr. Facilier, a local practitioner of the dark arts, and is tricked into falling under a spell. The prince is turned into a frog, while his man-servant is transformed into the prince. The frog-prince meets Tiana at a costume ball and, mistaking her for a princess, gets her to kiss him. Instead of changing him back into a human, the kiss turns Tiana into a frog as well.

The two travel through the bayou to find Mama Odie, a voodoo magician who can hopefully restore them to human form. Along the way, they pick up some new friends: a firefly named Ray, and a jazz trumpet playing alligator named Louis. They learn that Prince Naveen (the frog) must be kissed by a princess by midnight for the spell to be broken, and the race begins.

Along their journey, Tiana and Naveen learn that they each have a different side than they usually show, and that they somehow complement each other. In the end, their love and their willingness to sacrifice what they want for what they have allows them to achieve all that they want.

QUESTIONABLE LANGUAGE:

•  none

VIOLENCE:

• Ray, the firefly, dies the squashing he receives is implied but the death scene is on screen
• Lots of menace rather than violence from the shadow spirits

TEACHING POINTS: 

• You get what you give
• You don't have to have what you want as long as you have what you need

THE UPSHOT:

The movie touches on a lot of interesting themes including race, class, and the feminist dream of having it all. What I find frustrating is that it doesn't actually make any statements on these issues. There is far too much ambiguity for me. A white man tries to discourage Tiana from her entrepreneurial plans by saying it isn't a suitable project for "a woman of your background." What "background" is that exactly: a fatherless daughter? the daughter of a domestic? a waitress? a black woman? Prince Naveen is racially nebulous, being apparently dark skinned, mysteriously accented and explicitly from a fictional country. Whatever his origins, however, visually their relationship is not mixed-race.

The other negative for me-- aside from the usual Disneyfication of relationships-- is the menace and threat dominating the voodoo scenes. It could be seriously scary for younger kids, just as the death of Ray could upset sensitive young viewers. That said and to my chagrin, the 5 year-old in the room enjoyed it. 

3.5/5