I so wanted to like this film. When I heard that Disney was going back to its’ roots with a 2-D princess tale movie, I was expecting a great cartoon like, "The Lion King". But, in the end all I saw was a huge disappointment of a film.
The film failed me for a few reasons.
1. The Love Story. With Disney films in the past, they could make you believe that a Beast or a simple dog could find love. With this film, I never believed that the frogs were ever in love. Every time they tried to show the heroes in love, I never believed it. To me the film never could recover from this massive failure.
2. The "PC" message. Disney had been criticized by a few people that they have never had an African-American princess as the main star of one of its films. In this attempt to accomplish that, they took out anything that might offend and in the end they did not offend anyone but everyone. I could see a great film here, but by trying not to anger anybody, the film never takes shape and we are left with a "pc" mess that never lives up to its true potential.
3. The Villain: In this film, the villain is Dr. Facilier (voiced by Keith David), a shady New Orleans gent who dabbles in dark arts. In Disney's past films, we have been shown truly evil lions, cats or humans who you would never cheer for. In this film, we are given a joke that never made me fear him. I was treating him as a bad joke and the film never worked as a love story or why you should fear this bogeyman.
The one saving grace about this film was the sidekick. A jazz-loving alligator named Louis (Voiced by Michael-Leon Wooley. Every time he was in the film, I wanted the film to be about him and not what the film was supposed to be about, finding ones true love.
In the end, I liked the film for the alligator only. The rest, I could have done without. Please pass on this film when it arrives in South Korea on 21 January, 2010.
Grade. D
[from trailer]
Princess Tiana: Just one kiss?
Prince Naveen: Just one, unless you beg for more.
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