Pun Salad

Why, yes, I do still watch ostensibly-for-children animated movies. And this one was a pleasant surprise, better than I expected. It's not Pixar—only Pixar is Pixar—but plain old Disney hand-drawn animation is still very, very good, especially when backed up by a clever script, good music, and great voice talent.

The heroine is Tiana, a young African-American woman in 1920s New Orleans. She has dreams of opening her own restaurant, a dream her dear departed Daddy didn't get to realize for himself. Things are looking grim, when suddenly a frog turns up, claiming (accurately) to be a transmogrified "Prince Naveen", cursed by a local practitioner of the dark arts in cahoots with a disloyal assistant. Naveen, having read the story, begs for a smooch. Unfortunately, that doesn't work out as expected for either Tania or Naveen.

The movie could have made a much bigger deal about the race angle, but doesn't. I kept expecting—dreading, in fact—Tiana to be betrayed by the rich white people her family works for. Good news: that doesn't happen.

It's kind of scary though. If you've got real little kids, you might want to pre-view it.