Review & Reflection: The Princess and the Frog

Spoiler warning: Here be spoilers.

As you may or may not have guessed from reading my earlier (WAY earlier) blog posts, I am a huge Disney fan. I grew up in the decade of the Disney Revival, singing along with Ariel, Belle, and Simba.

As the 90s came to an end, however, Disney started moving away from hand-drawn animation and more into computer animation - creating movies that, for the most part, were either terrible or m'eh.

No more music. No more hand-drawn animation. Thankfully, all that changed thanks to a couple of things: first, Enchanted (a tender but sharp-witted homage/spoof of Disney's 2D animated heyday) kicked royal ass at the box office. The second thing: Disney bought Pixar, and then Pixar's head John Lassiter cleaned house at Disney - basically telling Disney, "See? You own a steakhouse now. No need to keep making dogfood." Essentially: Pixar's here to do computer-animated movies, and we do it well. Go back to doing the animated musicals that people miss and enjoy.

As you can probably bet, I was really excited when they announced The Princess and the Frog. However, watching the trailer I had a few worries:

1) Randy Newman was writing and composing all the songs (yes, I know he did Faust, but lately what's he done?)

2) The hero (Prince Naveen) had a Sidekick Voice. You know, the cheesy overblown accent and "adorable" pseudo-sexual aggression. Really? The male protagonist has that voice? It'd be like a romance with Lumiere, or Pepe LePieux!

But, you know, I'm a slave to the Mouse House, so today I slapped down the money and saw the damn thing. My take? Mixed.

The movie starts with a rather tepid introduction that very obviously hammers home the morals, obstacles, and motivations that will outline the entire film: Tiana, the daughter of a chef and a seamstress, shares her father's dream that one day they'll own a restaurant, barely heeding her parents' warnings that one shouldn't lose sight of one's true priorities in the process of chasing that dream.

The film jumps forward ten years and picks up in tone and energy: Tiana works two jobs, saving up almost enough money to buy that restaurant she and her (now deceased) father dreamed of building. Her friend Charlotte, a wealthy, thoughtless, spoiled, and refreshingly un-evil heiress, tops off Tiana's savings by hiring her to cater their upcoming masquerade ball. The ball's to be held in honour of the arrival of Prince Naveen in New Orleans.

Unbeknownst to either of them, Prince Naveen (fresh from Some Random Country in Europe) is a freeloading, carefree, amorous rake whose royal parents have cut him off thanks to his constant partying. He needs to marry an heiress to make ends meet and thinks Charlotte'll do just fine. However, before he makes it to the ball, he's lured into a trap by a scheming voodoo villain called Dr. Facilier. Dr. Facilier turns poor Naveen into a frog and convinces the Prince's resentful and mistreated servant Lawrence to take his place, all to further his evil plan to conquer New Orleans and feed its souls to the voodoo spirits. Or something.

Meanwhile, back at the ball, as Charlotte dances with Lawrence (transformed into a Naveen doppelganger by Facilier's spell), Tiana learns from her realtors that someone outbid her on the property she's planned to build her restaurant on. The snide realtors comfort her by saying a woman "from her background" wouldn't have been able to handle a busy restaurant anyway. Hope you got that, audience, because that is the only reference to race or racism this movie makes.

The heartbroken Tiana then runs into the froggy Naveen, who mistakes her for a princess. Well versed in fairy-tale logic, Naveen implores Tiana for a kiss, promising to pay for her restaurant as a reward. However (and this is supposed to be the movie's big twist), the liplock ends up changing Tiana into a frog instead. Both protagonists are pissed at the other (Naveen because Tiana's not a princess, and Tiana because Naveen's actually broke), but they must work together in order to reverse the spell. Meanwhile, Dr Facilier sends his shadowy minions to track Naveen down, as it turns out his voodoo magic requires a steady source of the prince's blood in order to fuel the spell that lets Lawrence walk about in Naveen's form.

Let's start with the positive, shall we? Character-wise, the film steers clear of a lot of the worst cliches and manages to add some interesting surprises, chief of which is Prince Naveen - yes, romance fans, we actually have a Disney Prince who is an irresponsible, spoiled rake. Most of the Disney Dudes of the last 20 years have all been either a) upstanding, moral blokes (Shang, Prince Edward, Phoebus, John Smith, Eric) or b) mischievous or bad-tempered, but not overly obsessed with the ladies (Aladdin, Beast). Prince Naveen, however, loves the ladies, and would really rather not settle down with just one if he had the choice. He'd rather tap-dance to jazz music than do anything even resembling work, but he needs matrimony to pay the bills.

