Commentary 06 Dec 2009 09:39 am
Frogs
- I’m a bit cranky. Having just come from Disney’s The Princess and the Frog, I’m not sure how to comment on it fairly. There were moments when I just relished the hand-drawn animation done at such a high level. I treasured the levels of technical depth being executed on the screen. I enjoyed whole sequences of animation and overall design choices. However, the story has such deep problems. I don’t intend to drag the film down with negatives.
I hope the film does well. 2D animation needs a boost. Would that someone had pulled the film in a straight-arrow direction and told the story more directly. But that isn’t the case.
I won’t complain about the incessant violence and loud actions in the film, but I will tell you something else that’s irritating the hell out of me. PR people have released information that I’ve seen repeated a few times. Anika Noni Rose repeated it on Jimmy Kimmel Friday night. They’re saying that she’s the first princess ever to sing and act the part, herself. Prior to her it was done by two people.
I suppose Adriana Caselotti as Snow White’s singing and acting voice doesn’t count. Nor does Ilene Woods as Cinderella, or Mary Costa as Sleeping Beauty, or Paige O’Hara as Belle. Can’t they even get their facts right about their own movies! Do they have to take away from the brilliant talent of some of the past films?
The two illustrations above come from Jeff Kurtti’s book, The Art of The Princess and the Frog. The pencil drawing was by Ruben Aquino, and the color sketch is by James Aaron Finch and Armand Baltazar.
on 06 Dec 2009 at 11:25 am 1.Galen Fott said …
Jodi Benson as Ariel too! That’s a patently absurd claim they’re making.
on 06 Dec 2009 at 11:26 am 2.Michael said …
Ariel wasn’t a princess and didn’t become one.
on 06 Dec 2009 at 11:29 am 3.richard o'connor said …
The historical revisionism propagated by the Disney Corporation has always been appalling.
The only thing worse is actually doing work for them.
on 06 Dec 2009 at 11:30 am 4.Galen Fott said …
Been a while since I’ve seen it, but isn’t Eric a prince, whom she marries in the end? Just like Cinderella.
on 06 Dec 2009 at 1:54 pm 5.Eric Noble said …
Lovely illustration.
Yeah, their historical revisionism is pretty amazing. Either they don’t know what they are talking about or they want to hype up a mediocre film by trying to detract from other superior films. Just a guess.
on 06 Dec 2009 at 4:19 pm 6.Paul Naas said …
Ariel was King Triton’s daughter, which makes her a princess by default, no?
I wonder whether it’s a case of revisionism or just plain ignorance. There are loads of marketing flacks there that don’t know the company’s history (and probably don’t care.) And considering they themselves were probably children when movies like “Little Mermaid” and “Beauty” came out, it’s not surprising they get it wrong.
on 06 Dec 2009 at 6:49 pm 7.Stephen Worth said …
I’ve never seen the logic in supporting mediocrity in the hopes of preserving a medium. Better to encourage excellence.
on 06 Dec 2009 at 10:32 pm 8.David Nethery said …
Not to be too geeky in arguing over trivial points , but in fact Ariel (acted and sung by the wonderful Jodi Benson) is a Princess. She’s the daughter of a King . She marries a Prince.
In the movie the witch Ursula refers to Ariel as a princess ( see this clip at the 2:40 – 2:50 mark) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l847A5yx_vM
I’m really flabbergasted that the Disney PR machine is having Anika Noni Rose go out there and claim she is the first person to do both the speaking voice and the singing voice for a Disney princess character.
on 07 Dec 2009 at 3:35 am 9.Jim Stokes said …
Mary Costa performed beautifully as the voice of Sleeping Beauty (Princess Aurora), but another lovely actress did the acting that the animators worked from. I haven’t looked that closely at the other movies, but I believe this is (or was) SOP for Disney.
on 07 Dec 2009 at 6:06 pm 10.Eric Noble said …
Jim – Mary Costa was fantastic as Aurora. One of my favorite Disney songs is “Once Upon A Dream”. Absolutely perfect.
on 07 Dec 2009 at 6:08 pm 11.Eric Noble said …
You know, the coloring of that illustration by James Aaron Finch and Armand Baltazar reminds me of the coloring in “The Triplets of Belleville”.
on 07 Dec 2009 at 10:47 pm 12.Jason said …
Forget it Michael…. It’s Disney.
on 08 Dec 2009 at 9:46 am 13.Michael said …
Jim, I think you’re wrong about Mary Costa. I’m pretty confident that she voiced the entire part both singing and speaking. Another actress was used for the live action photography for the animtors to study, but I’m pretty sure Mary Costa voiced the complete part.
on 29 Jul 2010 at 8:28 am 14.Gerard Sison said …
Perhaps what Anika Noni Rose was referring to was that previously, the princesses were voiced/sung by a different person than the live-action model reference.
Snow White was voiced by Adriana Caselotti but “acted” by Marge Belcher (Champion).
Cinderella was voiced by Ilene Woods and Aurora by Mary Costa but both were “acted” by Helene Stanley.
Ariel was voiced by Jodi Benson as Belle was voiced by Paige O’Hara but both were “acted” by Shari Stoner.
If Ms Rose was indeed the live-action reference for Tiana as well, then she is perhaps correct in stating so.
on 29 Jul 2010 at 8:41 am 15.Michael said …
Even this is inaccurate in that Hans Conreid voiced Captain Hook and did the movement “acting”. This was also true of Kathryn Beaumont and Bobby Driscoll, Wendy & Peter in that film. (The Wikipedia page has stills of them performing as the characters.) Kathryn Beaumont also did the acting for Alice in Wonderland.
There are other earlier examples I could note as well.
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