PRINCESS AND THE FROG, THE - Blu-ray review

When Pixar chief John Lasseter was hired to head up Disney animation, the first item on his to-do list wasn't "Toy Story 3." It was to produce an old-fashioned, hand-drawn, two-dimensional animated picture--the kind that he and other Disney animators grew up watching. You remember: the kind where every movement was generated by a new drawing which, spliced together with all the rest, made the cinematic equivalent of one gigantic flip-book? The kind where you go back to Disney basics and rely on live-action models for inspiration . . . but then it's all up to the artists?

The last Disney film to attempt this--"Home on the Range" (2004)--was a flop. There's no other way to say it. And that flop made the studio gun-shy about going back to the more expensive form of animation. But two years later Disney bought Pixar and named Lasseter the creative head of both animation units. They couldn't have picked a better guy to keep Walt Disney's magic alive. Lasseter is probably one of the few filmmakers out there who can say that his first gig with Disney wasn't as an artist or writer, but as a theme park guide on the Jungle Cruise ride. His affection for all things Disney runs deep, so it's no surprise that he wanted to preserve the Disney tradition rather than get too far away from the basics.

On one of the bonus features included here, Lasseter says that the number one thing on his list was to make a traditional, hand-drawn animated movie. And the second thing on his list was to bring back Ron Clements and John Musker, the writer-director team that gave us "The Little Mermaid" (1989) and "Aladdin" (1992). What they came up with was a unique twist on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale, "The Frog Prince," with their version loosely based on the E.D. Baker novel, The Frog Princess. Instead of following the plot that leads up to the famous kiss, Clements and Musker use the kiss as a starting point. And, like all good writers, they turn the concept on its head. Instead of the prince turning human, the "princess" who kisses him turns into a frog.

"The Princess and the Frog" ended up being one of the most highly anticipated Disney releases in recent memory, and not just because it marked the return to traditional animation. It was to be the first contemporary Disney film to feature African Americans as the main characters, and the first movie to introduce a new Disney princess since "Mulan" (1998), which meant that little Disney princesses everywhere were in can't-wait mode, wondering what this new princess would be like. Because, hey, they're going to meet her on Disney cruise ships and at Disney theme parks, and they'll add her doll and dresses to their collections. There was a lot riding on this, and if it did a frog-flop? I'm sure no one wanted to think about the possibility. And that's not even considering that the film is set in New Orleans, and the nation is thinking that the hurricane-ravaged city still deserves its due.

No worries. Musker and Clements deliver a solid film that runs in the same 7 to 8 range as "Aladdin" and "The Little Mermaid," with animation, artwork and music that's just as good. What's more, one of the animators said in a bonus feature that he thought "The Princess and the Frog" was "a princess movie for people who don't necessarily like princess movies," and that certainly turned out to be true in our house. My eight-year-old daughter was all over this film, but it was my 12-year-old son who asked if we could watch it again the following night. As parents know, repeat play is the highest form of praise that children can offer.

The film is set in the French Quarter of New Orleans sometime in the 1920s, because an opening sequence that shows Tiana as a five-year-old includes a newspaper headline, "Wilson Wins," which places it in 1912. Then we cut to a time when Tiana appears to be in her early twenties. The filmmakers capture the flavor of old New Orleans, thanks to a combination of artwork that includes such detailed work as gingerbread-trimmed houses and wisteria-draped gazebos and Randy Newman's surprising score. Song after song sounds as if it could be a traditional jazz standard rather than a new tune composed for this film, and it's in the sequences when the music blends with the images that "The Princess and the Frog" really leaps beyond the ordinary.

Tiana (Anika Noni Rose) makes a fine princess and an equally engaging frog. At a time when the youngest generations are drifting away from their parents' work ethic it's nice to see a character who sets her sights on a dream and knows that hard work can make it happen. She's driven to succeed. But sometimes hard work isn't enough. Tiana's father worked three shifts in order to support his family and a dream of opening a restaurant with his daughter, but he died before that dream could be realized. Sometimes it takes a little help from the wishing star.

The plot is uncomplicated but full of the kind of humor and action that appeal to children. Tiana's mother (Oprah Winfrey) and father ( Terrence Howard) have created a household filled with laughter and love, though they live in one of the tiny shotgun-style houses on the poor side of town. That's contrasted by Lottie (Jennifer Cody), the spoiled rich girl she grew up spending time with because Tiana's mother, a dressmaker, fashioned creations commissioned by Lottie's father, Big Daddy (John Goodman). Lottie wishes on a star, while Tiana is a skeptic. But when the money she saved to buy her restaurant turns out to be not enough, she gazes upward at the wishing star and does her thing. Moments later, a frog appears on the rail next to her. "Very funny," she says to the star. The film is literally "jump" started when the frog talks, and the plot is set in motion.

It turns out that the jazz-loving Prince Naveen (Bruno Campos) came to New Orleans with his manservant to carouse. But a voodoo man that locals call The Shadow Man (Keith David, as Dr. Facilier) strikes an Ursula-like bargain with the prince and his manservant, promising the prince some "green" (because money is power, and the prince's parents had just cut him off) and his ugly servant "good looks." The whole thing with the villain's background and motivation is just a little fuzzy, but he uses his voodoo and connection to spirits from the other world to make a necklace that takes the prince's blood, turns him into a frog, and, placed around the manservant's neck, turns him into a dead ringer for the prince. Meanwhile, the real prince had hopped on over to Tiana's balcony, and following the ill-fated kiss the two of them seek refuge in the swamps and bayous, where they meet a coronet-playing gator named Louis (Michael-Leon Wooley) and a firefly named Ray (Jim Cummings). In fact, when you see the gator, firefly, and frogs going across a log, it's an obvious reference to a shot of Simba, Timon, and Pumba from "The Lion King."

