Review Fridays
The Frog Princess

Trailer

Overview (No spoilers)

When I still had my free Netflix trial I watched The Frog Princess on instant streaming. As I suspected from the trailer, it wasn't my favorite Disney film. There wasn't a good enough balance of humor and dark, even with the voodoo guy, there was an overabundance of comic relief. And with the exception of The Lion King and Lady and the Tramp, Disney films about mainly animals are all like this. The problem is that animals in Disney films are always the plucky comic relief, and in this film they were practically all animals, so they were all plucky comic relief. Overall, it wasn't the worst Disney film I've ever seen (that's still The Black Cauldron), but its claims of bringing back the Disney magic are highly overrated. However, I do have high hopes for the newest Disney film, Tangled. It annoys me that they didn't call it Rapunzel, but it looks really good otherwise. I've been waiting for them to do Rapunzel since I was eight years old. But my feelings for that are for another post.

Spoilers

I liked the theme of hard work not being the only thing important in life because it is so valued and even though we shouldn't be too lazy, like the prince, it was a good idea to point out that it could be just as much a waste to think that your work is the only thing important in your life. It sounds cheesy and cliché but love is the most important thing in life. Still, 'I think it would have served the theme better if they had fleshed out the characters a little more.

I would also be very disappointed if I was an African American girl and I had been waiting this long for an African American Disney Princess--just to have them turn her into a frog for 90% of the film! To be fair, I don't think Disney did this on purpose for any actual racial reasons. I think it was just a stupid decision and would have been regardless of race. But it also means that Nala remains just as much an African Princess as Tiana (And Nala's the cooler of the two).

None of the songs did it for me either, and those are a big part of any Disney film. On one hand, it's not really my type of music. But nor was the kind in Toy Story, and I still loved You've Got a Friend in Me.

Despite this film being overly humorous, I will admit the shadow voodoo creatures were probably one of the scariest things I've seen in a Disney film. So that was cool. There needed to be more of that and less talking animals and bugs. Although, I confess, I did cry when Ray died.