Bruno Campos and Anika Noni Rose voice the Frog and the Princess.

It's been since 1998's Mulan that Disney has added a Princess to their collection. Given that reportedly their Princess merchandise collection earns them billions each year, this seems surprising. In any case, with the release of The Princess and the Frog, they have finally gone back to the well and this time, after having a blonde, brunette, red head, Asian, Indian and Arabic Princess, they've added an African American one.

Since all of the publicity at the time it was released seemed to focus on the fact that this time the Princess was black, I was actually a little leery of it. I assumed that the movie would so focus on the fact that she was black and try to be so politically correct about it that it would end up being racist in reverse. Surprisingly though, it turns out that the press spent way more time on the fact that the Princess was black then ever Disney or the writers did. In fact, the color of her skin is pretty much inconsequential to the story.

Although the film shares the same title as an old fable, the script here only uses the concept as a jumping off point. It's set in New Orleans in the 1920s. Tiana is a young woman pursuing her dream of owning her own restaurant some day by working multiple jobs. A young ne'r do-well Prince breezes into town one day and falls afoul of an evil Voodoo Priest and ends up turned into a frog. Tiana inevitably kisses the frog, but instead of returning him to his natural form she ends up a frog herself. Her and the Prince, along with a few sidekicks must then defeat the Voodoo Priest and return the two of them to their human form.

The animation is (mostly) hand-drawn and quite good, if never breath-taking or ground-breaking. I hesitate to say this gives it a warmer appearance then completely computer generated animation, but it does give it a different look.

Like nearly all Disney cartoons this one is a musical and while the songs are okay, none of them are that memorable. I wasn't humming along or singing some catchy refrain after wards. They're fine, but nothing special. It shies away from the more typical Disney style show tunes and instead features songs more appropriate of the film's setting.

As usual there are a few funny animal sidekicks. I quite enjoyed the musical crocodile, but it's the Creole Fire-fly who steals the film and gives it some heart. He provides some laughs and (believe or not) provokes the most genuine emotion in the whole movie.

The Princess and the Frog may not be the greatest of Disney cartoons, but it's certainly good enough. Tiana can easily take her place alongside Belle and Arial, even if she'll never quite reach the level of Snow White or Cinderella.

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