Since not a whole lot is coming out today, most of this column is going to be a review of The Princess and the Frog, which hits streets today in a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack. The Princess and the Frog was a return to form for Disney, both in the realm of classic 2D animated storytelling and the princess themed movies that made them famous to start with.
With their first black princess, Disney transformed a well-worn story (The Frog Princess) into a jazzy, 1920s princess tale of New Orleans with plenty of gorgeously animated musical numbers and memorable characters, this film is the Disney movie we’ve been waiting years for, but haven’t had in more than a decade. The art style is very Jazz age, though it’s wrapped in a contemporary flag, it’s a tremendous film packed into that short time span and I would recommend it to any lover of animation or kid at heart. It’s a testament to the fact that 2D animated movies are viable forms of entertainment still. I can’t believe that people are treating 2D animation like it’s a picture with out sound or color. It’s pretty frustrating.
But the people at Disney, led now by Andrew Stanton, really raised the bar on the storytelling from their status quo. There’s even very Un-Disney like moves they pull with the story that will pull tears from even the hardest hearts in the audience. As far as the Blu-ray is concerned, it’s truly a thing of wonder to see contemporary animation in a high-definition format. And the more I watch animated films of any sort (Traditional, 3D, new, old) my breath is always taken by the quality of it on a nice screen.
So, yeah, don’t buy the DVD only version of these cartoons. You will regret it.
Other things coming out on DVD or Blu-ray today: