image (c) Disney
Let me start off by pointing out that it is January 10th. I am an acknowledged Disney fan (or in Katzenberg-speak, a “Disnoid”). I have two kids, 5 and 4. And I had more than a week off between Christmas and New Year. And here I am, seeing this major release, almost a month after it opened wide.
Why is that? Well, all sorts of reasons. Perhaps the biggest: my kids didn’t want to see it. Let me restate that: my 5 year old son and my 4 year old son didn’t want to see the latest Disney feature because “a princess movie is a girl movie.”
I never thought I would be the dad whose sons would be so impressionable by gender role hogwash that they would actively reject something on the grounds it was girly. And for years I thought I’d succeeded. My boys have no problems doing the whole pretend play in a kitchen, or hanging out with girls their age and playing dolls, etc. They even dress up as women and make naïve, sometimes uncomfortable, commentary on breast feeding and the like.
But for these little dudes, a princess cartoon crosses the line. Further thoughts on that later. Here’s my take on The Princess and the Frog:
I thought this was a really, really good movie. Great? Not so much…but really, really good.
The story is a fun concoction, with what feels like a fresh setting—New Orleans set in some non-specific, old timey, jazz age that seems like it should have happened. The principal characters are on the money, including a plucky, working-class heroine, a vain prince with a heart of gold, and a conniving bad guy with supernatural talents. And the plotline is a classic fairy tale thread with just enough of a twist to add a sense of clever freshness.
The songs are vibrant and move the plot. And the animation is, truly, top notch. So why is this just a really, really good movie?
Well, in the end, and in spite of all its originality, this flick feels like it is just going over familiar ground. The design of the movie feels too much like so many other animated films, that sort of early 1950’s Disney animation with the 1990’s Ashman-Menkin Broadway style layered on top. Everything feels a little too cute and too rendered and too similar to stuff I have seen before.
Added to that is the structure of the thing, which is the same three act plotting, the same pacing with the requisite “yearning moment” and the “quiet moment of realization” and the “fast paced chase” that culminates in the villain’s demise. Oh yeah, and the same awkward exposition used to transition between musical set pieces and add narrative points overlooked by the songwriters.
And, surprisingly, I fell for many of the supporting characters. I would say the most surprising was Charlotte, the spoiled little princess wannabe (is this some commentary by Disney on what may be its biggest consumer base?), if not for the lightning bug Cajun stereotype, Ray. I love the little guy, in spite of the fact that I regarded him as an all-too-easy bit of a throwaway character; in the end, Ray buzzes right into the heart of this film.
Ray...seriously, this guy bugged me when he was first introduced. Image (c) Disney
So, what would have made this a better movie for me, a real Disney classic, perhaps? I can think of three things, at least:
1) Find a new design aesthetic. For far too long, hand-drawn Disney films have looked the same, and that’s really not a good thing. Visually, The Princess and the Frog is tired. It's design speaks to the 1990’s, not the second decade of the 21st Century. Today’s world is a virtual buffet of distinct graphic styles. Some are like nothing ever seen before. Others are contemporary homages to past (often lost) movements. The best offer some commentary on the time we live in.
And, for what it’s worth, this isn't an argument to change just for change's sake. Walt’s artists were constantly mixing up their design, in part to add new visual pep to their pics. Compare Bambi to Cinderella to One Hundred and One Dalmatians. Those films were made between 1942 to 1961. In that span of 19 years, you have everything from Bambi’s impressionism to Cinderella’s spare Mary Blair-influenced alternative to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to the very-Modernist approach to Dalmatians.
Now compare the Disney product from 1989 to 2009. What, really is different between the styling of The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, and The Princess and the Frog? Colors are more saturated (thanks, computer!) and, well, what else? Very, very little, at least from a general audience’s perspective.
2) Invest FULLY in music. For all of the early Disney innovations and trademarks in creating animated product, it’s too easily forgotten how much music influenced these films. Hell, every time I watch Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs I’m surprised how much of that film is set to verse. Characters used to move to a musical beat, action was staged against it.
So why does The Princess and the Frog toss all that aside and, transition out of these sparkling musical passages and into these exposition-filled, lead balloon scenes where so-and-so is explaining to whatsherface that Old Man blah-blah-blah will be king of the hoo-haw. Such forced, uninspired story-telling is beneath the better qualities of this films.
3) This is for the Marketing folks…PLAY UP THE DATE NIGHT ANGLE. Look, there’s a place for princess films. I’ll be the last person to say that just because little boys don’t like girls in gowns this company should abandon the princess flick. Hell, princesses are part of the DNA of the company (as well as one of its current revenue crack pipes).
