There’s any number of reasons that I’m thrilled to see the return of Disney’s 2-D animation department (God bless you, John Lasseter), not the least of which is that the swan song of that venerable institution should not have been the horrific misfire that was “Home on the Range.” So instead we have “The Princess and the Frog” which initiated controversy when it was first announced that the lead character was named “Maddy” and was a maid. This caused great resentment since “Maddy” apparently sounds like “Mammy” if, I dunno, your ears are clogged. My objection to the name would be that after Aurora, Mulan, Ariel, etc., “Maddy” just doesn’t sound especially exotic. Oh, and people didn’t like that she was a maid, which apparently is, I dunno, demeaning. Personally, if I were a maid, I’d be kind of insulted by that attitude, but that’s probably just me. So instead of being on the social level of Cinderella, she was instead rewritten into being an aspiring cook, thus putting her on par with a Pixar rat. Problem solved.
So with that controversy set aside, was the film worth the extra expense and time involved in our taking Caroline to see it during its limited release at the Ziegfeld?
The answer is, Hëll yes. Because for all that computer animation can accomplish in terms of storytelling, groundedness, and brilliance, the one thing I have never seen is a CGI film that I would characterize as “enchanting.” The title of the Amy Adams film got it exactly right: “Princess and the Frog” is enchanting.
It was enchanting and sweet and while it may not have been quite up there with my personal favorite of “The Little Mermaid” (which fielded its own share of controversies, as I recall) it more than held its own against the considerable Disney legacy.
The underpinning of the plot really stems from a throwaway gag that could have been at home in a Mad Magazine marginal: A hopeful young woman kisses a frog and instead of him transforming into a prince, she’s morphed into a croaker. Yet impressively the entire second half of the film milks this premise for all it’s worth and then some as Tiana and the transformed prince, a wastrel named Prince Naveen who ran afoul of a voodoo master, fight for survival in the depths of the Bayou.
Naveen wound up engendering his own controversy since Disney’s first black princess didn’t get a black prince. Naveen isn’t white, but he isn’t black either. He’s–I’m not sure–tanned. Except while some people were making this a major point of contention, there’s a story reason for it: Tiana’s white, high-society friend, Charlotte, is desperate to marry the prince and thus become a princess herself. But the story is set in 1920s New Orleans. Yes, I know we’re talking about a film with transformations and jazz-playing alligators, but still, the idea of a wealthy white girl aspiring to marry a black man in the 1920s might have been cause for even more discussion and controversy. Personally I wouldn’t have cared because Charlotte is presented as being fairly color blind in her friendship with Tiana, but people can be thin skinned about skin, and making Naveen of indeterminate background sidesteps the problem.
As marvelous as the voice cast was and as rich and full as the animation was, for me the stand out was the villainous Doctor Facilier (which VERY broadly translated would be “to make easy.” The Big Easy. Get it?) He has the best songs, the most distinct animation style, and his voice was driving me insane trying to recognize it, especially when he was in the lower registers. Turned out to be Keith David, “Goliath” of Disney’s Gargoyles. In fact, now that I think about it, Disney stands out from other animation studios in that they don’t feel the need to front load their films with a ton of recognizable names (Oprah as Tiana’s mom notwithstanding.) That’s nice for animation voice performers who had lately been feeling the squeeze of all the good roles being doled out to movie stars. With Disney, you can wind up hearing Disney mainstays such as Jim Cummings (terribly effective as a romantically inclined firefly named Ray) rather than a film star who was cast, not because he was the best choice, but because it was figured he’d put butts in the seats.
Bottom line: The Disney princess franchise is back. And what I couldn’t help but notice while we were at the theater, and at the subsequent “Princess and the Frog” interactive playground afterward, was that quite a number of black mothers noticed Caroline happily toting around her Tiana doll and nodded approvingly. One or two even looked misty eyed.
PAD
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Great point about the voice actors. I’ve always wondered about that–does anyone really go to an animated movie based on the voices? And if they do, wouldn’t it be more likely that they respond to the appropriateness of the voice over the unseen face of the actor. Billy West is no handsome leading man but I’d rather see something voiced by him than another Brad Pitt as Sinbad disaster. West actually makes a voice that fits the character. Pitt reads his lines. No offense to Mr Pitt intended, he’s very good at what he does, but what he does it not voice acting.
