In December of 2011 I passed by the lobby of Araneta Coliseum while their Disney Princesses ice show matinee was on. I purchased a Tiana doll from one of the kiosks. Neither of my granddaughters wanted to have it when I brought it home, and so I placed it in my old bedroom on the upper floor and used it as a madama (a doll or fetish that is set on a table or chair to function as the guard or sentinel of a room).

Little did I know that that doll was a madama! In September this year Craig told me about his two daughters and how The Princess and The Frog was their favorite Disney animation feature. He told me that the story is completely set, albeit illustrated and cartoonified, in New Orleans!

Last night I caught The Princess and The Frog on Fox, and I enjoyed it. I also thought that it is so far the most clever of all Disney deconstructions, and not because I was biased to the New Orleans setting. It was well-researched and featured mansions in the Garden District, French Quarter apartments, a Mardi Gras wedding, the bayou, gumbo pots, jazz music, and a portrayal of Voodoo that, to me anyway, is not offensive to practitioners of Voudon. I especially enjoyed the characters Mama Odi (suspiciously modeled after Marie Laveau) and Dr. Facilier/The Shadow Man (suspiciously modeled after The Baron).

The most hilarious line is in the masquerade dinner scene, when Big Daddy calls to his pet hound to chase the two frogs. The hound's name is Stella, and Big Daddy yells "Stellaaaaaaaa!"

I bet not everyone caught that one.

I bet not everyone caught a lot of things in that feature.