The Princess and the Frog: Difference between revisions

''And anythin' can happen...'' }}

 

 

 

For almost a decade, Disney had been firmly entrenched in the growing 3D/CGI movement; a Disney exec announced that ''Princess'' would be a long-overdue return to the animation tradition the company maintained for over fifty years. Randy Newman composed the songs for a film that harkens back to the age of Disney where music played as much a character as the actual cast members themselves. The end result was a film that was extremely well-received by critics and easily equaled the greats of the Disney Renaissance, although it was only a modest financial success, coming out in the same year as ''[[Avatar (film)|Avatar]]''. To add insult to injury, the critically-panned ''[[Alvin and the Chipmunks|Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel]]'' beat it in the box office, as well. However, Tiana being an official [[Disney Princess]] solidified that the film would be a major money-earner through merchandise at the parks.

 

Before adding examples, note that tropes pertaining to the more sensitive political issues (gender and race) have been moved to the analysis page.

 

* [[Actor Allusion]]: The weird psychadelic filter effect on Dr. Facilier's face as he sings ''"I hope you're satisfied"'' during his [[Villain Song]] seems to hearken back to [http://dietrichthrall.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/they_live_movie_poster1.jpg one of the posters] for ''[[They Live!]]'', a horror movie in which [[Keith David]], Dr. Faciler's voice actor, starred prominently.

** May or may not be intentional, but when you think about it, doesn't Dr. Facilier {{spoiler|end up as a kind of a [[Gargoyles|gargoyle]] at the end?}}

* [[Bad Samaritan]]: Dr. Falacier.

* [[Baleful Polymorph]]: The whole plot of the movie, since Naveen and Tiana are turned into frogs.

* [[The Barnum]]: Dr. Facilier, using his charisma to scam people and manipulate them to his own ends.

* [[Beautiful Condemned Building]]: The abandoned sugar mill that Tiana - and her father before her - wants to convert into her restaurant.

* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: Charlotte

** Also Mama Odie. She falls asleep mid-conversation, kisses a snake repeatedly on the mouth, and changes topics almost mid-sentence. But she also moves the plot towards resolution better than anybody else in the movie.

* [[Comically Missing the Point]]: Tiana, after the "Dig A Little Deeper" sequence, in which Mama Odie explains that you have to find out what you NEED to do, not WANT to do, and she asks Tiana if she understands. Tiana's answer: "Yes! I need to dig deeper, and work even ''harder to get my restaurant!''" [[Face Palm|Mama Odie's response is something the internet knows too well]]. She does realize the point eventually, though.

** Louis makes the exact same mistake, though he also gets the point later. It's more understandable since the song wasn't directed at him.

** But a closer look at the cards shows that the writers at least knew what the cards were supposed to mean. They even use minor arcana correctly!

* [[Digging Yourself Deeper]]: Naveen, {{spoiler|when he tries to propose to Tiana.}}

* [[Dish Dash]]: Tiana's waitressing skills include being able to catch and carry flying plates full of food stacked on every available extremity and her head.

** Naveen eventually picks this up too, {{spoiler|dancing around Tiana's restaurant with loaded trays}}

* [[Dramatic Necklace Removal]]: {{spoiler|Lawrence rips the voodoo talisman from around his neck. Facilier ties it back on later, though, and Lawrence never tries it again.}}

* [[Drop What You Are Doing]]: Blink and you'll miss it. Naveen almost buried in gold coins during "Dig A Little Deeper" but the he turns and sees Tiana, and he drops the coin he was left holding after Mama Odie rescued him and pointed him at Tiana.

* [[Dumb Blonde]]: Charlotte.

* [[Eccentric Mentor]]: Mama Odie, who says and does more than a few odds things between teachings the protagonist to 'dig a little deeper' and find what will truly make them happy.

* [[Evil Counterpart]]: Dr. Facilier to Mama Odie.

* [[Evil Laugh]]: Dr. Facilier, in grand ol' Disney tradition. His shadow has one, too!

* [[Evil Is Stylish]]: Facilier is this all over.

** [[Evil Is Sexy]]: And according to the fangirls (and [[Stupid Sexy Flanders|some fanboys]]), he's also this.

* [[The Hedonist]]: Naveen.

* [[She Is Not My Girlfriend|He Is Not My Boyfriend]]: Tiana says this about Naveen. Ray assumed so because their (long froggy) tongues were ridiculously tangled up all around them.

* [[Hell Gate]]: The giant mask Dr. Facilier summons during his [[Villain Song]] and later {{spoiler|he gets dragged through it by the Shadow Demons when Tiana breaks their talisman.}}

* [[Here We Go Again]]: Ray [[Medium Awareness|attempting to restart "Dig a Little Deeper"]] (but immediately averted).

* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]: {{spoiler|Ray singlehandedly fights off Facilier's shadow minions so Tiana can escape with the blood talisman, only to have his triumph cut short by Facilier ''stepping on him''. He at least lives long enough to see Naveen and Tiana together and gets a great reward for his sacrifice.}}

** Naveen also seems like a smarmy, cheesy "no-account, good for nothing" as Tiana calls him, but he displays resourcefulness, adaptability, scientific knowledge, and multilingual knowledge, plus a willingness to learn. To say nothing of his musical talents, which mainly enhanced his image as a himbo. Combine this with the fact that a lot of his behavior is used as a mask to hide deep insecurities about literally not knowing how to do ''anything'' for himself due to his parents spoiling him most of his life and then kicking him out and he almost goes straight into [[The Woobie|Woobie territory]]

*** Also a Character Establishing moment. It would not have been unthinkable at that point for her to have reamed out Tiana, and demanded more of her "man-catching beignets", but being a true friend, promptly took her leave, helped Tiana get herself cleaned up, and loaned her one of her dresses. She may be spoiled, and not exactly deep, but she knows what's truly important to her.

** Ray appears at first to be a stereotypical hillbilly-type. He actually turns out to be one of the most insightful, caring, and helpful people in the group. He's also competent, which goes a long way when the first two things he does are untying Naveen and Tiana (after Louis's well-meaning attempt made things much worse), and pointing out that [[No Sense of Direction|Louis had been leading them in the wrong direction]]. The rest of his family (who also appear to be hillbilly-ish as well) are just as helpful for the brief amount of time they do show up, helping the group find the way to Mama Odie's home.

** It's a step in the right direction that Disney also made a 'good' Voodoo priestess [[Color Coded for Your Convenience|dressed in the traditional white]], since Voodoo is usually seen as only something evil in Hollywood Voodoo.

** Facilier makes use of Voodoo dolls, usually the only known object in Voodoo. But the use of this object is only used in Louisiana Voodoo. So that is again a thumbs-up for Disney. But they do exaggerate it a bit.

** "La Bouffe" in French means "The Grub" as in "food". Appropriate for the [[Big Eater]] father...

** Ray also, to an extent, as in "ray of light", reflecting his optimistic attitude. And how he {{spoiler|attacks Dr. Facilier's friends.}}

** And let's not forget the very-briefly-seen character Beau...a moth who functions as a bow-tie.

*** Also the slang used for Voodoo and other practices or being involved in them is usually described as getting/being in some "Bad Juju".

** And Facilier. [[Evil Is Sexy]], after all.

* [[Ms. Fanservice]]: Charlotte.

* [[My Card]]: Facilier to Naveen.

* [[My Instincts Are Showing]]: While Naveen attempts to satisfy his Frog Form's taste for insects when he gets hungry, when Tiana tries to resist her own tongue rebels against her.

* [[Nice Hat]]: Dr. Facilier sports a ''very'' nice hat indeed.

* [[Nice to the Waiter]]: In a very literal example, Charlotte and Big Daddy La Bouff. They're a bit oblivious to Tiana's problems and come across as [[Idle Rich|airheaded socialites]] sometimes, but their kind treatment of servants and workers shows that their hearts are in the right place.

* [[No Except Yes]]:

{{quote|'''Mr. La Bouff:''' All right now, princess, you're gettin' that dress, but that's it. No more Mr. Pushover. Now who wants a puppy?}}

** Mama Odie seems completely senile at first, but she's very wise and clever - she just went a little strange from all the voodoo.

* [[Smug Snake]]: Dr. Facilier.

* [[Southern Belle]]: Charlotte.

* [[The Southpaw]]: Tiana is meant to be left-handed, as a [[Shout-Out]] to her voice actress, Anika Noni Rose. (Close viewing, however, reveals that she's more ambidextrous than anything else).

* [[The Unfought]]: {{spoiler|The "Friends On the Other Side". Arguably justified in that, once they got what they wanted (Facilier's soul), they had no more reason to harass the heroes.}}

* [[The Unintelligible]]: Two-Fingers, one of the frog-hunting rednecks, speaks with mumbles and grunts. Darnell and Pa have no trouble understanding him, though. In some scenes, he's only speaking very quietly rather than unintelligibly.

* Unfunny: Tiana, occasionally. Her status as such is actually something of a plot point - in the end it's not because she doesn't have a sense of humor or fun, it's because she's filed away that sort of thing in order to focus on her ambitions.

* [[Unusual Euphemism]]: When Naveen crashes the Mardi Gras wedding, Charlotte exclaims, "Cheese and crackers!"

** Also Why Did It Have To Be Frogs. Tiana is afraid of frogs, making it very awkward that she has to kiss one and then ''be'' one.

* [[You Go, Girl!]]: Basically the plot of the movie outside the [[Baleful Polymorph]] conflict.

* [[You Need a Breath Mint]]: Ray complains of Louis' breath while the latter is trying to revive him from having nearly drowned.

{{quote|'''Ray:''' ''I'm fine. But your breath done near killed me to death.''}}

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Fantasy Animated Films]]

[[Category:The Millennium Age of Animation]]

[[Category:Films of the 2000s]]

[[Category:Disney]]

[[Category:Disney Self-Subversion]]