The Second Renaissance
Since the revival of Disney animation in the late 1980s, the studio had (occasionally) strived towards crafting animated films featuring more diverse characters to juxtapose the decades of exclusively white narratives of Disney’s past. While the animation studio had delivered their first Asian and Native American heroines in Mulan and Pocahontas respectively, the studio had yet to produce an animated feature film headlined by an African American, either male or female.
To put it mildly, Disney’s history with its depiction of people of colour was far from stellar (Song of the South, anyone?), yet the studio still hadn’t made any inroads with correcting the mistakes of the past. When Disney launched its wildly popular Disney Princess merchandise line in 1999 (which originally featured Esmerelda from The Hunchback of Notre Dame until she was unceremoniously dumped in 2004 due to poor sales), it was obvious the range of products lacked one important element; a black princess. It would take another decade before her arrival.
In 2002, then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner announced the end of the studio’s commitment to producing traditionally animated feature films, with 2004’s Home on the Range intended to stand as Disney’s final film created in the classic “hand-drawn” style. Animators were fired or retrained in computer animation. Equipment was dismantled and sold off. And fans mourned the painful loss of an art form Disney had defined 65 years earlier.
But when former Disney chairman Roy E. Disney’s “Save Disney” campaign successfully removed Eisner from power in 2005, many hoped incoming CEO Bob Iger might feel differently towards Disney’s tradition animation legacy. When Roy returned to the studio as a creative consultant, he begged Iger to allow the animation department one more attempt at resurrecting traditional animation. In 2006, newly-minted Chief Creative Officer of Walt Disney Feature Animation John Lasseter agreed with Roy and convinced Iger to reverse Eisner’s decision.
With the traditional animation department reinstated, Lasseter rehired many veteran Disney animators who had left the studio in recent years, including Eric Goldberg, Mark Henn, Andreas Deja, Bruce W. Smith, and Chris Buck. As fate would have it, both Disney and Pixar were currently developing projects adapted from the Brothers Grimm fairy tale The Frog Prince. However, Disney’s adaptation was based on E.D. Baker’s 2002 children’s novel The Frog Princess, in which the titular princess kisses a prince-turned-frog and becomes a frog herself.
Lasseter decided to cancel Pixar’s project and greenlight Disney’s adaptation and began the hunt for someone to direct the studio’s return to hand-drawn animation, with his sights firmly set on a pair of directors who had fled Disney one year earlier. After the cataclysmic failure of their 2002 big-budget animated space adventure Treasure Planet, directors Ron Clements and John Musker had resigned from Disney in September 2005, after then-president of Walt Disney Feature Animation refused to greenlight their next project, Fraidy Cat.
While Treasure Planet was an unfortunate misstep, Clements and Musker had directed two of Disney’s most successful animated films in The Little Mermaid and Aladdin, and Lasseter was keen to bring the pair back to the studio to co-write and co-direct The Frog Princess. When they both agreed, Lasseter offered them the choice of producing the film in either traditional animation or CGI, with the duo unsurprisingly choosing the former.
While the majority of Disney’s princess films were set in Europe, Clements and Musker wanted to craft an American fairy tale, with the directors choosing to set the film in New Orleans as a tribute to the city and its magical qualities. In Baker’s original novel, the titular princess was named Emma, but the directors felt a New Orleans “princess” would work best as an African American female, thus creating Disney’s very first black princess in the form of a chambermaid named Maddy.
At The Walt Disney Company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in March 2007, Clements and Musker presented early story concepts, sketches, and songs for The Frog Princess, which were met with immediate criticism from African-American media outlets. Many felt the name Maddy was too similar to the derogatory term “mammy,” which was the racist stereotypical archetype applied to female black slaves who worked for white families in the early 20th century. This was only further compounded by Clements and Musker’s decision to have Maddy work as a maid. Some journalists also questioned if it was appropriate to set a film in New Orleans in the wake of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. And some even felt the title could be misconstrued as a slur on French people.
While Disney rarely bowed to feedback from outside its studio walls, Clements and Musker understood the project needed to be reworked to avoid facing further backlash over the concept. As such, the title was changed to The Princess and the Frog and Maddy’s name was altered to Tiana, who would now be a hard-working waitress and chef, with dreams of one day opening her own restaurant. The pair even hired television legend and equal rights activist Oprah Winfrey as a technical consultant in a bid to avoid further racial problems with the film’s narrative and setting.
