Almost There

Okay, here's the deal: When I first heard about The Princess and the Frog, I thought, "I'm soooo watching that." When it came out on DVD, I rented it, and I thought it was a good movie. It was nice to see Disney going back to its roots.


But I didn't see most of it.


Why?


I fast forwarded through nearly the whole thing because there was just too much voodoo, and I felt I didn't need to expose myself to that. The thing is that what I love about Disney movies is that they have a clear line between good and evil. But fighting "bad voodoo" with "good voodoo" just doesn't work. It's not going to be pretty. It skews the spiritual dynamics and gives it a kind of twisted world view that doesn't work for the characters and doesn't work for the audience. It's kind of sad. I mean, the first black princess, and they mess it up with a bunch of black magic. I mean, if Dr. Facilier had been a voodoo guy and Mama Odie had NOT also been a voodoo lady, then it would've worked for me. I mean, come on, people: the guy gets dragged to hell. Does Mama Odie not deserve the same thing? Granted her little "minions" are made of light, but that's impossible since IT'S THE SAME KIND OF MAGIC!


So this is the only part of the movie I can watch over and over with complete happiness.






Oh, and the little light bug dies. Really? What's up with that? Okay, I'm not against it completely, but it did put a damper on the whole thing. I guess the purpose was to show how love goes on forever, since he became a star and joined his beloved Evangeline.


I did like the supporting characters though especially Louis the alligator. He's hilarious. That part where he flashes back to what happened when he tried to play music with humans was crazy funny. Charlotte was pretty funny too, and it's nice that she was willing to forgo being a princess so Tiana and Naveen could be happy together as humans.


I think it might have been better to have Prince Naveen be an African prince, not some random European prince. Well, actually, I'm not sure if he's European or not. Europeans are usually light-skinned so if Naveen isn't from Europe, is he from the Middle East or something? Either way, an I think an African prince would've worked better with the whole "first black princess" vibe. Either way, he's really handsome. Props to the animators.

Still, I did the like Prince Naveen and the way he went from playboy to noble prince because of his love for Tiana. He also goes from slob to hard worker and he helps Tiana fulfill her dream. And apparently, they don't receive any help from Naveen's parents. Working it out by themselves probably taught them lessons that they never would have learned otherwise.


As for Tiana, she is a great heroine. She's got a dream that she works extremely hard for, and she isn't unhappy with her circumstances. She also has vision and is optimistic. I guess you can say that she believes her dreams will come true. Her father teaches her that she has to work hard to make her dreams come true. Magic isn't enough. Indeed, when she does take a gamble on magic, it doesn't make her dreams come true: it turns her into a frog. But at least it did allow her to fall in love and discover that even if she fulfilled her dream, it would be empty without love.

Other things that make Tiana cool: her dad is an army hero and she honors his memory by working hard to fulfill the dream that he passed on her and living by the lessons he taught her.


Tiana is probably the only princess to have two weddings. (I think Mulan did, but I can't really be sure. They never show it although they do show a big party.)


Plus, Tiana gets a blue dress, a green dress, a party dress, and a wedding dress. That's way more than the other princesses get. The others usually get their princess dress and their plain everyday dress (Belle has two everyday dresses though).


The only unsettling thing about the unhappy ending is that Naveen is a prince after all. Won't he have to go to Maldonia eventually to fulfill his princely duties? What about when his dad dies? Does he inherent the throne? Or will he abdicate it to his little brother? Or is he not the crown prince? I'm thinking that a sequel would answer all these questions. Of course, if Disney makes a sequel, I won't be happy, so it's a catch-22.


Conclusion: While I do not love the movie, I do like that Disney made an effort to create a black princess. And the movie's good points are positive. While the music is just under the caliber of that of other Disney films, the animation is beautiful. I just wish I can watch this movie over and over the way I planned to when I first heard of it. :-(