From the establishing shot that shows the wishing star, we not only get traditional Disney animation, we also get traditional Disney images and a homage to various Disney films. Viewers will think of "Pinocchio" with that sequence, and again when they first see the facial features of Prince Naveen's man Friday, who's drawn in the same style as the carriage master from the Pleasure Island sequence. There are so many familiar scenes that there's not space to list them all. The Facilier bargain scene smacks of "The Little Mermaid," while the scene where Facilier appeals to the dead has a distinctly "Mulan" feel. Meanwhile, a song Facilier sings and the animation feels a little like the "You Never Had a Friend Like Me" song from "Aladdin," and it's hard to miss the masquerade ball scene when Lottie dances with Prince Naveen in "Cinderella" style. Louis's song sounds a bit like the one that King Louis sang in "The Jungle Book," and the frog catchers that our heroes encounter in the bayou will remind Disney fans of the hillbilly family from "Pete's Dragon." When Louis tells the frogs about a voodoo woman and pulls moss around his head, it's a scene straight out of "The Sword and the Stone." And when they seek out Mama Odie (Jenifer Lewis), it's hard not to recall the "Pirates of the Caribbean" encounter with Calypso--though a song she sings has the same kaleidoscopic animal animation as "I Just Can't Wait to Be King," from "The Lion King."

Now, all of this must be as deliberate as the Mardi Gras float that's the spitting image of King Triton, but it's going to either strike viewers as an ultra-clever multi-movie homage, or the sense of familiarity is going to take a little sheen off of whatever originality the film possesses. I couldn't decide. I guess I'm like a Tootsie Roll Pop. The hardened old critic felt as if he wasn't surprised enough by this film, but the easy-touch guy who has a soft spot for Disney thought it was a nice, sentimental tribute. And speaking of sentiment, the only other negative thing, other than a villain whose purpose isn't clearly enough defined and an abundance of familiar elements, is that some of the early scenes with Tiana's family get a little sappy. But "The Princess and the Frog" is a winner, and that's just what Lasseter and the studio needed to keep the wonderful, hand-drawn animation coming.

Video:
"The Princess and the Frog" comes to Blu-ray via an AVC/MPEG-4 transfer to a 50GB disc, presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio that's been "enhanced" for 16x9 televisions. In 1080p the film looks wonderful, though viewers ought to know that a number of scenes have been deliberately crafted to have a soft look to them, as perhaps befits a once-upon-a-time story transposed to 1920s America. Some scenes have a yellow wash to add antiquing, while other scenes have more natural colors and more saturation. The film shifts visual gears a number of times, based on the location and mood of each scene, and through everything the Blu-ray transfer manages to capture an abundance of detail. Black levels are a little light in the antiqued and wispy scenes, but elsewhere they're as strong as the edge detail. Colors are saturated the most during big production numbers, as if to accentuate the big-splash music with a big dash of color. If there are any artifacts, I was too busy appreciating the background artwork and scenic detail to notice. It all looked pretty clean to me.

As one might expect, the DVD loses some of the edge detail and particularly suffers from loss of detail during those yellow-wash scenes. But for the rest of the film, when the colors are more fully saturated, it fares pretty well.

Audio:
New Orleans is all about the music, and so is this film. It's one collective, joyful noise that just pops like fireworks with the English DTS-HD MA 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit) featured soundtrack. Bass is robust, high notes almost tickle your spine they're so piercing, and prioritization of dialogue, effects, and music is handled perfectly. Rear speakers convey ambient sound throughout the film, and don't just come alive during "big" moments or big songs. It's a pretty dynamic track, with sound filling the room. Even the most demanding audiophile should like this track. Other audio options are French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, which comes closer to the DVD soundtrack--not nearly as dynamic or robust. There's an English 2.0 DVS, with subtitles are in English SDH and Spanish.

Extras:
This combo pack contains a Blu-ray with bonus features, a DVD with fewer (but overlapping) bonus features, and a Digital Copy.

Though it's only eight minutes long, nothing says traditional animation is alive and well like "Bringing Life to Animation," which juxtaposes shots from the film against storyboards and footage of the live-action models that inspired the artists. It's one of a number of Backstage Disney features that are really well done. The longest is "Magic in the Bayou: The Making of a Princess," which takes you behind the scenes to learn how this film came about. It's a standard making-of feature, but a nice one, especially hearing how the artists brought on-board felt about the project.

Other than an above-average, all-encompassing commentary track with Musker, Clements, and producer Peter Del Vecho and a PIP storyboard track that's visuals only, the other bonus features are all quite brief. Four deleted scenes run 12 minutes, with the filmmakers' commentaries adding value. "The Return to Hand Drawn Animation" is only three minutes long, as is "The Disney Legacy," "A Return to the Animated Musical," and "Disney's Newest Princess," while "Conjuring the Villain" and "The Princess and the Animator" are shorter still. My guess is that the quick-bites were intended for children ready to learn about the filmmaking experience, or that these were initially used as promos on the Disney Channel. Rounding out the bonus features is an extensive art gallery, a Ne-Yo "Never Knew I Needed" music video, and a trivia game for children. The latter is "What Do You See: Princess Portraits," and it asks young viewers to try to guess the princess from outlines created by twinkling fireflies. The payoff is a little mini-story for each princess.

For an additional "extra," check out this Virtual Roundtable with Musker and Clements.

Bottom Line:
For sheer breathtaking animation and storytelling, "Beauty and the Beast" is still the film to beat. But I suspect that time will be kind to this film, and that it'll rank among Disney's better (not best) 2-D animated efforts. "The Princess and the Frog" proves, certainly, that traditional hand-drawn animation can still hook audiences jazzed up on 3-D and CGI.