REMEMBER when cartoons were drawn by hand? When people sat down with pens and paper, with brushes and pencils and crafted a kind of magic? Disney does.
Sure, it was sceptical of computers at first and fired technowhizz director John Lasseter after he suggested it might be cool to make a film with machines.
After all, this was the mighty House of Mouse, with a string of astonishing hits through the 90s like The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast.
But when Lasseter showed them Toy Story they took him back pretty quickly and since then the studio has rarely looked over its shoulder.
ed hardy clothingUntil now, that is.
The Princess and the Frog is a return to Disneys roots. It is the first hand-drawn major release since Home on the Range in 2004.
It is, in fact, very nearly a renaissance.
The story, like the film itself, is a neat twist on an old classic. Tiana is a poor waitress working two jobs in downtown New Orleans during the height of the Roaring Twenties.
She, like so many Disney heroines before her, has a dream. She longs to open her own restaurant for herself and for the memory of her dad.
But when the cheery playboy Prince Naveen bowls into town, the pair of them end up being turned into frogs thanks to a local voodoo master, Doctor Facilier.
The odd couple have to escape to the murky, steamy swamps of the Bayou and there they begin a journey of learning to love each other - made slightly more complicated now they have to catch food with their tongues.
Up until this tiffany heart link bracelet point, the film is energetic and colourful, with the animation matched only by the quick, sharp script.
The film relishes its time and place, romanticising the Big Easy with fabulous jazz numbers, including a giant alligator with a gift for the trumpet, and pouring its love into luscious detail. But the old Disney problems of a slow middle section and moralistic final third resurface and a few plot threads, while adding emotion, slow the pace at times.
But songs are as catchy as ever and the acting spot-on.
THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG CERTIFICATE: U RUNNING TIME: 97 mins STARTS: Today at Showcase, Odeon and Cinema De Lux in Derby; Cineworld in Burton RATING:
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