It was a slow burn. I knew Joy would be troubled by the shadow man. I was, too. When we watched The Princess and the Frog first last week, the 7 year old had shadow man induced nightmares. I think that Dr. Facillier is the scariest Disney villain yet. All those shadows creeping around every corner look and act like demons. Curtis said that his end was very realistic, and he felt sorry for him.

I didn’t think Yanni and I had seen enough of the movie in that one weekend, so I didn’t mail it back to Netflix just yet. I was looking for a time when the babies were asleep and I wasn’t so I could watch it again with Yanni. That time came last night.

The movie grew on us. At first, we both had attitude that Tiana was not only not a princess, but was poor and struggling. She had a problem with Charlotte because she was a spoiled little rich girl, but I thought she was painted with such broad strokes that you had to love her. Then I had a problem with the alligator and the lightning bug. Those accents were a bit much to take, and hadn’t we already gone there in the Jungle Book with a buffoon named Louis?

And don’t even get me started on the weird spirituality of Mama Odie. So, the shadow man did bad voodoo, but Mama Odie did good voodoo? Whaaat? There’s good voodoo?

But lets forget about all that junk and talk about the love story, because that is what captured our hearts.

The frog prince had a very smoove voice, and from the first dialog, “a kiss would be nice. . .” to “Tiana is my Evangeline,” he was utterly charming. Tiana was so good, she effortlessly transformed the slothful ladies man into a devoted champion. And she cooked, too? I loved her from the moment she hit the screen.

Joy wasn’t feeling the movie. Imagine my shock when she asked Friday if she could watch The Princess and the Frog at Ellie’s house. I told her absolutely not, but she asked her father today if she could watch it again, and he thought that would be ok. This time, since we knew what to expect, we had the presence of mind to skip the scary scenes. The little girls watched this movie over and over like they watch Ever After (or, as Joy christened it, ‘Ever Horse.’) They watched it like we watch Pride and Prejudice. Let’s just say we know every scene of that movie intimately. In short, they did the girl thing with this movie.

The special features stank. They left me wanting much more. Where’s the making of special? Where’s the long-winded discussion of animated brilliance? Why do they think viewers of this movie would love to play a princess game that features other Disney princesses, but not Tiana? Well, my little girls like that game. . .

We must own this one. Maybe there’s a DVD with better special features? (ed. note: There is a three disc blue-ray version. That would be the one I’d get).