Full-length trailer for THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG

A full-length trailer is now online for The Princess and the Frog, Disney's upcoming return to hand-drawn animation. Watch it below.



I'm sorry to say that this trailer actually makes me less excited to see the film. I enjoyed the first few films of Disney's early-'90s animation renaissance - The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, etc. - where it seemed like they were trying to build on and modernize the Disney style of olden days. But then they had a hit with the loud, jokey Aladdin, and after that things got pretty grim in a hurry. Their movies became shrill, sarcastic and formulaic, with increasingly bizarre, rambling plots. (I still shake my head to think that they actually imagined that anybody would want to see an epic musical starring a singing hunchback, or a comedy about sassy cows starring the voice of Roseanne.)

This trailer gives me late-'90s Disney flashbacks, it makes me think of stuff like The Emperor's New Groove. It feels like they're picking up right where they left off with the iffy plots and the fart jokes, instead of trying to bring in some of the more affecting storytelling that has made Pixar such a sucess story, or even (heaven forbid) trying to tap into that old-fashioned, fairytale feel that made classics of Disney's original animated features.

Perhaps I'm just being too cynical, and this movie will end up surprising the heck out of me. I hope so. Because if Disney doesn't have a hit with this one, their latest renaissanceof hand-drawn animation will be over before it's begun.