More Princess and the Frog

Even though I know just about everyone is already sick of reading about it, here are two more articles with quotes about the upcoming movie. I will keep offering links to the most interesting or unusual ones. As for me, I'm ready to see it and make my own evaluations. Actually, this much hype makes me dread seeing it, but I'm difficult like that, just ask my family.

Q & A with 'Princess and the Frog' animators: Ron Clements and John Musker talk about their fairy tale 'valentine' to New Orleans by Susan King for The Los Angeles Times

Q: What is the genesis of "The Princess and the Frog?"

Ron Clements: Disney has actually been interested in the "Frog Prince" all the way back to "Beauty and the Beast." They never got a version they were totally happy with. Weirdly enough, Pixar had been developing versions and they never got quite a version they were happy with. Their version actually started in Chicago and then moved to New Orleans partly because that is John Lasseter's favorite city in the world.

Even more recently, Disney bought the rights to a book called 'The Frog Princess' by an author called E.D. Baker and that was a twist on the fairy tale. In that book, when the princess kissed the frog she became a frog.

We looked at multiple Disney versions and the Pixar version. We took elements actually from everything and came up with our version, which is basically an American fairy tale set in New Orleans in the 1920s. John Musker: Before we wrote the script, John said, 'You have to go down to New Orleans and experience it first hand.' Neither one of us had been in New Orleans.

Someday My Princess Will Come by Rachel Bertsche for Oprah.com

Efforts to affect change are never without controversy, even when they come from the purest, most magical land. In December, Walt Disney animation is returning to its hand-drawn roots to introduce someone little girls have never met before: an African-American princess. The Princess and the Frog revolves around Princess Tianna, a 1920s New Orleans waitress and aspiring restaurant owner who is persuaded to kiss a frog in order to turn him back into a human (Oprah voices the princess's mother). But in this rendition of the classic fairy tale, the amphibian doesn't become a prince. Instead, the princess becomes a frog.

The depiction of Princess Tianna is a landmark decision for The Mouse. There have been white, Asian, Native American and Arab heroines, so it seems the time for an African-American princess is long overdue. "[Princess Tianna] delivers affirmation to little girls who look like this girl," says Anika Noni Rose, who voices the barrier-breaking princess. "She delivers a sense of partnership between other little girls who have friends and family members who look like Tianna. I think in the world of fantasy, and I'm not just talking about Disney, the dark character has always been associated with evil—the black hat is the bad cowboy—and this is the flip. It's wonderful to see something different, and it will be effective on many fronts to many children, and consequently to many adults years from now."