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Monday, March 15, 2010

BD impressions: The Princess and the Frog

8:58 PM / BD Impressions / 4 Comments

I have mixed feelings about the direction in which John Lasseter has taken Disney animation since taking over leadership a few years back. While the situation now is undoubtedly far better than it was towards the arse-end of the previous regime, there have been some disappointments along the way too, most notably the dumbing down of Chris Sanders' AMERICAN DOG concept into the generic BOLT, and the continual reworking of Glen Keane's RAPUNZEL (most recently retitled TANGLED - eh???). One unquestionable cause for celebration, however, initiated by the man behind the first CG feature, is the return of hand-drawn animation, previously ditched by the bean-counters who headed the previous regime due to a belief that audiences weren't interested in 2D any more.

THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG takes most of its cues from the so-called second golden age of Disney animation (basically, THE LITTLE MERMAID through THE LION KING), which isn't entirely surprising, given that most of its key creative personnel worked on that era. There's a definite sense of predictability to it, and there's a distinct lack of risk-taking throughout, but the production values and overall animation quality represent something that hasn't been seen in years. Scroll through the film's technical credits, and it reads like a veritable "who's who" of Disney artists from the second golden age, from THE LITTLE MERMAID (and, erm, TREASURE PLANET)'s John Musker and Ron Clements sharing writing and directing dues to Eric Goldberg (ALADDIN's Genie) leading the animation of jazz-playing alligator Louis. Even the biggest flaws - the bland, po-faced heroine and the predictable plot - can be found in virtually any previous Disney feature, and the meandering, episodic narrative? Well, that's pure JUNGLE BOOK. So what if Dr. Facilier is just a black Jafar and Tiana spends the bulk of the film poo-pooing the typical Disney princess fairytale only to succumb to it hook, line and sinker? It's colourful, technically amazing, riotously funny in places (particularly as far as the more lewd jokes go), and resurrects an art form that was basically dead as far as mainstream cinema is concerned. Now that it's back, it better not be going anywhere for a long time.

Image quality: This is the first BD release of a 2D Disney animated feature that didn't originate from film, and consequently is the first one not to have been put through the "make film look like digital video" mangling machine. The image is as crisp and pristine as you could reasonably expect, and the level of detail certainly allows you to truly appreciate the quality of the animation and the often deliberately impressionistic backgrounds. Compression definitely suffers in places (see Example 10), but overall this is a very strong disc, if not up to the standards of the recent PONYO. 9.5/10

The Princess and the Frog
studio: Buena Vista; country: USA; region code: A; codec: AVC;
file size: 24.2 GB; average bit rate (including audio): 35.58 Mbit/sec

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