The Princess and the Frog Discussion - Part III

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Which is your favorite PatF character?

Princess Tiana
47
27%
Prince Naveen
19
11%
Dr. Facilier
33
19%
Mama Odie
7
4%
Eudora & James (Tiana's parents)
1
1%
Charlotte La Bouff
32
18%
Eli "Big Daddy" La Bouff (Charlotte's father)
1
1%
Ray (the firefly)
15
8%
Louis (the alligator)
19
11%
Other (say which)
3
2%
 
Total votes: 177

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Sotiris
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Re: The Princess and the Frog Discussion - Part III

Post by Sotiris »

“Getting the chance to do Dr. Facilier was a dream because it’s a villain,” Bruce shared about a dream he had ever since he first watched Cruella DeVil. “I’d much rather animate the witch than Snow White… The villain is always the best hookup, so to speak, so animating a Disney villain on a feature was really fun to do.” Bruce was also instrumental in designing the villain in The Princess and the Frog. “When we first started approaching Dr. Facilier, I had a series of sketches that were just sort of an idea of what the directors were thinking of for the character… From an acting standpoint, when I got to really design the character, I started to think about Cab Calloway… I wanted him to have these really great suave moves about him. Keith David did an amazing vocal performance and I remember getting the video footage of his auditions, he had these really great facial expressions… I leaned into that.”
Source: https://www.laughingplace.com/w/article ... ter-hours/
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Re: The Princess and the Frog Discussion - Part III

Post by Disney's Divinity »

Looking at pictures of Calloway right now, I can definitely see the inspiration. Yes, I would think any animator's dream would be a Disney villain. Although all characters can have their moments, like the stylized "Almost There" sequence or Ariel in POYW, but I'm sure those moments when you really get to let loose with a protagonist are much, much rarer than a villain, naturally. :P
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Re: The Princess and the Frog Discussion - Part III

Post by Disney Duster »

That's cool info. He's one of the best parts of The Princess and the Frog along with Charlotte.
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Re: The Princess and the Frog Discussion - Part III

Post by DisneyFan97 »

FUN TRIVIA: The Swedish voice of Naveen also voices Tony in the swedish of Live Action Lady and The Tramp
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Re: The Princess and the Frog Discussion - Part III

Post by Sotiris »

A film called "Fish Out of Water" was pitched to Disney in the early '90s. It has some elements that are similar to The Princess and the Frog. I wonder if Disney was "inspired" by it in any way.
Trying to pitch an animated movie with a Black lead character in the early 1990’s. “Fish Out of Water is a project that’s very dear to my heart because when I originally came up with the idea, it was right after When Harry Met Sally came out.” The story was set in the 1940’s about a Black girl who loves big band and wants to play jazz. “I wanted to do something that was set in that time period… I had written the idea and was trying to pitch it around town and people were like it’s a charming idea, but it’s hard because it's Black.”
Source: https://www.laughingplace.com/w/article ... ter-hours/
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Re: The Princess and the Frog Discussion - Part III

Post by Disney's Divinity »

I wonder how many pitches at Disney--or otherwise--for animated films featuring Black casts that were turned down there have been over the years?
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Re: The Princess and the Frog Discussion - Part III

Post by Sotiris »

Disney's Divinity wrote:I wonder how many pitches at Disney--or otherwise--for animated films featuring Black casts that were turned down there have been over the years?
The Disney ones we know about are Aida, Latfiya, The Song of Sundiata, The Spirit of New Orleans (Pixar), Mystic Bayou, and now Fish Out of Water.
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Re: The Princess and the Frog Discussion - Part III

Post by Disney's Divinity »

Sotiris wrote:Latfiya, The Song of Sundiata,
Not to get off-topic, but what were these supposed to be about (hypothetically)? I remember reading about the others from info. you've posted on the forum over time.
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Re: The Princess and the Frog Discussion - Part III

Post by Sotiris »

