‘The Princess and the Frog’
3 out of 5 Stars
Voice Stars: Anika Noni Rose, Bruno Campos, John Goodman, Keith David, Jim Cummings, Jenifer Lewis
Directors: John Musker, Ron Clements
Rated G.
Running Time: 95 minutes
“The Princess and the Frog” returns Disney to traditional, hand-drawn animation with a mash-up of Grimm’s fairy tale and New Orleans in its Jazz Age prime. It’s a big, easy family musical sure to please multigenerational crowds looking for formulaic, toe-tapping fun over the holidays.
But multiculturalism is its main promotional hook. The feature cartoon follows “Mulan” and “Pocahontas,” similarly self-conscious efforts to acknowledge diversity. Here, the title’s tiara wearer Tiana, voiced by fine singer/actress Anika Noni Rose, is the first African-American protagonist ever to help warp female expectations that someday our prince will come. (That he will also snore, pass gas, grow a beer gut and watch football all weekend is never mentioned.)
By making such a big deal about this princess’s ethnic identity — for calculated marketing reasons rather than altruism, one suspects — Disney invites scrutiny of its politically correct subtext.
Though the movie works as a buoyant revision of the fable about a frog with a royal provenance transformed by a magic kiss, director-writers John Musker and Ron Clements have not fashioned a consummate representation of a race.
The strongest black supporting characters are associated with “black” magic, Dr. Facilier (Keith David) and Mama Odie (Jenifer Lewis, delivering the film’s best song, “Dig a Little Deeper”). Since the voodoo turns both handsome Prince Naveen (Bruno Campos) and hardworking waitress/princess-to-be Tiana into frogs, our black female hero spends most of the proceedings as a green amphibian. And though the homogenized Dixieland/blues/zydeco soundtrack by Randy Newman (“Cars”) is infectious and accessible, it is Southern Louisiana roots music without the color, literally. (Where’s a Marsalis when you need one?)
Disney continues to do better with its animal characters than its human ones. A rich white father and his spoiled daughter (John Goodman and Jennifer Cody) get more fleshed out as plot devices than do Tiana’s passive mother (Oprah Winfrey) and quickly killed-off father (Terrence Howard). But a hilarious Cajun firefly Ray (Jim Cummings) — imagine James Carville with wings but fewer teeth — and a trumpet-playing bayou alligator Louis (Michael-Leon Wooley) steal the show.
Not computerized or 3-D, there is a beautiful retro richness to the animation that has been missing lately. It adds a soulfulness to an effort that, whatever the motives and however insensitive at times, will have a positive effect. A 3-year-old African-American girl dressed up like this “Princess” at a recent screening was squealing and dancing with delight.
