You're jokin, you're jokin', I can't believe my eyes.

Finally got around to watching The Princess and the Frog.

I just want to start out that I really was looking forward to watching a 2D Disney movie again. I would have seen it in the theaters, but there was just something holding me back from this one. It didn't have that "wow" factor in the trailers. Well the movie didn't have much of a "wow" factor either. But the plus side is that I didn't have too high of expectations for this film, so I wasn't entirely disappointed with the results.

However, I was very excited to see all of The Princess and the Frog billboards splattered across LA when I was there this past winter. I was drawn to the villain, Facilier. He definitely looked the coolest in the advertisements and turned out to be the coolest part of the film.

There were just some big issues I had with this film. At first I was happy that there were elements to The Princess and the Frog that were familiar. When the alligator character appeared I thought, "hey, that reminds me of Rescuers Down Under or The Jungle Book". And I thought that was pretty cool because it reminded me that this was a brand new 2D Disney movie, and they were still making movies like the ones I watched when I was a kid. But then those familiarities got pretty irritating. I felt like so much of the film was just rehashing old Disney ideas. When Tiana and the prince, as frogs, start to have feelings for one another, the whole scene felt like a bad rip off of "Kiss the Girl" from The Little Mermaid. In fact, Mama Odie, the old voodoo woman, reminded me of a sweeter Ursula mixed with the Red Queen from the live action Disney show, Adventures in Wonderland. I mean, she even had long legged birds surrounding her, much like the Red Queen's ostriches.

While I'm talking about villains, I may as well talk about Facilier. He was a great villain, but was a complete and obvious mix of Jafar from Aladdin and Oogie Boogie of A Nightmare Before Christmas. And he lacked the epicness of a Disney villain. He was't evil enough. He was just a little sneak who sent his minion shadow people to do all of his dirty work. Now, I will switch gears here and say that all of the scenes that featured Facilier were my favorites, and definitely the most interesting parts of the film. His musical number towards the beginning was a display of some of the coolest 2D animation I have seen in awhile. I just loved the colors and the style, but it reminded me entirely too much of Oogie Boogie's musical number in A Nightmare Before Christmas! And I must admit that I am now a little more creeped out by Facilier after finding out he was voiced by Keith David, a.k.a Little John from Requiem for a Dream, a character who thoroughly gives me the creeps.

I really could go on forever about what I thought was a blatant rip off of other Disney movies (like wishing on a star for one), but it doesn't really matter. The movie included elements that make a great Disney movie, but all the elements felt like something I had seen done before, but done much better. One of the other main issues with the film was its musical numbers. When I look back at all the Disney movies I adore, they all have really spectacular, memorable and catchy musical numbers. I just finished this movie a couple of hours ago and I couldn't even sing you a single line from any of the songs. They were that forgettable. Yet there were so many of them. Too many. I guess they should have focused more on catchier tunes than trying to pack them all into the film.

Oh, and just a quick gripe, did Oprah really have to be in this film? Can't she just stay out of this? Why not just make it all the more ridiculous and throw Tyler Perry in the mix while you're at it?

I would like to defend The Princess in the Frog by saying that I am older now and seeing a Disney movie for the first time is different now than it was when I was a kid, but I have one thing to say to that idea: Toy Story 3. That was a movie that was amazing from beginning to end and I enjoy it as much as an adult as I would as a kid, if not more. So Disney has definitely not lost its luster, which is quite a relief. I still have complete faith in Disney movies and hope for 2D animated Disney movies. It's just great to see that 2D animation is not gone forever, and perhaps The Princess and the Frog is just a bump in the road on the way to getting close to where 2D Disney movies were in the 90s.

And on a side note, watching this movie really makes me wish that the freaking Disney vault was open so that I could purchase The Lion King and Aladdin.