The Princess and the Frog.
Finally saw The Princess and the Frog this week. I'm not sure if lived up to my expectations, despite all the praise and glowing reviews.
The story concept was cute, and while I felt that Jazz was definitely the way to go for a movie set in New Orleans, the music felt out of place to me. It didn't seem like authentic enough Jazz maybe, or just the placement and segues into the music were a bit too jarring at times.
The other thing I was disappointed with was that everyone was heralding Tiana and Naveen to fill in the gap of not having strong ethnic (specifically those of African decent) role-models in the Disney repertoire. But I have to wonder if that wasn't undermined by the fact that the two spent more than half the movie as frogs. I also felt the character designs were lacking. They looked more to me like white people painted dark.
to prove my point:
Had they been painted like this, no one would have noticed the difference. Except for the dimples, Tiana might as well be Ariel or Belle, and Naveen evoked Prince Eric.
On the good side, however, Keith David as Dr. Facilier (Shadow-Man) is love. They even gave the character the slight gap in his two front teeth. And who knew Mr. David could sing. I could listen to that man's voice all day long (and I've heard it in person, he's got an awesome laugh).
Another great match was John Goodman as Big Daddy D. (Even if I did almost expect him to have an eye-patch a la the giant from "Oh, Brother" given the accent.)
Lotte is probably one of my favorite supporting characters from all the movies. Showing that spoiled rich folk aren't all Anastasia and Drusilla.
The story concept was cute, and while I felt that Jazz was definitely the way to go for a movie set in New Orleans, the music felt out of place to me. It didn't seem like authentic enough Jazz maybe, or just the placement and segues into the music were a bit too jarring at times.
The other thing I was disappointed with was that everyone was heralding Tiana and Naveen to fill in the gap of not having strong ethnic (specifically those of African decent) role-models in the Disney repertoire. But I have to wonder if that wasn't undermined by the fact that the two spent more than half the movie as frogs. I also felt the character designs were lacking. They looked more to me like white people painted dark.
to prove my point:
Had they been painted like this, no one would have noticed the difference. Except for the dimples, Tiana might as well be Ariel or Belle, and Naveen evoked Prince Eric.
On the good side, however, Keith David as Dr. Facilier (Shadow-Man) is love. They even gave the character the slight gap in his two front teeth. And who knew Mr. David could sing. I could listen to that man's voice all day long (and I've heard it in person, he's got an awesome laugh).
Another great match was John Goodman as Big Daddy D. (Even if I did almost expect him to have an eye-patch a la the giant from "Oh, Brother" given the accent.)
Lotte is probably one of my favorite supporting characters from all the movies. Showing that spoiled rich folk aren't all Anastasia and Drusilla.