'The Princess and The Frog'

[ALIASd]

Nice review of the preview event at:
Ben Price: News - 04/28/09...

[Meagan]

Here's another review that I found

Animation World Magazine

[ALIASd]

'The Princess and the Frog' has taken the center window formerly occupied by 'Wall-e' in DCA's Animation Academy

[ALIASd]

Check out The Backlot Buzz with John Lasseter on 'The Princess and the Frog'

YouTube - Backlot Buzz Spotlight: The Princess...

[Meagan]

What a great clip!!!! Thanks for posting!!

[ALIASd]

View the trailer at:

YouTube - Princess and the Frog Trailer

[CaliforniaAdventurer]

I'm looking forward to finally seeing this one.

[DisneyGurlRuth]

I'm excited about this movie! I miss the hand drawn Disney movies!

[sailerm]

I'm getting a little nervous. Neither the teaser nor the new trailer have 'grabbed' me. The frog reminds me very much of the frog in Don Bluth's Swan Princess, and that is not a good thing.

[ALIASd]

It should make you more nervous that there is no 'Swan Princess' on Don Bluth's resume.

[ALIASd]

"What I'm excited is Disney bringing back hand drawn animation. They kept saying audiences don't want to want to watch 2D movies. They don't want to watch bad movies. 2D became the scapegoat for bad movies."

"We're bringing back 2D animation," with Disney Animation's holiday release of the more traditional, hand-drawn pic "The Princess and the Frog."

"What's old is new again for audience who haven't felt this kind of film before," and "It will get stronger and stronger in next few years."

- John Lasseter at the Cannes Film Festival UP press conference

[sailerm]

Originally Posted by ALIASd

It should make you more nervous that there is no 'Swan Princess' on Don Bluth's resume.

Sorry I automatically assume that if it's a low rent Disney animation knock off that Don Bluth must be involved. We can thank Richard Rich for wasting Jack Palance, Steve Wright and John Cleese's talent on that cinematic masterpiece of..

[Retrocool]

Originally Posted by sailerm

First, why should skin color even matter?

Because it does, and Disney has a history of exclusion and questionable characterizations of non-whites in its films, for the most part.

Attempts at pretending that differences don't exist are usually full of fail. One can act as though race and ethnicity mean nothing, but the history of this planet, and of the United States in particular, and the personal attitudes people hold about others, belie that notion.

It's lovely to have an ideal that is all-inclusive, but one has to do more than just come up with that as an ideal. One has to actually practice that ideal in real life with action. And that doesn't happen as commonly as you might think it does.

Originally Posted by sailerm

Second, what about Raven Simone? Ashanti in Muppet Wizard of Oz?, Whoopi Goldberg in Lion King.... or Cinderella? Disney has long been on the forefront of having varied casting (Uncle Remus anyone?!)

The fact that you can bring to mind only a small handful of non-European Disney characters pretty much makes the case that Disney has not had a major African/African American Princess character in any of its animated films before. Plus, voice actors don't count - the characters voiced by African American actors in The Lion King were not human characters. They weren't any more Black than the characters voiced by non-Black actors.

Originally Posted by sailerm

Story, music, and good performances will create a classic more than what a character looks like, or how much melanin an actor has.

So then if the ethnic trait of a character doesn't really matter to you, then why are you responding so defensively at the celebration of a long-overdue inclusion?

Instead of playing the useless game of trying to be color-blind, recognize the differences in color, and celebrate diversity!

[sailerm]

Originally Posted by Retrocool

Because it does, and Disney has a history of exclusion and questionable characterizations of non-whites in its films, for the most part.

Disney has no more and no less than a similar track record for the use of culturally accepted stereotypes (at the time any given feature is released) than any other studio (for better or worse), but have also been trend setters for non-white casting (on screen and voice over)

Originally Posted by Retrocool

Attempts at pretending that differences don't exist are usually full of fail. One can act as though race and ethnicity mean nothing, but the history of this planet, and of the United States in particular, and the personal attitudes people hold about others, belie that notion.

It depends on where you are raised. Color of skin separates more (for lack of a better term) in some parts of the U.S., but in many other parts of the world, skin color takes a back seat to cultural and religious differences

Originally Posted by Retrocool

It's lovely to have an ideal that is all-inclusive, but one has to do more than just come up with that as an ideal. One has to actually practice that ideal in real life with action. And that doesn't happen as commonly as you might think it does.

I disagree, I think it happens a lot. I am the product of a inter-cultural marriage, and my children are a product of a mixed marriage. So are a lot of the people I know currently, because I live in a non metro rural area, Where Anglo, Mexican and Native Americans live and work together. We live the ideal, rather than pat ourselves on the back for living the ideal.

Originally Posted by Retrocool

The fact that you can bring to mind only a small handful of non-European Disney characters pretty much makes the case that Disney has not had a major African/African American Princess character in any of its animated films before. Plus, voice actors don't count - the characters voiced by African American actors in The Lion King were not human characters. They weren't any more Black than the characters voiced by non-Black actors.

First voice actors do count, mainly because it proves that it doesn't matter what an actor looks like to give a great performance, and even though Lion King was lions dancing and singing kitty cats it was a decidedly HUMAN story.
As far as the small amount of small non-European characters, that was came off the top of my head in two seconds. I'm sure there are more, people that watch more TV and Films than I can fill me in.

Originally Posted by Retrocool

So then if the ethnic trait of a character doesn't really matter to you, then why are you responding so defensively at the celebration of a long-overdue inclusion?

Because, by trying to vault oneself by saying 'look how wonderful we are' by drawing attention to skin color only demontrates how short sighted one can be if that is the only trait nessasary to sell a product, in this case this movie. What we should get is 'COME SEE THIS GREAT FILM' what we seem to be getting is 'COME SEE THIS FILM - IT HAS AN ETHNIC LEAD', and from the African American press we seem to be getting 'HEY, THE PRINCE IS WHITE?'. The skin color is a major distraction to market Disney's first hand drawn film in years.

Originally Posted by Retrocool

Instead of playing the useless game of trying to be color-blind, recognize the differences in color, and celebrate diversity!

We have better traits to celebrate than how much melanin you or I have.

I've seen two teasers, and I'm not impressed ( to be fair I didn't care for the Toy Story trailers either, but loved loved loved the movie) I hope this movie turns out to be great and make a lot of money, becuase I want more great hand drawn animated musicals from Disney.

[CaliforniaAdventurer]

What I want to know is if Disneyland will be doing any tie ins at the park, and if so, if they'll put something in New Orleans Square.

I've been wondering since 2007, actually:

The Frog Princess in New Orleans Square