Dr. John - Down In New Orleans (From "The Princess And The Frog" Sing-Along)
M-P Mad Eye: Invoked. "I was starting to think that wishin' on stars was for babies! And - an' crazy people."
Magic A Is Magic A: Facilier explains to Lawrence that he can't use his voodoo magic on himself and needs him to pull off their identity theft scheme. This is why Mama Odie is noticeably more powerful than Facilier (she uses her magic to help others, rather than herself, so she naturally has more of it), zapping the shadow creatures away effortlessly while Facilier has to rely on his Friends On The Other Side to do most of the magic, and when they turn on him, he's as powerless as any mortal man.
Magical Incantation: Mama Odie's is...different.Mama Odie: Gumbo, gumbo, in the pot. We need a princess... whatcha got?
Magic Cauldron: Mama Odie has one in her hut. While she uses it to prepare actual edible Gumbo, it also works as some sort of magical mirror that can answer questions and show things happening miles away.
Make a Wish: Like Pinocchio, it focuses on wishing on a star; however, the story goes out of its way to say that you also have to work hard to make your dream happen. It's left ambiguous as to whether wishing on a star really does make wishes come true, or if it's just a coincidence. However, after Ray becomes a star, you're left with the impression that maybe Evangeline the wishing star is pretty powerful.
Manic Pixie Dream Boy: Naveen, although Tiana has more of an influence on him than traditional for this trope. He still manages to help her come out of her shell during their adventure.
Marry for Love: A list: Charlotte wants to do this for the romantic ideal.
Naveen doesn't want to do this; first because he's a ladykiller and a second because of I Want My Beloved To Be Happy.
Tiana didn't want to get married at all but this is the only reason she would.
Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Does wishing on a star make your dreams come true or does it take hard work and perseverance with a few lucky coincidences along the way? Perhaps it's a little of both. We see that Tiana definitely worked hard to finance her dream but Ray becoming a new star adds weight to the magic of a wish.
Meaningful Name: Dr. Facilier's name is a play on the French word ""facile", for "easy", indicative of how he always offers "the easy way" out to his clients (or how he tries to take it for himself).
"La Bouffe" in French means "The Grub" as in "food". Appropriate for the Big Eater father...
Ray also, to an extent, as in "ray of light", reflecting his optimistic attitude. And how he attacks Dr. Facilier's friends.
Also "Evangeline", since it's the name of a Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem about a woman looking for her lost love. It's also the name of a parish in Louisiana. Specifically, "Evangeline" is meaningful in that the Longfellow poem is about an Acadian woman looking for her lost husband after they were separated in the expulsion of Acadians from their homeland that started in 1755. Some Acadians migrated to Louisiana after this and over time became known as Cajuns. Of course, Ray is a Cajun firefly, so the name of his true love is ethnically significant.
The very-briefly-seen character Beau...a moth who functions as a bow-tie.
Tiana is also an example; her name literally means princess, probably referring to the fact that she was the princess that could break the spell all along.
Meaningful Echo: "It's not slime. It's MUCUS!
Also, while Tiana's father didn't achieve his dream, he had something more important: "He had love."
Minor Injury Overreaction: Despite his tough scaly skin, Louis has quite an issue with prickles.Louis: Prickle bushes got me! Gator down! Gator down!
A Minor Kidroduction: The movie begins by showing Tiana and Charlotte as children being read the fairy tale "The Frog Prince" by Tiana's mother.
Missing Mom: Charlotte has a father who dotes on her shamelessly, but we never see her mother and it's never mentioned why she's not around.
Mistaken for Gay: A brief moment, played for laughs. During a trolley ride, a guy sitting next to Tiana tries to offer her a flower but, while he's busy picking the flower, she leaves her seat and he mistakenly offers it to the guy who was next to her. Cue embarrassing moment and cut to next scene.
Mistaken Identity: The reason Tiana's kiss doesn't solve Naveen's frog curse problem. She isn't really a princess when she kisses him; Naveen just assumed she was because of her outfit. She points out it was a Masquerade Ball.
The Mockbuster: Ironically titled The Frog Prince.
Mood Whiplash: The beginning of the film seems light-hearted, relaxed and friendly but by the end it's clearly sentimental.
Another example occurs during/after the "Ma Belle Evangeline" sequence. We have a beautiful, slow, romantic song while our two protagonists dance together...and then Naveen gets snatched away by the shadow demons and is dragged away screaming while the others try to save him.
MST3K Mantra: Invoked when Naveen tells a newly transformed Tiana not to think too hard about the fact that she can suddenly understand animals talking.
Multi-Armed Multitasking: The guy in the octopus costume.
My Card: Facilier to Naveen; "Dreams made real" next to a skull.
My God, What Have I Done?: Tiana has this reaction after she accidentally gets Facilier killed by his "friends".
