Is The Princess and the Frog a failure?

No!...

Many are looking at the box office numbers and claiming that Walt Disney Animation Studios' return to hand drawn animation, The Princess and the Frog, is a failure. And it is true that in terms of box office records for animated films, it has been less than stellar. It took 12 days in nationwide release to hit the $50 million mark. But what a lot of people don't realize is that a Disney animated film like this doesn't just make money in the theaters.

At the moment, Disney is making money off of sales of both the soundtrack and an album called Princess Tiana and Friends. Two different video games are available on three game platforms. There is a slew of books as well, including a Tiana inspired cookbook and an art book. But more importantly for Disney, they are selling a lot of merchandise, and I mean a lot. Mattel has a license to make dolls and figures from the film and their toys have sold out at every major online retailer, as well as most physical store locations. Disney Store made their own set of dolls as well, which are also completely sold out. It seems as if every young girl who saw the film asked for the toys for the holidays. Beyond that, this is a Disney animated film, and a really good one at that. There have been many Disney classics that didn't do well in their initial release. Fantasia, Alice in Wonderland, and Sleeping Beauty were all box office bombs. It is important to remember that Disney makes a lot of money off of home entertainment sales as well, so it will make a lot of money next Spring when it hits DVD and Blu-Ray.

Many analysts are trying to blame the poor box office results on the recent trend of making fun of princess movies in films like Enchanted and Shrek, but I have another theory. Over the past 10 years, Disney has built up their princess characters as a franchise targeted at girls ages 3-8. A slew of bad direct-to-video films were made based around these characters in addition to lots of merchandise depicting each princess hanging out together, usually drinking tea. While the Disney Princess franchise has been really successful for Disney, my personal feelings are that it weakened the Disney brand. So when a new Disney animated film has the word "Princess" in the title, I think a lot of parents though "Oh, this is going to be as bad as those videos I bought my kid" and decided to wait for the video release so they don't have to sit through it. Disney was quick to add Tiana to the Disney Princess merchandise line, usually featuring her in the center. It's a shame that they aren't better at distinguishing their true animated films from the cheap stuff they have polluted the market with over the years.

But I have optimistic hopes for The Princess and the Frog. If it can reach the $150 million mark in the U.S., it will be a moderate success (considering it cost $105 million to make). And it has yet to be released internationally, where it could possibly make more than it did in the U.S. And the home video sales will have a lot to do with how Disney treats the film in the future. So lets just cross our fingers that America gets wise to the fact that this is a great film worthy of the Disney name.

In Memory of Roy E. Disney

Today is a sad day for Disney fans because the last Disney family member to work at the studio has passed away. Roy Edward Disney died this morning at the age of 79 due to stomach cancer. Roy was the nephew of Walt Disney and the son of Roy O. Disney, who ran the financial side of the studio. Some Disney fans find it eerie that Roy E. Disney passed away 1 day after the 43rd anniversary of Walt Disney's death (December 15, 1966).
Roy E. Disney was born on January 10, 1930, in Los Angeles, CA. He started working for the Walt Disney Studio in 1954 as a producer of the True-Life Adventures series of nature documentaries and eventually became an executive. In 1967, after Walt's death, he was elected to the board of directors at the company. He left the company in 1984 due to his distaste for the way that CEO Ron Miller (son-in-law of Walt Disney) was running the company. When Michael Eisner and Frank G. Wells took over as CEO and CFO, Roy returned to the studio as vice chairman of the board, but most importantly as the head of the animation department. Under Roy's supervision, the studio turned its animation department around, creating the third golden age of Disney animation. Classic films like The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King resulted from his time being in charge of the studio. His pride and joy, however, was Fantasia 2000, which was the fulfillment of Walt Disney's original vision for the Fantasia where it would be released annually with new segments replacing previous ones. He also produced several shorts for the abandoned Fantasia 3. They included Lorenzo, One By One, The Little Matchgirl, and Destino, a revived project between Walt Disney and Salvador Dali.
In 2003, Roy famously left the Walt Disney Company for a second time, this time after disagreeing with the way that Michael Eisner was running things. The media quickly took notice of Roy's departure and attention was draw to his campaign known as "Save Disney." The campaign was a huge success. In 2004, 43% of shareholders opposed the re-election of Michael Eisner, forcing him out of the board of directors. In 2005, Eisner resigned as CEO and when Bob Iger took his place, Roy returned again as Director Emeritus. His favorite hobby was sailing and in 2008, he produced his last film called Morning Light about a group of young sailors competing in the Trans Pacific Yacht Race.
Roy E. Disney has made many contributions to the Walt Disney Company and Disney fans should be very grateful for his efforts to keep Disney a quality company and for helping it stay tied to the roots laid by its founders, Walt and Roy O. Disney. Disney fans lost a dear friend today. The next time you are in a Disney park, be sure to look for his window on Main Street. I close this post with a photo of his window from Disneyland.

