We saw this last weekend, opening weekend, and I forgot to blog about it!  

I’ll tell you right now, I’m a bit of a Disney fangirl when it comes to their classics.  From Snow White to Cinderella to the big comeback in the late 80s with Little Mermaid and Aladdin – I know all the words to so many of the songs.  I used to spend hours trying to draw the images from the shows.  So, needless to say, I was really nervous about this movie because the last few Disney cartoons (Home on the Range, Atlantis) did not do it for me at all plus there was all kind of controversy because this would feature the first African-American “princess” for Disney.  With so much pressure on one little movie, I wasn’t sure if they could pull it off.

Well, they did.  It’s not the best Disney movie ever, but it is definitely a solid film and it is good enough to get Disney started again.  It feels like a ‘Little Mermaid’ – you can see all the potential that this could be the start of a new era.  I really hope it is!

The movie is set in New Orleans in the 1930s.  Tiana is trying to save up her pennies, working hard to achieve her dream.  While she’s slaving away waiting tables, a prince rolls into town – a prince with no money but lots of style.  Froggy-ness ensues because of some crazy VooDoo…and that’s all I’m going to say!   

The animation is gorgeous.  The songs are really fun (my two favorites were “Friends on the Other Side” and “Evangeline”) and the story has enough twists and turns to keep you interested, even though you know it will end happily ever after.  

I haven’t actually talked to any *kids* that have seen it, I’m wondering if the movie would have been scary for the little ones.  I thought the villian’s song was quite creepy, especially the animation with voodoo spirits and skulls floating around.  And there was another part that AD said he noticed parents trying to distract their kids from the screen during.  

I hope Disney keeps this tradition alive.  I know it was Jon Lassiter at Pixar that produced the movie, saying that 2D animation was still a valid art form for the studio.  So I hope enough people see the movie that the big wigs agree to make a few more.  

It will make you fee like a kid again.  Go see it. 🙂