Directed by Ron Clements and John Musker
(G)
***
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Disney debuts its first African-American princess.
The Princess and the Frog is “Disney at its old-school best,” said Lisa Schwarzbaum in Entertainment Weekly. For its latest family feature, Disney has gone back to the drawing board, rejecting computer-generated animation and instead using the same hand-drawn, 2-D techniques that defined its golden age. Yet this “old-fashioned charmer,” set in 1930s New Orleans, also provides a surprisingly “fresh twist on a classic fairy tale.” Not only does Disney introduce its first African-American “princess,” but its filmmakers portray her as a modern woman who learns that a happily-ever-after ending comes not from princes and fairy godmothers but from ambition and hard work. Still, Disney’s version of diversity can seem awfully bland and homogenous, said Justin Chang in Variety. In true Disney fashion, the film “grafts easy stereotypes and funny accents onto warm, likable” characters, such as a jazz-loving gator, and uses cultural clichés like voodoo to indicate its bayou setting. The Mouse House may still be learning how to adapt to changing times, said Lou Lumenick in the New York Post. But “there’s more than enough magic” in this classic tale to enchant audiences both young and old.
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