Reviews
Empire Magazine
Helen O'Hara
“Exactly as good as Musker and Clements’ earlier efforts, so a return to the form of Disney’s early 1990s classics. The animation is gorgeous, the heroine feisty and the animals amusing — but this may be too scary for the very small.”
17/02/2010
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The Financial Times
Nigel Andrews
“The film returns to the formula of The Little Mermaid, The Lion King and Aladdin. It is a hand-drawn musical with a few too many oddly accented comic characters circulating the central couple. Though less strenuously inventive than Finding Nemo and Wall-E, the film displays the Pixar gift for minute comic detail.”
29/01/2010
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The Independent
Anthony Quinn
“To be honest, I'd watch it all over again just to see Mama Odie's pet snake tip Tabasco into the gumbo. It's details like that which make this fly: Disney have turned the funeral march for old-school animation into a jolly hand-crafted pageant that shows vibrant signs of life even in the age of Avatar.”
29/01/2010
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The Los Angeles Times
Betsy Sharkey
“Go ahead and pucker up. Because long before "The Princess and the Frog" is over you'll want to smooch the charming couple, air kiss a romantic firefly and hug a voodoo queen in this foot-stomping, smile-inducing, heart-warming animated twist on the old Brothers Grimm frog-prince fairy tale.”
25/11/2009
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The Daily Mail
Chris Tookey
“The Princess And The Frog isn't perfect, but it is highly entertaining. Its charming, feelgood escapism will amuse young and old alike. It has a witty take on the old fairy tale, lively characters and colourful visuals.”
28/01/2010
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The Observer
Philip French
“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.”
31/01/2009
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Time Out
Tom Huddleston
“The plot is thin but fun... Randy Newman’s songs are a little too blandly Randy Newman-ish and the story is uneven, but there are some great characters, some even better jokes, a general sense of good humour and that entrancing, eye-ravishing old-school animation.”
28/01/2010
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Screen
Mike Goodridge
“Not as magical or memorable as Beauty And The Beast, the 1991 touchstone by which all 2D animated movies are now measured, the film is nevertheless colourful, funny and imaginative and should be a favourite with younger children in theatres and on DVD.”
25/11/2009
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The Daily Telegraph
Tim Robey
“Intermittently appealing and great to look at, this doesn’t add up to classic Disney, but it’s heaps better than the gruesome Home on the Range (2004), which looked to be the last gasp of these old-style toons. It proves there’s life in dem bones yet.”
28/01/2010
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The Scotsman
Alistair Harkness
“The film takes an age to set all this up and goes to ridiculous lengths to over-complicate its journey towards its meritocracy-espousing happy ending. But the animation is lush and the screwball dynamic between Tiana and Naveen lively.”
05/02/2010
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The Times
Kevin Maher
“The real surprise here is not about race, but how Disney has mined its own heritage for inspiration. For The Princess and the Frog is fantastically old-fashioned and thrives on show tunes, simple hand-drawn frames and the value of finding love beneath outward appearances.”
29/01/2010
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Total Film
Neil Smith
“Disney’s attempt at an instant animated classic will impress the kids, but leave older Mouseketeers wistful for former glories.”
15/01/2010
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Variety
Justin Chang
“Whatever it accomplishes for Disney's reputation or bottom line, this long-anticipated throwback to a venerable house style never comes within kissing distance of the studio's former glory.”
24/11/2009
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The New Yorker
Bruce Diones
“The nineteen-twenties jazz-age setting and the primal-adventure storytelling are boilerplate Disney, scrubbed clean of any real local color. But there is a fine, zydeco-flavored score by Randy Newman and a marvellous musical sequence involving an evil voodoo doctor (voiced by Keith David), whose oozingly explosive and kaleidoscopic musical number walks away with the film.”
14/12/2009
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The New York Times
Manohla Dargis
“Gorgeously animated with bursts of bright purple and acid green — the realistic lines of the characters explosively give way to increasingly jagged, graphic and surreal shapes — this number erupts early in the story, setting false expectations for the rest of the movie and its songs and animation.”
25/11/2009
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The Independent on Sunday
Nicholas Barber
“Seemingly the result of too much brainstorming and not enough editing, The Princess and the Frog has too many villains, too many comedy sidekicks, too many unconnected incidents and not enough plot... But it's still a bright, peppy, lushly animated musical. If Disney is ever going to recapture some of the old magic, then The Princess and the Frog is a hop in the right direction. ”
31/01/2010
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Channel 4 Film
Film 4
“It's a nice set-up, but the supporting cast are retreads of characters we've seen many times from Disney throughout the ages, and their wisecracks won't measure up for a grown-up crowd.”
17/02/2010
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The Guardian
Peter Bradshaw
“Disney may wish to reach out to people of colour – but the colour green wasn't what we had in mind. It's a moderate film, nowhere near the Toy Story league.”
28/01/2010
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