I tend to agree. There are very few actors (maybe Robin Wiliams)whose voice work would induce me to go to an animated film that I would not go to otherwise.
I loved Princess Mononoke (both the original with subtitles and the dubbed version) but Billy Bob Thornton’s voice was so unbelievealby and horribly miscast that it detracted from every scene he was in.
Although to be fair, Pixar tends to cast people who are both movie stars and really good actors (and really well-suited to the part, too. Well-suited to the part, famous, really good actors and talented at using their voices…oh, I’ll come in again.)
Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear is absolutely perfect. He nails the part. He’s also famous and I’m sure that didn’t hurt, but he really does hit that character note-perfect.
It’s only the…other CGI animation studios…**cough cough Dreamworks cough cough** that seem to be more interested in a big name than a good performance.
Mr. David, my wife & I were wondering if you would consider producing another installment of the Disney Princess Roundtable. I can even imagine the meeting being interrupted by Dejah Thoris claiming to be the next Disney princess (only to be told that live-action princesses don’t count).
I’d been thinking about that, yeah. Not Dejah Thoris, but it might be interesting to update it.
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PAD
Yeah, otherwise Belle and Jasmine would be screaming at her arrival, “Oh my God! Put some clothes on!” Ariel would just assume that Dejah just came out of the water and lost her tail before she could find some.
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And Richard Howell would have a deuce of a time finding stuff in the scene to create the right shadows on her. 🙂
Disney is doing a Barsoom movie??? For real???
Considering Disney did the Tarzan movie a decade (!) ago, it’s say it’s very possible.
Of course, what I want to see in cases of Disney/ERB, Inc. team-ups are the people who instantly disintegrate when they run afoul of the combined legal departments when bootlegs are attempted.
I know. Still, it’s fun to imagine.
One of the things I love best about Disney-Pixar is that they are perfectly willing to cast big-name performers, but only if their voices are right for the part. (Best f’rinstance that leaps to mind is the late Tony Jay as Claude Frollo — yeah, all us animation fans knew who he was, but most people didn’t; they just heard this incredibly scary-evil voice.) And D-P follows the Spielbergian trend of not trumpeting the cast until after the movie. The story comes first.
Disney has always only cast a recognizeable actor in a roll if the voice fit the roll and could bring instant characterization to the part. This dates back as far as casting Cliff Edwards as Jiminy Cricket.
Perhaps they were nodding approvingly because Caroline is mad cute?
Well, there’s that, of course. But a couple even said, “Look what YOU have,” so I’m thinking they were more interested in that she was cuddling the black Disney princess.
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PAD
Okay, there’s that.
(Though I can’t help but think it’ll be a sign of a truly post-racial culture when a cute little white girl cuddling a black princess doll is just another cute little girl in the crowd.)
I recall a BID column about a trip to the toy store with your daughter (Ariel,I think), and when she chose an African American doll, the clerk helpfully suggested that they had white dolls, too.
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I actually quoted an excerpt from that in one of my sociology term papers.
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Also did an entire paper on the Incredilbe Hulk and MPD for my abnormal pscyh class that my prof loved. You really came in handy during my college years.
I recall a BID column about a trip to the toy store with your daughter (Ariel,I think), and when she chose an African American doll, the clerk helpfully suggested that they had white dolls, too.
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That was Shana, actually. She was into Rainbow Brite, and she said she wanted the doll named Violet, who was her favorite. And we found her in the store, and whereas in the TV show she was sort of light cocoa, in the doll she was clearly black. But that’s who Shana wanted, and she’s been promised her choice of dolls, and that’s who she got. And yeah, the cashier kind of glanced right and left and then said in a low voice, “You know…they have white dolls, too.” And I said, “Yeah, I know, but this is who she wants.”
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PAD
“(Though I can’t help but think it’ll be a sign of a truly post-racial culture when a cute little white girl cuddling a black princess doll is just another cute little girl in the crowd.)”
Slowly but surely, we are getting there.
