The Princess and the Frog

So I finally got around to watching last year's The Princess and the Frog last night. I liked it.

But.

It took some time for me to nail down the source of that "But." My general mood? The tiny issue that my left hand was still burning from an excess of juice from a surprisingly hot chili pepper which had turned my hand red, red, red and made me wince whenever anyone in the film discussed making food just a little bit hotter?

Well, possibly.

But in thinking it over, I realized that this was less my mood than something lacking in the film itself. And here, I'm not just talking about the problems of going YAY we are FINALLY FEATURING A BLACK CHARACTER AS A DISNEY PRINCESS EXCEPT SHE'S NOT REALLY A PRINCESS BUT A WAITRESS WHICH WE'LL KEEP REPEATING OVER AND OVER GO US and then having her spend the majority of the film actually being green, problematic though that may be. (I say may because I liked the frog bits.) Or the fact that the film takes a while to get going, unlike the best of the Disney films which use their short length to plunge straight to the point.

No, the real problem is the lack of the villain.

Oh, the film has a villain – two, even – who are Appropriately Evil and even deal with Nasty Evil Things. But neither feel particularly menacing, and neither has the now customary Funny Evil Sidekick, and neither seem to be, I dunno, very motivated. Possibly because one of their goals – marry the cute blonde girl and take all of her money – just seems entirely too easy (the blonde girl wants to get married) and also, well, let's face it, although Disney avoided the cliché of the wealthy mean blonde girl, she's not exactly a character that we're overly worried about, which means that much of that plotline comes off as, well, whatever.

And, oh yes, quite possibly, thanks to the villains, Tiana and Naveen might just have to spend the rest of their lives as frogs. Which might be terrible and awful and completely villain worthy, except for one teeeeeeeenny tiny problem:

Tiana and Naveen, after their initial shock, seem to like being frogs.

And why not? They can leap vast distances, play music with jazz loving alligators, dance, swim, sing, enjoy romantic riverboat meals and even still talk to their fellow humans. Being a frog barely even halts Tiana on her gourmet cooking path – she cooks up a marvelous pot of gumbo and advises other people about their recipes. And it doesn't keep Naveen from playing music and flirting and in general having a pretty good time.

In other words, it's hard - very hard – to worry whether or not they'll ever get to be human again. (Plus, it's Disney, so it's easy – very easy – to guess.)

So. No threat. No real motivation, except perhaps a worry that Tiana might not get her restaurant after all, which, while frustrating, doesn't exactly provide the same sort of dire threat that the great Disney films offer. (A scene where the frogs stop to make a nice gourmet dinner of gumbo just adds to this feeling – I mean, don't, you know, hurry to try to turn human and stop the bad dudes or anything, now.)

And the film's cheery emphasis the importance of working hard for your wishes and dreams is rather undercut by its equally strong emphasis on the importance of being a princess instead of a waitress, but for that, I fear we must blame the Marketing Power of Disney Princesses rather than Disney storytelling.

The film wasn't bad enough to snark – although I must ask, have we seriously hit a point where every animated film from Disney/Pixar has to have a revealing underwear visual joke? It's amusing a couple of times, but this time it felt flat. But apart from the carping – and I realize I've done a lot of it – I liked the jazz loving alligator, and I thought the banter and flirtation between the frogs was one of Disney's better attempts at romance. And, I rather like the conceit of falling in love with a star.