The Princess and the Frog (2009)

Director: Ron Clements, John Musker
Starring: Anika Noni Rose, Bruno Campos, Keith David

Synopsis:
A hardworking waitress in New Orleans dreams of starting her own restaurant, but when a frog claiming to be a prince offers to fulfill her dreams, things go awry and she find that she has been turned into a frog too.

Impressions:
After seeing Disney lose its way in the Post-Renaissance and Eisner drawing very stupid conclusions from Pixar's success, I was immensely gratified to see a 2D animated film on the docket after John Lasseter took over. With all the PC wrangling in preproduction, it's a wonder the final product turned out as well as it did. After a long slump, Disney was finally back to the level of quality we were seeing during the Renaissance and so began the Revival era, which has been going strong ever since.

On all levels, this is a good movie. You may recall that I'm a bit particular when it comes to integrating songs, but it feels perfectly organic here and all the songs are of good quality. Performances are good all around, but I'm obliged to fawn over Keith David a bit as the villainous Dr. Facilier. His villain song is quite good and gets a nice ironic reprise later on. Also, the film does a good job of celebrating New Orleans culture without getting bogged down by the politics of the era. Some people might decry the fact that the hard issues of the day weren't tackled more forcefully, but come on, this isn't the right venue for that.

If you had any doubts, set them aside and give this a watch. If you're the sort to collect Disney films, this one has a place in the collection.

Rating:
Own It