“Stunt Casting”, or casting big-name stars in animation roles to sell the film, doesn’t work more often than it does. There are exceptions – – one that springs to mind immediately is Patrick Stewart’s role as Lord Yupa in the Disney dub of “Nausicaa”. Robin Williams’ Genie is another. But more often than not, it just sticks out awkwardly and calls attention to itself.
Why didn’t I know that Keith David would be in this film? As the bad guy? And singing?
He’s a great actor, as I can attest to from his turns in various NYC Shakespeare productions. He’s an amazing voice actor. And he is a ham, as anyone who’s seen him at various Gargoyles cons knows. He’s perfect for the role.
Sounds awesome, I’ll probably catch it on video. The thing that bothers me the most about Tiana is the name Tiana–although it’s better than Maddy. Maddy and Tiana aren’t princess names in my book. As far as I know Tiana is a nonsense name that means nothing. It does bother me when people make up names for their kids because you do not know if that means fart face in Uzbek or something else undesirable and while it is unlikely that they will be traveling to Uzbekistan it still stands that you unwittingly named your kid fart face. Personally I think she needed a grander name, a powerful name like Cordelia or something Russian which would be a throw back to the country of orgin which the story came.
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Also if I remember right, the biggest problem people had with this film was the fact that by calling it the Frog Princess would imply that African-Americans look like frogs (yeah people will go to any lengths…) but the new title is alright and crisis is averted which is important.
Well, according to the source below, it means “Fairy queen.” Commonly it’s a shortened form of “Christiana” or “Tatiana.”
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I daresay you’ll encounter a lot more girls named Tiana than you will Cinderella.
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http://www.babynames.com/name/TIANA
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PAD
“Personally I think she needed a grander name . . . or something Russian which would be a throw back to the country of orgin which the story came.”
Actually, I believe this story isn’t really based on the Russian tale of the Frog Princess so much as it’s a riff on the German tale of The Frog Prince. You know the one. Princess loses golden ball. Frog saves it. Frog comes to dinner. Princess chucks frog at a wall. Frog turns back into a prince. (Oh, that part about the princess kissing the frog? I don’t know where that idea came from).
Anyway, the movie looks good. I’m looking forward to seeing it. I’ve been in the mood for a new toe-tapping animated Disney musical.
I thought the kissing of the frog came from the The Frog Princess. I could have sworn I heard that like when I was younger (or in my head??).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Frog_Princess
Well, okay. I don’t know. Whatever works…
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American for Fairy Queen?
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The meaning of the name Tiana is Fairy Queen
The origin of the name Tiana is American
Alternate spellings: Tianna
Notes: Short form of Tatiana
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When searching for names for characters I try so hard to absolutely find the root word in the names. Call me overzealous about I feel that I have to be remotely accurate. I just cannot trust many baby name sites because they’re like people playing the game telephone. It gets passed down until it’s unrecognizable and/or gibberish.
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I don’t really accept names labeled American. American is many languages and more often than not names labeled American is just what people think it should mean (my baby is soooo special so her name means special baby fairy because I say so!) with no real thought about lingustics or origin. I will accept it being a diminuative of Tatiana but nothing more (unless you find out what tatiana means and see if it’s not two words put together).
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It’s remotely reminiscant of Titania of A Mid-Summer’s Night Dream, so maybe that’s where they get Fairy Queen from.
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I will totally name my kid Cinderella. Actually I have a running joke in my family where I tell them the names of my potential future children. So far I’ve come up with Matador (killer), Conquestador (Conquerer), and Luchador (wrestler), Meriweather, Spatzel (a doughy German dumpling with no taste), Weehawken (a town in New Jersey), Onara (which I think means fart in Japanese), Oochi (Poop in Chinese), and Opala (trash in Hawaiian).
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I love my potential future children.
Perhaps it is American, as in the people who’ve lived here for thousands of years. Although if that’s the case, you’d think they’d specify the tribe… then again, I wouldn’t be able to tell you the tribe that the name “Arcata” comes from, which I know is an American word and also the name of my town.
Erin: It does bother me when people make up names for their kids because you do not know if that means fart face in Uzbek or something…
Luigi Novi: That isn’t precluded by giving someone a more historically or culturally established name.
