The Princess and the Frog: Blu-Ray[Review]

Today sees the release of Disney’s triumphant return to 2D animation, the 3-time Academy Award nominated picture The Princess and the Frog.  I have to be honest I was a bit hesitant to see this film on its original theatrical run. Something about a sea of little girls in various princess garb and tiaras scared me…  just a little bit. But today it’s being released on Blu-Ray in a 3 disc(Blu-Ray, DVD, and digital copy) set, for those of us who were not brave enough to venture out to see this in the theater. We can now see it in the safety our own living rooms. Tiaras not required.

The Princess and the Frog was based on E. D. Baker’s The Frog Princess, this story puts a slightly different spin on the original tale we all know, and are familiar with. Instead of the frog turning into a prince when kissed, the story’s heroine kisses a frog, only to become a frog herself. Another welcome change, was instead of the standard European setting like most Disney princess stories; we are treated to the roaring 1920s New Orleans, during the Jazz age. The film also reunites John Musker and Ron Clements at the helm, the team behind Disney’s second Golden Age of animation and directors of such great films as The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Hercules.

I found The Princess and the Frog to be a great and heart warming story told with much more contemporary sensibilities than past Disney fare. While the songs were not the most memorable, I really think the strong cast of characters carried the film along quite well. The film was a great effort and triumphant return to 2D animation for Disney.

Review after the jump.

Video:

Since The Princess and the Frog was created almost completely digitally, by scanning in the hand-drawn animation, and backgrounds then coloring them digitally, the picture quality is beautiful on the disc. But unlike Ponyo where you could see the contrast in the overlay between the animation and the background, Disney has chosen to make less of a distinction between the two. The picture is a bit more seamless which as a fan of animation was a bit off putting at times, because it was hard to see where the two planes separated.  But this does seem to be the trend with newer animated films, with the advent of digital animation techniques.

The colors of the disc are very even at times much like the soundtrack, except for the scenes with Dr. Facilier. These were some of my favorites for both color and animation. I’ve read they were really channeling Lady and the Tramp for the look and feel of the film and you can tell, but I feel the films strength lies when it travels outside the lines with these scenes with witch doctor. Where I think the picture really shines on this disc is, when the integration between 2D and 3D animation happens on screen. This is a very hard thing to do in animation strangely, and if you have seen Ghost in the Shell 2.0 you know it can completely ruin a film as well. But Disney has really pegged it here. It’s at those points in the film where this Blu-Ray really shows you what it can do. The details in some of the rendered backgrounds were amazing and full of detail. It’s really at those points you know you watching a Disney Blu-Ray.

Audio:

While the disc also has a DTS-HD Master track, much like Ponyo the mix is much more subdued, strangely even for the songs. The mix throughout the film is very even and much more subtle, while I kind of expected more in some of the scenes in the bayou. Possibly some crickets or frogs in the background during those scenes would have been great.

While some of the musical numbers were good they just didn’t seem to push the sound field, barely hitting the subs at all. While the DTS was good it doesn’t has quite the dynamic range I would have liked in a film like this. The mix was good, but I wish they‘d done a bit more with it.

Supplements:

Included on the Disc some of my favorite extras deleted scenes and a great commentary track with the Co-Writers/Directors John Musker and Ron Clements. There are also several docs on the disc but they only wet my appetite for more really. The Return to 2D Animation doc only lasted a few minutes and really left a lot to be said about Disney’s return to an art they pioneered.

While I enjoyed what was there as an animation enthusiast like most of the disc, it left me wanting a bit more.

Final Thoughts:

What can I say I loved the film, but I was left wanting more from this disc extras-wise. While I can whole-heartedly recommend this film for the feature, I really was left wishing there was a fourth disc somewhere in the packaging.

For something as triumphant as Walt Disney’s successful return to 2D animation, I thought it deserved a bit more fan-fare. I would have wanted a disc of docs that just documented the process of restarting the studio, and putting themselves back in that mindset again, but that’s just me. While the it was a solid release, it just left me wanting more honestly.

Rating: Buy-it for the film, Rent-it for the extras