Princess Tiana, please don't fail me!

I figured that now is as good of a time as any to talk about the upcoming movie "The Princess and the Frog." This movie is a very big deal in the world of Disney because it is the first time in 5 years that Disney will produce a 2D film drawn entirely by hand. To most people "5" seems like a smaller number than it should be; but, "Home on the Range" (2004) was also a 2D hand drawn film and it flopped. Bad. Needless to say, a LOT is riding on the success of this film.

Disney has clearly acknowledged that and looks like they are up to the challenge. They took what they know worked in the good ol' days and are bringing it to the children of today. They were right to pick a fairy tale that everyone knows but are ready to hear more about. It also has a princess, which right off the bat guarantees every family who has a daughter under that age of 14. They have gotten some really good voice talent for this film. Terrence Howard (August Rush and Iron Man) will be a great I think, although I have never seen him do voices for anything animated. Other notable voices are John Goodman, Jennifer Lewis (Flo from Cars), Oprah Winfrey, and Jim Cummings (Ed the hyena in The Lion King). The star of the show will be Anika Noni Rose, playing the part of Princess Tiana. I personally have never seen or heard anything that she has done, but her resume is pretty impressive nevertheless.

The film takes place in New Orleans and, because of this, involves all sorts of voodoo magic. I am really excited to see how the voice actors portray these types of voices, it should be pretty interesting. I am anxious to see all the backgrounds and colors that they use for this, my personal favorite animated Disney film to date would be "Hercules" and a lot of that is because of the vibrant colors they used for the gods of Mt. Olympus. I'm hoping to see some of the same talent (obviously, I don't expect characters to glow :).

All things considered, I think that this will be a great return to the hand drawn field for Disney. I am definitely waiting anxiously for December 11 to get here.