“I thought the kissing of the frog came from the The Frog Princess. I could have sworn I heard that like when I was younger (or in my head??).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Frog_Princess
Well, okay. I don’t know. Whatever works…”
Yeah, it doesn’t appear that way in my copy of “Russian Fairy Tales” either. I think it may be one of the alterations to “The Frog Prince” that authors writing for children added later. Possibly even Charles Perrault (well-known for popularising fairy tales with children). I checked my copy of A Child’s Book of Stories, but The Frog Prince wasn’t in there.
There’s a very good European-made animated cartoon of “The Frog Princess” available on DVD. Of course, because of “The Princess and the Frog,” it’s not the easiest thing to find on eBay, Google,or ANYWHERE on-line right now.
It still bugs me that there was so much nit-picking over the name and the job. I think those were perfectly appropriate, even significant, choices for the character. They were payback for decades of black women being restricted to playing Mammy the Maid.
But, while I’m glad there isn’t a massive backlash over it, I’m saddened that the first black princess can’t have a black prince. I’m all for interracial romances but it would have been nice for them to break the odd restrictions Hollywood seems to have on black couples.
All that said, I’m still excited for this movie and for little black girls getting their princess. And in the same year we get a black president too! No matter how things turn out in the end, it’s fantastic to see these barriers, great and small, being broken.
But, while I’m glad there isn’t a massive backlash over it, I’m saddened that the first black princess can’t have a black prince. I’m all for interracial romances but it would have been nice for them to break the odd restrictions Hollywood seems to have on black couples.
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Well, as noted, because of the way the story was structured, the rich white girl having marital designs on the prince was a major plot point. So if Charlotte had been fixed on marrying the black prince, then Disney is accused of ignoring the anti-miscegenation laws that were on the books in Louisiana in the 1920s. Hëll, as recently as October of this year a Louisiana justice of the peace refused to wed an interracial couple. Heck, some people are still complaining that P&TF didn’t do enough to address Jim Crow laws. Because that’s really what you want to have in your fairy tale while you’re trying to entertain little girls in their Tiana costumes and crowns: A history lesson about Jim Crow.
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For that matter, I could just as easily see people complaining that, hey, how come a black princess has to automatically have a black prince. Characterize it as, I dunno, segregation or something. Because people will find anything to complain about.
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You want to see the Internet erupt? Give the next white Disney princess a black prince. THEN we have a ball game.
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PAD
I WANT TO SEE THIS.
I would really love to see that, too.
I have been wondering what a prince is doing in New Orleans. I guess he could be just visiting. Does Tiana go back with him to his own country, or do they leave the ending vague? Do they even say what country his is from? (If they make it an Arab country– Naveen sounds sort of Arabic, barely– then he could still be considered Black or White. Fitting Arabs into American racial categories is always a matter of opinion.)
Ðámņ you, Peter David, now I want to see that too! And not even as a jokey thing but a hot and heavy (and G rated) romance. But first I still want my all black couple, THEN we’ll make heads explode.
Oh, and while I’m thinking about it, we need a Latina princess sometime soon. I guess she’ll come after Rapunzel.
I’m rather surprised I haven’t seen complaints that “the first black Disney princess” spends most of the film as a frog.
“All that said, I’m still excited for this movie and for little black girls getting their princess. And in the same year we get a black president too! No matter how things turn out in the end, it’s fantastic to see these barriers, great and small, being broken”
A-men. Y’know, I wasn’t balling like a baby when Barack Obama got elected because he was a Black man (okay, a bit), but because he represented, growing up, everything that seemed to be synonymous with ‘fail’: Black, poor, child of single parent. I was…beyond happy because I thought that the newest (yet unnamed) generation, starting around 2002, will grow up thinking that ANYTHING is possible, which is phenomenal.
It’s the same with Tiana – I’m getting all misty-eyed thinking that there’s a generation of little girls who will think ‘princess’ has nothing to do with the color of one’s skin.
Funny – my mom got the same look of amazement and pride in her eyes when she first saw the preview for the ‘Princess and the Frog’ as she got when Obama won…it was sort of like ‘Oh, my God…how we have grown’….