There's not a lot of info on them. Lafiya was about a girl and her adventures on the plains of Africa. Lafiya means "health," "security," or "well-being" in the Hausa language (a language spoken in West Africa). Elizabeth Hunter was hired to write the screenplay in 2003. The Song of Sundiata was a project developed by vis dev artist John Mahoney somewhere between 1998-2002. It was internally referred to as "the African project." It was based on the epic poem Epic of Sundiata that told the story of Prince Sundiata Keita, founder of the Mali Empire. You can find some concept art for it, here.
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Re: The Princess and the Frog Discussion - Part III

Post by Disney's Divinity »

Just from the synopsis on Wikipedia, I think it had a great deal of potential, with both the jealous step(? She was the first wife, so not exactly a stepmother, so not sure what to call her)mother and half-brother, as well as the sorcerer king. For some reason, the Sundiata Wikipedia page says The Lion King was a version of this epic? :?
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Re: The Princess and the Frog Discussion - Part III

Post by blackcauldron85 »

Sotiris wrote:There's not a lot of info on them. Lafiya was about a girl and her adventures on the plains of Africa. Lafiya means "health," "security," or "well-being" in the Hausa language (a language spoken in West Africa). Elizabeth Hunter was hired to write the screenplay in 2003.
Sotiris pretty much listed all the available info for Lafiya! A few years ago when I was between jobs for a month, I started a blog, and I did a post with all the info I could find on Lafiya:
https://animationresearchavenue.blogspo ... afiya.html
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Re: The Princess and the Frog Discussion - Part III

Post by Sotiris »

How The Princess and the Frog Kicked Off a Brand New Era for Disney
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmWj7kVZHXs
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Re: The Princess and the Frog Discussion - Part III

Post by blackcauldron85 »

^ The fence the video showed in front of Splash Mountain - is that actually the fence at the Park? It's nice seeing the characters there. I really am excited for the retheme.
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Re: The Princess and the Frog Discussion - Part III

Post by Disney's Divinity »

Wow, Whoopi Goldberg has aged hard since 2009; I didn't even realize how much so until seeing her talking about The Frog Princess. I know she was very excited for the film, and once made a comment on The View about how the character was sort of forgotten about by Disney (I think it was when Rosie was on the show again and they were talking about Frozen).

I'm happy for both the character and ANR herself that TP&TF was the film chosen for Splash Mountain's re-theming, that Disney is giving the film its due finally. :)
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Re: The Princess and the Frog Discussion - Part III

Post by Disney Duster »

Thanks for the cool video, Sotiris.
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Re: The Princess and the Frog Discussion - Part III

Post by DC Fan »

In terms of animation the movie is gorgeous as well as it was great to have seen 2D animation again. More so, the idea of having this story taking place in the States, as a time period and with black characters work because even though it is based on an European tale is vaguely enough that changing it didn´t matter.

However, it is a messy movie in many aspects:

-The animal part of the story was too long and very boring and confusing.
-Too many songs.
-Dr. Facillier was AMAZING as a villain yet they didn´t use him enough.
-The ending doesn´t work by any means. It was really forced.
-Also forced was the last minutes of the movie with Tiana at different times changing clothes. You know it was done in order to sell merchandise eventually but it, literally, happens in a matter of seconds.
-Mama Odie to me was a disgusting character.
-Louis wasn´t bad and there was potential there for him to become a nice sidekick but ended up being just meh.
-Ray had a beautiful story and was a nice character but I really dislike that kind of person. Don´t mean to offend but that´s how I feel. In general.
-And the song of the movie was very bad. Even other movies with weak songs (Atlantis, Bolt...) had better songs that this one. And it was truly a shame for how important this movie was in many aspects.

The one aspect I really loved was Charlotte. As many flaws as the character has they made her a true friend of Tiana. They could have gone the route of making her enemy and/or even racist or a person that would despise poor people yet they didn´t. Not only that but she was so fun and funny. On top of that she was very pretty in her own way (aslo could help that her personality shone through...there are people that might not be that pretty/handsome but because of great persons they are their inner beauty comes trough). Even her princess costume as over the top and played for laughs as it was still looked good on her somehow.

