I had thought that, after the 2004 release of Home on the Range, widely regarded as a fiasco on an epic scale, Disney shut down its non-CG animation operations in favor of going CG.

Then they came out with Meet The Robinsons, and that was regarded as a fiasco ALMOST as large as Home on the Range.

It was starting to seem that, without Pixar, Disney animation had lost that spark. So Disney, responding to the grand Hollywood cry of “More of the same and plenty of it!” that’s defined studio releases for the last year or so, went back to the well that made them big:

Disney princesses.

And so this time, we go down to the bayou for Disney’s Princess and the Frog, where a hardworking young lass from the wrong side of the tracks grows up surrounded by love,  good values, and a dream to open a restaurant.  She grows into her own, working two waitressing gigs to save up the cash for an abandoned sugar mill that’s missing large portions of its roof but is still somehow so desirable a location that a. it requires multiple coffee cans full of cash to rustle up the down payment and b. it has multiple offers, some of which are cash up front.

But anyway!  Things only get more complex when the venal, shallow Prince Naveen arrives in New Orleans with the plan to marry a rich, venal, shallow young lady by waving a princess title under her nose and then leeching off her family’s wealth for the rest of his life, being as his parents cut him off for, well, being a leech.

Bring the hardworking young waitress and the self-centered prince together and you get, what else?  A Disney movie filled with romance, a little peril, and some singing animals.

Now, that having been said, I liked this movie almost in spite of itself.  It’s Disney.  In fact, in a lot of respects, it’s a Disney movie they’ve already made.  The shadowy Dr. Facilier, voudou practitioner extraordinaire, is just a Jafar dressed up for Mardi Gras with his own shadow serving as a soundless Iago.  Louis the gator almost looks pulled bodily from The Rescuers, as does a LOT of the scenery.

And it works in that standard Disney way because everything in it is that standard Disney way.  Most everything you expect will happen, and I won’t spoiler, but frankly, you don’t need me to spoiler.  Most of your suspicions will come to pass, and it’ll be entertaining enough for ninety minutes, if nothing else.

The Screenhead Ten Scale realizes that this is just dessert, not really a full dinner in itself, and hands this confection of a title a seven out of ten for knowing its place, knowing what works, and making it work all the same.  Don’t look at it too closely, because not much of it makes much rational sense, but if you just let it roll as it is, you should roll along with it.