February 2, 2010 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…

 What’s new is Disney’s first black heroine, a poor chambermaid called Tiana (Anika Noni Rose) who sweeps floors like any other Cinderella, and yearns to open her own restaurant in the French Quarter of Jazz Age New Orleans. The convoluted plot kicks in when, down on her luck, she kisses a talking frog, on the principle that there’s no harm trying. Unfortunately, she’s mistaken on that score, and also becomes a frog. 

 The middle section in the Louisiana bayous is aiming for a jolly, Jungle Book charm – there’s a trumpet-playing alligator called Louis, who teams up with a singing Cajun firefly – but the story slips into an indolent funk. Better are the inviting visions of a dusky, lamplit Big Easy. One of Randy Newman’s standout songs, “Almost There”, prompts a delightful switch to golden-hued Art Deco, for the all-black, julep-filled paradise of Tiana’s dream establishment. Trippy voodoo numbers come courtesy of Keith David’s gaunt, gravelly, pencil-mustached villain Dr Facilier, who's “got friends on the other side” and a shadow, like Gary Oldman’s Dracula, with a life of its own. Intermittently appealing and great to look at, this doesn’t add up to classic Disney, but it’s heaps better than the gruesome Home on the Range (2004), which looked to be the last gasp of these old-style toons. It proves there’s life in dem bones yet. 

“Finally, here is something that all little girls, especially young black girls, can embrace,” Cori Murray, an entertainment director at Essence magazine, recently told CNN.

To the dismay of Disney executives — along with the African-American bloggers and others who side with the company — the film is also attracting chatter of an uglier nature. Is “The Princess and the Frog,” set in New Orleans in the 1920s, about to vaporize stereotypes or promote them?

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The film, directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, two of the men behind “The Little Mermaid,” unfolds against a raucous backdrop of voodoo and jazz. Tiana, a waitress and budding chef who dreams of owning a restaurant, is persuaded to kiss a frog who is really a prince.

Recent Comments

Gwendolyn

June 1, 2009

 It would make more sense and would be a great for Disney if they would use some established African fairy tale character such as the...

Jia

June 1, 2009

I think it is hilarious that this article has "Mulan" pegged as "celebrated" for portraying Chinese people with realistic features, which it...

connie

June 1, 2009

They (the critics) cannot be serious adults. Have they seen Tyler Perry's work? Spike Lee was honest enough to address it by saying that...

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The spell backfires and — poof! — she is also an amphibian. Accompanied by a Cajun firefly and a folksy alligator, the couple search for a cure.

After viewing some photographs of merchandise tied to the movie, which is still unfinished, Black Voices, a Web site on AOL dedicated to African-American culture, faulted the prince’s relatively light skin color. Prince Naveen hails from the fictional land of Maldonia and is voiced by a Brazilian actor; Disney says that he is not white.

“Disney obviously doesn’t think a black man is worthy of the title of prince,” Angela Bronner Helm wrote March 19 on the site. “His hair and features are decidedly non-black. This has left many in the community shaking their head in befuddlement and even rage.”

Others see insensitivity in the locale.

“Disney should be ashamed,” William Blackburn, a former columnist at The Charlotte Observer, told London’s Daily Telegraph. “This princess story is set in New Orleans, the setting of one of the most devastating tragedies to beset a black community.”