*200th review* A tip of the hat from Dr. Facilier. How ya'll doin?

Hello I am the movie encyclopedia and if no one else will see it, I will.

5 months, 200 reviews. A member of LAMB, Blog Catalog, and Zimbio. Got a Facebook fan page and 60 (at the time) fans. Who knew that one man's dream could come true like this. I know I'm not a household name and I never planned on that. I just wanted to review all the movies I had ever seen and put them online. But I'm just so glad for all of you guy's continued support and here's to 400!

Well now that that's out of the way let's get to the movie today: The Princess and The Frog.

Princess and the Frog is the retelling of the old classic fairytale the Frog Prince. In that fairytale a princess wishes on a star for a prince and a frog appears. She kisses the frog and he turns into a prince. Well that's not what happens here. Instead it takes the formulaic Disney approach to movies and twists the story, the Disney approach, and a completely original tale and puts it all together. Not since Atlantis has there been a really good Disney movie that was given time and effort. Usually nowadays Disney falls back on Pixar for all of its animated movies while Disney itself chugs out PG family comedy after PG family comedy. Now don't get me wrong...Pixar has made some of the best animated films ever but I was wondering if regular hand drawn animation was dead. Princess and the Frog proved me wrong. So after a semi private screening here's the scoop.

It's the early 1920s in New Orleans. Tiana is waitress/maid who has dreams of saving up enough money to open her own restaurant. Her mom (Oprah) and her father, who passes away in World War 1 (Terrance Howard), support her in anything she does. One day a prince from a far away land comes to marry a rich man's daughter. Naveen (his name) is a playboy though and wants to goof off and flirt instead of settle down. But after bumping into the Shadowman (Keith David) he turns Naveen into a frog. Later that night at the masquerade ball, the frog Naveen kisses Tiana and she turns into a frog. They accidentally float into the bayou and get lost. From there they have a grand adventure to get back to New Orleans and break the spell.

First things first: the music is great. Its a Disney musical so I was expecting kind of hokey songs. But no...these songs had spice, flair and most importantly they were good and sung well.

Here's my personal favorite sung by Keith David:

Secondly the acting is wonderful and probably some of the best I have ever seen in an animated movie. Keith David is a classic villain, Tiana is believable and has some serious pipes. Howard and Oprah are great and all the side characters are spot on. The plot moves along nicely and barely feels like 97 minutes.

In my honest opinion its the best Disney film made this decade. It's similar without being predictable. Its refreshingly new, well acted, well written, the jokes are funny, and its a joy from start to finish. I recommend this to anyone of any age who has ever liked a Disney film.

MY VERDICT:TOP FILM