Z/Web

Let me begin by saying that the trailers for this film were horrible. Normally I love the whole “reinvention” of a legend or fairy tale, and on paper this sounded great: changing the setting to New Orleans, having the main “princess” be a black girl, having her change into a frog instead of the frog changing into a prince, etc., but the trailer was so poorly done and revealed so little of the key story that it turned me off and I had little desire to see this film. For instance, the black girl isn’t really a princess: she’s a waitress working two jobs to save up to buy her own restaurant. That is far more interesting, but that was not revealed in any of the trailers I saw. In the full film she and the frog prince hate each other: she’s a workaholic and he’s a lazy playboy, but of course, during their adventures in the Bayou as frogs, they grow to complement each other and fall in love. This is pretty fun and well-done. The animation is excellent, with many clever touches (such as the frog prince playing a “guitar” of a forked branch with spider webs as strings). Some of the characters were terrific, too. My only criticisms are that there was too much emphasis on the dark Voodoo magic (some of the imagery might frighten young children) and that the story gets stretched out too long toward the end. But the ultimate ending is sweet and fulfilling and overall, I liked the film. It’s not the greatest ever (not up to Pixar standards), and some of the jokes aren’t particularly inventive (and are too modern), but it’s a decent return for Disney. At least they’re finally returning to having a good core story.