This is Disney’s first traditionally animated feature since 2004’s Home on the Range, and it’s a refreshing look back on the world of hand-drawn animation and princess heroines. It doesn’t quite measure up to Disney’s earlier Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, or Sleeping Beauty, but it’s still an enjoyable way to spend an hour and a half at the theater. It’s also groundbreaking in that it introduces Disney’s first African-American heroine.

Tiana (voiced by Anika Noni Rose) isn’t a princess at the beginning of the movie; she’s a New Orleans waitress who dreams of owning her own restaurant. Prince Naveen (Bruno Campos) has been transformed (by voodoo, which is stereotypical for New Orleans -- even James Bond has gone there) into a frog, but when Tiana is finally enticed into kissing the unfortunate young monarch, the spell works in reverse and she becomes a frog as well. Together they pursue various avenues that will restore them as humans, and they fall in love along the way.

Tiana and Naveen meet some interesting characters during their adventure, and what would any Disney movie be without supporting characters who steal the show? In this case it’s Louis (Michael-Leon Wooley), a not-to-subtly named alligator who wants to be a jazz trumpet player, and Ray (Jim Cummings), a firefly who is in love with the evening star.

Throughout the film just about everyone sings songs by Randy Newman that make a good impression but are hard to remember later on. Directors John Musker and Ron Clements, who brought us The Little Mermaid, know how to stage the musical numbers so that we remember more about how they look than how they sound.

It often seems as if the writers are dipping into the history of Disney to find useful and welcome ideas, but those ideas aren’t necessarily fresh and they keep the film from being a timeless classic. That said, their intentions are good. And if they steal or borrow from the past, they’re careful to choose from the best.

Much noise has erupted over the cultural background of the prince, who is dark-skinned but not black. He looks as though he could be Hispanic, Middle Eastern, or perhaps multiple ethnicities. This means the movie also breaks ground in being the first Disney picture to feature an interracial starring couple. But the biggest deal about The Princess and the Frog has to remain that it stars an African-American princess. At the theater where I saw the movie, there were a large number of African-American families in attendance, and I was moved to think of what it must mean to them. It’s enjoyment to me, but to them it’s a mile marker. First the White House and now the Mouse. It’s about time.

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