{"id":1178,"date":"2010-02-11T22:22:26","date_gmt":"2010-02-11T20:22:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/zaparents-blog\/?p=1178"},"modified":"2022-06-16T07:42:18","modified_gmt":"2022-06-16T05:42:18","slug":"the-princess-and-the-frog-ster-kinekor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/lifestyle\/movie-reviews\/the-princess-and-the-frog-ster-kinekor\/","title":{"rendered":"The Princess and the Frog \u2013 a movie review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Having watched more than my fair share of Barbie DVD\u2019s about princesses and fairies I was not sure what to expect from The Princess and the Frog, but I was wonderfully surprised.\u00a0 Disney has reverted to their classic hand-drawn style and produced a visual feast of a tale with engaging characters and memorable side- kicks.<\/p>\n

This is a modern day fairy tale in which the \u2018princess\u2019 – Tiana – is really a hard working young girl from the wrong side of the tracks who wants nothing more than to own a restaurant and cook food for everyone. Prince Naveen is a spoilt but well-meaning young \u2018eurotrash\u2019 who arrives in New Orleans looking to have fun while hopefully snagging himself a trust fund princess to pay for his way of life. Throw in the menacing magician cum voodoo man, Dr Facilier and Tiana and the Prince get turned into frogs sending them on a wild adventure deep into the Bayou (swamps) to find the good medicine woman who will return them to their human forms.\u00a0 Along the way they learn about love, friendship, and wishing upon a star.<\/p>\n

The spirit of 1920\u2019s New Orleans with its mix of jazz, blues and gospel inspires a foot tapping soundtrack and the hand drawn and painted animation has a warmth and richness that we\u2019ve really missed with the digital age. Do children care about all this? Well, maybe not, but it stirs their imagination and is culturally entertaining.\u00a0 Did they notice that all the main characters were black or Hispanic?\u00a0 My daughter and her friend didn\u2019t mention it, even though this has been both hailed and deplored in the US where it\u2019s seen as being either \u2018about time\u2019 or too PC.\u00a0 I think its just part of the story and helps to level the surplus of white princes and princesses out there.<\/p>\n

Age restriction<\/h2>\n

I was glad I left my five year old at home. The age restriction is 10, and my 9 year old and her friend were happy watching it.\u00a0 The restriction is for the scare factor and I do wonder why Disney has to go quite so dark in enacting the Voodoo shadows and masked figures. Yes, it is artistically done, but it\u2019s scary! Having said that a few of my daughter\u2019s friends apparently felt the movie was boring. In the age of Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Avatar \u2013 it is refreshingly simple and \u2018old-fashioned\u2019.<\/p>\n

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