Brown Blog Films

Last night saw the premiere of Disney’s Princess and the Frog in the Savoy cinema.  In attendance were the film’s directors Ron Clements (The Little Mermaid) and John Musker (Aladdin). Also there on the night was supervising animator Andreas Deja, producer Peter del Vecho, and Anika Noni Rose who provides the voice of Princess Tiana in the film.

When one thinks of Disney features, you automatically think of the classic hand drawn feature films like Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin or The Little Mermaid. I was shocked to learn that it was a full 6 years since Disney’s last hand drawn film Home on the Range.

Princess and The Frog is a musical set in 1920s New Orleans, the film focuses on Tiana who reluctantly kisses a frog in the hope he turns into a prince, but she ends up turning into a frog herself.  The two are forced to travel across the bayou together to find a voodoo priestess to turn them both back human again. 

I brought my niece and son, Ross along to the premiere. (Ross has been bringing his dad to the cinema to watch animated films since before he could walk!) Kids are the toughest audience but they really enjoyed the film, even if Ross looks a little shocked in the photo with Ron, John and Peter afterwards. 

Earlier in the day, Peter Del Vecho called into Brown Bag for a tour and we showed him around the studio and some of the projects we are working on.

I understand that John Lasseter has his fingerprints all over the changes in Disney Feature Animation and I think this film shows Disney back doing what it has always done best; producing classic family films that will be enjoyed for generations. Princess and the Frog shows that 2D animation has not gone away and just as television didn’t kill off radio, 2D animation and 3D computer animation will simply compliment each other. It was a brave move for Disney to revert back to hand drawn animation when the box office receipts were all pointing to 3D animation as the way forward and I’m very pleased to see it has grossed over $100Million to date.