The Princess and the Frog

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Post by Neal » February 20th, 2009, 5:43 pm

The official image at the DCP site shows all the characters in dresses, not some in dresses, some in regular outfits. So right, it's not official. Settled.
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Post by Bill1978 » February 20th, 2009, 9:37 pm

Thanks for all the images posted. I'm very excited about this movie. Great to have hand drawn animation back on the big screen. I didn't realise how much I missed it until I saw Enchanted.

My main concern with the movie is Randy Newman being cast for the score and songs. I know he has done animated musicals before (Cat's Don't Dance, James & The Giant Peach) but I just don't think he writes outstanding musical style songs. Hopefully I am proven wrong and my bias towards wanting another Menken musical will be washed away.

Just one big question and I'll spoiler it just in case -
How does the whole Frog thing work. I'm not overly familiar with the original fairytale. I thought it was the girl kissed a frog and the frog turned into the prince. But I get the impression that this story is about a prince turned into a frog, girl kisses frog then turns into frog herself and then somehow they become human again? ANyone want to set me straight.

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Post by Neal » February 20th, 2009, 10:14 pm

I watched James and the Giant Peach again last week in anticipation of Coraline. The songs are forgettable. I hope he improves for Frog.

As for how the frog situation works - well, the Frog Prince and the Frog Princess are two different stories and depending upon which one you read it's either the girl kissing the frog or the guy kissing the frog.

Here, it's girl (Tiana) kissing the frog (Prince Naveen). But in a twist, it turns her into a frog, as well.

And it's not really spoiler material. In fact, it's about the length of what we know on this film's plot.
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Post by Bill1978 » February 20th, 2009, 10:18 pm

Thanks for that Neal, I spoiled it as I actually had no idea she turned into a frog until thsoe plush toys were published on the net. I thought the whole movie was about a frog trying to convince Tiana that he was a prince.

Re: Randy's song writing. I haven't listened to James And The Giant Peach for years but I have the Cats Don't Dance songs on my iPod and I must say that they aren't your typical musical sounding songs. Now maybe that's what the studio wants from this project but I must admit that I like my musicals to feature big production style numbers with numerous characters interacting during the songs with the plot developed through the songs. Something that Randy has not showed me he is really capable of doing.

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Post by Neal » February 20th, 2009, 10:23 pm

Nope, it sounds like a great deal of the film is spent with both of them as frogs. Here's some of the plot thanks to Cinema Blend (which does contain spoilers):
The first scene-- which may or may not be the first in the film-- shows Tiana and her friend Charlotte listening to Tiana's mother Eudora (voiced by Oprah Winfrey) tell the original fairy tale of The Frog Princess. Charlotte is white and wealthy, the daughter of New Orleans businessman Big Daddy LaBouff (voiced by John Goodman), while Tiana lives with Eudora and her dad Ray (Jim Cummings) in a line of shotgun houses on the edge of town. But given that Oprah is her mom and her dad repeatedly tells her to dream big and become whatever she wants to be, Tiana doesn't exactly have it bad.

We saw Tiana grow up in a series of sketches and become a waitress, harboring a dream of opening her own restaurant. When exotic Prince Naveen is set to visit town, Charlotte set her sights on him, and asks Tiana to bake beignets for the Mardi Gras ball she'll have in Prince Naveen's honor. The money Tiana gets from that job will be all she needs to open up her restaurant at last. But things don't go as expected for Tiana, whose business loan application is turned down, or Prince Naveen, who stops by a voodoo master on this way to the ball and is transformed-- you guessed it-- into a frog.

In the second clip we meet Tiana, now voiced by Tony-winner Anika Noni Rose, in the pose we've all seen in promotions for the film. She's wishing, once again, upon a star to help her make her dreams come true-- but instead she gets a mouthy frog with a French accent who claims to be Naveen. He convinces her to kiss him, breaking the spell, but we didn't get to see what happens next-- the clip ended just as their lips locked.

