The Princess and the Frog

***The Princess and the Frog*** is a 2009 American animated musical film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. It is the 49th Disney animated feature film. It is based on *The Frog Princess,* which is an adaptation of *The Frog Prince*.

The film was directed by John Musker and Ron Clements and produced by Peter Del Vecho, from a screenplay that Musker and Clements co-wrote with Rob Edwards. The directors also co-wrote the story with the writing team of Greg Erb and Jason Oremland.

## Plot

Set in the 1920s in New Orleans, Tiana is completely devoted to opening her own restaurant, a dream she shared with her late father, who died in World War I. She works two waitress jobs every day and night to earn money to make this dream a reality, leaving her no time for a social life.

Meanwhile, Naveen, the spoiled and arrogant prince of Maldonia, arrives in New Orleans, where, being financially cut off from his family's fortune by his parents, he intends to marry the rich Charlotte La Bouff, who is known to be Tiana's best friend. Her father, wealthy Eli "Big Daddy" La Bouff, hosts a masquerade ball in Naveen's honor, for which Charlotte hires Tiana to make beignets, offering her enough to buy a dilapidated mill to convert into her dream restaurant. Naveen and his valet, Lawrence, encounter Dr Facilier, a voodoo witch doctor, who tricks them into a fortune reading. Then, he transforms Naveen into a frog and gives Lawrence Naveen's appearance through a voodoo talisman containing Naveen's blood. Facilier intends for the disguised Lawrence to marry Charlotte, then to kill her father with a voodoo doll so he can gain the La Bouff fortune.

At the ball, Tiana is told by the realtors, the Fenner Brothers, that she has been outbid for the mill. Despondent, Tiana wishes on the evening star for her dream to come true. She then meets Naveen in frog form who, believing her to be a princess, asks for a kiss to break Facilier's spell. Tiana reluctantly accepts after Naveen promises to finance her restaurant. However, Tiana transforms into a frog because she is not a princess. The two are chased into a bayou where they meet a trumpet-playing alligator named Louis, who dreams of playing jazz. After informing Louis they are actually humans under a voodoo spell, he tells them of Mama Odie, another voodoo practitioner who lives in the bayou and they all go in search of her.

They are guided to Mama Odie by a Cajun firefly named Ray, who is enamored with the Evening Star, believing it is a firefly named "Evangeline," as no one has the heart to tell him otherwise. During the journey, Tiana and Naveen fend off a group of hunters and begin developing feelings for each other, especially after the latter learns to be a more responsible human being. Meanwhile, the talisman disguising Lawrence as Naveen needs more of Naveen's blood or Lawrence will return to his normal appearance. Discovering Naveen has escaped, Facilier asks his "friends on the other side" (a legion of voodoo spirits) to help retrieve him, offering them the souls of the people of New Orleans in exchange, and they grant him an army of shadow demons to do his bidding. The demons discover Tiana and her group in the bayou, although they are rescued by Mama Odie.

Mama Odie tells Naveen the spell can only be broken with a princess's kiss. They realize that as Big Daddy has been crowned Mardi Gras king, Charlotte will be a princess until midnight. The group hitches a ride on a paddle steamer back to New Orleans, during which Naveen tells Ray about his love for Tiana and plans to propose marriage to her, although after talking to her, he selflessly decides against it since transforming him and Tiana into humans and financing Tiana's restaurant is contingent on him kissing and marrying Charlotte. The shadow demons find and capture Naveen and bring him to Facilier, who uses his blood to replenish the talisman. After hearing from Ray how Naveen feels about her, Tiana heads to the Mardi Gras parade to find him, only to see Lawrence, masquerading as Naveen, marrying Charlotte. Heartbroken and now believing she will forever be a frog, Tiana flees the scene.

Ray rescues the real Naveen and steals the talisman, which he gives to Tiana before Facilier mortally wounds him. Facilier offers to make Tiana's dream come true in exchange for the talisman. Realizing she would rather be with Naveen and that she would be dishonoring her father by accepting, Tiana destroys it. With Facilier's plan foiled, the former voodoo spirits accomplice drag him into their world for failing to pay back his debt. After Lawrence is exposed and arrested, Tiana reveals her love to Naveen and Charlotte agrees to kiss Naveen so he and Tiana can be human, but the clock strikes midnight and the kiss fails. Ray dies shortly thereafter and during his funeral a new star appears next to Evangeline. Tiana and Naveen are married by Madam Odie, and since doing so makes Tiana a princess, both are restored to human form after their kiss. They later return to New Orleans to legally marry and open their restaurant together, with Louis playing in the band.