And boy have we…
PAD –
Glad to see I wasn’t the only one going nuts trying to figure out Keith David’s name! (I’m still waiting for the movie where they cast Keith David and David Keith together, just because.)
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I have to agree with you on the “interracial” thing, tho (and it’s in quotes because, except for “The Little Mermaid” the love stories have all been human) I personally would love to see a black prince with a white princess. Heads would explode nationwide.
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All that being said, it wasn’t one of my favorites. I didn’t walk out singing, like I did with “Aladdin”; then again, I didn’t have the “bleah” reaction I had to “Lion King” either. It’ll be on our shelf when it comes out on DVD, though, and my own little black princess might get a Tiana doll.
As for the whole “toning down the racial controversy ‘cuz it’s 1920s New Orleans” issue, this reminds me of a discussion I had about the CALL OF CTHULHU rpg. (Trust me, it’ll be germaine.) During an I-CON panel, I asked some big COC publishers about the challenges of running a game in the 1920s when things like civil rights, women’s rights, and gay rights were far far less than they are today. Do you make it historically accurate (and risk offending some players, esp. those who fall into the discriminated groups) or like today (and not being accurate to the 1920s)?
One of the people said he makes it like today, and his reason was great: If people can believe there are eldritch horrors, tomes with spells, and occurences that bend the realms of time and space, they can handle tolerance in the 1920s.
I don’t think people that can easily believe in voodoo, talking animals, and transmogrification (sic?) will freak out over an interracial couple in the 1920s.
Then again, I’ve heard that a large part of casting Eva Mendes as the romantic interest in HITCH was because audiences would find a romance between a black man and a Latina woman more acceptable than between a black man and a white woman — and that was a 21st-century movie set in the present day!
Glad to see I wasn’t the only one going nuts trying to figure out Keith David’s name! (I’m still waiting for the movie where they cast Keith David and David Keith together, just because.)
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It should be a movie co-written by Peter David and David Peters. 😉
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Theno
The underpinning of the plot really stems from a throwaway gag that could have been at home in a Mad Magazine marginal
Actually, MAD did it as a full-color, four-panel inside front cover gag by Jack Rickard, about 1968 or 1969 if memory serves. I’m sure the gag was probably done before then, and has been done since (once by no less than Charles Addams), but I think MAD’s was the best I’ve ever seen it done.
Turned out to be Keith David, “Goliath” of Disney’s Gargoyles.
Hmph. Some family man you are, PAD. You probably won’t even admit that Keith is your fourth cousin, once removed, on your mother’s side.
SNOB!!!!! Too good to admit you have a THESPIAN in the family?
J.
What’s weird is that I knew it was Keith David, if not from the voice than from the constant promotion that Disney Channel has been doing for the film, but none of that tipped me off to Oprah being in the film, which leads me to think Oprah’s participation was less Disney casting a “name” and more the most powerful woman in show business calling up and saying she’d like a part.
Re: “I’m thrilled to see the return of Disney’s 2-D animation department (God bless you, John Lasseter), not the least of which is that the swan song of that venerable institution should not have been the horrific misfire that was ‘Home on the Range.'”
Actually, a much scaled-down Disney 2-D animation department has been turning out some seldom-seen short subjects since “Home on the Range,” which might be worth your time to track down. Some of them, like “Lorenzo,” “The Little Matchgirl,” and “One by One,” were originally considered for a possible third installment of “Fantasia,” but there’s also a really great addition to the “how-to” Goofy shorts called “How to Hook Up Your Home Theatre” that was released in 2007. All of ’em can be found on I-Tunes, if you’re so inclined (anyone else think I-Tunes would be a great venue for first-run animated shorts?)
I just saw the Princess and the Frog this week myself, and I really /did/ enjoy it– there were some really positive messages in it but I still found myself caught up in one of the constant themes in Princess Disney films: that the heroine cannot complete her mission or goal without the help of a man in some form or another (ie, Mulan needed to become a man, several princesses needed a man to save them, etc) I’m going to try my best to ignore it and hope they’re insinuating that Tiana learned to share the burden of work with Naveen, not that she as a woman was incapable of completing the work herself.
But I’m not getting over how they demonised West African Vodun– but it’s not truly a Disney film without a little bit of subliminal bigotry, I suppose.