Well, we can kind of guess what happens. Two of the toys on display were a bride and groom frog, suggesting Tiana will be joining Naveen as a green jumper. We also saw a still from what seems to be the last scene of the film-- Tiana and Naveen, in human form, on a horse-drawn carriage looking very much like they were just married.
http://www.cinemablend.com/new/New-Foot ... 12019.html
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Post by Ben » February 21st, 2009, 2:26 pm

Thanks for spoliering those comments guys. Despite some of them being the extent of what we know of the plot, <I>some</I> people here might not even want to know that, so ya done good! :)

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Post by Neal » February 21st, 2009, 2:28 pm

How dare, you, Ben, commend me, Neal, for spoiler hiding my post. I'm leaving and going to where I, Neal, am appreciated:

Koi-Lovers-United.com

!!!1
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Post by Ben » February 21st, 2009, 2:46 pm

Yeah, yeah, okay. Grow up or get out, kid! ;)

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Post by Once Upon A Dream » February 21st, 2009, 2:49 pm

In the original fairy tale,the princess is spoiled,when she plays with a golden ball near a well it falls inside,the Frog Prince agree to bring it to her if she"ll take him to her palace,let him eat with her,sleep in her bed,and kiss him,she agrees but when he gets it she tricks him and leave him there but later he finds the palace,after she does all she promised because of her father she kiss him and he turns into a prince,I think thought not sure (I don't really like this fairy tale).
And
I already know that Tiana doesn't want to kiss him but when she does she turns into a frog
And Charlotte isn't supposed to be mean? she seems to be a friend of Tiana if she's visit her house as a little girl and later she ask Tiana's help with Naveen.
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Post by cboy666 » February 21st, 2009, 5:21 pm

Link
If you pay close attention early on in the video you can hear a part of the song princess tiana sings in the film.
"In the end, it boils down to two simple choices. Either you do or you don't. You'd think with all the problems in this world, there'd be more answers. It's not fair... but that's the way things are. The choice is yours."

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Post by Bill1978 » February 21st, 2009, 9:35 pm

The song sounds alright from what I could make out of it. The big problem I'm going to have to overcome with the songs and I imainge the score is the jazz aspect of it. I'm not a huge fan of Jazz. Thanks for the link

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Post by Once Upon A Dream » February 22nd, 2009, 4:00 am

Thanks,cboy666 :D she sorta sounds like Meg from Hercules.
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Post by Jake » February 23rd, 2009, 1:22 am

It's a really short snippet, but I like what I'm hearing. I loved the music for "Cats Don't Dance". That was one of the only animated movies I didn't catch as a kid, and I remember buying the VHS and hearing those songs for the first time. I couldn't get them out of my head and they kept me up in excitement. "Tell Me Lies" is still one of my favorites, and the showstopper "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" is a great toe-tapper. That's really the only project of Randy's we can compare this to, but given that example, I have a lot of faith in "The Princess and the Frog".

I love jazz, though. A Disney 2D-musical set in New Orleans is like a dream come true.

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Post by Once Upon A Dream » February 24th, 2009, 12:20 pm

There's a book that takes place after the film!:
For as long as she can remember, Tiana has dreamed about just one thing: having her own restaurant. But after she fell in love with Prince Naveen, she not only got her restaurant, she became a princess, too. Now it's time for her first royal ball-and her first appearance as a princess.

Her friend Charlotte has all kinds of advice on how to act. All Tiana has to do is figure out whether to listen. Featuring lilting text and gorgeous illustrations by one of the film's animators, this jacketed picture book picks up where the movie leaves off with an enchanting new princess story that little girls will love
Sounds really cute :D but how come she's a princess and has her own restuarant? and I hope it's like Belle and not Nancy from Enchanted (Because Nancy isn't a Princess althought she is a princess by marriage,Giselle is the Disney Princess,and she can say that she doesn't want a prince in that deleted scene they used in some things (Althought I don't count deleted scenes) but then she's the first one to snatch Edward and become the queen of Andalasia) also seems like Charlotte is her friend insted of a rival.
The book is called Princess Tiana And The Royal Ball and will be released in October:
http://www.amazon.com/Princess-Frog-Tia ... 977&sr=8-1
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Post by Ben » February 24th, 2009, 3:15 pm

So they're releasing spoiler sequel stories before the movie opens? That's very nice of them! And soooo nice that the DTV market survives...in book form. ;)

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