New and old animation: Secret of NIMH and Princess and the Frog

[eric_hinkle]

I just recently finally watched The Princess and the Frog, and I was surprised to see just how dark-in-a-good-way it is. I mean, the villain kills the comic sidekick! I never thought I'd see that in a Disney movie! And the scenes with Dr. Facilier and his song, both the first and the second one, were rather well done nightmare fuel. Especially with

Comments

[eric_hinkle]

I agree about Secret of NIMH. And as for classic Disney movies, I'd say that The Princess and the Frog is about as classic as you can get. It works on levels aimed at both the kids and their parents. I'll see if I can post a pair of the songs here as an example.

[anonymous]

I haven't watched that just yet. The two guys that directed it are veterans that know the old ways, and they took that knowledge and ability to Princess and the Frog. I'm still jazzed about giving it a watch (no pun intended since the soundtrack is mostly Dixieland Jazz).

[the_mcp]

"How bad could it possibly be?" is right up there with "What's the worst that could happen?" and "What could possibly go wrong?" as questions which you really don't want the universe to answer for you. :D

The TVTropes entry sums up the sequel-in-name-only pretty accurately, really. Most of the major characters are completely changed, the story pretty much ignores most of what was established in the first film, the animation is slipshod at best, and you can pretty much see everything coming a mile away. It feels like something slapped together by a writing staff who'd never seen the original film or read the book, while being overseen by a committee from the marketing department whose prime motivation was to be able to say "see, we can recycle our old, widely-loved animated properties into soulless direct-to-video sequels too!"

[eric_hinkle]

The thing is, when I hear warnings like this a perverse part of me WANTS to watch it all the more just to see if it's as abominable as everyone says!

[the_mcp]

On your own head be it, then. :D

[eric_hinkle]

Tamar the Ebony Leopard told me to watch it just so I can feel the hate for myself.

[eric_hinkle]

Here's what I was talking about with the music and animation from PatF. It's the first time Dr. Facilier sings his 'Villain Song', Friends on the Other Side:

[eric_hinkle]

Yeah. the songs are great in this movie.

[headnoises]

*jawdrop*

K, that overpowered my "oy vey, they had to finish the last token princess for the Disney Princess collection, didn't they?" reaction. Maybe it really is just a movie that happens to fill that slot....

For those without very young ladies in their lives:
Thus far: true blonde Aurora, dark blonde Cinderella, red-haired Ariel, brunette Belle, raven-haired Snow White, Asian Mulan, (feather) Indian Pocahontas {...that was in my spell check?!?!}, Arabic Jasmine and now African American Tiana?
On one hand: yes, there is now a princess that looks like most any girl. I don't really mind that, so much, especially since they have different personalities in their stories.
On the other, I really have personal issues with tokenism...only partly because it causes such utter krep.

[eric_hinkle]

And here we see what becomes of poor Dr. Facilier when he lets his "Friends" down for the last time:

[eric_hinkle]

People already seem to think of Facilier as being a "classic" Disney villain.

[mauser]

But I thought all Classic Disney villains died falling from a high place after trying to drag down the hero who was trying to help them up?

[fizer]

Of course, tha gators from Princess and The Frog are great as well, especially the mean ones. They should have gotten more TV time though. >

[eric_hinkle]

I figured you were just disappointed they didn't get to eat anyone. ;)

And I loved Louis' little flashback. "Oh, I tried to play jazz with a band once..." *We see Louis climbing onto a riverboat. He starts blowing his horn. Everyone stares ta him in horror... then he leaps over the side with guns blazing* "It... didn't end well."