If the movie wasn´t a success was because it was a messy movie. If this movie was done in CGI it still wouldn´t have been a success. As it´s the content that matters and not the media.
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Re: The Princess and the Frog Discussion - Part III

Post by Disney's Divinity »

My opinion is the film would've performed better if Disney hadn't been sabotaging it in an effort to finally rid themselves of hand-drawn animation; even with Disney against it, it did 6X its real budget versus what Disney reported. But we know a film's success has nothing to do with quality and that's acknowledging that every person's opinion on a film's quality will be different in the first place. *shrug* Half the Revival Era films are worse than this and still did better, jmo, because they were 3D in a time when audiences lean towards that medium, because Disney gave them full support, and/or because they followed other films that actually were successful. At least, people have to believe film quality and financial success are largely incidental in order to criticize successful films like Frozen and TLK. :lol:

Honestly, my takeaway from a lot of the things I've read about TP&TF over the years is maybe next time they make a film centered around Black characters, make it an exclusively Black cast. Otherwise it'll get the same, "This movie sucks, but I liked the White character" reactions.
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Re: The Princess and the Frog Discussion - Part III

Post by Farerb »

For me this movie is a mixed bag. There are a lot of here that I like and a lot that I don't. I recently watched both this and Treasure Planet and they always kind of switch places regarding which is last in my M&C ranking, but ultimately I think that Treasure Planet wins because it has a better story and characters even though I'm not a fan of its design and IMO TPatF is a much more beautiful film.

I also really like Tiana and Charlotte and Facilier, but in the end the plot is a mess and can be a little bit boring at times, all the swamp moments remind me of all the animal films of the 70's-80's and those Don Bluth films which I don't really care for, only M&C try to implement their humor in it but somehow it doesn't work and it lacks the wit we used to see in their previous films and later in Moana.

I kind of think that their heart wasn't really in it and that they were not the right people to do this, they should have brought black filmmakers which would have given their much more valued input on black people in the 20's and even bring a black musician to do the songs and score. Have this film be a black story told by black people.

But in the end I'm glad this movie exists and I especially like that there's a hand drawn black princess. Tiana is a great character and deserves recognition.
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Re: The Princess and the Frog Discussion - Part III

Post by DC Fan »

farerb:

I don´t believe in the times we live in where only a person of X race/gender/sexual orientation can/must handle that project.

I´m Puerto Rican. Just because of that must I be selected to teach someone how to dance salsa or swim? I don´t know how to dance at all and can´t even if I tried. I also don´t know how to swim. A person from another nationality that knows those things is qualified to do so and not me because of where I was born.

Still with me as an example. Don´t know why but I´m always scared of driving around in Puerto Rico fearing I would get lost. However, I know of some Americans that moved there and been living there for years that know how to get around. I´m positive that they could very well teach me how to move around and not get lost.

In another scenario, I live currently in Spain. Well, most people would assume that the average Spanish would have traveled around the country. Yet that´s not the case. I have friends here that have just gone to a couple of places while I´ve been to many.

Years ago there was this Salsa Festival in Puerto Rico and the winners were a couple from Spain (a country where salsa is not at all common).

The Wonder Woman movie. Yes, it was directed by Patty Jenkins but the script was done by men. Or what about the incredible characters of Ripley and Sarah Connor? Came from movies directed and written by men.

All a person needs to do is research.
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Re: The Princess and the Frog Discussion - Part III

Post by Farerb »

I watched the WiP of TPatF today and I was wondering if it was screened at that way at some event like BatB's WiP did? Or did they do that just for the Blu-ray? If so why did they do it just for this and not other films?

I thought the WiP was really impressive and fascinating, I wish we could have gotten more films like that, or more like BatB where they also show storyboards and finished scenes.

For some reason it only occured to me now that this is another film that has a guy trying to propose and mess it up, though I'm glad it was only for one scene and not an entire arc, though it never felt weird to me that it's coming so fast in their relationship, it really feels organic. It just goes to show how strong their characters are and that they have an excellent chemistry. I'm also glad that Tiana didn't act OOC "crazy" like Anna did just for laughs.
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