DVDizzy Forum

The footage looks great and I look forward to this film.

I do have 2 concerns though,

Like Sotiris2006 said: The animation of Tiana is too squash and stretch-y, which was evident even from the teaser trailer. This does not work for human characters that are supposed to look more realistic, it's usually reserved for more comic or animal characters. None of the other Disney princesses are as "cartoony" as Tiana which i believe is a major drawback.

And the other thing is, everything I've seen so far is really "slapstick-y".
Every nice moment is ruined by some joke. This is also the case in most of the 3d films, but I think the power of the 2d classics are the real, beautiful, true moments.
It would be a shame if the film is just one big enumeration of tiring slapstick jokes. Even in this trailer it already is really annoying.

When it comes to the whole squash and stretch thing, I'd say that Tiana looks no more cartoony than Jasmine did.

enigmawing wrote:When it comes to the whole squash and stretch thing, I'd say that Tiana looks no more cartoony than Jasmine did.

Not quite. Look:

I don't think any other princess had such 'extreme' facial mannerisms.

Also note the differences of the tiara in the teaser and in the clips.

Ok, maybe not quite as extreme then.



The whole "cartoony" feel still doesn't seem that far off to me though, although it admittedly seems they're really trying to play off the comedy of the kiss by exaggerating her bit. The other two shots actually remind me of Mulan a little. I do like what they've done with her so far regardless, I think her expressions work well with what we've seen so far of her personality.

And yeah, I noticed they simplified the tiara as well, those kinds of details are a pain to animate and keep consistent. I'm wondering if it was simplified for budgetary reasons.

enigmawing wrote:Ok, maybe not quite as extreme then.

The whole "cartoony" feel still doesn't seem that far off to me though, although it admittedly seems they're really trying to play off the comedy of the kiss by exaggerating her bit. I do like what they've done with her so far regardless, I think her expressions work well with what we've seen so far of her personality.

I don't think is a matter of personality but the effect the filmmakers want to create. She could have the same personality but with less "cartoony" expressions. Perhaps they've exaggerated her mannerisms to fit with the whole "slapstick-y" mood and tone of the film. I just hope they 'll make her animation more subtle in the movie than they did in the teaser.

sotiris2006 wrote:I don't think is a matter of personality but the effect the filmmakers want to create. She could have the same personality but with less "cartoony" expressions. Perhaps they've exaggerated her mannerisms to fit with the whole "slapstick-y" mood and tone of the film. I just hope they 'll make her animation more subtle in the movie than they did in the teaser.

Well, at this point we're only seeing teeny bits of the film, so it's hard to judge what the overall scope will be. Let's just hope it's something we'll all enjoy.

enigmawing wrote:Let's just hope it's something we'll all enjoy.

Let's hope it will be a great movie and huge box-office success!

I agree with some of the posters on here that have already mentioned this fact; we have barely seen anything from this movie, and therfore it is so hard to judge the movie as a whole, and to nitpick problems already.

I enjoyed the teaser trailer, and remain vastly looking forward to this movie still. I actually gasped when I saw the trailer in cinemas, along with quite a few other people around me. It is just such a delight for Disney to be going back to what made them so magical, and with my favourite animated directors as well.

There are some points I would like to raise with the little promo piece that was posted though :

* I like how that in every film that Ron and John do, their female characters almost always have some of the same mannerisms carried into each different film. I picked up on the wide toothed smile that Tiana sported in the clipart sotiris2006 posted; Ariel, Jasmine and Meg have all done exactly the same thing. And there is another as well; almost like a grimace, that I have seen all their ladies sport. Does anyone else see this ?

