The set-up: Tiana is a hard-working young woman who dreams of opening a restaurant in 1920s New Orleans; Naveen is the prince of a tiny fantasy country, recently cut off without a cent for being shiftless and self-infatuated. Since his only marketable skills are good looks and playing the ukelele, he's come to New Orleans to find a rich girl to marry, and battens on Tiana's silly but kind-hearted friend Charlotte, for whom Tiana's mother Eudora used to make hundreds of princess dresses.
Before Naveen turns up at the Mardi Gras masquerade party Charlotte's doting Big Daddy usually throws, however, he and his put-upon valet Laurence visit Doctor Facilier, a wily street magician who promises to tell Naveen's fortune. Said fortune, briefly: Facilier will steal Naveen's blood and use it to turn Laurence into a facsimile of Naveen, who will then marry Charlotte and turn control of N'Orleans over to Facilier and his "friends on the other side", while Naveen...ends up being turned into a frog.
At the party, Tiana ruins her dress and Charlotte lends her one of hers. Naveen therefore mistakes Tiana for "a princess", and inveigles her into kissing his slimy countenance by promising to give her money he doesn't have to open her restaurant. Unfortunately, this backfires, turning them both into frogs. Cue the running/hopping, the being chased through the bayou, discovering they can talk to other animals (horn-playing 'gators, Cajun fireflies), the quest for a less shady type of voodoo priestess to turn them back, spatting, flirting, self-discovery, etc.
The humor is character-based and seductively warm, the historical realities not particularly glossed over, and everybody has both their faults and their virtues. People have complained about Facilier's "friends"--characterized as African tribal spirit masks--behaving as though they're classic Satan-sent demons, in that he has obviously hocked his soul to them for power and they are itching to collect. I would venture that this is Facilier's misinterpretation, since that may be the Baptist background he comes from preventing him from seeing them in any other way; they seems more powerful and ruthless than inherently malign, to me. Same with Mama Odie's gospel-influenced song--does it make her "Christian"? She seems more like a classic gentle trickster to me, trying to get Naveen and Tiana to look past their own immediate desires to find their actual needs. Etc.
One way or the other: Love the design, love the music (it's fashionable to shit on Randy Newman for being a presumin' old white dude, but I'll point out that he does have family connection in New Orleans and did live there for a time), love the overall production, love it. See it in the theatre, if you can.
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Date: 2009-12-28 03:56 pm (UTC)Before Naveen turns up at the Mardi Gras masquerade party Charlotte's doting Big Daddy usually throws, however, he and his put-upon valet Laurence visit Doctor Facilier, a wily street magician who promises to tell Naveen's fortune. Said fortune, briefly: Facilier will steal Naveen's blood and use it to turn Laurence into a facsimile of Naveen, who will then marry Charlotte and turn control of N'Orleans over to Facilier and his "friends on the other side", while Naveen...ends up being turned into a frog.
At the party, Tiana ruins her dress and Charlotte lends her one of hers. Naveen therefore mistakes Tiana for "a princess", and inveigles her into kissing his slimy countenance by promising to give her money he doesn't have to open her restaurant. Unfortunately, this backfires, turning them both into frogs. Cue the running/hopping, the being chased through the bayou, discovering they can talk to other animals (horn-playing 'gators, Cajun fireflies), the quest for a less shady type of voodoo priestess to turn them back, spatting, flirting, self-discovery, etc.
The humor is character-based and seductively warm, the historical realities not particularly glossed over, and everybody has both their faults and their virtues. People have complained about Facilier's "friends"--characterized as African tribal spirit masks--behaving as though they're classic Satan-sent demons, in that he has obviously hocked his soul to them for power and they are itching to collect. I would venture that this is Facilier's misinterpretation, since that may be the Baptist background he comes from preventing him from seeing them in any other way; they seems more powerful and ruthless than inherently malign, to me. Same with Mama Odie's gospel-influenced song--does it make her "Christian"? She seems more like a classic gentle trickster to me, trying to get Naveen and Tiana to look past their own immediate desires to find their actual needs. Etc.
One way or the other: Love the design, love the music (it's fashionable to shit on Randy Newman for being a presumin' old white dude, but I'll point out that he does have family connection in New Orleans and did live there for a time), love the overall production, love it. See it in the theatre, if you can.