Movie Review: The Princess and the Frog (2009, Directed by Ron Clements and John Musker)

I am not a part of the target audience for the new Disney animated (not computer-generated) film The Princess and the Frog. I was mildly amused with the film’s New Orleans milieu early on. However, the stereotypes about jazz, gumbo, and voodoo became tiresome very quickly. None of the songs were memorable to me. I am happy that the film features an African-American protagonist for the first time in … well … ever, and I like the play with gender roles and expectations that seems to be occurring on some level. I hope that the cultural differences between The Princess and the Frog and princess stories from the past will be beneficial in some way for the film’s target demographic. As for me, I’ll take the bold maturity and visual splendor of the best Pixar films like Up, WALL-E, and Ratatouille any day over this bunch of magic kingdom boredom.