* I don't know why Disney always push the 'funny' or 'goofy' aspects of their films recently. The case in point for me is the trailers for the Platiunum Edition DVDs. I hate the fact that have a title card, for example on the Snow White recent trailer, saying, "Beautiful" and it will cut to Bashful saing "Oh gosh ... !" Do you see what I mean? They cut the trailer to fit around their narrator or whatever, and it always have to be 'funny'. I want classic trailers like the TV spot for Cinderella: Platinum Edition, which was dark and suspensful. I don't want the constant comedy aspects of all their films thrown in my face. I supose they do this to appeal to children ? Like in the brief clips we have all seen from TPATF, they have all been funny. When they COULD have been romantic, or magical ... or anything other than having to be funny.

They could have done something simmilar to this The Little Mermaid trailer :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TSiJSs8 ... re=related

But obviously not 'Before ...' lol

Thats just my thoughts on it

I love these new clips... The only thing that bothers me is that Tiana and Naveen look too derivative of Mulan/Nani and Aladdin (which has been said before), mostly when it comes to their eyes.

As for the whole "humor" part: tastes change. What was funny in the 1950s doesn't have to be funny to modern audiences so stuff like this butt joke doesn't upset me. Most kids (and, sadly, few adults) will find it funny... And it's just like 3 seconds long so I don't think it has that much impact on the overall movie. I can think of things similar to this in other Disney movies (like "fur wedgie" in Hercules or the whole Tito-Georgette innuendo in Oliver & Company) which didn't make them less classic.

The cartoony movements of Tiana... My guess it's because she spends most of the movie as a frog, which is a form more suitable for physical comedy (just look at the way Naveen-frog moves) so they probably wanted to make the transition between Tiana-human and Tiana-frog less noticeable.

I can't wait for the full trailer, it's only 25 days away...

Neal wrote:

may i ask where you got this from?

I've just made some caps from the Frog and the Princess video on youtube.

Quality is not good, but you know, it's youtube...

Enjoy them!

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y60/ch ... PATF01.jpg

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y60/ch ... PATF02.jpg

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y60/ch ... PATF03.jpg

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y60/ch ... PATF04.jpg

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y60/ch ... PATF05.jpg

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y60/ch ... PATF06.jpg

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y60/ch ... PATF07.jpg

The webmaster from Upcoming Pixar made it.

http://www.pixarplanet.com/blog/

He got official time stamps then he made an image.

Can anyone find the youtube video that has been posted in higher quality? The show is called Backlot Buzz Spotlight and is hosted by Steve Kmetko. It came on on the 2nd of May at 6:30 pm on Time Warner. Perhaps abc.com has it also, so someone from the US could download it from there and upload it on youtube.

in the meantime, did anyone notice these little easter eggs:

First, when Dr Facillier sits down in front of Prince Naveen, notice how his own shadow is pushing the chair. This confirms a report earlier that said the villains shadow borrows an element from Peter Pan.

And then there's the Ariel doll inbetween the toys that Tiana falls in. I paused that because when has Disney (or Pixar for that matter) ever resisted the temptation of placing their famous characters in the background. Particularly toys. Think Treasure Planet or Monsters, Inc.

Mr arrow, as ajmorrow said, the trailer showed more of that firefly, and all you need to see of him is one picture to know he's a very negative stereotype.

Pap, Aladdin is a little too funny to be as classical as I would like, it's less classical than the fairy tale films before it, so I, and many, were just hoping for more class. Also, Hercules, Treasure Planet, and according to low sales, possibly even Aladdin, are not "revered as the greatest animated films ever" like The Little Mermaid and others are, especially if you're specifying the Disney fairy tales.

And I talk about aspects of the film as they come because I enjoy it and like to see what other people think. BUT you're right, I should try to stay away and not do it too much before it comes out.

PatrickvD, ther are plenty of things that look good to me. The alligator part does look beautiful, at least the background and tree branch, there you go. Other things I think look pretty good but need work, like certain designs. But what I have talked about are all given good explanation. This film is made for a broad audience, but remember what the word "broad" means, especially when paired with the word "humor". But I am looking forward to this movie, you know, and think it will be good...it's just that I know, and the creators themselves know, it could be better (definately could do better/more reaslistic/subtle animation for the frog and Tiana), and it will feel a little off, if the whole film is like what we've seen.

