There isn’t a song, gag, art design, character, moral or plot point in “The Princess and the Frog” that doesn’t seem patently borrowed, adapted and simplified from every other Disney movie ever.
But you know what? I don’t care.
“The Princess and the Frog” is highly watchable, charming, artistic, amusing and funny in the spirit of any of the Disney classics I grew up with as a kid. The film is done in a stunning, colorful 2-D. It has a textbook, but workable story structure. It forces its audience to think, engage with the characters, feel emotions and do it all simply. It does everything an animated movie was supposed to do before chaotic digitally animated action sequences took over or before Pixar made their kids movies a little too smart and started scaring lackadaisical parents and their kids back to the former. Continue reading “The Princess and the Frog”