The Future of Home Entertainment?

The home entertainment world has been rapidly changing recently, with the growing popularity of Blu-Ray and digital copies and declining DVD sales. To stay on top of the game, Disney has just launched a test of their new site, Disney Movies Online. Members of Disney Movie Rewards can test out the new service in its "Work in Progress" phase. Disney has yet to release a date for when the site will go fully live.

Disney currently has 12 movies available on the site, which are the 12 most recent home video releases that came with digital copies (Bedtime Stories, Bolt, A Bug's Life, G-Force, Hannah Montana: The Movie, High School Musical 3, Jonas Brothers Concert Experience, Monster's Inc., The Nightmare Before Christmas, Race to Witch Mountain, The Tigger Movie, and Up). To watch the movie on Disney Movies Online, you must own the movie and have redeemed the points through your Disney Movie Rewards account. When you check your points information, a new section of the site tells you which films you can watch and provides a link to them.
There are 4 different video quality settings, which are automatically determined by your connection speed. I have high speed wireless internet, so my quality ranges between 3 and 4, which is DVD quality. The photo above shows the embedded video, but there is the option to increase the picture size to fill up your computer screen. If you stop the video and return, the site remembers where you left off, so you can either resume play or start over.

A section of the site is dedicated to upcoming movies. Among those displayed are 101 Dalmatians (even though it goes out of print next month), Cars, Finding Nemo, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Incredibles and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I am assuming that they will have to charge for some of those titles since many of them were released before the existence of Disney Movie Rewards, meaning no codes are available to activate them.

You may be asking "What use do I have for this?" Well at the moment, very little. Anybody who purchased a Disney DVD or Blu-Ray that came with a digital copy already has a portable digital form of the movie that they can watch on their computer. But what should be noted is the potential. This service was nicknamed "Keychest" and rumors of it have been circulating for almost a year. The ultimate goal is for users to be able to watch these streaming movies on any internet capable device, such as a cell phone or PS3. Like I said, you will eventually be able to purchase your Disney movies through the service and instantly stream them, meaning you aren't hogging hard drive space with a digital copy. And so, Disney Movies Online just may be the future of home entertainment.

The site launched today with the Blu-Ray and DVD release of Walt Disney Picture's G-Force.

Disneyphile Reviews: The Princess and the Frog

I just returned from seeing Walt Disney Animation Studios' 49th animated feature, The Princess and the Frog. This film marks their triumphant return to traditional hand drawn animation after a 5-year break from that art form. When John Lasseter gained creative control at Disney animation in 2006, one of the first things he did was reinstate traditional 2D animation, which was stopped by Tom Schumacher in 2004. Disney fans around the world were ecstatic that the studio was returning to the medium on which it was built, but as more and more news leaked about The Frog Princess, as it was previously known, they grew skeptical. The firing of Alan Menken from the project, the songwriter for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas and many other great Disney films, had a lot of fans worried. And when Pixar's favorite songwriter, Randy Newman, was named as his replacement, many saw this as a sign that Lasseter wanted to turn Disney into a Pixar hybrid.

