Pixar's John Lasseter: New Orleans is the perfect setting for 'The Princess and the Frog'
Posted by Mike Scott, Movie writer, The Times-Picayune November 28, 2008 4:00AM
John Lasseter, the chief creative officer for Disney Animation and Pixar, and key members of the crew have been soaking up the city's atmosphere as they created the New Orleans-set fairy tale 'The Princess and the Frog.'
Right now, and for the next few weeks at least, it's all about "Bolt" for the Walt Disney Animation publicity machine, but about this time next year, you can expect the House of Mouse to be giving New Orleans the royal treatment.
That's when Disney's next big animated project lands: the New Orleans-set fairytale "The Princess and the Frog."
The musical-romance is a special project for a number of reasons, said John Lasseter, the chief creative officer for Disney Animation and Pixar. First, it marks the return to hand-drawn animation for Disney, an art form that has been absent at the studio since 2004's "Home on the Range" and which Lasseter has pushed to revive.
It'll also mark the debut of Disney's first black princess, who will be voiced by Tony winner Anika Noni Rose.
And then, Lasseter said, is the fact that the whole thing is set in "my favorite city in the world."
Polite hyperbole on that last count? Perhaps, but even so, it's clear Lasseter is a big fan of the Big Easy.
The multiple-Oscar winner -- and director of Pixar classics such as "Toy Story, "Toy Story 2, " "A Bug's Life" and "Cars" -- talks lovingly about the city with little prompting, offering clues as to what aspects of local culture may end up on screen.
"There's so much wonderful magic in that city, " Lasseter said, in a phone interview earlier this month, "with the combination of the city itself, the Garden District, the French Quarter, the voodoo -- the good voodoo and the bad voodoo -- the music, the jazz, the zydeco. You have the bayous with all the great animals. There's such richness."
Courtesy Disney / PixarDisney's next big animated project, 'The Princess and the Frog, ' is set in New Orleans and scheduled to open next holiday season.
"The Princess and the Frog, " which Lasseter called a "break-out-in-song musical, " focuses on a 19-year-old French Quarter resident named Tiana and is set in New Orleans' jazz age of the '20s. "And the castle, you might say, of this fairy tale is a this beautiful, big Garden District mansion, " Lasseter said.
"It's kind of a fun, new version of the 'Frog Prince' fairy tale, but they wanted to make it a classic American fairy tale, so we wanted to set it in New Orleans."
The story reportedly sees a lovesick Tiana kissing a frog in the hope of turning him into a prince. The spell backfires, though, turning her into a frog. In her ensuing adventure, Tiana will encounter all kinds of local flora and fauna, including a Cajun firefly named Ray (Jim Cummings) and a trumpet-playing alligator named Louis (Michael-Leon Wooley).
Among the other voice actors on board are Oprah Winfrey, Jennifer Lewis and local resident John Goodman. Randy Newman, who spent part of his childhood in New Orleans, is handling the music duties. (You may remember that he unveiled one of his "Princess and the Frog" songs at Jazzfest, with Dr. John singing.)
Other local musicians are also said to be involved.
To help get into a New Orleans state of mind, Lasseter has accompanied key members of the crew -- including writer-directors Ron Clements and John Musker, the creators of "The Little Mermaid" and "Aladdin" -- on research trips to the city. They've been on swamp tours. They've been to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Clements and Musker even rode on a Carnival float.
"We've been down there many, many times, talking to people, " Lasseter said.
It's too early for an announcement as to whether New Orleans will host a big, roll-out-the-red-carpet premiere for the film. Disney debuted 1996's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" here on six gargantuan screens in the Superdome. (An event preceded by a Disney-style parade .) Safe to say, though, there are special things in the works.
Not the least of them, Lasseter hopes, will be a fun and artistically told story.
"I never quite understood the decision that numerous animation studios made, where they said, 'Audiences don't want to watch hand-drawn animation anymore; they only want to watch computer animation, ' " Lasseter said. "That's crazy. What people don't want to watch is bad movies.
"I think 2-D animation became the scapegoat for bad storytelling. That's why we believe so strongly in it and we're bringing it back, and to me it just makes sense. The one studio in the world that should be doing hand-drawn animation is the one that started it all".