## Cast

* Anika Noni Rose as Tiana
* Bruno Campos as Prince Naveen
* Michael Leon-Wooley as Louis
* Jim Cummings as Ray
* Keith David as Dr Facilier
* Jenifer Lewis as Mama Odie
* Jennifer Cody as Charlotte La Bouff
* Peter Bartlett as Lawrence
* Oprah Winfrey as Eudora
* Terrence Howard as James
* John Goodman as Eli La Bouff
* Ritchie Montgomery as Reggie
* Don Hall as Darnell
* Paul Briggs as Two-Fingers
* Corey Burton and Jerry Kernion as the Fenner Brothers
* Kevin Michael Richardson as Ian
* Emeril Lagasse as Marlon

## Production

### Setting

The film's story began development by merging two projects in development at Disney and Pixar at the time, both based around "The Frog Prince" fairy tale. *The Princess and the Frog* returns to the musical film format used in many of the previously successful Disney animated films, with a style John Musker and Ron Clements declared, like with *Aladdin* and *The Little Mermaid*, had inspiration from Golden Age Disney features such as *Cinderella* (1950).

Musker and Clements thought that given so many fairy tales were set in Europe, they could do an American fairy tale. They stated that they chose New Orleans as a tribute to the history of the city, for its "magical" qualities, and because it was Lasseter's favorite city. The directors spent ten days in Louisiana before starting to write the film.

The head of story, Don Hall, described the plot as a fairy tale "twisted enough that it seems new and fresh", with a kingdom that is a modern city, a handsome prince that is a "knuckleheaded playboy" and a variation on the fairy godmother with Mama Odie. Co-writer Rob Edwards also said *The Princess and the Frog* was "a princess movie for people who don't like princess movies". As the writers thought Tiana's character motivation of simply dreaming of having her own restaurant was not appealing enough, they expanded so it was her father's as well, with the extra philosophy of "food bringing people together from all walks of life". Tiana became the first African-American Disney Princess.

## Reception

### Box office

On its limited day release, the film grossed $263,890 at two theaters and grossed $786,190 its opening weekend. On its opening day in wide release, the film grossed $7 million at 3,434 theaters. It went on to gross $24.2 million over the opening weekend averaging $7,050 per theater, ranking at #1 for the weekend, and making it the highest-grossing opening to date for an animated movie in December (a record previously held by *Beavis and Butt-Head Do America* from 1996). The film went on to gross $271 million worldwide. It was the fifth-highest-grossing animated film of 2009, which was deemed an underachievement by Disney's standards. Overall, the film was considered a qualified commercial success against greater production and pre-release hop

### Critical

Rotten Tomatoes reported the film has an 85% approval rating based on 201 reviews, with an average rating of 7.4/10. The site's general consensus is that "The warmth of traditional Disney animation makes this occasionally lightweight fairy-tale update a lively and captivating confection for the holidays." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 73 out of 100 based on 29 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

Lisa Schwarzbaum of *Entertainment Weekly* gave the film an "A" grade and applauded the film's creative team for "uphold[ing] the great tradition of classic Disney animation". Kirk Honeycutt of *The Hollywood Reporter* praised Walt Disney Animation for "rediscovering its traditional hand-drawn animation" and for "a thing called story". David Germain of the *Associated Press* wrote that "*The Princess and the Frog* is not the second coming of *Beauty and the Beast* or *The Lion King*. It's just plain pleasant, an old-fashioned little charmer that's not straining to be the next glib animated compendium of pop-culture flotsam."

## Sources

1. ↑ Disney Goes Traditional For "Princess". *Dark Horizons* (July 27, 2006).
2. ↑ Klubien, Jorgen. Miscellaneous.
3. ↑ Gilchrist, Todd (October 23, 2009). Interview: 'Princess and the Frog' Directors Ron Clements and John Musker. *Moviefone*.
4. ↑ Nittle, Nadra Kareem (November 23, 2009). The Word on the "Princess and the Frog," Disney's First Film With a Black Heroine.
5. ↑ Bell, Robert (February 2010). The Princess and the Frog Directed by Ron Clements & John Musker.
6. ↑ Misick, Bobbi (Nov 30, 2009). Controversy Over *The Princess and the Frog*. *Essence.com*.
7. ↑ The Princess and the Frog (2009). *The Numbers*. Nash Information Services.