Taking A Step Forward While Taking A Step Back

Today's post is a review of Disney's The Princess And The Frog.  I chose the fractal AraMagic 3 because it's green and fancy.  If the connection between the image and movie isn't obvious it should be by the end of the review.
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Disney takes a step forward even as it takes a step back with it's latest feature The Princess And The Frog.  The step forward is featuring the first black "Princess."  The step back is returning to what made the company famous--hand drawn animation with little or no computer assistance.  What came from this union is an entirely mixed bag.
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The story centers around Tiana, (voice of Anika Noni Rose) a hard-working young lady who dreams of owning and running her own restaurant in early 20th Century New Orleans.  Her best friend Charolotte (Jennifer Cody) is a spoiled, rich white girl who wants to marry a Prince--and gets her chance with the arrival of Prince Naveen (voiced by Bruno Campos).  Naveen is a wastrel who has been cut off by his parents runs afould of black (in more ways than one) magician Dr. Facilier (Keith David) who conspires to turn the Prince into a frog.  A case of mistaken identity causes Tiana to be turned into a frog which sets the pair on a long road to happily-ever-after.  Tiana learns to open up to love, Naveen learns responsibility and the friendly animals get their rewards in the end--as it should be ina Disney cartoon.
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The voice cast is good to excelent (check out the many celebrity cameos) and they all do a find job with what htey are given.  The songs by Randy Newman, alas, are pretty forgetable: you won't see any of them picking up awards at Oscar time.  The animation style is nicely rendered (if a bit stylized for my taste) but it manages to nicely convey the feel  Girls are more likely to go for the story than their brothers but there is enough here to keep the adults in the audience happy.  (There are a couple of "throw away" jokes sure to go over the heads of the kiddies--and that's a good thing.)  There are a few mildly scary moments that might be too much for younger children with delicate sensibilities but there's something here for the rest of the family.
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Is The Princess And The Frog one of the great animated movies?  No--but it's pretty darn good.  There is action a-plenty, a love story and a nice moral all wrapped up in a neat, pretty little package.  I hope it does well enough at the Box Office to encourage Disney to do more "old school" animation projects.  (CGI is great but there's a certain magic that only hand-drawn animation can bring.)
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FINAL GRADE: A