Disney Animation 'The Princess and the Frog' in Theaters

The Princess and the Frog has been a long time coming. A feature animation production constructed as a period princess piece with contemporary social sensibilities, The Princess and the Frog is Walt Disney Animation Studios' first full-scale hand-drawn effort in five years. The up and coming movie release underscores a desire on behalf of many of gaining a foothold, angling audiences for help in returning the theatrical cartooning division to creative prominence. For The Princess and the Frog, surfacing this winter season with another girl-with-a-dream story, expectations are high.

A princess of sorts for whom little comes easy, a girl named Tiana is at the focus of Disney's new theatrical production. Tiana, devoted to the dreams and memories of her family and passionate for the culinary culture of the city of New Orleans, anxiously pines for the day when she becomes a successful restaurateur herself.

In a fast-moving city where a distinctly jazz and gospel-infused community find pride in hard work and honest planning, Tiana fits in rather well. Unfortunately for her, she's a little narrow-minded, and has a tendency to pursue her dreams at the expense of enjoying much of her youth.

As The Princess and the Frog continues, Tiana lands in a plethora of amusing and challenging situations, the most troubling of which, obviously, is her sudden transformation into a frog.

Directed by John Musker and Ron Clements, The Princess and the Frog sends a charismatic but exiled prince named Naveen into the path of one enterprising Tiana. A confident and ever smiling lad whose wily banter brings him as much good fortune as bad, Naveen finds himself in a bit of a tough spot when he's swindled by the conniving Dr. Facilier, New Orleans' most menacing practitioner of dark magic. Naveen has his royal authority stripped away and is transformed into a lowly frog thanks to the not-so-good doctor, ultimately sending the green-skinned prince in search of a princess with enough tact to reverse his fortunes.

But as most fortunes go, things often get a little bit worse before actually getting any better. Tiana, caught by Naveen's charm, is transformed into a frog too. As such, the awkward but appropriate pairing of an ambitious southern girl and a raucous but fun prince sends two little frogs on a journey they won't soon forget. The Princess and the Frog, the result of assorted commentary for countless months due to its inclusion of an African-American leading lady, is likely to sport both an principled and convenient array of movie tropes to keep viewers eager for more.

"If there was a single lesson we could take from Walt himself to take Walt Disney Animation Studios into the future," John Lasseter, the film's Executive Producer, begins, "[the lesson] is to leverage the richness of its past: its beloved storytelling forms, its successful characters, its musical opulence -- all of these are an essential part of our newest hand-drawn project."

Walt Disney Animation Studios' track record of archiving the successes of assorted heroines at the profound neglect or apparent ignorance for their real world native culture is likely to shift with the advent of The Princess and the Frog. However, it remains true that an avoidance in debating the influence or result of race in culture, or the supplanting of such story components with more convenient thematic options, benefits neither the audience nor the creative guilt the story's creators hope to subside.