Disney fans should be more than satisfied with the final product. Randy Newman did a top notch job with the music and it doesn't sound like his previous work at Pixar. The film itself draws hardly any similarities to Pixar films and fits right in with the classic Disney animated features. An early reviewer said that the film feels like it could have been made in the 90's when Disney animation hit its third golden age and I agree with that feeling.

The film is centered around Tiana, a young woman in New Orleans with a dream of owning her own restaurant. She has been working two jobs to start her business and it seems as if her dream is about to come true when her rich friend Charlotte hires her as a caterer for a masquerade ball she is throwing in honor of the arrival of Prince Naveen. Charlotte has always dreamed of marrying a prince and this seems like her chance. Prince Naveen, as it turns out, is penniless and looking to marry a rich heiress, but he gets sidetracked when Dr. Facilier, aka the shadow man, uses dark voodoo to turn Naveen into a frog and makes Naveen's servant look just like him. The plan is that the servant will marry Charlotte, steal her money and share it with Dr. Facilier, who will use the money to take over New Orleans. However, when the frog prince sneaks into the ball, he finds Tiana dressed as a princess and offers to give her a reward if she will kiss him to turn him human. Since Tiana is not a princess, the spell backfires, turning her into a frog as well. Together, she and Naveen have to face the perils of the bayou, including alligators and hillbilly frog catchers, to find Mama Odie and find out what they need to do to become human.

The film is so well done that I wouldn't be surprised if it becomes an instant classic the way that The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and The Lion King became cherished by audiences almost immediately. It is filled with great morals for both kids and adults. The biggest theme of the film is that there is a difference between what you want and what you need and that the key to happiness is having what you need. Another great moral is that it doesn't matter what you look like because it's what's inside that matters, a lesson that people opposed to interracial relationships need to learn (there was an online commotion when it was revealed that the princess was black and the prince was Latino).

To keep it short and sweet, if you're a fan of classic Disney animation, you are going to love The Princess and the Frog. I know that someday my future kids will be wowed by the fact that I saw it in theaters when it first came out, the same way that I was amazed that my parents saw Sleeping Beauty in 1959. It's Disney's best animated film of the decade and is sure to become a classic alongside the greats.

Prepare for Prep & Landing

On Tuesday, December 8th, ABC will air Walt Disney Animation Studios' new Christmas special, Prep & Landing. It is their first featurette in more than 20 years! The story was originally pitched to John Lasseter in 2006 as a short, but John quickly saw the potential for it as a Christmas special. He literally walked across the street to ABC and presented the idea, which they loved.

I saw Prep & Landing at the D23 Expo in September and it was hysterical! My friends and I have been quoting it ever since. I don't want to ruin it by inserting some of the clever adjectives the elves use, but prepare to laugh until your sides are sore (and quote it for years to come). The special tells the tale of a division of Santa's workshop known as Prep & Landing. These covert elves visit each house before Santa arrives to make sure that not a creature is stirring and the stockings are hung by the chimney with care. You won't stop laughing at the gadgets they use or the little things they do to make Christmas as smooth as possible for the jolly old elf. Their final mission is to guide Santa's sleigh through landing and then they are off to the next house. The story is centered around Wayne, an agent who has grown tired of his job at Prep & Landing, and Wayne, a rookie who is forced on Wayne as his partner. Together, they have to jump through hurdles to prepare houses for Santa.

Prep & Landing is so good that it leaves you begging for more. The creative team at Disney has designed this world so well that is seems possible that they could make a new each year. After all, the world and characters already exist, so they can focus on writing and animating. So be sure to clear your schedule, set your DVR, or do whatever you need to do to watch Prep & Landing on December 8th.

Best of the Decade - 1940's

For a little over a month, I've been watching the Disney films in chronological order and reviewing them at my other blog, The Disney Films. I just finished watching all of the films from the first decade and thought I would start an ongoing list of the 10 best films from each decade. Each link will take you to my review, so here is my list for the 1940's!

1.) Pinocchio - Walt Disney's second animated feature is one of the best. It is the highest rated Disney film on Rotten Tomatoes and still holds up well today.

