A few days before Christmas (2009), some friends and I decided to spend the few dollars we had left on a movie. We were torn between Avatar and The Princess and the Frog. We chose the latter because, as true-blue children of the Disney Renaissance of the early ’90s, we had been excited about this particular film for some time. We figured that Avatar will be around for awhile, given all of it’s hype.

Overall, I thought the film was good. It wasn’t exactly on the same par as The Little Mermaid or some of the other Disney classics, but was certainly better than most of the films Disney has come out with recently. The animation was spectacular, particularly during the musical sequences; often the visual style would change. I was most impressed with the humor throughout the film, though; it was genuinely funny with several laugh-out-loud moments. The voices were all wonderful and extremely well-performed.  The song(s) should have won the Oscar they were nominated for.

The thing that I think I was least-impressed with was the relationship between Naveen and Tiana. Going in, you know they will fall in love. It is Disney after all. Still, in the other films (The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, etc.), the two protagonists often develop their relationship gradually, over time, or there is a love-at-first-sight thing that happens. Naveen and Tiana seemed to go from being irritated with each other to in love awfully quickly. Again, you know it’s going to happen anyway, but still, the process getting there seemed too abrupt to me.

Still, I want to see it again and it strikes me as the kind of film that you will enjoy more and more each time you watch it.

Overall, I highly recommend it and am overjoyed that Disney has come out with a successful, traditional-style animated film.

Here’s looking forward to many more.