For those of us brought up on classic Disney animation - from the first, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, through The Jungle Book and Lady and the Tramp to, more recently, The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast - it’s sad to think that a whole generation of children have seen animated films only through CGI and Pixar. But now comes The Princess and the Frog, Disney’s first entirely 2D, hand-drawn animation since 2002, which, with its sumptuous drawings, soft colours and Jazz Age setting, could almost be seen as a retro exercise.
That is underlined by the fact that the film’s co-directors are veteran Disney creatives Ron Clements and John Musker, who also made The Little Mermaid and Aladdin, among others. They were commissioned by John Lasseter, an animator who came back into the Disney fold after heading up Pixar for several years, when Walt Disney Animation Studios bought out the CGI upstart in 2006. He may love traditional methods, but Lasseter is very much placed in the here and now, as The Princess and the Frog is the first animation featuring a non-white family as its lead characters.
The Princess and the Frog is adapted by Rob Edwards from the Brothers Grimm fairytale and E D Baker’s The Frog Princess, and here we are transported to 1930s New Orleans. But this Big Easy is a fairytale of its own, where Tiana (voiced by Anika Noni Rose) is a hardworking waitress who holds down two jobs and dreams of opening her own restaurant (she is a gifted chef), and her best friend is spoilt little rich girl Charlotte (Jennifer Cody), who is white and lives in a mansion the other side of town. Their connection is that Charlotte’s indulgent father, Big Daddy (John Goodman), loves Tiana’s beignets and gives plenty of work to her seamstress mother, Eudora (Oprah Winfrey).
Into their lives comes charming but feckless Prince Naveen (voiced as a wonderfully over-the-top European Lothario by Bruno Campos), who is turned into a frog by Dr Facilier (Keith David), a scary witch doctor who is after his money. Mistaking Tiana for a princess, Naveen tells her lasciviously he needs “just one kiss - unless you beg for more". If this frog had a moustache, he would be twirling it.
But Tiana is also turned into a frog by the kiss, and so their adventure begins as she and Naveen venture into the bayou to search for a priestess, Mama Odie (Jenifer Lewis), who can reverse the curse. They are helped by Ray, a lovelorn firefly (Jim Cummings) and Louis (Michael-Leon Wooley), swamp alligator and frustrated jazz musician, who provide much of the film’s comedy and aaaah moments. Of course everything turns out right in the end, but the film-makers throw enough twists and turns into the plot to keep us worrying about the lovers right until the end, and make us laugh and cry along the way.
Musical numbers punctuate events and Randy Newman's soundtrack draws on the area’s rich musical legacy, incorporating zydeco, blues, gospel and jazz. Enjoyable as the songs are in the cinema, they remain, however, Randy Newmanish - easy on the ear but utterly unmemorable.
Some characters - Mama Odie and Ray in particular - may be a strain for younger ears to understand and the voodoo scenes verge on scary for really wee ones, but The Princess and the Frog is a welcome return to what Disney does best. It’s gorgeous to look at, has plenty of wisecracks for the adults and is perfectly paced over its 97 minutes.
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