The Princess and the Frog is a refreshing return to classic animation for Disney. This movie adds a unique flavor to a popular fairy tale. It may be a little too intense for small children, though. Also, the musical numbers were fun, but not that memorable. I wouldn't put this up with the Disney "classics," but it's definitely an entertaining family movie.

Disney's return to long form 2D animation was short lived in this updating of The Frog Princess. The story is set in 1920s New Orleans as a visiting prince is turned into a frog by voodoo, who ends up in adventures with waitress Tiana (also turned into a frog) who always dreamed of opening her own restaurant.The 2D style of animation actually takes some getting used to, there are some nice visualized sequences, it is an easy going story. Some of the characters reminded me of characters from other Disney cartoons however the songs and music were a bit bland.

Movie Review: "The Princess And The Frog" (2009)After being behind expectations with distribution of "Treasure Planet" in holiday season 2002/2003 with a visually overly-done twist on the classic tale by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) "Treasure Island", while Pixar features as "Monsters Inc." (2001), "Finding Nemo" (2003) and "The Incredibles" (2004) take over the animated feature world of pleasure-seeking audiences domestically as internationally; Disney Animation Studios under CEO Bob A. Iger decided to solve the problem by incorporating the whole company of Pixar Animation in 2006 into Disney Enterprises.Nevertheless the bold business move in order to secure Disney's frontrunning position in any field of motion picture animation brings a classical branch to an end with this last fulfilling handly-drawn, traditional-looking, highly atmospheric animated adventurous tragic-comic movie, including the obligatory dancing and singing acts set in early 20th century New Orleans, Louisiana, with another daring twist on a classic fairy tale; this time an high-concept interpretation of "The Frog Prince" from the Brother Grimm's collection of tales conceived in the Mid-of-1850s somewhere in Germany; then bodly translated in a painstaking process over five years with a full-developing production period, spreading from 2004 to 2009 by the never-giving-in writing, directing duo of Ron Clements & John Musker, who are also responsible for the action-adventure-comedies "Aladdin" (1992) and more recently with the highly accomplished digital animation feature "Moana" (2016)."The Princess And The Frog" streams passion from every frame, loving its artform matter of traditional analog animation, which even in the best sense under a tightly-calculated budget of just 105 Million U.S. Dollars over 140 Million U.S. Dollars for "Treasure Planet" (2002) seven years earlier, while digital competitors, usually with a shorter production time-frame completing their schedule from shooting draft to the final release in less then three years, here receive actually close-to a doubled-budget as Pixar's "Up" released in summer time of the same year of 2009, before a year later Disney's "Tangled" (2010) pushed the budget-ladder to never-reached again heights of a 260 Million U.S. Dollars production expenses for a single animated feature.In case of "The Princess And The Frog", the meticulous dedication as to say passion for all-time Walt Disney classics as "Pinocchio" (1940) or "Bambi" (1942) emotionally out-going from the entire production team gets evidence in a classic-Hollywood-paced editorial by Jeff Draheim between a singing, dancing and acting the way through life main character, here with another daydreaming, yet hardworking afro-american waitress Tiana, longing for a restaurant of her own. She meets the Frog eventually on a Southern-fashionable stylish ball in tinted into earthy-colors of symmetry and great add-on digital shading effects before embarking of the adventure of a life-time into the swamps of Louisiana, meeting scary as lovable creatures of the night as show-stealing trumpet-playing Crocodile Louis, animated in the most accomplished manner since crocodiles chasing hippos in Walt Disney's "Fantasia" (1940), here portrayed with a convincing voice by vocal artist Michael-Leon Wooley.Together they confront the grey-area-indulging character of Dr. Facilier, in looks and mimical gestures too close to the character of Jafar from "Aladdin" (1992) to be fully orginally, but nevertheless actor Keith David presents himself in joyful vocal-performing moods to live up to the task in constant-transforming production design interiors of the picture-defining musical act "Friends from the Other Side" with music created by long-time Disney-as-Pixar-movies-enchanting composer Randy Newman, who righteously earned two Oscar Nominations for Original Song, especially for accompanying the visually most-striking scene by re-utilizing special layering effects in golden 1920s art-déco styles, homaging early motion picture history of silent era, while the character of Tiana sings the utmost of charms and happiness-spreading main title of "Almost There".© 2018 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)

I am very disappointed in Disney for this film. Here we have Disney's first Black/African American princess and she's poor, almost like a servant to a white blonde haired woman and she spends 96% of the movie as a frog! On top of that the movie is scary and dark, the songs aren't memorable (the music is an important part of Disney, I was just so upset that I couldn't remember one song after leaving the theater) and the characters and their drawls is just unsettling. If I recall correctly some were missing teeth and had the most obnoxious offensive accents that you could give a character in a movie about a black princess. The animation was not breathtaking as many of Disney's movies usually are. The animation was flat and dry.Why couldn't the princess marry a black man? Most of all the Disney princesses have married/fell in love with someone of their race with the exception of Pocahontas which is historically based so it does not count. They could have made a beautiful princess and give her an interesting and intriguing background and setting. I can't stand that they went to New Orleans for this one, just why? Disney should just erase Tiana, pretend like she never existed and start from scratch completely. This princess deserves better than that.