Creative Mastermind for Week 3/3: Associated Staff for Disney's "The Princess and the Frog"

Greetings and a fabulous Wednesday to you all my Creative Cabana readers! I hope the first half of the week has treated you well. Of course, hopefully you're not hungover or too tired from all the Mardi Gras celebrations and/or Oscar movie parties. Personally, I've never been to either of those events. No body that I know has ever hosted an Oscars party and I've never really had the opportunity to celebrate Mardi Gras. I find both events somewhat ironic though when it comes to creativity because both offer a celebration of talent, success, and excitement. Mardi Gras (although commonly referred to as a big party) exhibits examples of colorful and artistic designs ranging from costumes, to art, to music, and even in food! While the Oscars focus on the production and talent side of the art in movies. Since both events occurred this week, I thought it would only be fitting to have a mastermind that incorporates movies and mardi gras. So after doing some brainstorming and research, here is my selection for this week's creative mastermind:

Now before you judge, hear me out to make my case for this film. When I think of Mardi Gras in the movies there's only two movies (that I've seen) which come to my mind: Princess and the Frog AND All Dogs Go to Heaven. Both movies take place in New Orleans right around the time of Mardi Gras and gives children a "sense" of what Mardi Gras is. In All Dogs Go to Heaven there isn't much of a vibe of Mardi Gras except in a few scenes- plus the plot of the movie doesn't involve the celebration in comparison to The Princess and the Frog. For those of you who have never seen either movie, watch them! They're pretty good and entertaining, although All Dogs Go to Heaven addresses some issues that might be a bit odd for children: gambling, murder, stealing, and dogs running businesses. With The Princess and the Frog the whole movie screams Mardi Gras: music, characters, events, even the presence of voo-doo magic which is often associated with New Orleans. The celebration of Mardi Gras is fairly important in this story because it plays in connection to each of the characters and their roles in the movie. 

The film starts with us meeting Tiana a young waitress saving up to open her own restaurant and her rich friend Charlotte who dreams of marrying a handsome prince. When Prince Naveen from overseas comes to visit New Orleans he wants to marry Charlotte so he can be rich again (oh yeah, he's a partying prince and now he's broke). On his way to meet Charlotte he meets a voo-doo man named Dr. Facilier who tricks Naveen and turns him into... you guessed it! A FROG. Naveen mistakes Tiana for a princess and gets her to kiss him which turns her into a frog too. Together they look for a way to become human again and stop Dr. Facilier from using his magic to destroy the people of New Orleans. Throughout the film Mardi Gras is used in many references and becomes a vital part of the solution when Naveen and Tiana use Charlotte, who is the Princess of Mardi Gras, to break their spell. I won't spoil other parts of the movie for those haven't seen it, but I have to say this is one of the better movies to come out of Disney for quite some time.

Disney Animation hit a BOOM during the late 80s into the 90s with films like The Little Mermaid, Lion King, Aladdin, and of course Beauty and the Beast. However, over the course of the next decade the quality in the Disney began to lack some of the magic many Disney fans love. Animation was changing too as 2D animation was changing into 3D films and computer generated films like Cars, and Finding Nemo. When Disney released The Princess and the Frog I think a lot of people were slightly skeptical about it afraid that it was going to be a flop like Home on the Range (no offense to people who love that movie!). However, the response proved to be very good. The film was highly praised for animation, plot, characters, and the music by Randy Newman who also wrote the music for the Toy Story films.

Getting back to film itself, there's a lot of creative moves in The Princess and the Frog that I think is just too cool not to go un-noticed. First, this was a bold move on Disney's part to show a colored princess- which I think is AWESOME! Please note the era which the movie takes place- 20s-30s, they were very careful in portraying the life of the richer citizens in comparison to the poor workers of that time. So Disney good job on your historical sensitivity to that. Finally, has anyone ever noticed the little hidden signs of other Disney movies that show up in Princess and the Frog? If you watch close enough you'll see cameo appearances
of other Disney characters and references to other Disney movies. I know a few them off the top of my head, but watch the movie for yourself and see how many references you can find.

Overall what I find so creative about The Princess and the Frog is that it is not your everyday fairytale story. The prince is not so Mr. Perfect and he's actually a bit of a snob. The first kiss doesn't work to break the spell and the leading lady of our story isn't really the "rags to riches" type of person- she works hard for her money (and you better treat her right!- Sorry for the Donna Summer reference there). One thing holds true though, this movie does follow the standard ONLY ONE PARENT formula. In the beginning of the film we do see both of Tiana's parents, but when she grows up we learn that her father died, possibly in a war. So that part still remains in tact. I guess I'm fond of the amount of creative production put into this film after spending years of watching Disney create films that weren't quite up to industry standards. The Princess and the Frog proved to the public that they can still make good movies and 2D animation is not dead yet! Way to go for that Disney!

I wish I could name every individual who had a hand in creating this wonderful Mardi Gras themed movie! However because there are too many names to list, I'm just going to say Excellent Job to all credited individuals listed in the movie. The creativity and hard work you've put into this movie does not go un-noticed! I always want to give you readers a chance to voice your opinion on the Creative Masterminds! If you would like to nominate someone for a Creative Mastermind, please share your ideas with The Creative Cabana either by commenting on our posts, share your message on our Facebook page, or tweet to us @CreativeCabana. Enjoy the rest of your Wednesday everyone!

* The Princess and the Frog, Finding Nemo, Cars, The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Aladdin, and  Beauty and the Beast are all the property of Walt Disney Pictures. I do not own any of these films, nor do I have relation to any of filmakers or actors related to these films. All Dogs Go to Heaven is the property of MGM studios and I have no ownership over the film as well. "She Works Hard for the Money" is owned by Donna Summer and the respective songwriters/producers. All images used in this post were collected from Google Images Search Results. All subjects used in this post are for discussion only and not intended for profit use, criticize/endorsement, or other suggestions. No Copyright Infringement Intended.