It has been a privilege to see The Princess and the Frog last weekend.  Together with some guests and their kids, we went to Shangri-la Cineplex to witness Disney's going back to basics with the debut of new hand drawn  animated motion picture.

Tiana (Anika Noni Rose), a daughter of a seamstress (Oprah Winfrey) and a laborer (Terence Howard) live on a poor but quiet and peaceful town in New Orleans early 1900s.  Because of her family's status, her father didn't stop working multiple jobs just to provide for them and to save money for their dream restaurant business.  But eventually, Tiana's father died on over fatigue.  Years past, Tiana is now a lady.  Hard worker just like her father, never went out to enjoy with her friends or have a date with any guy.  She choose to work all day just to save more money for her promise to her father that she will continue their dream to have that business.  But destiny has more plans as one night a magical curse turns her to something that she didn't expect after kissing a slimy talking frog.



The Princess and the Frog is a new attempt on the side of Disney to return to what they are first recognized which is producing Hand drawn animations.  We've been enchanted by the animated features like Lion King, Pocahontas, Lilo and Stitch and a lot more before and its just right  to go back to those days that where 2D hand drawn motion pictures reign the silver screens.  I believe "The Princess and Frog" is a big success for it is one fun movie and at the same time a movie with  substance the relives those well loved classic Disney animations.  The plot of the movie is more loosely based on E.D. Baker's "Frog Princess" novel which is the basis of what is more famous to most kids "The Frog Prince" by the Grimm Brothers.  With Baker's plot, rather than turning the Frog to Prince, the spell backfires to the girl and turns her to a frog.  Then the misadventures of these two slimy hoppers begins to find a way to return them to their human forms.

The movie also got one of the most odd set of characters where 2 frogs, a firefly and a crocodile joined forces to bring back the two amphibians to their real selves.  Every character is well established on quick flashbacks and musical numbers.  And if this characters can make as laugh out loud, wait till you see those scenes where they can really give you teary eyes.

As I have mentioned above, The musical numbers also returns with this film where characters sings a song and dance together while on a dazzling and artistic backdrop often formed by exaggerated and magical means .  One example is the forest pond production number with the glowing fireflies forming different neon inspired designs and fireworks displays and the transformation sequence of the Prince on the hands of the Shadow man in the creepy Voodoo room with moving voodoo masks and shadows.   Two thumbs up for Randy Newman for the great music lineup and to the movie's official theme song titled "Never Knew I needed" performed by the one and only Ne-Yo.


There are a lot more good things to say about The Princess and the Frog but I don't think I need to enumerate them all to everyone just to convince all of you to watch it.  Bring the whole family to theaters today, February 3, 2010.  This is the time to witness Disney doing again what they do best before.  Because definitely they are still excellent on creating this kind of masterpiece.