We rented The Princess and the Frog from redbox the other night. I wasn't overly excited about seeing it since I had read about it on pluggedinonline and heard from friends that weren't crazy about it.A lot of people were really excited about this movie coming out because it would feature Disney's "first dark princess." (nevermind Pocahontas I guess, or Esmerelda, the hispanic toned one). ANYWAY, it was neat to see a new "regular" animated movie come out at all since lately everything has been Hannah Montana concerts or Pixar stuff.
This movie was so extremely disappointing! I know I went into it without expecting much, but it really didn't defy anything I had heard about it.
It pretty much makes fun of EVERY subset of people possible... from the blonde haired rich southern belle family to the poor "working class" darker skinner people and everyone in between! The stereotypes were out of control! For a film that was supposedly breaking race barriers, it totally did not live up to that AT ALL in any other way. Other than portraying the main girl (Tiana) as working hard for everything rather than "wishing" for things to happen, everything else was just ridiculous. They run into Bayou dwellers who are SO HILLBILLY it was not funny, you couldn't understand a single word of their cajun accents!
The innuendo was heavy throughout. Jokes about kissing were too often, as in a "getting their entire tongues tangled up and then joking about it suggestively" kind of way, not in a "kiss the girl" kind of way.
The worst part about all of the groups of people they run into and mock (in my opinion) it doesn't even turn out to be funny or interesting. The jokes aren't funny. Corey said there were a couple of things that were funny but I can't remember what they are. It's kind of a slow movie.
OH, and one of my very favorite things about Disney movies are the songs! These songs weren't catchy. Yeah, they were 'Nawlins inspired, jazzy type tunes...and I LIKE that kind of music. From the time the first song started it seemed like each song was just a continuation of the last and not that different. Disney songs are supposed to be the kind you sing around the house later even after the first time you see the movie.
Now, here is the last straw: the Voodoo. It was the source of all the magic and evil in the movie. I know Disney movies always have the evil and magic element and I have known many people who don't allow their children to see ANY of the Disney movies for that reason. I can totally respect that and understand and respect them for giving any thought to what their kids are watching. BUT, there has to be a line drawn between pure "imagination and childhood magic" and "real evil stuff that has you truly messing with the other side." That's where we draw the line and why we skipped one complete scene where the bad guy is making his deal with the other side. We paused the movie and had the kids go brush their teeth for bed and change, and we just skipped to the next scene. It didn't even influence the understanding of the movie one bit. We didn't even watch it later ourselves...who cares? We didn't!
We will not be buying this movie. We probably won't even watch it again. If somewhere they go decides to show it to the "group" I will have to speak up and say I object. It's just one of those movies that isn't worth it.
1 comment:
We were so disappointed too - especially the violence of the voodoo at the end. It was sort of appropriate I thought - he gets what is coming to him. If you mess with satan, you will pay the price. But, it was not child appropriate material. Plus, I must agree that a lot of the stereotypes were overboard.
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