Disney welcomes its latest addition: Princess Tiana

Disney’s latest film, The Princess and the Frog has all the components of a traditional fairy-tale but with many new twists.

According to Disney, The Princess and the Frog marks the return of the use of 2-D animation. This means that the artist used traditional pencil and paper to hand draw characters, which were then scanned into computers and animated.

This movie is loosely based on E.D. Baker’s novel, “The Frog Princess.” In this version of the well-known story, Disney presents the newest addition to the royal family, Princess Tiana, who is voiced by actress Anika Noni Rose. Tiana takes a special role in the Disney family as being the first African-American princess.

Throughout the movie Tiana is extremely hard-working and goal-orientated. Unlike many of the previous princesses, Tiana was not reliant on her prince to save her; rather she had a greater role in his aid.
The only other princess to possess these characteristics was Mulan.

Going along with the idea of breaking down boundaries while shifting the focus away from race, the prince, Prince Naveen is from Maldonia and does not identify with any specific ethnic group; he is actually a mixture of different cultures.

The setting for this enchanted tale is in the southeastern city of New Orleans, La. during the roaring 20s. This is one of the few Disney movies that have a set time period. From jazzy tunes to voodoo magic, the movie does a great job of encompassing the unique and distinctive culture of the French Quarter in Louisiana.

In the film, there is a close focus on the individual lives of Tiana and the Prince Naveen. During his stay in the city, Prince Naveen encounters the mystic voodoo villain, the Shadow Man. He soon finds himself under a spell of bad voodoo magic that turns him into a frog. To transform back into a human he must find a princess to kiss.

He mistakes Tiana, an ordinary hard working girl, for a princess, which causes the spell to backfire and turns Tiana into a frog too. In hope of the reversing the spell, both characters undergo a musical journey throughout the Louisiana bayou in search of Mama Odie, a voodoo priestess.

And a Disney film would not be complete without loveable and helpful characters to help them along the way, such as Louis the jazz singing alligator and Ray the Cajun firefly.

The moral of this tale is more modern than previous Disney films; it stresses the importance of hard work and sacrifice to reach one’s dreams. It manages to deliver this important message without making it too complicated for any audience. This movie is a comedic-romance that also shows the value of good friends.

Superstars Oprah Winfrey and Terrence Howard lend their voices as the characters, Eudora and James, Tiana’s parents. The production staff also contains great Disney and Pixar Animators such as Randy Cartwright and Tim Allen, whose previous works include Polar Express, The Corpse Bride and The Lion King.

The film’s soundtrack consists of ten original songs and seven score pieces, including one by Grammy Award-winning artist Ne-Yo titled, “Never Knew I Needed.

The Princess and the Frog is a great rendition of the original story. The movie exceeds what many people expected of this twist on the classic tale and is another great addition to Disney’s vault of family classics.