The Princess and the Frog

Post by **ShyViolet** » March 11th, 2007, 6:01 pm

From the heart of Louisiana's mystical bayous and the banks of the mighty Mississippi comes an unforgettable tale of love, enchantment and discovery with a soulful singing crocodile, voodoo spells and Cajun charm at every turn.

All Dogs Go to Heaven did the bayou/New Orleans thing too....AND they had a singing Cajun crocodile.

(or was he an alligator? I forget.)

But I'll TRY and give this a chance.....

(I do think it's great that there's an Afro-American princess, although personally I think it would be great if set in Africa, especially since, as Floyd Norman has said, we've already had TWO movies in Africa, but neither of them had any Black people!

)

BTW regardless of what you think of All Dogs, Bluth gave downtown N'Orelans a spectacular look...mist, dim light, amazing color, fluid movements.....I hope Frog Princess lives up to that look (but doesn't copy it of course.)

Post by **YCougar** » March 12th, 2007, 1:54 pm

^On ShyVi's comment about Africans in Africa... I agree. The "One by One" short was fantastic and I'd love to see a full feature about the people of Africa. If there was a good enough story behind it, of course.

Still watching the news for this one. I'm excited enough that it'll be traditional, and will look forward to the release...

And... whoa. I'd totally forgotten that All Dogs Go to Heaven was set in New Orleans! That makes me want to rewatch it even more... it's been YEARS.

Post by **ShyViolet** » March 13th, 2007, 6:25 pm

Have you guys seen this:

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/ideas-commen ... s#comments

Typical Hollywood blathering, but the comments (over 100) are funnny!

Post by **Daniel** » March 13th, 2007, 7:36 pm

Oh, Geena, Geena, Geena.

Oops... Yes, that was funny.

Post by **ShyViolet** » March 13th, 2007, 9:48 pm

I like what this one person wrote:

So true about many people's lack of animation knowledge....

03/8/07 3:33pm

Rikki Simons says:

So we’re supposed to seriously consider a foundation by someone whose animation knowledge stops at 1984? How hard is it to use Google or Wikipedia before she makes a speech before a crowd? She has to stretch all the way back to Hanna Barbara characters that were designed in the 50’s and 60’s with almost no relevance to what’s happening in animation now. Does she know that the Smurfs were orginally a Belgian comic strip? Does she know that Winnie The Pooh began as children’s novels in 1926? But then if she were paying attention to MODERN times maybe she would have known about Disney’s recent killing of Christopher Robin, replacing him with a helmeted, CG girl, Darby. Perhaps she would like that bit of historical destruction. Maybe she should be more concerned about how Disney doesn’t pay Tinker Bell royalties to the Ormond Street Hospital, denying money to actual suffering children. But no. She doesn’t mention any recent progress in female characters. No mention of the number of strong female characters in anime such as Kiki’s Delivery Service and any number of Miyazaki’s films.

Dear Geena Davis, please erase your bikini clad self in Earth Girl’s are Easy from my mind before lecturing about Miss Piggy’s boobs.

I love Earth Girls are Easy, however. Probably one of my favorite comedies ever! (Well, Jeff Goldblum and all....

)

But aside from that, it's a really funny film!

Post by **GRUNT** » March 14th, 2007, 5:53 am

Back on the topic of Disney Princesses and the African-American angle...

I have a difficult time imagining a purely African story with humans. The thing is, it's already been done before in The Lion King. Sure they weren't...well....humans, but the SPIRIT was there. And then of course, there's the majestic and distinctively African-sounding soundtrack. That's got to be hard to top, and it's going to be hard just coming up with another African-themed soundtrack that doesn't sound too similar to The Lion King, methinks.

Also, despite my love for 2d animation, I confess I'm one of those people who do not know too much about its history. Still, I think it's a bit unfair for that guy to blast her for not mentioning Anime. After all, its a National Conference, right? Not a global one. Western animation is very different from Anime.

Post by **Kinoo** » March 14th, 2007, 6:52 am

the French already did African animation with human characters: Michel Ocelot's Kirikou movies.

Post by **GRUNT** » March 14th, 2007, 6:56 am

Kinoo wrote:the French already did African animation with human characters: Michel Ocelot's Kirikou movies.

What I meant was that it'd be very difficult for Disney to make an African cartoon with humans in it

.

Post by **YCougar** » March 14th, 2007, 11:38 am

Kinoo wrote:the French already did African animation with human characters: Michel Ocelot's Kirikou movies.

Which means nobody can ever do it again?

I'd love to see a Disney take on the region.

Post by **Kinoo** » March 14th, 2007, 11:49 am

I was responding to that:

I have a difficult time imagining a purely African story with humans

Post by **Meg** » March 14th, 2007, 2:55 pm

I have a difficult time imagining a purely African story with humans. The thing is, it's already been done before in The Lion King. Sure they weren't...well....humans, but the SPIRIT was there. And then of course, there's the majestic and distinctively African-sounding soundtrack. That's got to be hard to top, and it's going to be hard just coming up with another African-themed soundtrack that doesn't sound too similar to The Lion King, methinks.

Grunt, the story isn't set in Africa - it's New-Orleans based. Don't expect an African-themed soundtrack from this one.

Post by **Ben** » March 14th, 2007, 6:25 pm

I think he was talking about doing an African based human feature along the lines of One By One, as was mentioed above somewhere.

Post by **GRUNT** » March 14th, 2007, 8:21 pm

Ben wrote:I think he was talking about doing an African based human feature along the lines of One By One, as was mentioed above somewhere.

Yuppers- that was what I was talking about

. I was thinking of something along the lines of a tale set in some African kingdom, or large tribe. The trouble is that like I said, The Lion King already feels very much like that...one only needs to watch the live-action Lion King musical to see that it can very easily work with humans.

So yeah- because of the difficulty in having a new cartoon set in this African setting, the obvious solution to have an African princess, is to have her be American and in New Orleans

. I'm not entirely sure WHEN the story is set, though. Is it around the 18th century or something? I must admit, I'm not particularly fond of 'modern' settings, but Lilo and Stitch managed to pull it off really well

. 18th century would be interesting because I can't get enough of period clothes, but like I said....not sure

.

Post by **Meg** » March 14th, 2007, 8:34 pm

I think it's in the 20's, judging by the concept art, but I could be wrong.

Post by **GRUNT** » March 14th, 2007, 8:57 pm

Meg wrote:I think it's in the 20's, judging by the concept art, but I could be wrong.

Oh yeah- that was that bit with the parade and that giant float with the horse? Hmmm- I forgot about that. In truth, I'm a little worried because to me, the setting doesn't quite feel timeless enough. Still, I'll reserve judgement until I see more

.

I must admit that I'm kinda worried about this attempt at revitalising 2d animation in Disney. The fact that I'm not immediately hooked onto the concept of the movie isn't really a good sign for me =/. I'm still looking forward to it though, just because we haven't had high-end 2d animation from Disney for so long

.