Welcome to My Official Web Page!

Welcome to My Official Web Page!

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Aussies and The Princess & The Frog

Every Australian I've ever met is tinged with a little crazy (they have to be to eat Vegemite) and so, without further ado, I bring you two new blogs from Down Under!

First, I love Gary Corby's blog simply because of the name: A Dead Man Fell From the Sky. The title comes from a portion of his Ancient Greek mystery due out this fall. I plan to be the first to preorder!

Second, Jade is a self-proclaimed crazy Aussie. Her blog is titled Jade Hears Voices and all of her posts make me laugh like a loon. Wait, do loons laugh? Hmmm...


And now let the serious blogging commence.

Saturday night my husband and I took the three-year-old monkey to see Disney's The Princess & The Frog. I honestly wasn't expecting much based on Disney's performance in the last decade- only their movies wedded to Pixar have been worth the price of the ticket.

But all I can say after seeing this one is wow. It was great! About halfway through I realized it was good and starting thinking about why this was better than say, Brother Bear. Here's what I came up with.

Setting- The movie is set in New Orleans and the bayous of Louisiana, both lending themselves to some great creative effects.
Stunning Effects- This was superb animation with vibrant effects, especially during the songs. They're like metaphors in a book, making a scene really pop.
Dialogue- The spoken lines were snappy, not a single one superfluous.
Humor- The movie was pretty hilarious. I just about died when some frog-hunters from the bayou popped up and one only had two fingers. Of course, these hicks from the sticks weren't the sharpest tools in the shed.
Antagonist- Dr. Facilier was evil and his song numbers were excellent. Of course, in typical Disney fashion he was pure evil, with no redeeming qualities.
Characters- Both Tiana and Prince Naveen were fleshed out, as close to 3D as you can get in an animated feature. I actually like Tiana the best out of all the Disney heroines. (See next bullet.) And the secondary characters were great, especially the almost two-hundred-year old, blind voodoo witch, Mama Odie.
Deeper Message- The message of the movie is to work hard (Tiana) and enjoy life (Naveen). It was refreshing to see a Disney heroine whose whole conflict wasn't her rebeling against her parents or searching for a man to save her.
Emotion- There was one scene toward the end that made me a little teary-eyed. And then I looked over to see my daughter crying. Dude, she's three! Yeah, Disney's that good.

So, if you're not adverse to kid's movies and you want a cute story, I highly recommend The Princess and the Frog. It's definitely one of my new favorites, ranking up there with Aladdin and Alice & Wonderland.

What's your favorite Disney movie?