— by BEN FOWLER —
Animation has come a long way since the days of “Steamboat Willie.” Animation has moved into the CGI arena these days with the likes of the Toy Story franchise and the rest of the gang from the Pixar behemoth. But there are still a few “traditional animation” faithful continuing to put out movies like the soon-to-be-released film “The Princess and The Frog.”
“The Princess and The Frog” is the 49th animated feature film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics library. It’s the first theatrically released “trad-am” movie since 2004’s “Home on the Range.”
The story tells of a prince named Naveen who is turned into a frog by a scheming voodoo bad guy. The frog prince then mistakes a girl called Tiana (Anika Noni Rose) for a princess and gets her to kiss him to break the curse. However, this backfires and Tiana gets transformed into a frog, too.
The six clips released are intriguing. To be honest, straight off the bat, I was put off by the animation. It seemed too simplistic and a backwards step from what has come before it. Maybe its a matter of taste and its a style that some may appreciate more than me.
The clips introduce us to the main characters including Tiana and Prince Naveen (Bruno Campos) and the usual selection of sidekicks and comic reliefs, including a love sick Cajun firefly (Ray Cummings), who seems to be just on the right side of annoying, and a trumpet-playing alligator (Michael-Leon Wooley), who seems to be just on the wrong side.
The clip of a young Tiana cooking gumbo for her family, and eventually her neighbours, is a lovely quiet moment which left me with a warm fuzzy feeling after. I know, I’m a big softie at heart.
However the story does seem to be a lot of fun and the songs will have you tapping your (webbed) feet long after you’ve left the theatre.
Also starring the voices of Terrence Howard, Oprah Winfrey and John Goodman, “The Princess and the Frog” is out on limited release starting Nov. 25 and on to general release starting Dec. 11.
(Click here to see more from “The Princess and The Frog.”)
Source: Trailer Addict
Follow Ben Fowler on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Localboy99.
I like the simplistic animation but I don’t know if I’ll see it.
It’s nice to see the old school animation every once in a while.
I agree.