From a fairy-tale perspective, it's a character reversal from The Frog Prince - the original story is a reverse-Beauty & the Beast-plot: there, the Frog Prince is a decent bloke cursed thanks to an invitation that got lost in the mail, and it's the beautiful Princess who is the spoiled, pampered beyotch who learns to change her ways.

Thankfully, our Princess, Tiana, is an incredibly likeable and strong female character. In a nice touch for Disney, Tiana is a hard-working, sweat-of-her-brow type who's willing to work herself to the bone to achieve her dream: which isn't wedded bliss, but owning her own business. Her main flaw is that in her single-minded determination to get what she wants, she also misses out on the sweeter, simpler joys in life.

As well, some of the other characters surprised - particularly Lawrence, a comically bumbling servant in the Cogsworth mold who, instead of being a benevolently-downtrodden sidekick, hides a dark streak of resentment against his employer, and his betrayal of Prince Naveen is well-motivated. Charlotte, too, could easily have become an Evil Stepsister, but the movie allows her to be a cheerful and positive character - without sugarcoating the fact that she's spoiled, frivolous, and vain.

As well, as you can tell from my admiration of Tiana, The Princess and the Frog works within a strong feminist framework. Tiana's determination to run her own business isn't what's wrong with her - it's her failure to acknowledge that money and success aren't the only important things in life. Besides - she gets her restaurant in the end!

Interestingly, the whole Prince and Princess aspect of the movie comes off as a shallow concession to the five-year-old tiara-wearing demographic. Tiana doesn't give up her business interests to live in her hubby's castle - instead, they both rush off after their royal wedding to fix up her restaurant. Tiana wears a tiara as she manages her establishment, but that's about it. How refreshing!

Now, the bad - first off, the songs are completely forgettable. I can somewhat understand the choice of Randy Newman for the soundtrack - the setting is 1920s New Orleans and thus jazz-flavoured music would be preferable to the showtunes of yore. However, Newman's music, while not unpleasant, is little more than jazzy background noise - all the songs are a little too similar in tone, and the lyrics were bland and unimaginative. I came out of that theatre with nothing to hum, and no lyrics worth repeating. Take it from me: I watched The Little Mermaid once when I was three and had the whole soundtrack memorized. I really wished Alan Menken had done the music for this.

The second issue I wanted to discuss about The Princess and the Frog was the issue of race. Why shouldn't I bring it up? The movie sure doesn't. I found that odd - Disney's marketing turned Tiana's race into such a Big Fucking Deal ("our first African American Princess!"), but the movie completely ignores the issue of race, except for a single line - the one made by the realtors that a woman "of [Tiana's] background" wouldn't be able to handle a busy restaurant. When I first heard that line, I thought it was vague, but understood that in a kids movie, the issue of race needed to be handled gently.

But except for this one line, race is never brought up again - by anyone. None of the black characters mention race or treat people differently because of race, and neither do the white characters. I suppose the setting helps establish the difference, but it relies more on socio-economic class differences - for instance, the scene where Tiana goes home from her rich friend Charlotte's house on the trolley. The fancy houses of Charlotte's (presumably white) neighbours whiz by the windows, eventually replaced by the tiny houses in Tiana's neighbourhood. However, this would be the same in any rich-girl-poor-girl story.

The film's decision to turn race into a complete nonissue rang false, especially considering the real-life historical setting (1920s New Orleans) and Tiana's romantic interest, Naveen (who is white). Ironically, the one reference to race compromised my belief in the story - if the rest of the movie was meant to be a revisionist history where race isn't an issue, why bring up the issue of race even once?

I mean, Naveen mistakes Tiana for a princess - why? Just because she's wearing a fancy dress? Maybe the balcony was poorly-lit so he didn't notice. Also, Naveen, the Crown Prince of a white European country in the 1920s, marries an African American woman, and somehow his royal parents are fucking thrilled. Riiiiight. I like to imagine the unspoken reason why Naveen ends the movie working in Tiana's restaurant instead of going off to Maldonia to do, like, Princely stuff is because his parents have permanently disinherited him in a rage.

It might even have been funny to have race be an issue between Tiana and Naveen - since they spend the majority of the movie as frogs, and actually fall in love as frogs, their discovery that race is irrelevant to love once they're both green would have been pretty cool.

I also might have tolerated the ending more if they'd chosen a fictional, rather than an historical setting. To choose to put your story about a black woman falling in love with a white man in the American South, particularly the early 20th-century American South before the Civil Rights movement, and then completely ignore the issue of race beyond a vague remark, boggles the mind.