To combat the negative reaction to the New Orleans setting of The Princess and the Frog, Clements and Musker became determined for the film to stand as a loving tribute to a city struggling to recover from its darkest moment.
THE STORY
In 1912 New Orleans, a girl named Tiana and her friend Charlotte La Bouff listen to Tiana's mother read the story of The Frog Prince. Charlotte, a believer in true love, finds the story romantic; Tiana declares she will never kiss a frog.
In 1926, Tiana has grown into an aspiring young chef who works as a waitress for two local diners, so she can save enough money to start her own restaurant, a dream she shared with her father, who, apparently, died in World War I.
Prince Naveen of Maldonia arrives in New Orleans to better his financial situation. After being cut off by his parents for being a philanderer and spendthrift, Naveen intends to marry a rich Southern belle, and Charlotte is the perfect candidate. Eli "Big Daddy" La Beouff, a rich sugar baron and Charlotte's father, hosts a masquerade ball in Naveen's honor. Charlotte hires Tiana to make beignets for the ball, giving her enough money to buy an old sugar mill to convert into her restaurant. Meanwhile, Naveen and his valet, Lawrence, meet a voodoo witch doctor, Dr. Facilier. Inviting them into his emporium, Facilier convinces them that he can make their dreams come true, but neither gets what he is expecting.
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Once the film was announced and it became evident Disney was on the hunt for someone to voice its first black princess, the studio was inundated with offers from black female actors and musicians to fill the role. Music superstar Beyoncé contacted Disney and asked to be considered for the role. However, when she refused to audition for the part, Disney politely declined. Everyone from Alicia Keys to Tyra Banks was considered for the part, but it came down to Dreamgirls co-stars Anika Noni Rose and Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson.
While Hudson had the vocal chops for the role, the studio felt Rose (whose vocals were equally impressive) perfectly captured the heart of Tiana in her audition and offered the actor the part. In a later interview, Rose called the opportunity to bring Disney’s first black princess to life “a dream I never thought would come true.” Mark Henn was assigned as the supervising animator for Tiana’s with the animator incorporating Anika’s trademark dimples into Tiana’s design. At Rose’s suggestion, Henn also made Tiana left-handed to match her voiceover artist.
For the role of the film’s voodoo bokor villain Dr. Facilier, Musker and Clements hired veteran Disney actor Keith David to bring the antagonist to life. The character’s design was crafted by Bruce W. Smith, who described the villain as the “lovechild” of Captain Hook and Cruella de Vil. For the role of the scene-stealing Cajun firefly Ray, the filmmakers turned to veteran Disney voiceover artist Jim Cummings, the voice behind iconic characters like Winnie the Pooh and Tigger. Cummings grew up in New Orleans and was able to easily create an authentic Cajun accent.
After initially joining the production as a creative consultant, Oprah was the natural choice to voice Tiana’s doting mother, Eudora. Veteran Broadway performer Jenifer Lewis was cast to voice Mama Odie, a blind, 197-year-old voodoo priestess. Mama Odie was partly inspired by iconic New Orleans storyteller Coleen Salley, who consulted on the film until her death in late 2008. Lewis based her eccentric performance on American stand-up comedian Moms Mabley. Animator Andreas Deja was assigned the task of creating Mama Odie and based her character designs on Mabley and, oddly enough, Yoda.
MY VERDICT
This film is brilliant in more ways than I can count. The animation is incredible, making New Orleans look like the party capital of the USA. The music is amazing, since it was written by Randy Newman, I’m not even surprised; though I am thankful he didn’t sing most of it. The voice cast is perfect. Anika Noni Rose plays Tiana with the determination, grit and yet incredible fragility and grace that befits a lady of that time period. Jennifer Cody as Charlotte aka ‘Lotte, is the comedic highlight of the film, almost everything she does, especially in the beginning, makes me laugh HARD. Keith David as Dr. Facilier… well... anyone who knows about Keith David’s past at Disney will agree he’s perfect for this role as well as why, so I don’t need to say anything more.
Is Princess and the Frog a Disney Classic? It wasn’t enough to revitalise the world of traditional animation, but it proved it was an art form still worthy of admiration. A groundbreaking work that kickstarted Disney animation’s second renaissance, The Princess and the Frog is undoubtedly a Disney Classic.
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