by Richard
Okay, yes. I realize I’m a little — maybe even a lot — late to the party, but I just went and saw Disney’s The Princess and the Frog with Zippy the Monkey Boy, Speed Racer and two nephews. It was actually pretty fantastic.
I went into this movie, Disney’s first movie done with traditional pen-and-ink animation rather than computer animation, with a little bit of trepidation. They kept trumpeting how this was their first African-American princess and I was worried that burden would bring with it a heavy handed helping of moral lessons that would drag down any possibility of a good story.
Dude, was I wrong. This thing was great.
For starters, the racism of the 1920s South is shown with subtlety, rather than a sledgehammer. The film shows the luxury of the white citizens, while the black citizens live in a more run-down manner. And not because they don’t work hard. The princess, Tiana, is first shown as a young girl, bonding with a young, rich white girl while Tiana’s mother does sewing for the rich girl. Tiana and her mother take a long ride home to their small house, where they meet Tiana’s father, a renowned chef who wants to open his own restaurant, a goal Tiana shares.
Being a Disney movie, one of the main character’s parents have to either be dead or die in the movie and, this time, it’s the father. He’s passed on a powerful legacy to his daughter, which is also the theme or meta-message of the movie. Wishing on a star is full of baloney. If you want to get anywhere, you have to work hard and be better than the next guy. A fantastic message, and a surprising one, coming from a company that tells little dudes to “wish upon a star.”
And, of course, being a Disney movie, it wouldn’t work without some talking animals, a funny sidekick (in this case a firefly) and a mustache-twirling, cackling bad guy. Oh, and Tiana and the titular frog have some adventures in the swamp and also witness great beauty, as well as falling in love. It’s all right. Tiana is a frog at the time.
Dig a little deeper. Work a little harder. Not bad lessons to learn. And it doesn’t hurt that this one is actually pretty funny as well. For the moral alone, I’m giving this one five (5) dudes out of five. Nice work, Disney.
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