My (overwhelming) Thoughts on "The Princess and the Frog"

Although I enjoyed my live blog of Up, for The Princess and the Frog I decided to do my blog post right after I finished the movie. I'd never seen it before, and I may have a jumble of thoughts (correction--  I DO have a jumble of thoughts) and feel like I want to get them all down in writing (err, typing) while the movie is still fresh in my mind! Here goes nothing:

• I really liked the ending!! I have to admit, when Mama Odie was telling Tiana and Naveen that they needed to "dig deeper" I knew there was going to be some sort of Disney moral/message that made you go "Awwww" at the end, but I couldn't figure out what it was. But of course, it was the fact that Tiana was already a princess once the married Naveen!! Super cute ending, but I have to admit part of me thought they were going to live happily ever after as frogs a la Shrek. 
• I was very much creeped out by those evil shadow things that appeared next to Dr. Facilier. And, once we're on the subject, I found him to just be plain weird. His role in the plot was kind of weird/random (I mean, voodoo witch, really?) but it made the storyline make sense so YOLO Disney. I could see how he fit the mold of the typical Disney villain: selfish, unattractive, kinda distored looking....etc. 
• Was Disney trying to make some statement about obesity? I couldn't really figure out what they were getting at, but that Big Daddy character was blatantly overweight, and his excessive eating habits didn't help either. His gigantic size may have just been to show him as a big, powerful figure, because Disney didn't say anything negative about him. Definitely something to discuss. 
• I don't exactly know where I stand on the movie's portrayal of race. In film (given the criticism of the field) there is such a fine line between being racist and ignoring racial differences. I can't decide where I feel this movie falls on the spectrum. I look forward to discussing in class to hear how other students feel about how race was portrayed in The Princess and the Frog. 

I think our class will have a lot to say on this film! While I was not the biggest fan of Up, I am excited to see everyone's reaction to this movie, especially since I think a lot of people have not seen it yet, myself included.