One of the saddest things that happened to feature films a few years ago was the demise of the 2D animation arm of Walt Disney Studios. Sure, they still outsourced television shows and continued to crank out the direct-to-DVD product, but after the unfortunate mediocre success of “Home on the Range,” the Mouse House put an end to the hand-drawn features in lieu of the CGI juggernaut.
Ironically, it was Pixar executive and new head of Disney animation John Lasseter who helped revive this almost lost art form. Now, Disney 2D animation is back with the new feature “The Princess and the Frog.” Also notable is that this is the first time an African American character has been brought into the Disney Princess fold. (And now Tiana joins the Arabian Princess Jasmine and the Chinese heroine Mulan in the Princess rainbow.)
The biggest question I had going into “The Princess and the Frog” is whether this film will stand up well against the other successful Disney 2D features like “Aladdin,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Little Mermaid.” And the answer is that it does. It’s not as clean and simple as these other films because while it tells a familiar fairy tale, the story is quite different than anything you’ve ever seen.
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