My Instincts Are Showing: While Naveen attempts to satisfy his Frog Form's taste for insects when he gets hungry, Tiana tries to resist when her own tongue rebels against her.
Mythology Gag: A subtle one going back to The Lion King (1994). At one point when looking at the night sky, Timon claims that stars are fireflies stuck in that "big, bluish, black thing". Fifteen years later, this film makes a nod to that description in the aftermath of Ray the firefly's death. When he dies, the film shows that he becomes a star next to his love, Evangeline, implying that Timon was at least partially right.
The movie plays a twist on the "by midnight" clause common in many fairy tales. In Cinderella for example, the Fairy Godmother's spell starts to come undone when the clock begins striking midnight but doesn't fully disappear until the clock strikes twelve. In this case however, the instant the clock starts striking, it has reached "midnight" and Charlotte loses her "princess" status and can't break the curse with her kiss. Justified because Mardi Gras literally means "Fat Tuesday" the final celebration before Ash Wednesday begins the period of Lent. So the instant midnight occurs it becomes Ash Wednesday officially ending Mardi Gras. There is no 12-stroke grace period for this spell.
Never My Fault: Prior to Character Development, Naveen blames Tiana for the kiss backfiring since she appeared in a princess-like gown and tiara and didn't tell him beforehand that she was actually a waitress, when clearly he was the one who let himself get suckered into a deal with Dr. Facilier in the first place. Eventually, all fingers point back at Naveen when the group meets Mama Odie and she asks who had been messing with the Shadow Man.
Played with in Dr. Facilier's Villain Song.
Dr. Facilier: I HOPE YOU'RE SATISFIED! But if you ain't, don't blame me! You can blame my friends on the other side! Never Recycle a Building: Tiana's father sets his sights on an abandoned mill as the place to set up the restaurant he dreams of starting. Not only was the mill empty for some time before he announces this, it remains empty for another ten years or so, while Tiana grows up and saves the money so she can buy the mill for the same purpose after her father dies. One of the things that kicks off the plot is that as soon as she tells the men selling the mill that she's able to afford it, she's informed that someone else just happened to outbid her on it.
Never Smile at a Crocodile: The alligators that Tiana and Naveen encounter in their first entrance into the bayou.
Never Trust a Hair Tonic: Some hair-voodoo worked by Dr. Facilier initially grants a man a full head of hair, but it quickly spreads to the rest of his body.
Never Trust a Trailer: Tiana not actually being a princess is a major part of the plot. On the other hand, she becomes one, and Charlotte is theoretically a princess.
From the third trailer: A line was added in with Mama Odie telling Tiana that "all that matters is what's under the skin". Not only does this line never appear in the movie, but it is in no way related to the moral that either Tiana learns or that Mama Odie is attempting to teach.
It emphasizes that it's "the kind of magic that can only happen when you wish upon a star". "Wishing upon a star" is 100% contradictory to the moral of the story, which is that while wishing (determination) takes you part of the way, you still have to work for what you want.
Overall, Disney did an excellent job making this movie look like something it isn't in the TV spots, putting emphasis on butt jokes, fart jokes, and Louis and Ray at their goofiest.
Nightmare Face: When seen through the green mist his "friends" conjure during his Villain Song, Facilier's face looks like a technicolor skull.
Nobility Marries Money: Prince Naveen comes to New Orleans to marry rich commoner Charlotte because his parents cut him off.
No More for Me: The man dressed as the octopus at Charlotte's party pours out eight glasses of wine at once after seeing a disembodied giraffe's head getting chased by a dog in a mermaid costume.
No Self-Buffs: For some reason, Facilier's magic does not work on himself when he puts the talisman on his own neck nothing happens. Facilier mentions this as a reason he has to work his schemes through others. However, his living shadow can manipulate objects for him, and he can cast illusions that affect other people to further his own goals, so long as it's what they think they want.
No Sympathy: Z Igzagged with Charlotte as a character. At first, she leads on Travis unwittingly by saying she'll dance with him "later" several times while saving herself for Naveen. After Travis confronts her about it, Charlotte finally tells him that her "later" actually meant "never" and he'll find someone else pretty and lovely for dancing the night. Tiana watches this with mild amusement and sympathy for Travis. Then she accidentally knocks over the beignets that Charlotte wanted to use to woo Naveen and winces when Charlotte sees the mess, expecting this reaction. Instead...Charlotte immediately asks, "Are you okay?" and helps her to her feet, excusing herself and Tiana so she can help the latter with cleanup and a costume change. It's clear that Charlotte may act spoiled towards anyone else, but don't mess with Tiana.
Not What It Looks Like: When Tiana and Naveen accidentally get their frog tongues tangled up around them while trying to catch food, Ray assumes they got carried away doing something else.
