The Princess and the Frog isn’t a return to the brilliant early 90’s heyday of Disney Animation, but it is for sure a huge step in the right direction.
Twisting the classic tale of The Frog Princess on its head this version of the classic fairytale has the “princess” turn into a frog when she kisses the green prince and the two embark on a journey through the New Orleans bayou in hopes of returning to their human form. The tale is full of voodoo magic, jazz anthems, and talking creatures from the swamps pop up and populate the story that does a nice job of paving its own path while evoking enough of those classic films to create a familiarity with them that this desperately hopes it will be considered with.
The story side of things can be a tad bit repetitive and drags a bit once we hit the swaps. The film does manage to squeeze some quality jokes into picture though with Prince Naveen and Louis the alligator providing most of the film’s laughs. The film also does a very good job at creating a beautiful period era New Orleans and the city is bustling with music and character. [Read more...]
Review: The Princess and the Frog
Review: Precious
Precious has been lauded with praise since its debut at Sundance this year and considered a front runner for Best Picture for a while now, and while I don’t quite agree with that assessment the film is still a well made drama about overcoming your obstacles in life no matter how hard they come.
Precious is a sixteen year old girl pregnant with her second child, both fathered by her own father, living in an abusive home with her mother, and while intelligent lacks in her abilities to actually show her smarts. It’s funny that this film goes pretty much nationwide in a limited release the same day as the similarly themed The Blind Side as they send the same message but told at almost completely different ends of the spectrum. In The Blind Side, things are hard off for our main focus, but as he moves on and gets better, good things seem to happen, where as Precious takes one step forward and then something tries to knock her ten steps back.
The film piles it on and is relentless with obstacle after obstacle thrown at her. Everything horrible that you could probably imagine happens to this poor girl, but she keeps moving forward in this ultimately tragic tale. I won’t go into her hurdles as it is quite spoilery, but expect the worse. That isn’t to say that there aren’t some lighter points in this film though, and while they might be few and far between, they offer some nice moments of levity to a film that is constantly pulling you down. Almost every character gives you a moment where you can get behind them and there progress, but also will shake your head in sadness at something else about their lives that might be even out of their hands. The only character in the film that is mostly unaffected and leading a normal life is Precious’ teacher Ms. Rain; unless you are a republican. [Read more...]
