Disney's Tiana Usurps Top Spot Over the Weekend

With its return to 2D animation after 5 years, Disney's The Princess and the Frog has managed to gross USD 25 million, enjoying the biggest opening of any film ever released in December. It broke the records of Beavis and Butt-head Do America that had drawn about USD 20 million in the holiday season of 1996.

"The Princess and the Frog" is Disney's first hand-drawn animation after Home on the Range in 2004, directed by the team of John Musker and Ron Clements of Hercules and Aladdin fame. This musical love story has been set to tune by music composer Randy Newman who had managed to scoop up the Oscar in 2002 for his "If I didn't have you" for Monster's Inc..

Set in the Jazz Age New Orleans, this movie depicts the adventures of Tiana (Anika Noni Rose), a hardworking girl who is determined to open her own restaurant French Quarter. She is pertinacious in her quest as she saves every penny from her humble earning at a café. However, her life goes for a toss when she kisses Prince Naveen of Maldonia, magically transmutated into a frog by the witch doctor Facilier (Keith David). Naveen, who had initially come to New Orleans in the search of a wealthy bride after being cut off by his parents, becomes hell-bent upon getting a kiss. He approaches Tiana for some lip action and kaboom! Unlike the Grimm Brothers' fairytale "The Frog Prince" of the 1920s, instead of the frog turning into a prince charming, Tiana herself becomes a frog. The story then talks of Tiana's uproarious endeavors to become human again in the mysterious lakes of Louisiana.

The film had been the butt of several criticisms ever since it was announced. William Blackburn, columnist of the Charlotte Observer had opined that, "This princess' story is set in New Orleans, the setting of one of the most devastating tragedies to beset a black community. And then they throw in the voodoo theme [the fairy-godmother character is a voodoo priestess] and an alligator sidekick. When you put New Orleans, alligators and voodoo together, there's no beauty there." However, the film recorded almost one out of five moviegoers to be unaccompanied adults as per Disney's exit polling. Chuck Viane, Disney's head of domestic distribution remarked, "That's the number that's sweetest. We knew families were going to come. But we didn't know about the adults without kids. That was going to depend on reviews."

With almost 83% of critics recommending the movie, Viane says that the movie shall withstand the tidal waves expected to be created by James Cameron's sci-fi biggie Avatar next week. "Family movies have great legs, so we're confident," Viane exudes. "Avatar's going to be a tsunami, and we're going to survive it," probably counting on the generally long shelf lives of holiday movies. After all he feels that, "It's one of those classic Disney fairy tales and people just fell in love with it. Read about World's most expensive movie gets great reviews at premiere and 'Avatar' impresses even the critics.

All in all, the film leaves the audiences with a moral in a subtle way in the classic Disney fashion, with Mama Odie (Jennifer Lewis) saying that the "only thing important is what's under the skin."