AnikaNoniRose Tagged Articles at Cinematical

The latest trailer for Disney's The Princess and the Frog is out, and it has me feeling all sorts of confused. It's pretty, and it looks kind of cute, but there are several aspects of it that make me distinctly uncomfortable. And I'm not the only one.

There have been a lot of switcheroos behind the scenes to make Princess more PC, but the rumble in my tummy says that the (mostly white) critics will be picking it apart scene by scene. So far just the trailers are getting people talking. I agree with /Film's Brendon Connelly that the character of the firefly, who seems to be obsessed with his big, glowing butt, is one of the more troublesome characters. Movieline is concerned about Mama Odie the witch doctor, while Katey Rich over at Cinemablend "is tempted to give it a pass." And Jezebel has quite a few discussions about the movie, like why it took so long for Disney to make a black princess, why she spends most of the movie as a frog, and many other dialogue-generating questions.

Let's not even begin to discuss the questionable video game that lets girls "play & move to music, cook New Orleans cuisine, and try on multiple outfits with Tiana & her friends," and "collect Mardi Gras beads to trade for new dresses, fabrics, ingredients and recipes." Sigh.

Plenty of talented black actresses were gunning for the part of Disney's first leading lady of color (the role eventually went to Anika Noni Rose, who was nominated for both a Grammy and a SAG Award for her work in Dreamgirls). And Oprah, that arbiter of all things good that makes Middle America's white middle-aged ladies feel okay about voting for Obama and reading The Color Purple, is in it. I can just see some Disney exec chomping on a cigar and thumping his fist on his desk, red-faced, yelling, "But Oprah is in it! Oprah!"

Click the image below to view entire poster

Cinematical has just received this beautiful exclusive teaser poster for Disney's The Princess and the Frog, which marks the studio's triumphant return to 2D hand-drawn animation. Featuring the voices of Anika Noni Rose (as Princess Tiana), Oprah Winfrey, Keith David, Jim Cummings, John Goodman, Jenifer Lewis, Bruno Campos, Michael-Leon Wooley, Peter Bartlett and Terrence Howard, The Princess and the Frog is based on E.D. Baker's classic novel The Frog Princess, except this film -- written and directed by the filmmaking duo of John Musker and Ron Clements (The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules) -- is set in New Orleans, stars a singing crocodile and features Disney's first African-American princess. Famed songwriter/composer Randy Newman (Toy Story, Monsters, Inc.) lent his familiar voice to the soundtrack, which I'm sure will carve out its special place alongside Disney's long list of memorable tracks.

The first trailer for The Princess and the Frog was also just released on Apple (watch it there or after the jump), and folks will have a chance to see the film when it hits theaters in New York and LA on November 25th before expanding wide on December 11th. Click the image below to view entire poster -- does this look like vintage Disney, or what?

I'm as big a fan of Pixar movies as anyone, but I honestly miss the old-fashioned 2-D style animation from Walt Disney. I think there's definitely room for both hand-drawn and computer animated films, because as brilliant as movies like Toy Story, Ratatouille and Wall-E may be, they're a completely separate kind of filmmaking from the traditional Disney films. They shouldn't be compared to nor should they replace the kind of beloved fairy tale classics we've enjoyed from the Mouse House for 70 years. So, before commenting on the new teaser trailer for The Princess and the Frog (available here if the YouTube version is removed), let me just say, welcome back, 2-D!

OK, so what do I think? Well, upon seeing the New Orleans setting, my first response was unfortunately one of fear: what if Disney one-ups its Hunchback of Notre Dame pole-dance debacle with a scene involving Mardi Gras beads? Well, obviously Disney knows better than to be so blatantly naughty, though I wouldn't doubt that animators will find some way to slip in a hint of Big Easy-style debauchery.

The idea of a Botswanian detective agency was enough to hook me when I wrote about the cinematic adaptation of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency just over a year ago when Anthony Minghella and Richard Curtis were putting it together. In June, we found out that Anika Noni Rose was joining Jill Scott in the production. Now it's veered off-course and will no longer be a big-screen movie.

As was hinted last June, the book is getting a television series, but Variety reports that it won't have a big-screen lead-in. Instead, it will be a 2-hour pilot for the new HBO series, which has already gotten an order for 13 episodes. Since this is also a Weinstein Company production, the sale to HBO marks the company's "first big splash on the smallscreen side."