Beyond that, however, the movie wasn't terrible. The visuals were lovely and the characters well-drawn, but I personally don't consider it a Disney Classic.
B

"Rapunzel," "Rapunzel," Go Down in Flames

Disney and Pixar revealed their slate of animated movies until 2012, and Rapunzel, sadly, is still a go. I shouldn't be sad, it'll probably be awesome and have wonderful visuals and music and it's better than all that Chicken Little and Meet the Robinsons shit they've been peddling.

But it won't be my Rapunzel - the animated screenplay I was (slowly) outlining and working on and animating in my head while listening to Alan Menken. It was original! It had a nerd inventor shut-in heroine! It had a witch stepmother who was actually misunderstood - and her demon familiar who totally wasn't because he was totally evil. I had a handsome prince with flaws! FLAWS! It dealt with bullying and being yourself and gave the notoriously difficult fairytale a relatable context! ARGH!

That's not to say I don't have another ideas for when I work for Disney. I put a lot of personal stuff into my story for Rapunzel, so I'm disappointed that I couldn't write it and get famous fast enough to show Disney how brilliant it obviously is. I mean, I've seen some of the early pictures for Rapunzel. Blonde, again? Pink, again?? Seriously, there are different colours out there, and Punzie doesn't have to be blonde. Can you imagine how dingy her hair would look like after a few climbs if it's so light-coloured? Ew!

Anyway, sad sad sad - but maybe I should get my ass on writing The Six Dancing Princesses, The Frog Prince, The Princess and the Pea, and The Seven Swans screenplays before Disney snaps all those ones up too.

The Mouse House Rules

After a month working for the Mouse, I guess it's about time I started blogging about it. We sell just about everything with Disney character on it -- from striped Tigger jumpers for babies to Tinkerbell jewelery for adults to Hannah Montana pillows. It's bright and colourful and aimed mostly at children, but with some adult toys thrown in, like our collectable snowglobes and coffee mugs.

I've found that working there is an extremely tiring, but not unentertaining experience. While adults do come in looking for merchandise for themselves, the majority of customers are accompanied by small children and babies. The store has especially wide aisles to accomodate the caravans of tricked-out strollers and carriages, but during our busiest times I often wish those aisles came equipped with traffic lights and crossing guards to manage the crush.

And the children. There are so many of them - and they're not all on their best behaviour (although I've yet to encounter a true monster) - but they've provided me with so much writing material on parenting that it's totally worth it. In a month, I've encountered so many different types of parenting attitudes, I could fuel a hundred stories. I've seen children kept on leashes, children with those tiny sandals that make a loud squeaky-toy sound with every step so their parents know where they are, children who are refused a toy by a strict parent only to receive it from the indulgent grandmother two steps behind. We've had parents ignore the "over three" warning on toy labels because their toddlers are "smart." We've even had unaccompanied children whose parents are shopping in the next shop over who've mistaken our store for a free day-care centre.

I've seen a few "don't touch anything, and I mean it" parents, but for the most part the spirit is one of indulgence and spoiling, with the difference being in the scale. Parents end up buying birthday presents, other kids' birthday presents, "today's a sale and who knows when everything'll be this cheap again and my kids will only be kids once" presents, "just shut up already" presents, "we're going to Disneyland so we might as well get the same stuff in advance here while they're cheaper" presents, and "my children literally have everything else in the store" presents. I kid you not, I had to guest-service a grandmother who couldn't find a birthday present for her twin grandsons because everything I pointed out, they had already. "Spoiled rotten, they are," she growled, with the annoyance of a bear who's found out someone got to that picnic basket first.

Sure, the kids are loud, but you can understand the parents' need to drop the cash when you see a kid's reaction to a particular toy. Kids five and over tend to scream their appreciation - usually the character's name rather than the type of toy itself - ie, a boy receiving a Cars bubble machine will not go, "Cool, a bubble machine!" but rather, "LIGHTNING MCQUEEEEEN!" or a girl with a new Disney Princess swimsuit will shriek, "CinderELLA! CinderELLLLAAAAAAA!" Toddlers, oddly enough, are quiet when they get presents, which probably explains why they are getting them in the first place. My favourite scenes in the store are when a parent introduces a doll or a stuffed animal to a baby or toddler, and it ends up being the Huggies version of Love At First Sight. If the toy is satisfactory, the child will go completely silent, take the toy in their arms, and hug it so tight while smiling at everyone as if she'd spent all, what, two and half years of her life looking for this one toy.

