The Princess And The Frog Blu-Ray Review

The best thing about The Princess and the Frog may turn out to be what also keeps it from truly being great. It's a return to hand-drawn animation. A return to an "older" theory. A return to the Disney musical. In many senses, a return to the very roots of Disney feature-length efforts. These are all things the special features will play up at you rather specifically. But, somewhere in the valiant effort, we may have gone too far.

As much as it is a masterpiece of historic significance, and a frolicsome delight for the child within you, Sleeping Beauty is not particularly entertaining for the child with you. It's likely that today this is as much a problem of pacing as it is the shortfall of humor children can latch onto, but The Princess and the Frog takes the general adult orientation up a few notches. Not content simply to go over their heads, or try their attention abilities, it rather rules them out completely in some respects.

That sounds rather negative, but the intent is only a point of clarification. Adults may find much to enjoy, but the age-range of appreciation only goes so low, despite the G rating.

Magic, music and romance are waiting around every corner of the legendary Big Easy as Disney’s newest princess sets out on an exciting adventure through a magical new world. Tiana (voiced by Anika Noni Rose) is a beautiful and hardworking young woman determined to fulfil her father’s dream of owning an elegant New Orleans supper club.

When Naveen (Bruno Campos), a handsome prince arrives in town looking for romance, the evil Dr. Facilier (Keith David) hatches a nefarious plot and turns Naveen into a frog. A kiss from Tiana should return him to his true form, but in a hilarious twist on the classic story, she is instead transformed into a frog herself! The pair must travel into the heart of the mysterious Louisiana bayou with only a trumpet-playing alligator and a love-struck firefly as guides to find the priestess who can reverse the curse in order to find their “happily ever after.”

The rather simple fairy tale is spun into an entirely new story with New Orleans as the backdrop, for purposes of our magical connection, and the ability to showcase a variety of jazz stylings, and if there is one thing that cannot be denied about the effort, it is most assuredly a gorgeous testament to hand-drawn abilities.

Also clearly focusing on the inclusion of some life lessons, our story naturally talks a good game on love, but manages a nice play on dreams and finding your own sense of self-worth. Big stuff for an animated feature, and moreover it makes its way to the screen through the dancing alligators and singing voodoo priestess in a pretty adult delivery.

All that said, while it may lack some measure of the pure fun of Aladdin, or the elements in The Little Mermaid that allow for a greater ability to connect with younger audiences, the film delivers a solid charm and engaging story that can work wonders on the child in all of us... even if it misses our children.

Rating:  

Blu-Ray Features

The bonuses available on the release give a pretty solid indication that those involved are aware of the audience limitations. Rare is the Disney release so filled with special features that a child couldn't care less about. On the other hand, the adults are in for some treats.

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The single disc DVD comes with:
• Deleted Scenes
• Audio Commentary by John Musker and Ron Clements (co-writers and directors) and Peter Del
Vecho (producer)
• “Never Knew I Needed”- Music video by Ne-Yo Games and Activities
• What Do You See: Princess Portraits — A bayou-style quiz tests viewers’ knowledge of all of Disney’s beautiful princesses. Ray’s firefly family creates twinkling portraits of each princess and if the player correctly identifies her, they can enjoy a tongue-cheek mini re-telling of that character’s story.

There are four deleted scenes. These are scenes that were never finalized, so you're watching early work with stand-in voices. They're pretty interesting actually, but there isn't that much available. I'm not sure any of these amount to key changes, they seem mainly dropped for time, or because of reworkings elsewhere which leave them unnecessary, but they are worth watching simply to see what the early versions look like before they are taken to more serious levels of completion.

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The commentary is great for those who will be interested to sit through such fare. Musker and Clements are responsible for much of Disney's best non-Pixar work of recent(ish) times, and they give a lot of great insight into the creation of all aspects of the film. There is quite a bit of overlap with some of what you'll find on the other features of the Blu-Ray, but that only makes this more of a bonus to purchasers of the standard edition. Possibly leaning a little technical for some, this is nevertheless a truly worthwhile bonus.

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The Blu-ray Combo Pack edition comes with additional bonus features, including:

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Backstage Disney
• Magic In The Bayou: The Making of A Princess — Co-writers and directors John Musker and Ron Clements take a freewheeling, behind-the-scenes look at the making of Disney’s newest animated film as it grows from an initial concept to a lavish animated film set in the enchanting world of New Orleans and the surrounding bayous.
• The Return To Hand Drawn Animation
• The Disney Legacy
• Disney’s Newest Princess
• The Princess and the Animator
• Conjuring The Villain
• A Return To The Animated Musical
• Bringing Life to Animation with an introduction by John Musker and Ron Clements.
• Deleted Scenes introduced by the filmmakers
• Art Galleries — A collection of storyboard art traces the visual development of The Princess and the Frog’s rich gallery of characters and settings.

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The first of these is what you might look at as a full-blown featurette. It includes a wide variety of cast and crew, and looks at all angles of the film, from the creation of the story, to the long process of  perfecting the characters. It's a good effort, and there is quite a lot to take away from the trip through the entire life of the film.

The rest are shorter, more focused bonuses which are more or less just what you think they'll be. The Princess and the Animator, for example, is a few minutes of behind-the-scenes exploration of the voice and animation creation of the character, and getting everyone involved in sync.

Bringing Life to Animation is a bit more detailed, and shows the process of translating real actors' movements into the animated final product. This one is a treat, and watching the side-by-side comparison of dancers and actors giving the animators points of reference is surprisingly interesting.

Overall this is a solid release, and you won't be disappointed with the bonuses.

Own it on DVD and Blu-Ray today!

Check out a couple of clips below.

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About Marc Eastman

Marc Eastman is the owner and operator of Are You Screening? and has been writing film reviews for over a decade, and several branches of the internet's film review world have seen his name. His reviews have brought him personal praise from the director of a major motion picture, and have been used as required reading in a course at a major University. These priceless rewards, along with just bags of cash, keep him from straying from freelance writing. He is also a member of The Broadcast Film Critics Association and The Broadcast Television Journalists Association.

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