Walt Disney Studios: Feature Films: The Princess And The Frog

The Princess And The Frog Production Information

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Production Notes:

Disney's first film with an African-American princess.

This film marks Disney's return to the 2-D, hand-drawn method of animation. Disney's Michael Eisner shut down the hand-drawn unit in 2004 with the production of Home On The Range, beleiving instead that 3D computer animation was Disney's future. He has since been proved wrong.

Composer Randy Newman was born in Los Angeles and moved with his family to New Orleans, where his mother's family lived. He lived there as a small child and summered there until he was 11. His 1974 song "Louisiana 1927" (and Aaron Neville's cover version) gained much radio airplay in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Reportedly, Alan Menken was the automatic choice of writers Ron Clements and John Musker as composer (they had all worked together on "The Little Mermaid"), but Disney chief creative officer John Lasseter insisted on Newman because of the New Orleans setting.

The character of Princess Tiana was originally named Maddy, but changed when the name was deemed to reinforce negative stereotypes.

Working title: "The Frog Princess."

This cartoon is currently in a pre-production or production phase. The information on this production (including release date) is estimated at this point, and is subject to change as the production finalizes.