The Princess and the Frog/Wall Banger

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Wall Bangers from The Princess and the Frog include:

  • The curse. Prince gets turned into frog, and requires a kiss from a princess to undo the spell. Okay, classic curse conditions and consistent with original story, thus far. Prince kisses lead female, thinking she's a princess...and she gets turned into a frog, as a result. Um...what? Where in the hell did they say that the spell was designed to turn the kisser into a frog, if she wasn't a princess? Interesting twist, but why the funky conditions for a botched spell breaking? There's no explanation to why this happens, and it doesn't seem like Dr. Facillier intended this to happen, so why did it? To further compound things, after Dr. Facillier is defeated, our heroes are stuck as frogs until the prince kisses a princess, but somehow the "non-princess turns into frog" clause gets nullified, since him kissing the former Mardi Gras Princess didn't turn her into a frog. The hell? Why would there be No Ontological Inertia with only part of the spell, but not the entire thing? It can't be because the spell is broken; it wasn't, at least not from Facillier's reaction to it (and, considering the bargain he's making with it, he should know for damn sure if it was broken), so in classic fairy tale cliche, his defeat should nullify the spell in its entirety, right? Even if we can forgive the ridiculousness of the fact that breaking the spell normally requires an insulting amount of technicalities (ie. kissing the temporary princess of the Mardi Gras celebration, and eventually by kissing our heroine, made a princess via marriage, that "non-princess turns into frog" clause is just stupid and handled poorly.
    • Honestly, I don't really understand what your problem is in your first argument (about the lead female being turned into frog from the curse). The original story didn't mention any stipulations for that condition, so the author is free to make up whatever result they want. Besides, this is not the original story, so really, the writer could claim that it's a similar-but-ultimately-different curse, meaning they can make up whatever rules they want. The lead female could turn into a bazooka-wielding gorilla fairy if the author wants her to.
    • That's fine, except the author didn't ever explain this addition to the curse or even bother to use it consistently in the story. That's the problem.
      • Who ever said Dr. Facilier knew about this clause? Remember, he has voodoo, he has hoodoo, he has things he hasn't even tried. It's obvious all his powers are on loan from his Friends on the Other Side, often with odd and mysterious consequences and rules. That's sorta the point of Disney Magic. There might be an explanation for this that only his Friends know.
      • Why should the story be obligated to reveal the twist before it happens? Neither Naveen nor the audience knew any parameters of the spell whatsoever until Mama Odie confirmed it, anyway. Facilier could have just turned Naveen into a frog without any kind of exit clause - for all we know he did, and she had to do some Sleeping Beauty-type meddling, which would provide one way out of the bit about Charlotte. It's also possible there was some unstated deadline, since nobody seems to raise the possibility that if all else fails, they could wait for next year's Mardi Gras Princess. Even if it turned out not to be Charlotte, they could probably pay her off somehow.
    • Tiana kissed Naveen for selfish reasons. She just wanted her restaurant. So she had to share his curse. Charlotte kissed him for non-selfish reasons.
    • I always thought that the reason the spell didn't work was because Tiana wasn't a real princess. If a real princess is needed to break the curse, it makes sense that someone who tries to pass for a princess is somehow punished.
      • Or maybe the curse was because of profit. Tiana kissed Naveen because he offered to buy her the restaurant, not because she genuinely wanted to help him. There was a lot of extenuating circumstances, but Tiana still kissed Naveen for a somewhat selfish reason. So, then, POOF, she's a frog. When Charlotte kissed Naveen, it was because she genuinely wanted to help her friend and her future husband. Since it was genuine, no curse was transmitted. This is just Wild Mass Guessing, but it would kinda fit in Facilier's M.O. (selfishness & magic never leads to anywhere good).


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