Princess and the Frog
So, guys?
Saw the Princess and the Frog. You know what that means...
1. I want to see this movie again. Incidentally, I'd also like to watch Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince again, but, seriously? This movie was amazing.
2. ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG why aren't my friends online so we can all gush about it? Oh right, finals.
3. I have no idea what zydeco music sounds like, but now I want to know so that I can (watch the film and) listen to the soundtrack again and know where all the music comes from.
4. OH MY FREAKING GOODNESS the musical numbers! 'Almost There' blew me away. It was stepping into an Art Deco poster! 'Friends on the Other Side' had my jaw on the floor, and I love Dr. Facilier. 'Dig a Little Deeper' had all sorts of things I love, including spectacular visuals and poignant realizations of "oh my gosh I'm in love" sort of things and now I'm convinced I have to work a moment like that into a story coherence be damned.
5. And, guys? You know how sometimes to be cool or mysterious or something writers will work Tarot cards somehow into their story, even obliquely, but they clearly know nothing about the cards themselves beyond 'Death doesn't mean real death, it means change,' and kind of reducing a very subtle and complicated field to a few sentences and a plot device?
This movie avoided that.
Possibly it avoided it best by completely avoiding stating the meaning of the cards, and just letting the images speak for themselves. But (and I'm going to have to watch the movie again to catch all the nuances of this) I for sure spotted Three of Coins, The Fool, and the Tower in Naveen's hand, which happens to make great sense in his plot (well, maybe not Three of Coins, but there could have been a fourth coin I didn't see), and Lawrence had an almost exact duplicate of Ten of Wands, and I think I saw Nine of Cups and the King of Cups and oh my god they RESEARCHED it and it's AWESOME!
6. By the way, if there is a Tarot deck to be made of this movie, then Naveen would be the Fool, sure, but Tiana would be the Magician because she is awesome. Hardworking, capable, expeditious, thrifty, all sorts of good traits, and, best of all, an actual character behind them so she's not just a collection of traits with a few flaws thrown in. She brings people together and is open to change.
7. I swear Lawrence must be somehow related to Nathaniel from the movie Enchanted. Gotta be. Perhaps Andalasia and Maledonia are neighboring countries. And everyone knows all Disney films take place in the same universe - except the sequels, which don't happen at all.
8. When this movie was finished I had a powerful craving for gumbo and/or jambalaya. And I've never even tasted either of those. Cornbread, though, would not have gone amiss (but you know what? Some Ben & Jerry's did not go amiss either.)
9. Also as soon as Ray the Cajun firefly was introduced I got to wondering about the Cajun ethnicity. Wikipedia hasn't been very coherent. But that's all right.
10. Talk about earning your happy ending! Tiana didn't just have princesshood handed to her on a plate, she's got the life she worked hard to get, and that she's been dreaming of for years. And I imagine that in a few years, when Naveen has shaped up and shown himself capable of maybe running a country (with his wife's help) his parents may reverse their whole disinheritance bit.
11. There was only one thing that I cam say disappointed me: the effects of the water. I could tell it was mostly CGI, and I really missed the hand-drawn water effects of Snow White and Song of the South - neither one being movies with extensive underwater imagery, but still.
12. In short, this movie is awesome and everyone should go see it and convince Disney that this is the way to keep making movies.
Saw the Princess and the Frog. You know what that means...
1. I want to see this movie again. Incidentally, I'd also like to watch Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince again, but, seriously? This movie was amazing.
2. ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG why aren't my friends online so we can all gush about it? Oh right, finals.
3. I have no idea what zydeco music sounds like, but now I want to know so that I can (watch the film and) listen to the soundtrack again and know where all the music comes from.
4. OH MY FREAKING GOODNESS the musical numbers! 'Almost There' blew me away. It was stepping into an Art Deco poster! 'Friends on the Other Side' had my jaw on the floor, and I love Dr. Facilier. 'Dig a Little Deeper' had all sorts of things I love, including spectacular visuals and poignant realizations of "oh my gosh I'm in love" sort of things and now I'm convinced I have to work a moment like that into a story coherence be damned.
5. And, guys? You know how sometimes to be cool or mysterious or something writers will work Tarot cards somehow into their story, even obliquely, but they clearly know nothing about the cards themselves beyond 'Death doesn't mean real death, it means change,' and kind of reducing a very subtle and complicated field to a few sentences and a plot device?
This movie avoided that.
Possibly it avoided it best by completely avoiding stating the meaning of the cards, and just letting the images speak for themselves. But (and I'm going to have to watch the movie again to catch all the nuances of this) I for sure spotted Three of Coins, The Fool, and the Tower in Naveen's hand, which happens to make great sense in his plot (well, maybe not Three of Coins, but there could have been a fourth coin I didn't see), and Lawrence had an almost exact duplicate of Ten of Wands, and I think I saw Nine of Cups and the King of Cups and oh my god they RESEARCHED it and it's AWESOME!
6. By the way, if there is a Tarot deck to be made of this movie, then Naveen would be the Fool, sure, but Tiana would be the Magician because she is awesome. Hardworking, capable, expeditious, thrifty, all sorts of good traits, and, best of all, an actual character behind them so she's not just a collection of traits with a few flaws thrown in. She brings people together and is open to change.
7. I swear Lawrence must be somehow related to Nathaniel from the movie Enchanted. Gotta be. Perhaps Andalasia and Maledonia are neighboring countries. And everyone knows all Disney films take place in the same universe - except the sequels, which don't happen at all.
8. When this movie was finished I had a powerful craving for gumbo and/or jambalaya. And I've never even tasted either of those. Cornbread, though, would not have gone amiss (but you know what? Some Ben & Jerry's did not go amiss either.)
9. Also as soon as Ray the Cajun firefly was introduced I got to wondering about the Cajun ethnicity. Wikipedia hasn't been very coherent. But that's all right.
10. Talk about earning your happy ending! Tiana didn't just have princesshood handed to her on a plate, she's got the life she worked hard to get, and that she's been dreaming of for years. And I imagine that in a few years, when Naveen has shaped up and shown himself capable of maybe running a country (with his wife's help) his parents may reverse their whole disinheritance bit.
11. There was only one thing that I cam say disappointed me: the effects of the water. I could tell it was mostly CGI, and I really missed the hand-drawn water effects of Snow White and Song of the South - neither one being movies with extensive underwater imagery, but still.
12. In short, this movie is awesome and everyone should go see it and convince Disney that this is the way to keep making movies.