The Princess and the Frog Movie Review

The real question here is: Will Princess Tiana join the ranks of the legendary and adored Princesses of Disney’s past?

A friend of mine, who liked the movie, said no. She claims that deep down in the hearts of all little girls is the deepest yearning for a prince to come charging in on his white stead, sweep the princess off her feet, and save the day before living happily ever after. But that’s not really the formula of this movie.

The story is told from Tiana’s perspective - working hard to make her and her deceased father’s dream of owning a world class restaurant a reality. She works two jobs and has no time for fun or a social life. Next enters Prince Naveen - a lighthearted, lazy man of royalty. He has been “cut off” from his parents fortune until he marries; leading him to New Orleans to seek a wealthy bride. So looking for a quick fix as all lighthearted and lazy men do, Prince Naveen runs into the villain of our tale, Dr. Facilier or better known as the Shadow Man, and the story progresses from there.

The Princess and the Frog teaches many valuable lessons that may have been left out of previous Disney movies which I applaud; such as the benefit of working hard, and the value of having love in your life being more important than money or material wealth, even at the cost of your biggest dreams. Messages that are true and worthy in a children’s film, but it isn’t a Princess’ fairy tale, not according to little girls around the world anyways.

So the second question posed here is: Does Prince Naveen live up to the name of a true Prince Charming enabling Tiana to become a lasting Princess? Sure he’s charming, cute, and flirtatious, but he’s also lazy and unskilled. He does learn some valuable lessons along the way and has a change of heart strengthening his character, but he never really “saves the day”. That unsavory task is left to Tiana, the Princess herself, and to a funnier and more lovable character named Raymond, who everyone just calls Ray.

In my humble opinion Ray stole the show. Like so many side Disney character’s from the past, they have a habit of nearly outshining the main characters with their lovability. Ray brings to my mind the controversy that raged when The Little Mermaid was released about Sebastian. He was such a lovable character you almost forgot about the plights of the main characters. But in that case his lovability only heightened the overall experience, where here, in a weaker movie, Ray really steals the show. This is not necessarily a bad thing - in fact its the only thing that saved this movie in my opinion.

For all the “Ups” in this film, there where also quite a few “downs” that almost blew out the flame of this movie that Ray was luckily able to relight and strengthen. Were Ray revived the film, Louis the crocodile nearly killed it. To anyone who is a fan of MGM and Don Bluth’s much loved All Dogs Go to Heaven; Louis the Crocodile left a bad taste in my mouth. It was far too close to the music loving King Gator crocodile from All Dogs Go To Heaven. Even down to the line “Where have you been all my life?” - ugh. Luckily Ray was so lovable that he cast his shadow over Louis, helping me forget his plagiaristic existence. Along with Louis’ failure, this story’s villain fell a little short as well. He just wasn’t as epic a villain as Maleficent, Jafar, and Ursula the Sea Witch. Sure he had an evil plan full of trickery and his shadowy minions may be too scary for some of the younger viewers out there, but Dr. Facilier (a name I couldn’t even remember when writing this article) just didn’t join the ranks of the true villains of Disney’s past.

So the the real question remains: Does Tiana deserve the title of “Disney Princess”? A title that places her next to Bell and Aurora. It’s your call and only time will tell. In the mean time though, this question will surely encourage fierce debate. But either way, all this talk will surely skyrocket the sales of the Disney Princess Line of toys. Heck my 20 year old cousin got a Princess Bell toy set for Christmas this year. So already we are seeing the financial fallout of the addition of a new princess. The first addition in 17 years is an exciting thing wether you are for or against her entrance into the Princess’ Hall.

The Princess and the Frog was worth my time and my money, and I will look forward to seeing it again one day; but is it really one I want to watch repeatedly for all time? Doubtful.



Thanks for reading! =)


-Seth William Hornbrook