The Princess and the Frog marks a definitive change in Disney as the corporation moves back to an era which produced the great Disney classics and adjusts their mindset to the type of film-making which established the brand – an all-singing, all-dancing, hand-drawn animation.
Based on the ageless Grimm Brothers classic, the film adds its own Disneyesque twist on the tale, combining comedy, adventure, love, drama with the all-important moral of the story
The film introduces the latest princess on the scene, Tiana, and also makes a bold move back to a musical-based soundtrack which has been described as being akin to the likes of Beauty and the Beast.
STV's Grant Lauchlan met up with the supervising animator Andreas Deja for a sneak preview on how the man, considered to be one of the finest animators in the world, brought The Princess and the Frog's 'Mamma Odie' from paper to the big screen.
Andreas explained his character: “She is 197-year-old voodoo lady/fairy godmother. When they said she is blind, she has a seeing-eye snake and she lives in a boat that got stuck in a tree I was sold, I said ‘this is for me’.”
The animator, who has created iconic character such as Gaston, Jafar, Scar, and Lilo, based his newest character on some of the mannerisms of Miss Marple actress Margaret Rutherford.
“I couldn’t work with the eyes for the first time,” he explained. “You always work with the eyes - in acting they go up and down but she has these glasses on for the whole time.
“Working with Jennifer Lewis was unbelievable. She is one the funniest people I have ever met in my life. That helped to get her sense of humour and sensibilities into the character.”
Making the move back to pen and paper has been an invigorating experience for Deja and one in which he believes has ignited the Disney fire.
“We had to re-establish the pipeline because the studio had decided way back that maybe what the audience really likes right now is computer animation because that’s where the box office was.
“Once we started animating again, it felt like it had never stopped.
“Drawing animations for me, has the most range. You don’t have limitations…I can do anything with her - it is actually very freeing to work on paper again and do this.
“It is nice to be back with a film that matters, I actually want to go as far to say we are back with a vengeance.”
