Princess and the Frog Review

Steve and I saw Princess and the Frog last night as part of our anniversary. It seems the craze is to see Avatar and The Blind Side, which seem like good movies, but there was hardly anyone in the theater with us. We were reluctant to see it, but we actually enjoyed it. This review won't spoil the movie.

The good: The story was charming. I was afraid it would be about racial issues, but it wasn't! How refreshing. I'm not one to say that we should completely ignore racial issues, but it's refreshing to not see it all the time. I liked the resolution and how the main characters interact with each other. The main characters were refreshing too. I never wanted to kick them or yell at them (which is a common thing with recent Disney animations). It was fun.

The bad: Most animations feel like they have to appeal to kids with violent and bathroom humor. I've been greatly disillusioned with cartoons such as Looney Tunes where they only rely on violent humor. I think that is the lowest type of humor. I admire Disney's old Mickey Mouse cartoons more because they try to have other types of humor. I think kids (and everyone else) are above that. The best humor comes from relatable characters in silly situations in which they take the situation seriously. This movie, like most other animations, had silly supporting characters doing silly things trying to appease the little kids. The truth is, they weren't funny at all. Steve gave the example of Mary Poppins (which is one of the most brilliant movies of all time, btw). It doesn't have violent humor, but children love it and adults laugh and enjoy it too. Kids may not laugh as hard as the adults, but they still love the movie. I wish this movie had that.
The movie relied heavily on getting to the next song. Some of the songs seemed under developed. The plot was fast paced, and I wished it could have slowed down more. Taking out all the violent humor would have helped.

Other: The bad guy was weird. He worked, but he was weird.

Should you see it?: It's still worth seeing, despite my criticisms. It's a step in the right direction with the charming story and characters. My question is, will animations wise up and drop the dumb humor? Hopefully.

What did you think of the movie?