New Princess and the Frog Trailer: Like True Blood, but with Fart Jokes

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Shape-shifting! Dodgy Southern accents! Swampy mysticism! For a moment there, while watching the new trailer for Disney's The Princess and the Frog, you might be forgiven for thinking that Disney had been feasting from the same magic gumbo that HBO uses to fuel True Blood. Only this time, instead of leavening the proceedings with occasional glimpses of Alexander Skargard and Anna Paquin's breasts, Disney's offering fart humor and some slightly off-putting racial whatnot.

I'm actually going to give Disney the benefit of the doubt with Frog because the hand-drawn animation is unimpeachably gorgeous and Mouse House chief John Lasseter's earned my trust countless times over, but it's hard to deny a sense of unease provoked by Frog's caricatured characters. Lead princess Tiana isn't incidentally African-American (as Up's Russell was) because by setting the film in New Orleans, the whole movie is suffused in details plucked from one of the most unique, vibrant black cultures our country has to offer. Only...it's been adapted by two middle-aged white men and, as the trailer boasts, it features "songs by Randy Newman." If ever there were time for Disney to start tapping another musician's well, this would seem to be it.

VERDICT: We'll see.



Comments

  • el smrtmnky says:

    love the head and shoulder's ad afterwards that begins with 'black is always flattering.'

  • Josh says:

    Two fart jokes? Two fart jokes? TWO FART JOKES!? TWO GODDAMN FART JOKES!!!!!?????
    Disney, leave it Pixar. Please, for the love of GOD, leave it to Pixar.

  • bess marvin, girl detective says:

    how better to avoid showing your first black female lead but by making her a frog through two acts of the movie. it's genius!

  • sixhundred says:

    how better to avoid showing your first black female lead but by making her a sunset-tanned cinderella with a sassy twang and then making her a frog.
    umbrageous.

  • LizzieLemonic says:

    I'm getting annoyed that everyone assumes the Creole firefly is black. Don't you remember the "Cajun Cooking" guy...Justin Wilson? I garontee?
    Sigh.
    However...making the princess a frog for most of the movie is disturbing indeed...the love interest is hot, though.

  • Lowbrow says:

    Shoulda featured “songs by Lil Wayne.”

  • jimmy james monkey death says:

    I learned long ago to stop worrying about authenticity and just love whatever middle aged white men do/make/say/ruin.
    can I have a raise now?

  • Jazbo says:

    Yeah, why Randy Newman? Why does Disney/Pixar keep using the same tired composers, especially those who essentially recycle the same tune over and over (i.e. Newman's "I Like To See You Smile"/"You Got A Friend In Me")? I applaud Disney for being inclusive, Tiana looks charming (considering how little we see of her as a human), the production looks lush and colorful, but geez...it still kind of looks...hesitant, like Disney just took some old worn-out parts and used them to cobble together a new film. And that firefly! AACKKK! He's pretty repulsive, especially in the film's trailer.

  • Theescapist says:

    There's great-looking footage of this and 1000 other awesome and/or insane things worth covering at D23, Kyle. Like Travolta showing up with whole (?) extant family who are also his co-stars in new Disney wild hoggian joint-- a preview of a very awkward junket, or the substitution for one-- no one mentioned the Jettephant in the room. Not to mention Nic Cage unveiling his personal passion Bruckheimer pic: Sorcrerer'a Apprentice, where he plays his next Cameron Poe/Memphis Raines/Benjamin Goodspeed Gates: Balthalazar Br
    lake. Though he didn't show up in character, like Depp did, causing a shriek that shattered the eardrums of many an unnecessary guide dog.
    They should have sent a poet.