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'The Princess and the Frog' is Good, Old-Fashioned Family Fun

by Angie Argabrite (Subscribe to Angie Argabrite's posts)
Nov 27th 2009 5:26PM

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Filed under: In The News, Movies


Disney's latest, "The Princess and the Frog," hit theaters this week, and it's not overstating to say this film is historical in a couple of ways: It's the venerable studio's first African-American princess, plus it's the first big Disney release of late to harken back to the Mouse House's classic films, like "Little Mermaid," "Beauty and the Beast."

My family -- hubby, 12-year-old son, 11-year-old and 21-month-old daughters -- were swept up by the film, with its beautifully hand-drawn characters, requisite talking animals, lovely musical numbers and the fairy-tales-can-come-true-ness of it all. Do we ever doubt that hard-working, beautiful Tiana (voiced by Anika Noni Rose) will get her prince and the successful restaurant she's been working so hard to save for? No, we don't, but we're content to follow her journey, from overworked waitress to the happy ending we're so happily expecting.

The movie hasn't been without its hiccups -- it stirred up some controversy long before its release, and in this age of CGI and 3-D and motion-capture animation, one has to wonder: Do the old-school, 2-D Disney princesses still matter?

No matter how skillfully employed, CGI still lacks a certain warmth. So I was looking forward to seeing "The Princess and the Frog" just to see if Disney could still deliver a magical movie-going experience for families.

My conclusion? It's the first full-length film my toddler has sat through entirely; she even bopped along to some of the jazzier numbers -- and to me that's magic.

"Princess and the Frog"


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Angie Argabrite, our guest movie reporter, is the features editor for our sister sites, Moviefone and AOL Television.

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