Disney’s newest classic The Princess and the Frog is available today as a Three Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo with Digital Copy and it is a must have for anyone who has a child or is a big child. The movie is set in 1920’s New Orleans and that means there is some Voodoo involved! All Tiana wants to do is to open the restaurant that her father and her dreamed of, but money is stopping her from making that happen. Prince Naveen has come to New Orleans to find a bride, but instead meets Doctor Facilier a voodoo doctor who turns him to frog. The only way for him to become human again is to kiss a princess. While at a her best friend’s masquerade, Tiana makes a wish on a star and Prince Naveen appears. Looking like a Princess, he asks Tiana to kiss him but instead of turning him human, he turns her into a frog. Being frogs they get chased out of the party and the two begin a journey to become human again and along the way they befriend a jazz playing alligator and love smittened firefly. On the path to becoming human again they find so much more and we get several songs that will have us singing and dancing along with them for years to come!
Special features included in the Three Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo with Digital Copy are:
* Play Movie with “Work in Progressâ€
* Backstage Disney
* Deleted Scenes
* Bringing Life to Animation
* Filmmaker Intros and Audio Commentary
* Magic in the Bayou: The Making of a Princess
* The Return to Hand Drawn Animation
* The Disney Legacy
* Disney’s Newest Princess
* The Princess and the Animator
* Conjuring the Villain
* A Return to the Animated Musical
* Art Galleries
* Disney Family Play
* “What Do You See?†Princess Portrait Game
* Music & More
* “Never Knew I Needed†Music Video by Ne-Yo
* Easter Egg: Drawing the Frog”
Since I am old school, I only saw the DVD features and I felt like a big kid watching them and the movie. The deleted scenes are so cool because the writers introduce the pre-animated deleted scenes. It was so interesting to watch the storyboards telling the scenes and you get to see part of the animation process that is rarely seen. There is also a game where you have to guess which Disney Princess the fireflies are mapping out, and I found myself addicted to it. Also included is Ne-Yo’s music video that was filmed in modern day New Orleans and the city is as beautiful now as it was when The Princess and the Frog was set.
I am not the only one who thinks The Princess and the Frog is a must have, Tina Fey, Melissa Joan Hart, Audra McDonald and Nigel Barker all attended an event celebrating Princess Tiana officially being named the ninth member (the first African-American) of the Disney Princess Royal Court and the DVD release party in NYC over the weekend.