But these things need to be events, like Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin were a decade and a half ago. Disney’s Marketing team needs to make a film like The Princess and the Frog the film to see with a squeeze on opening weekend.
And to support this, the Mouse should have added a little more sex to this flick. Not out and out doing it, but heat. The kind of heat that permeated films like Tarzan and Spider-man. Visceral freedom mixed with should-I-kiss-her anxiety. Face it, if you’ve found yourself splashing around in the water with someone attractive that you only kinda know, well, there’s a certain arousal there. Nothing wrong with playing that up a bit.
So...all that said, I can't wait to see The Princess and the Frog again. I hope it has a long life after it's theatrical run, and I really hope to run into Tiana and Dr. Facilier at Disneyland for years to come. Let's all hope this is a toe in the water for Disney Feature Animation and that the big splash is just lining up at the diving board!
4 comments:
LOVED Facilier. He was my boss at a previous employer and, while I never got him as a true threat (he was more desperate than frightening), I definitely got him as a person. I'd argue that his "friends from the Other Side" were the real villians. He was just dicking around with stuff he didn't understand in an attempt to better himself and, almost tragically, paid for it.
We saw it the week after Christmas, and then only at the invite of my Pops. My boys had no interest, either. Why marketing didn't play up the "Return to Hand-drawn animation finally chance to see something new on the big screen" along with the date-night stuff to catch the adult crowd is beyond me. They focused on the "first black princess", forgetting that you are including the word "princess" in there. It's been said before and will be said again and I'm hoping it is more stereotype than truth, but girls will see a "boy movie"; boys will not see a "girl movie". I've seen truth in that.
Really liked the idealized New Orleans setting. And I actually was both surprised and touched at Ray's last scene in the film. I was waiting for a Baloo and got a Mufasa, and I think that, if more of the film had had that kind of depth, it could have been great. And you were right- it took a character who was an annoying stereotype in the trailer and made him into a meaningful part of the film. I also think Ray got the 2nd best song sequence in the film (the "Kiss the Girl" of PatF).
Plus, good golly, there were A LOT of characters in the flick. I could think of about 3 that could easily be cut without disrupting the story or hurting the sales of plush. Fewer characters = stronger development of the ones you have = stronger flick, at least by my math.
Biggest problem I had was that the whole thing smelled a little stale, like "Little Mermaid" played backwards ("You gotta get a prince to kiss someone or else you'll never be human again!"). And it didn't help that the audience was hideously rude during our showing, including about 15 people (no kidding) who came into the flick about halfway through, obviously skipping from another box. One actually tripped while sneaking in and spilled soda on my Pops. Nice.
Oh well. A few really random observations.
I had the pleasure of viewing the film on opening night and again with one of the animators a week later. Everything thing you have mentioned hit home with me and even reminded me of some of the comments I made during my post viewing discussion. But what I have not seen mentioned was the tributes or the easter eggs that some of us go to search for when we view hand drawn films.
From the start my overall complaint was I had seen the whole thing before, in a different land, in a different color setting, to a different tempo; but break it down and really look at the backgrounds and feel the added touches that were put there for those of us "Disneyoids" to find. Mrs Potts greeted us in Lottie's room during the opening story telling sequence,and Carpet waved hello as we panned our way through the streets of New Orleans. There were other little reminders of old friends that brought a smile to my face as I soaked up the story not caring if this was a girl story or a boys..( I saw this as a naughty boy angle! being the mom of 4 sons and only one daughter)
Did no one actually see, or were you aware that the art work used for backgrounds in the swamp were borrowed from Mermaid, the frog wedding background art was borrowed from Sleeping Beauty and The Church wedding.. yes it too was art work borrowed from Cinderella; all gifts to remind us that everthing old can be new again. I also recall a scene coming in over the city that will cause me never to think of "the second star to the right and on 'til morning..." quite the same again. ( Ray has ened up being my favorite character afterall.)
And of all things to be missed.. Madame Leoda..gracing center headstone just a Facilier is taken to the otherside...
I fully enjoyed this film and though I admit having an inside track on the trials and tribulations of the animation staff in Orlando might had made it a bit sweeter to me you hit it on the head.. A good movie over all and a foot in the door for a good chance at more to come from a hand drawn team!
Welcome back P/I. We've missed you.
(P & the Frog was Ann's first movie in the theatre and I hope she some day can see it through your eyes.)
Hey Doug,
What a great film to point to as Ann's first! I think knowing that fact makes Pricess & the Frog a little better in my mind!
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