2.) Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - Walt's first film was incredibly innovative for its time and set the standard by which all Disney films are still judged. Technically it's from the 1930's, but it's the only feature from that decade so I lumped it in with the 40's.

3.) Fantasia - Without question, the most artistic Disney film ever made. It's beautiful, breathtaking, and inspiring.

4.) Bambi - The charming story in the life of a deer is still making audiences cry more than 6o years later.

5.) Dumbo - The simplistic charm of this heartwarming film is an essential part of every childhood.

6.) So Dear to My Heart - This nostalgic film about a young boy entering his lamb at the county fair at the turn of the century is full of charm. While it might bore kids, it's sure to put a smile on anybody old enough to appreciate the simpler times it's set in.

7.) Song of the South - Disney's adaptation of Joel Chandler Harris' tales of Brer Rabbit are delightful. It's a shame that the controversy surrounding the film prevents it from being enjoyed by audiences today.

8.) The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad - Disney's adaptations of The Wind in the Willows and The Legend of Sleepy Hallow are combined in this delightful package feature.

9.) The Three Caballeros - Donald Duck is taught about South American culture by his amigos, Jose Carioca and Panchito.

10.) The Reluctant Dragon - This film about a tour of the Disney studios is enough to make any Disney fan drool. You will see the Disney Studio in operation when it was still new and when Walt was still alive.

Disneyphile Reviews: Old Dogs

I just returned from the theater after seeing Disney's newest comedy, Old Dogs. I was actually excited to see this movie, despite horrible reviews and a 6% rating from Rotten Tomatoes. Back in September, I was at the D23 Expo when John Travolta, Kelly Preston, and their daughter were on hand to promote the film. We were shown a scene from the movie and it was pretty funny. Beyond that, the trailer made me laugh pretty hard, so I thought that maybe the critics were wrong.

Sadly, the critics are right. There are plenty of good Disney films with outrageous plots, but this is almost too outrageous to be good. Dan (Robin Williams) and Charlie (John Travolta) have been friends since the 70's. 7 years ago, Dan got a divorce and to cheer him up, Charlie took him to Miami where they got skunk drunk, Dan got a tattoo, and met and married Vickie (Kelly Preston), a fellow drunk girl in Miami. They quickly got an annulment and now it is 2009 (actually it's 2008 since this film has been finished for more than a year). Now Vickie returns with twins and since she has to go spend 2 weeks in prison for being a political activist, Dan has to take the kids. The rest of the film is 90% set ups for jokes about how old Dan and Charlie are with no real plot. Towards the end, they cram a tiny bit of heart into a mostly heartless film, but it's not enough to justify the other 80 minutes and definitely not enough to make it good. The film is packed with celebrity guest stars, who provide minimal additional entertainment value to this awful, awful, awful film.

This was the first time that I have ever found myself offended by a Disney movie. You may recall a funny line from the trailer in which Matt Dillon knocks Robins Williams to the ground and says "How'd that feel, Gilmore Girl?" Well that line was cut from the film because it would have made an already offensive scene even more offensive. Prior to playing Frisbee football, Dan's daughter explains to the troop leader that Dan and Charlie are her "2 dads" and when he looks over at them, they act like they are a couple, causing the homophobic troop leader to intentionally hunt them down during the game. Any member of the LGBT community is sure to find this scene offensive. A better idea would have been to cut out that moment and kept the Gilmore Girls reference. At least that line was funny. A same sex family isn't funny, but the creators seem to think it is. But a troop leader full of testosterone calling an old man "Gilmore Girl" is. Also, Asian Americans might find another scene offensive when Robin Williams is playing golf with a Japanese business man. He recently took the wrong medication, which made his tongue swell and his mouth dry, so when he talks it sounds like an Asian stereotype. "L"'s become "R"'s, etc...

The bottom line is that Old Dogs had the potential and the star power to be a great film, but falls flat on its face in every way possible. Thankfully, there are plenty of other Disney entertainment offerings in theaters right now. A Christmas Carol is still playing and The Princess and the Frog opens nationwide next week. So if you are in the mood for a Disney movie, see one of those instead and skip Old Dogs.