The Princess and the Frog

With this delightful romantic comedy (produced by CGI expert John Lassiter of Pixar fame), the Disney Studio returns to the traditional, hand-drawn animation style of Walt's classic period. It's a fairy tale set in New Orleans in the 1930s where two friends grow up with different dreams. The beautiful African-American Tiana is saving up to buy an old warehouse and open a restaurant in honour of her late father. The cute southern belle Charlotte, daughter of a rich businessman, Big Daddy, wants to marry a prince, and one such comes to the Crescent City in the form of European fortune-hunting Prince Naveen of Maldonia. Unfortunately, the voodoo trickster Dr Facilier intervenes, turning both Tiana and Naveen into frogs, who must undertake a journey through the bayou to regain their real identities and find true love. The graphic work is simple and exquisite, Randy Newman's songs are lilting and amusing and there are sequences centring on Dr Facilier's black arts that are as scary as anything in Snow White and Pinocchio , which I intend as high praise.