The Princess and the Frog

CHICAGO – The most-surprising nominee on Oscar nomination morning 2010 had to be that a little film that almost no one in the audience had heard of much less seen would compete with the big-budget players for Best Animated Feature. Like an off-off-off-Broadway play getting nominated alongside multi-million dollar projects, there was something called “The Secret of Kells” sitting alongside “Coraline,” “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” “The Princess and the Frog,” and “Up.” Now the little-movie-that-could is out on DVD and Blu-ray for you to try and figure out why.

CHICAGO – The importance of Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog” should not be underestimated in that it not only successfully brought back hand-drawn, 2D animation in an era dominated by CGI but it presented an American fairy tale for African-American children and adults everywhere. It’s a lovely little film with a few flaws that are easy to overlook with such a marvelous Blu-ray presentation.

CHICAGO – Once the Walt Disney company confers the title of “Princess” upon one of their characters, in pop culture they live forever. Tiana is the latest title holder, and she is voiced by Anika Noni Rose in “The Princess and the Frog,” now on DVD.

CHICAGO – The feature animation film tradition, invented by and fostered by the Walt Disney Company for close to 70 years, gets another glorious rendition in their latest release, “The Princess and the Frog.”