"The Princess And The Frog" Is Released

The Princess and the Frog is an upcoming 2009 American animated family feature film and presented by Walt Disney Animation Studios. It will be the 49th animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics and the first 2D-animated film by Disney since 2004's Home on the Range. It is being directed by John Musker and Ron Clements, directors of The Great Mouse Detective, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules, and Treasure Planet, with songs and score composed by Randy Newman and with the voices of Anika Noni Rose (as Princess Tiana), Oprah Winfrey, Keith David, Jim Cummings, John Goodman, Jenifer Lewis, Bruno Campos, Michael-Leon Wooley, Peter Bartlett and Terrence Howard.

The film, which began production under the working title The Frog Princess, will be an American fairy tale, Broadway-style musical set in the French Quarter of New Orleans. A prince named Naveen from the land of Maldonia is transformed into a frog by the evil scheming voodoo magician Dr. Facilier. The frog prince asks a princess named Tiana to break the spell by kissing him. However, the kiss doesn't break the spell, but instead turns Tiana into a frog as well. Together, the two of them must reach the good voodoo priestess of the Bayou, Mama Odie, while befriending a trumpet-playing alligator and a hopelessly romantic firefly along the way. The film will open in limited release in New York and Los Angeles on November 25, 2009 before expanding into wide release on December 11, 2009.

In 2009, Winfrey will provide the voice for the character of Eudora, the mother of Princess Tiana, in Disney's The Princess and the Frog.