'The Princess and the Frog' has had much publicity for being Disney'sreturn to its traditional methods of animation. Because of this simplereason, I bet many folks expected great things from this, mostly fansof old Disney. Well, for fans of Disney films from recent years, thismight please them. On the other hand, for traditional Disneysupporters, very likely this might be not quite what they expect.

As for me, this movie generated mixed feelings. It wasn't on my plansto watch this in the theaters. However, I had this unexpectedinvitation to go to see it, so I did.

The artwork is partially comparable to the old classics. At least thesceneries and backgrounds are terrific, although very realistic but atthey least they don't suffer from the ugliness of CGI stuff. There arealso some very good special effects that create a magical feeling.However, most of the characters (particularly the human characters) aretypically CGI and with all of the bad things that has. Plus, many ofthem are annoying as hell - mostly the Shadow Man and that 197 year-oldwitch. The only character I liked was Louis the crocodile. He was cooland fun.

It's easy to see that this movie isn't completely original. It has alarge amount of inspiration in animated films like 'Anastasia' and 'TheSwan Princess'. Look at its settings, backgrounds and story and tell meit doesn't resemble these films? Plus, don't some of the humancharacters resemble 'Anastasia'? Or the frogs and crocodiles that lookexactly the same as Jean Bob (the frog) and the crocodiles of 'The SwanPrincess'?

Oh, and just between us, I thought the frogs would remain frogsforever, since midnight had come and the spell was not broken.

This movie has many faults, but one of the worst to "digest" is thefact that it is extremely loud and almost painfully noisy. I mean, onething is some noise during the film. But a 97 min long movie, whichabout 99% of that time is loud and noisy is too much, so much that Ialmost couldn't handle it.

I saw Disney's "Home on the Range" in early 2009, nearly five yearsafter its release, and basically found it to be mediocre in every way.That film was announced to be Disney's last theatrically releasedtraditionally animated feature ever, and by the time I watched it,there still hadn't been any theatrically released films from thecompany animated in this way, and I was convinced it was still intendedto remain the last one of its kind for good. That was not a good thing,since that film is so lacklustre and forgettable, but less than a yearafter I watched it, "The Princess and the Frog" came into theatres, andit turned out that the 2004 flop didn't mark the end of an era afterall. This 2009 film appeared to be much more popular than itspredecessor, so I was obviously expecting it to be far superior, andafter seeing it, I would say it is.

Tiana is a very hard-working waitress in New Orleans who is trying tosave up enough money to open her own restaurant. In her childhood, herfather told her his dream of having his own restaurant, but heunfortunately died before he could make that happen, leaving hisdaughter determined to fulfill his dream. Meanwhile, Prince Naveen ofMaldonia has been cut off financially by his parents, and has come toNew Orleans to try and get rich again. He meets a voodoo witch doctornamed Dr. Facilier, and thinks this man can help him get what he wants,but this is just part of a scheme, and the evil magician turns Naveeninto a frog! Tiana attends a masquerade ball hosted by her best friend,Charlotte LaBouff, and Naveen shows up on the balcony. He convincesTiana to kiss him so she can lift the curse, but instead of turning himback into a human, this turns her into a frog! The two of them thenflee to the bayou, where they make friends but also face more than oneproblem, while Dr. Facilier intends have the frog prince tracked down,as he will need him in order for his scheme to succeed!

Most recent animated movies may be computer animated ones with amazinganimation, but this particular traditionally animated one also provesto be a visual treat, with some very nice backgrounds, especially forthe bayou. I'll admit that the story has its fairly dull moments, and Icouldn't always get into it, but "The Princess and the Frog" definitelyhas a better plot than "Home on the Range", one which I usually foundintriguing, and this is just of the things that makes it better thanthat previous film. The story also gets memorably touching around theend. Also, this 2009 Disney feature does SO much better with the humourand characters than its 2004 predecessor. I actually laughed many timeswhile watching this most recent traditionally animated Disney flick,with scenes such as Tiana's reaction to hearing Naveen (as a frog) talkfor the first time, and with such characters as Louis, a friendlyalligator whom Tiana and Naveen meet in the bayou and are joined by ontheir journey. The Charlotte LaBouff character is at times prettyfunny, and maybe sometimes close to annoying as well. The charactershere generally stand out, which I certainly cannot say about Disney'sdull animated western. I can understand the praise for the songs in"The Princess and the Frog" as well.

Since I didn't know this film, or any future piece of traditionalanimation from Disney, was coming when I watched "Home on the Range",and until around the time this follow-up was released, I didn't thinkany ever would, I was obviously thinking about how this film would bein comparison before seeing it. I had seen the significant differencein ratings here, so I was expecting "The Princess and the Frog" to showa major rise in quality after the cartoon western from several yearsearlier, and watching it did not prove be wrong. "Brother Bear",Disney's last traditionally animated feature before "Home on theRange", is pretty good, but I would say this one is probably evenbetter than that. Obviously, not ALL Disney fans would be impressedwith this particular effort, but it's clearly much more popular thanwhat was previously intended to be the company's last theatricallyreleased traditionally animated film, which should count for something.It also seems to be considered by many to be a good tribute to NewOrleans, after the city was sadly ravaged by Hurricane Katrina.

The Princess And The Frog is an honest but ultimately unsatisfyingattempt at trying to bring back the older, better Disney. The problemwith the film is that it tries to go in so many different directions.It has too many characters, too much plot, and too littleentertainment. The film starts with Tiana (voice of Anika Noni Rose ofThe Starter Wife and The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency as well asDreamgirls.) Tiana has always wanted to open her own restaurant,especially when her dad dies when she's grown up. The film then goesinto Prince Naven (voice of Bruno Campos of E.R., Nip/Tuck, RoyalPains, The D.A., and Leap Years). Prince Naven is cursed by Dr.Facilier (Keith David). By being cursed, Prince Naven gets turned intoa frog. By thinking Tiana is a princess, Prince Naven has her kiss himbecause Naven needs to kiss a princess to turn human again. Realize howall these plots connect, but there's too many plots? Not to mention,there are not one but two wacky sidekicks. They are an alligator whowants to play trumpet but can't because he's an alligator, and a flywho is in this film for who knows why. The film does have some goodsongs, and some good animation, but overall, kid or not, don't see thismovie.

"The Princess and the Frog" is the best animated film made by theDisney Company since "The Lion King": After failures like "ChickenLittle" and "The Wild", all the magic is back, giving us a wonderful,captivating fairy tale like "The Beauty and the Beast" and "The LittleMermaid" that not only is wonderfully animated, but also has a greatstory, charming and likable characters, and great music.

I liked every single aspect of this film. It had all the feeling of theanimated classics made by Disney. I just hope that the Disney Companykeep making films like this, with lot of charm and magic for all thefamily.

"The Princess and the Frog" is the best movie of the 2009, along with"Up".