Classic Animation
1. Featurette
(MUSIC STARTS)
(TWINKLE SOUND EFFECT)
YOUNG TIANA: There is no way I will ever ever ever kiss a frog, yuck!
PRINCE NAVEEN (as FROG): Gribbit!
YOUNG TIANA: [Screams]
RON CLEMENTS: One of the unique things about The Princess and the Frog is that it's a little different to any other of the Disney fairytales which makes it exciting.
ROB EDWARDS: Princess and the Frog is a story about a young woman, Tiana.
ANIKA NONI ROSE: Tiana's ultimate goal is to have her own restaurant but she works so hard that it's hard for her to take a moment and relax.
(BELL RINGS)
CHEF: Order up!
EUDORA: Girl, all you ever do is work!
(ALARM CLOCK RINGS)
RON CLEMENTS: Her philosophy is you've gotta make your own fairytales come true so certainly she's not a character who is waiting for a prince to rescue her.
TIANA: I've gotta make sure all of Daddy's hard work means something.
ROB EDWARDS: Anika Noni Rose is the perfect princess for this movie.
ANIKA NONI ROSE: I can honestly say that this is a dream come true for me.
LAWRENCE: Prince! I've been looking for you everywhere!
PRINCE NAVEEN: Oh! What a coincidence Lawrence, I have been avoiding you everywhere!
JOHN LASSETER: There's this amazing character named Prince Naveen and he is from the mythical country of Maldonia.
PRINCE NAVEEN: It's beautiful, no?
WOMEN: [Giggle]
BRUNO CAMPOS: Prince Naveen is cool and fresh, the way I look at the Disney prince tradition for the most part is pretty perfect but the opposite of my guy.
JOHN MUSKER: Bruno Campos combined being able to be a leading man and to be able to play it comically.
BRUNO CAMPOS (as PRINCE NAVEEN): I am completely broke!
PRINCE NAVEEN (as FROG): [Laughs] [snap] Uh-oh!
BRUNO CAMPOS: We first see Prince Naveen in a great street jazz scene in New Orleans and there appears Doctor Facilier.
RON CLEMENTS: Facilier is a fun villain in that he's scary but he's charismatic.
KEITH DAVID: It's a wonderful turn of events because I'd ask him what he wants.
(MUSIC GETS LOUDER)
KEITH DAVID (as DR. FACILIER): [sings] It's the greenest of greenest of green you need. And when I look into your future it's the green that I see.
[Explosion]
KEITH DAVID: And so he turns him into a frog. Doctor Facilier, he'll be on that roster of wonderful delicious villains.
DOCTOR FACILIER: [Laughs]
[Thunder cracks]
ROB EDWARDS: One night, Tiana looks up at the evening star and in that moment sees a frog.
TIANA: I suppose you wanna kiss?
PRINCE NAVEEN (as FROG): Kissing would be nice, yes?
TIANA (as FROG): How'd you get all the way up there and how'd I get way down here in all this... [gasps] [screams]
ROB EDWARDS: And now the two of them go off on an adventure through the Bayou.
BRUNO CAMPOS: But like all great love stories, they can't stand each other.
TIANA (as FROG): No, you're a no-count, philandering lazy bump on a log.
BRUNO CAMPOS (as PRINCE NAVEEN): [pretends to sneeze] Stick-in-the-mud!
TIANA (as FROG): What you say?
PRINCE NAVEEN (as FROG): Nothing.
JOHN LASSESTER: This movie has everything in it.
LOUIS: [Growls]
PRINCE NAVEEN AND TIANA (as FROGS): [Scream]
LOUIS: I know that tune!
JOHN LASSETER: a jazz-playing alligator,
RON CLEMENTS: Louis is very likable and very friendly.
MICHAEL-LEON WOOLEY: He loves jazz and he loves food, he loves his friends, all those things I think are pretty similar to me.
LOUIS: I want fingers and toes and a bellybutton, not the kind that sticks out but the kind that goes in.
MADAM ODIE: Hush!
John Lasseter: They've got a Cajun firefly.
RAY: [squeaks] 'scuse me!
JIM CUMMINGS: Ray is great, he's got a heart as big as the Bayou and it's on display at all times.
RAY: [Squeals] Yeah! You know!
JOHN LASSETER: There's a fairy-godmother character named Mamma Odie.
JOHN MUSKER: Jenifer Lewis plays her and Jenifer Lewis herself is a force of nature.
JENIFER LEWIS: What I love most about Mamma Odie is she's sweet and she has to really teach these little babies a lesson.
JENIFER LEWIS (as MAMMA ODIE): [Sings] When you find out who ya are, you find out what you need. Blue skies and sunshine and...
RON CLEMENTS: It's a very different type of princess story.
MAMMA ODIE: [Sings] That's got some zing to it!
RON CLEMENTS: The Princess and the Frog is of a return to classical Disney hand-drawn animation and also a return to the musical.
JOHN MUSKER: So really the approach to the animation is the same as it was done during Aladdin and Little Mermaid and now this is of a return to that whole media.
LOUIS, PRINCE NAVEEN AND TIANA (as FROGS): [Sing] When we're human and we're gonna be.
LOUIS: I'm gonna blow my horn.
(SAXOPHONE PLAYS)
JOHN LASSETER: They chose my favourite composer, Randy Newman to do all the music.
RANDY NEWMAN: Ron and John wanted the picture to reflect New Orleans in the songs.
JOHN MUSKER: We agreed to try to get the raw New Orleans in the soundtrack so we had musicians from the area play on the track.
JOHN LASSETER: And it is a true musical.
JOHN LASSETER: I'm so excited about this film because it's so rich.
MICHAEL-LEON WOOLEY: It's thrilling, it's exciting, it's historic, it's huge.
ANIKA NONI ROSE: I think the film is something that is fun and special.
DOCTOR FACILIER: Now we're cooking!
JENIFER LEWIS: The Princess and the Frog is gonna blow everybody away, the way every Disney movie blows everybody away.
ANONYMOUS VOICE: This gonna be good! (screams) [laughs]
(MUSIC STOPS)
TIANA: Just one kiss?
PRINCE NAVEEN (as FROG): Unless you beg for more! [Licks lips]
LOUIS: [makes gagging noise]
2. Hand-drawn animation
JOHN MUSKER: Hand-drawn animation which even Disney has gotten away from, there was such a surge of CG films with the success of all those and we always felt that hand-drawn animation was a viable art form that could co-exist with CG so we loved giving some of the artists who haven't had a chance to strut their stuff in drawing. We do think there are things you can do in drawing, that you can't do in CG or you can do more easily or expressively and (points to Ron Clements) we both draw so it's great to see that sort of art form reflower to give people, as well as younger people, who grew up on these movies like The Little Mermaid and they wanna do hand-drawn animation and it looked like they might not have the opportunity but some of these younger animators now are having a chance to really explore the art form.