Sotiris, you said some very good, right things. Tiana's animation is too squash and stretch and unrealistic as those of the other princesses. She should not be cartoony in the least, yet she is. However, please explain to me how the old tiara looked more classic. The new design has three points, like Aurora's beautiful crown has three points. Simpler is often more elegant and...classy. The only thing is, the old crown reminded more of lily flowers, like her wedding tiara has. I would not mind it to look like a lily flower, if they did it better, with 5 points instead of 7, with more evenly sized and better shaped petal points, because it didn't look good before. It looked more like a common crown you see in a lot of cheap princess dress-up.

Atlantica, interesting, good points. Though I don't watch a wide enough scope of Disney films to see the heroine characteristic trends myself, I bet you're right.

Mooky, tastes do change, but the humor in the 1930's films is still amusing today. Little kids will also laugh at the humor in older films before the world corrupts them and makes them have little attention spans. But the firefly's humor is cringe-inducing...and Naveen's "cutting a rug" joke attempt is stale and flat...today.

As for Hercules and Oliver & Company, you said that their humor didn't make them less classic. Um. Tell that to Disney's sales department. Those films are not well-known Disney classics.

As for making Tiana cartoony because she will be a cartoony frog, and making the transformation less noticable...her predicament is being a gross, un-princess-like frog! There must be contrast between who she is and this creature she is under a spell that she wants to stop being. I admit her human personality should be kept in her frog form, but that would mean the frog would act more princess-like, more elegant, not that Tiana as a human would act more broad.

So I'd like to bring up a question. I think this is legitimate to ask. Let's just say The Princess and the Frog turns out to be as good was we'd like to hope. And let's say it does extremely well at the box office, creating good buzz, positive reviews, and a great box office return. When it is released on dvd, will Disney automatically insert it into the platinum line? I know they haven't done that with others, but there hasn't been one in almost 5 years, and this fits the mould of the others, so could it? And if not, and it sells tremendously on dvd it's first go round, the next time it is released will it?

nomad2010 wrote:So I'd like to bring up a question. I think this is legitimate to ask. Let's just say The Princess and the Frog turns out to be as good was we'd like to hope. And let's say it does extremely well at the box office, creating good buzz, positive reviews, and a great box office return. When it is released on dvd, will Disney automatically insert it into the platinum line? I know they haven't done that with others, but there hasn't been one in almost 5 years, and this fits the mould of the others, so could it? And if not, and it sells tremendously on dvd it's first go round, the next time it is released will it?

Who cares?

The film could break box-office records and get an hours-upon-hours-of-bonus-features Ray and DVD, but would the film's fans really love it any less simply because it wasn't labeled "Platinum Edition"?

albert

personally, i don't think it's nearly as "cartoony" or horrible as a lot of you are making it out to be. Sure it could be more elaborately beautiful, but that wouldn't appeal to a very large audience anymore. from what i can tell it seems to pull off beauty and comedy well. I also think more of the humor used in the clip requires more of the story behind it.

I dunno, i just think a lot of us jump and stuff faster than we should. And coming from the standpoint of this is something we weren't supposed to ever really have again from Disney I would think that we should be happy that it looks as good as it does.

The scene I saw has already made me determined to hate the movie. I'm pretty sure it's going to be terrible. The font started it for me, and this all just confirmed it.

Mr arrow, as ajmorrow said, the trailer showed more of that firefly, and all you need to see of him is one picture to know he's a very negative stereotype.

Golly, Ive actually seen the trailer dozens of times and all I see is a kind of goofy animated cajun cartoon firefly...!? but now that Ive been so informed I will certainly keep a terse eye out for stereotypes ...and right now Goofy and his texas drawl is starting to get my gander up.