The Princess and the Frog (2009)

The Princess and the Frog is an upcoming 2009 American animated family feature film loosely based upon the book The Frog Princess by E.D. Baker and presented by Walt Disney Animation Studios. It will be the forty-ninth animated feature in the Disney animated features canon, and the first traditional animation feature since 2004’s Home on the Range. It is being directed by John Musker and Ron Clements, directors of The Great Mouse Detective, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules, and Treasure Planet, with songs and score composed by Randy Newman and with the voices of Anika Noni Rose (as Princess Tiana), Oprah Winfrey, Keith David, Jim Cummings, John Goodman, Jenifer Lewis, Bruno Campos, Michael-Leon Wooley, Peter Bartlett and Terrence Howard.

The Princess and the Frog movie poster (click to enlarge)

The film, which began production under the working title The Frog Princess, will be an American fairy tale, Broadway-style musical set in the French Quarter of New Orleans. A prince named Naveen from the land of Maldonia is transformed into a frog by the evil scheming voodoo magician Dr. Facilier. The frog prince asks a waitress named Tiana to break the spell by kissing him. However, the kiss doesn’t break the spell, but instead turns Tiana into a frog as well. Together, the two of them must reach the good voodoo priestess of the Bayou, Mama Odie, while befriending a trumpet-playing alligator and a hopelessly romantic firefly along the way. The film is set to be released on December 11, 2009.

Disney had once announced that Home on the Range would be the studio’s last 2D animated film entry to their animated features canon, but after the company’s acquisition of Pixar in early 2006, it was reported that Ed Catmull and John Lasseter, new leaders of the animation department, were interested in going back to the Disney tradition of 2D animation. Ron Clements and John Musker, directors of successful 2D Disney films The Little Mermaid and Aladdin, will be writing and directing.

The film promises to return to the Broadway-style musical in the style of the successful Disney films like Walt’s classics, and the musical renaissance of the late-1980s and all of the 1990s. Rhett Wickham also reported that John Lasseter had personally asked Ron Clements and John Musker to direct and write the film, and had let them choose what form (both traditional animation or CGI) they wanted the film to be in. New and updated software will be used in the digital processing of the film, as the old CAPS system from Disney is now outdated.

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