The Noun and the Noun: The Princess and the Frog.
Offscreen Moment of Awesome: A closeup of James's portrait shows that he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, awarded for extraordinary heroism while in direct combat with an enemy force. May also count as Dying Moment of Awesome.
Oh, Crap!: When Tiana sees her reflection as a frog in Charlotte's mirror.
When Lawrence starts having second thoughts, he tosses the amulet away from him. Facilier freaks out at the prospect of it breaking, catches it, then ferociously berates Lawrence for what he almost did, managing to keep himself from striking him with his cane only at the last minute.
A rapid succession on Tiana and Naveen's first night in the bayou. First tree branches pop the balloons the frogs are drifting with, sending them plummeting into the swamp below. Then they get attacked by a heron. After they escape the heron just when things couldn't get any worse...Naveen: Why are those logs moving? (in the water, alligator eyes creep towards the frogs) Tiana: Those aren't logs!
"Oh, Crap!" Smile: Dr. Facilier does this variant, when his "friends" realize his plan to pay his debts has collapsed and they've now come to collect directly from him. You just know you're in trouble when your Villain Song gets a Dark Reprise.
O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When the slick, sweet talking snake oil salesmen is frightened of something, you know it's something worth being frightened of.
Opera Gloves: Tiana wears them whenever she's dressed as a princess. They add to the elegance.
Opposites Attract: Naveen's a fun-loving, lazy prince who has had everything he ever wanted given to him until his family cut him off, while Tiana's a Workaholic, no-nonsense waitress who has worked hard all her life to get what she wants. The end of the movie shows how their differences balance out, with Tiana teaching Naveen skills like cooking and basic carpentry and Naveen reminding Tiana to make time for fun and relaxation.
Overly Narrow Superlative: Mama Odie is, as Louis describes, a "blind voodoo lady who lives in a boat in a tree in the bayou". Hilariously, her behavior is so odd that Louis has to double check with Ray that they have the right one.
Pale Females, Dark Males: Despite Tiana having a darker skin tone than Naveen, her frog form is lighter than Naveen's.
Parental Bonus:Mama Odie: It's good to see you again, Ray. How's your grandma? Ray: Oh, she's fine. Got in a little trouble for flashing the neighbors again!
Pet the Dog: Let's be honest, we all expected Facilier to hurt or injure Lawrence after he nearly broke the talisman by accident. Nope, just as he almost hits him, he composes himself and goes right back to the plan as if nothing even happened.
Lawrence chooses to loosen the lid of the jar Naveen (as a frog) is in once he hears him gasping, accidentally letting Naveen escape.
While it's undermined by him tempting Tiana to give up the amulet and take over New Orleans, Facilier sincerely says that her father was a good man who deserved more in life. He seems to show sympathy for someone that remained in poverty and wasn't able to break out of it.
Picture-Perfect Presentation: The "Down in New Orleans" number introducing the main characters has several, newspaper photographs turning from black and white to color and coming to life.
Pimped-Out Dress: Tiana's magic lily pad dress, as well as the collection of pink monstrosities Tiana's mother makes for Charlotte.
Pintsized Powerhouse: Tiana and Naveen as frogs against the frog hunters.
Ray the firefly against Dr. Facilier's shadow demons.
Prayer Pose: It's the standard "wishing on a star" pose. Both Tiana and Charlotte do it, while repeating "Please, please, please!"
Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: Ray tells Tiana to run while he fights off the shadows chasing her. As soon as she has a head start, Ray turns to face them and says, "Don't make me light up my butt!" He proceeds to do that, curb-stomping them.
Tiana before she destroys the amulet: "I've got news for you, Shadow Man. It's not slime... it's MUCUS!"
Princess Protagonist: Played with. The fairy tale the story is based on features a princess in Tiana's role, but Tiana is decidedly not a princess. However, she does become one at the end of the story.
Product Placement: Both in the animationnote Tabasco's distinctive diamond label is clearly shown, and given a line but justified in that we are talking about Louisiana hot sauce for gumbo. Besides it's such a household name that a lot of people don't realize it's a brand of pepper sauce in the first place.Tiana: Hit it hard with two shots of Tabasco, and it's the bee's knees!
Protagonist-Centered Morality: Tiana is openly offended that the Fenner Brothers are willing to sell the sugar mill to a third party (despite their valid reasoning that he has the full cash on-hand). During the finale, Tiana has Louis terrorize the Fenner Brothers into doing business with her instead of the third party.
Pyrrhic Victory: Inverted. James died before he could realize his dream of opening a restaurant, but, as Tiana comes to realize during her final confrontation with Dr. Facilier, it didn't matter in the end, because he had what he needed most of all: a family and a community who loved him.
Dr. John - Down in New Orleans (From "The Princess and the Frog" Sing-Along)
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