Harvey seems to be happy about it: "It's always been a dream of mine to produce a series for HBO. I've often called over there to tell them that they make better episodes than we make movies." Heh, I won't dig into that can of worms. For now, the series is going into production with the hope to hit HBO early next year. From here on out, scour all those television sites like TVSquad for further Botswanian detective news.

After some concept art, a name-change, the voice of our heroine, and the voice of the villain, Disney has finally released the first official image from The Princess and the Frog, which you can see to the right, and check out in all of its glory over at Coming Soon. This flick is a pretty big deal as the studio has headed back to traditional animation for the film, but more importantly, because star Tiana will be the first African-American princess and leading lady from the studio that has brought us the likes of Aurora, Snow White, Jasmine, and Mulan.

The animated film should be interesting. It's a musical (of course) set in New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz. This could be cool, or a complete waste, depending on how Randy Newman tackles the music for the film. Will it be classic Newman? Will he go out on a limb and go wild with jazz? Anyhow, Tiana is a young girl who is living in the affluent French Quarter, who I imagine gets it on with a Princely frog. As Disney describes it: "From the heart of Louisiana's mystical bayous and the banks of the mighty Mississippi comes an unforgettable tale of love, enchantment, and discovery with a soulful singing crocodile, voodoo spells, and Cajun charm at every turn."

So there you have it. Is the official Tiana everything you dreamed she would be?

I first saw Anika Noni Rose on Broadway in her Tony Award-winning role in Caroline, or Change. She was great, but nearly got blown off the stage (just about anyone would have) by the incredible Tonya Pinkins. Then she had a similar situation in Dreamgirls, barely getting a mention in most reviews. She had the least flashy role by far, but I thought she held her own against the bombastic Jennifer Hudson and the ridiculously good-looking Beyonce. And now she's joining another powerful singer -- Jill Scott -- for Anthony Minghella's The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. Scott hasn't done much film acting, but has a part in the controversial Dakota Fanning film Hounddog, and a supporting role in Tyler Perry's upcoming Why Did I Get Married? No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency will be an adaptation of Alexander McCall Smith's novel of the same name. Any fans out there?

Rose will play Grace Makutsi, "the secretary/assistant detective to Precious Ramotswe (Scott), who owns a Botswana-based detective agency run by women." Relative newcomer Lucian Msamati will play Ramotswe's fiancé in the film. Minghella wrote the script with Richard Curtis (Love, Actually), and with Minghella at the helm, I think it is safe to assume that Detective Agency will be...long. Like, punishingly long. This also seems like quite a departure for Minghella, who usually takes on films about exceedingly pale people doing exceedingly cold things as slowly as possible. There's a whole series of Agency books, and it is "likely that a TV series based on Agency will follow the movie, but no deals are in place." Oh, and if you want to see Rose in something that will haunt her resume for decades -- check out From Justin to Kelly. Why that movie hasn't become this generation's Plan 9 From Outer Space is a mystery to me.

According to L.A. Weekly blogger Nikki Finke, there will be three presenters of the Oscar for Best Achievement in Directing. Those presenters? None other than Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas. Finke doesn't go on to make assumptions, but I'll go ahead and speculate that the planners of the telecast know something about who will win this award -- or they're making a hopeful gamble. Of course it will be great television to feature three of the most important "New Hollywood" directors hand a long overdue award to a fourth member of that era, Martin Scorsese. Personally, though, I think if Scorsese is a definite lock for the award, then Robert Redford, Kevin Costner, Barry Levinson and Roman Polanski should be the ones presenting it.

Finke has learned of a few other "surprises" we can look forward to on Sunday night, including an appearance by Tom Cruise to present his old boss at Paramount, Sherry Lansing, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. Also, the supporting acting awards will not be announced at the beginning of the ceremony, as they usually are, and none of the scheduled performers from Dreamgirls (Beyoncé, Jennifer Hudson and Anika Noni Rose) will sing the song they sing in the movie -- who will perform what is not revealed, however. As for montages, we can expect one directed by Michael Mann about the portrayal of America in movies and one directed by Nancy Meyers about the portrayal of writers.

It is being rumored that this year's Oscar telecast will be extremely long, so hopefully the Academy and the planners have some other surprises that are more exciting than these. Of course, many of us will be glued to the set the whole way through to find out which picture will be revealed as the best, but I think the media is overestimating the public curiosity this year and I doubt that many people will really care enough to be up that late.