Movie Review: The Princess and the Frog

The Princess and the Frog

The Princess and the Frog is a Disney's latest animation feature, and marks a return to classic hand drawn animation that Disney had supposedly forsworn in favor of 3D computer animation. The story is a more modern variation of the Prince and the Frog fairy tale, and references the classic tale directly as the character's read it early on. The time setting is not clearly stated, but appears to be New Orleans in the 1950's. The heroine, Tiana, is a waitress but wants to start a restaurant. The hero, Prince Naveen, is a wastrel who wants to party. Naveen is turned into a frog by a Dark Voodoo master in a scheme to get money by replacing him with an impostor and having the impostor marry the richest girl in town, who also happens to be Tiana's best friend. You would think  a magician who could accomplish this could find safer ways to make money. Tiana is turned into a frog because she tries to reverse the magic by kissing the frog prince. The logic in this is never explained. It is of course necessary or there would be no movie.

From the point that the frog prince arrives on the scene, The Princess and the Frog is as good as just about any Disney animation. The story from that point is lively and humorous. The main characters are far more entertaining as frogs than they were as humans. The supporting animal characters, Louis the horn playing alligator and Ray the love-sick lightning bug, are humorously written and entertainingly voiced. There are some genuinely creepy voodoo shadow monsters. There was a happy ending for nearly everyone. One character dies, which surprised me and I thought was well handled.

Unfortunately, the beginning section and to a lesser extent the ending drag the whole movie down from classic status. The animation in the beginning made me think Disney would regret reviving hand-drawn. The characters especially looked no better than the flat, rushed looking things you see on Saturday morning cartoons. There is one segment that is animated to look like Tiana's dream drawing of her ideal restaurant. It's a great idea, but unfortunately the execution just emphasized the whole flat look of the overall animation. The characters were depressing and/or annoying. The best friend character was especially annoying, and seemed more like Cinderella's step-sisters than someone you might care about. The music  in this section is particularly dull and unmemorable. The music overall in no way compares to the great Disney musical scores of the past. This is likely due not to a lack of talent in Randy Newman, who I like, but to using strongly jazz-inflected tunes throughout (appropriate to the New Orleans setting) rather than the more typical Broadway show-tune style.

Book Review: Fade Away

Fade Away, by Harlan Coben

Fade Away is about a missing pro basketball star. Myron Bolitar, a former college basketball superstar waylaid by injury and now a sports agent, is asked to look for him. You wouldn't think you could easily build a mystery series around a sports agent, but Harlan Coben finds a way.

I'm reading Harlan Coben's Myron Bolitar books in order. Fade Away is the third. This is the most personal of the Bolitar books so far, from Myron's perspective. We spend a lot of time learning about Myron's history as a basketball star. His history is vitally important to the story, both in understanding the events and in understanding the character of Myron Bolitar. Maybe because of this, it is told in third person instead of first person. Still, we mostly follow along with Myron, to the extent that when the narrative viewpoint switches to Esperanza or Win it is quite jarring.

I liked Fade Away. The story is interesting. The reader is given a lot of clues to process. The suspects and hangers-on are interesting. The back story and development of Myron makes one glad this is an ongoing series. This is good, because Myron is the only character really developed in any depth. The supporting cast (Win, Esperanza, Jessica) are superficially portrayed, but provide good moments of comic relief, including a new character of Big Cindy who creates quite the vivid impression.

The books in the Bolitar series are:

1. Deal Breaker
2. Drop Shot (Myron Bolitar) 
3. Fade Away
4. Back Spin: A Myron Bolitar Novel (Myron Bolitar Mysteries)
5. One False Move: A Myron Bolitar Novel (Myron Bolitar Mysteries)
6. The Final Detail: A Myron Bolitar Novel (Myron Bolitar Mysteries)
7. Darkest Fear (Myron Bolitar)
8. Promise Me (Myron Bolitar, No. 8)
9. Long Lost

Book Review: The Killer Inside Me

The Killer Inside Me - by Jim Thompson

Lou Ford is a bad man. He doesn't care for anyone, even those he says he likes. He is a complete phony. Everything he says and does is purely for effect, solely to convince people that he is a normal, boring, not very funny fellow. Because he is really a brutal killer. He also happens to be the narrator of the story.

The Killer Inside Me is about Lou Ford when he loses control, kills, and then has to try and cover the killing up. He does this by lying, which he has done all of his life, pretty much every minute of the day, and killing more, which he has wanted to do all of his life and which he does with no second thoughts.

Lou is not reliable narrator, though. The story is sometimes hard to follow because what we are being told doesn't seem to match what people are doing or saying. The main character is evidently not telling us everything, because others suspect him for reasons that seem minor. It seems hard to justify the gusto with which they react, the suspicions they clearly have of Lou, who by his own account is well liked and seems normal to everybody else. The ending begs the question: how does Lou manage to write/narrate his story anyway?

The dialog seems awkward, This may be because of the time frame (the 1950's), the setting (West Texas), or the narrative perspective.

Overall, this was an interesting novel. It is also short, so even with its flaws, it makes for a brief, thought provoking diversion.