Of course, once she and her mom or dad get to the till it's another story - the moment they take that toy out of her hands to ring it in she'll start screeching like a cheap car alarm and the Cast Member on till will have to manhandle a toy coated in loving baby saliva to look for the UPC tag that seven times out of ten has already been torn off. Delightful.

And of course, there are the annoyances that accompany any job in retail. For instances, the irresistible temptation for customers to pick out a bunch of stuff, realize they don't want it, and leave it wherever the hell they want. Or customers who start a till interaction (which we can't close without voiding everything) only to leave it in the middle to go shopping for something else while a line builds up behind. Or customers who don't see the blue ribbons that mark where the till line-up should be, so they line up in an aisle and get pissy when they realize they have to go all the way to the back of the real line before we can serve them. Or the customers who line up after those aforementioned people and are even pissier.

Customers who smell bad (either bad food or too-heavy perfume).

Customers who let their kids run buck wild.

Customers who enter the store two minutes to closing time to "just browse."

Customers who bring in coffee, drinks, and food, and then leave said garbage in the store.

Customers who come in to the Disney Store (which carries only DISNEY BRAND PRODUCTS) asking for Dora the Explorer, Madascar characters, Shrek, and Spider-Man (???).

And then, of course - there's the big screen at the back of the store that plays the same hour-long tape of trailers, Lilo & Stitch sing alongs, Little Mermaid song clips, and Disney Channel advertisements. I've seen the Ratatouille trailer and behind-the-scenes clips about a million times - luckily, I still want to see the movie itself, and my experience at the Movie Theatre (which also played a 40-minute trailer video non-stop) helped me to ignore it.

But so far I'm loving it, the pay and hours are good, and so far I don't seem to be screwing up too badly. So I think I'll stick around.

Dempsey + Disney + Music + HOT PRINCE = MAGIC!

It is here! It is finally HERE! (Forgive my lack of contractions - the apostraphe button is on the fritz).

The trailer for the new Disney (partially) animated movie, Enchanted! Yes, it looks cheesy, but cheesy in the good, way, i.e. the kind with elaborate musical numbers, beautiful special affects, lavish costumes, and hand-drawn animation that looks pretty darn good!

And did I mention Patrick Dempsey is in it? And James Marsden, who has never looked prettier? (Seriously, he is freakin hot in this trailer....) SO excited!

Plus, this means Susan Sarandon is doing musicals again! Hurrah!

Now I REALLY cannot wait until November!

Writing Updates - and I now work for the Mouse

I deleted most of what I had written for Reading 'The Willow King' and restarted it with third-person over-the-shoulder narration. I realized I wanted to keep the language consistent, and make it a little funnier and more concise than the rambling twenty-four pages I came up with first.

I also started a new story - "Joyful Noise" - which will use some of my experiences touring with my choir to (I hope) hilarious effect.

I finished the critical rewrite of "House Hunting" and finally ended up with some passages I might actually keep, so I'm going to keep polishing it and hope I can send it out by the end of the month.

And I'm still looking for a home for "Golden Opportunity."

And did I tell you? I got a second job - and rather quickly too. I already have a part-time job, but there simply isn't enough of that job to perform it full-time, so I went out to get another part-time job. I missed the cut-off date for Chapters, again, but I went instead to Old Navy and the Disney Store. The employee shortage is still going strong, it seems, even with summer approaching and hordes of money-starved young people suddenly being freed from educational duties. I went to the Disney Store, a fairly big place (right across from the Coles where I was let go from, HA!) that sells pretty much anything with a Disney character on it, and plays Disney trailers and music on the stereos.

There, the head person pretty much fell over himself to give me a resume (it seems everyone prefers that people fill out applications rather than hand it resumes, because the applications are legal contracts), perhaps because it must be hard finding people willing to work eight hours while "Kiss the Girl" from The Little Mermaid plays nonstop on the soundtrack. I then went to Old Navy, and by the time I'd gone downstairs, stared at the movie sets for Christmas in Wonderland, and gotten a bite to eat at the food court, the manager at Old Navy'd already called my house to arrange an interview.

That night, however, the people at the Disney Store beat out Old Navy and offered me a job point-blank. I asked both about the pay, and both said they "were going to be negociated later" because I apparently had experience, so I chose the Disney Store because they'd offered first. So I'm going in on Sunday for training, and it looks like I'm going to get lots and lots of hours, so hooray for me! New job! In retail! For Disney, a company whose movies and music I adore.