THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching, so I’m here to help if you’ve fallen a tad behind. Yesterday, I gave you gift suggestions, but here’s an idea for going out for a lovely time with your honey. (Or children. Or ME!)

I love seeing easy, romantic films to celebrate the day, rather than sitting in yet another restaurant, which you can do anytime. (And this from someone who’s been a restaurant critic for most of my adult life, so you know I’m serious.)

I recently saw Disney’s The Princess and The Frog, and really recommend it for everyone. The adults in the crowd with me laughed even more than the children! And everyone seemed mesmerized by the visual beauty of it, which comes as across on the big screen so much better than at home, no matter how giant your flat screen with HD is.

Disney films always confuse me a little, though, because as much as I love their magnificent animation, I hate that they make-up their own story rather than just portraying the real one, the one that’s been around since time immemorial. So, if you feel like I do about it, just forget the original fable this time and go with the flow. You’ll enjoy it much more if you do.

I’ve heard this movie referred to as “a modern day re-telling of the classic story The Frog Prince.” Not really. They do reference it at the beginning, but then throw it all out and start again. At least you’ll be surprised!

The whole thing was charming and entertaining, and as usual in Disney animated movies, the voices really augment the breath-taking animation.

But Jennifer Cody, as the voice of the main character’s rich bff, Charlotte, absolutely stole the show! She’s sort-of Bernadette Peters and Amy Poehler rolled into one, but even better than that! I loved her portrayal so much that I researched her and found her to have only a few on-screen credits! Where has she been? (The answer is Broadway, but still…) How has no one hired her for voice-overs before??? Sign this girl up!

There’s one not-meant-to-be-but-it-is amusing aspect to the movie. In an attempt to come into the 21^st century, Disney made the princess black, rather than their hither-to-now always white. (I hate the term “African-American”–what are we supposed to call people of color from other countries??? Is Lennox Lewis “African-English?” Is Ben Johnson “African-Canadian?” You get the point.) So, they made her friend white, and than obviously didn’t know what to do about the prince! They had to make him fit in with both girls, so they made him some strange, darkish-skinned, generic, possibly middle eastern or European, ethnicity. I loved it! It’s just like the make-up of all the clubs I ran back in the day, and is really true to life nowadays. But I can just imagine the concept meetings over at Disney over what to do about him. It put a little smile on my face.

As I hope this whole movie does for you. On Valentine’s Day or whenever.