I know there's a lot of controversy surrounding it, but I loved The Princess and the Frog. Not only is it the first Disney movie with a black princess, but it's the first hand-animated Disney princess movie in 11 years. Anika Noni Rose, the actress who plays Princess Tiana, is wonderful. Not only is she the first actress to do both the speaking and singing voices of a Disney princess, but she's a Tony Award-winner which means she started out on Broadway. (Woohoo!) Tiana is a very strong female character who knows that she can't get what she wants just by wishing on a star, but that a lot of hard work is involved in fulfilling your dreams. The movie also has a great score, inspired by the 1920s and New Orleans jazz. There was a lot of criticism that Tiana spends too much screen time as a frog, but that allowed there to be a good amount of time spent both in the city of New Orleans (as a human) and in the surrounding Bayou swamps (as a frog). The one thing that bothered me was Tiana's frog body. She had a slender curvy female silhouette, as a frog. I mean, come on! But once I got used to that, I enjoyed the movie a lot. And the villain is a voodoo master - how cool is that?! I want to go see it again in theaters, but since I refuse to pay $12.50 a second time I'll probably go see a morning show for $6.
A Christmas Carol also got mixed reviews. My expectations weren't that high, but I was blown away by the animation. We saw it in 3D and it was well worth it. The animation was astounding. The detail was incredible. The people looked, walked, talked, moved like real people. You could see the hairs on the tip of Scrooge's nose. The retelling of the story was average and a lot of the script seemed like it was written just so that it could be animated with special effects, but those effects were so outstanding that it didn't matter. I loved the aerial shots of Victorian London. The movie was also a darker interpretation than some others I've seen - it was scary at a few points, which made it a lot more exciting than I was expecting. If for nothing other than the animation, you must see this!
Jim Carrey does the voice of Scrooge and all the ghosts. I thought it was amazing that Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Present looked so different, but both looked so much like Jim Carrey. Can you tell from this picture?
I saw the Princess and the Frog. At first I didn't know what I felt. I didn't get the magic of the movie (maybe because I had seat soooo close to the screen) but after I left I thought about it. I really did like it. I loved Ray. RAY! I had missed the original Disney animation. It was refreshing to see it!
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