Old style, new ideas in Disney's latest flick

"The Princess and the Frog" is making news in two ways for Disney: It introduces the empire's first black princess, and it makes a return to hand-drawn animation.

The first matter exposes Disney to charges of stereotyping and cultural insensitivity as much as it invites praise for social expansion and image identification. After all, Disney's classic princesses - Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty - all got a Prince Charming. Tiana gets to kiss a frog.

Of course, he turns out to be Prince Naveen from the kingdom of Maldonia, a worthy rival in hotness to Prince Charming. Still, the Disney studio is playing it safe by setting the film in the past (New Orleans' jazz era, circa 1913). Disney has used this tactic before to distance itself from criticism - set it in the past, and you're safer.

The Disney princess franchise embraced the Arabian Princess Jasmine in "Aladdin" (1992), the Chinese "Mulan" (1998), and, of course, Virginia's own Native American "Pocahontas" (1995), whose love for a blond European Adonis with the voice of Mel Gibson rankled historians.

Tiana, with the voice of "Dreamgirls'" Anika Noni Rose, is a waitress who wants to open a restaurant in the French Quarter. Although her mother has the voice of Oprah Winfrey, she is working class and, according to reports, spends much of the film as a frog. Disney adapted the Brothers Grimm fairy tale by having her turn into a frog when she kisses the prince. According to the ever-busy Disney money counters, Tiana is, even before the movie's release, outselling Cinderella in video games, book, clothing, bags and toys.

The studio is wise to tread carefully. It has been in trouble before as a result of its black crows in "Dumbo" (1941) and its Uncle Remus adaptation in "Song of the South" (1946), which is the only Disney film not available in the United States. You can get DVD copies through European outlets.

The studio is anxious any such debate about "The Princess and the Frog."

The other historic part of this film is the return to hand-drawn animation for the studio that once reveled in the glory of such hand-drawn classics as "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," "Pinocchio" and "Bambi." When I was at the studio during the making of "Beauty and the Beast," I winced to hear that the ballroom scene would be done with the help of computers.

"That's the beginning of the end," I told the animator. "Computers will take over. You can make animated films faster and cheaper. It will be the death of the kind of humanity that Disney animation has always had."

A Disney spokesman vowed that this wouldn't happen. He claimed that computers could do only sharp-edged objects and would be used as cost-saving, time-saving devices to create inanimate objects. "Beauty and the Beast" became, and is still, the only animated film nominated for a best picture Oscar. Computers rule, and most of the animators at the Disney studio were laid off.

Interestingly, the golden era of the Disney princess - begun with "Snow White" in 1937 - ended with an expensive flop in 1959 with "Sleeping Beauty." It was the most lavish Disney production to date and boasted widescreen innovation. However, it proved that Disney's human characters (such as the princesses and, particularly, the cardboard-stiff Prince Charming) were something of a dud when compared to lively animal characters. We can't see a singing possum anywhere other than in a cartoon. Computers, even with all the latest technology, still have trouble creating the human face.

Disney animation was in danger of extinction until "The Little Mermaid" in 1989, which set off a second golden age that led both to computerization and tough competition from the rest of Hollywood, which decided this genre was a moneymaker that could no longer be left to Disney alone.

"The Princess and the Frog" also marks a return to the musical format that was a hit in early Disney films. (The score by Randy Newman combines blues, gospel and jazz.)

Its approach is both daring and traditional at the same time.

Mal Vincent, (757) 446-2347, mal.vincent@pilotonline.com