The Princess and the Frog is a 2009 Disney animated feature set in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Plot[]
The story is set in the April of 1926 in New Orleans and follows Tiana, a restaurant and bar server who dreams of owning her own big restaurant near the river.[1] Tiana ends up turned into a frog after accidentally meddling in the evil plot of voodoo sorcerer Doctor Facilier. Along her journey to turn back into a human, she learns a couple of mortal lessons, meets the love of her life and foils the nefarious schemes of Facilier…
Connections[]
Film[]
The climax of the film takes place in a graveyard of New Orleans where Doctor Facilier has cornered the protagonists. One of the tombstones seen is actually that of Madame Leota. It is thus very likely that the movie actually takes place in the same universe as the Haunted Mansion, and that the graveyard the climax took place in was the familiar Haunted Mansion graveyard.
The film also features a cameo from Jack Skellington from Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas who appears in the seasonal Haunted Mansion Holiday overlay for the Haunted Mansion in Disneyland and Haunted Mansion Holiday Nightmare in Tokyo Disneyland.
Disney Parks[]
The Princess and the Frog has a considerable presence in New Orleans Square in Disneyland, the part of the park which also features the original Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean. This includes the Mardi Gras festivities of, "Princess Tiana's Mardi Gras Celebration" being found in New Orleans Square and sometimes includes decor on the Haunted Mansion. On the Mark Twain Riverboat along the Rivers of America, the song, "Down in New Orleans" from the film plays while passing by New Orleans Square, right before the Haunted Mansion.
In 2010, a live-performed Dr. Facilier appeared outside of Phantom Manor in Disneyland Paris alongside with his Disney Villain, the Evil Queen from Snow White. In 2015, the film's main-antagonist Dr. Facilier was the host of a show called Mystic Spirits of the Blue Bayou which was found in the Blue Bayou restaurant of New Orleans Square. This show involved Facilier summoning the spirits of several ghosts from the Haunted Mansion, namely the, "Bayou Belles" (lady waltzing ghosts), Constance Hatchaway, and Sally Slater. In 2018, Facilier was also involved in an advertisement for Haunted Mansion Holiday, appearing outside of the mansion.
Trivia[]
- In 2020, the Princess and the Frog was announced to be getting an attraction neighbouring the Haunted Mansion in Disneyland's Critter Country and the Magic Kingdom's Frontierland through a retheme of Splash Mountain.
- The film features a character referred to as Mama Odie who is identified as the Voodoo Queen of the Bayou and lives in the Louisiana Parish. An unused script for the Haunted Mansion by Ken Anderson featured a much more vilified Voodoo Queen inhabiting the bayou. Both took their monikers from the historic voodoo-queen Marie Laveau (1801-1881).
- Early drafts of the film explored the idea of Louis the Alligator having once been human before being transformed by Facilier into his current state, similar in concept to the comic story "On a Tightrope" where the Alligator seen in the Tightrope Girl stretch painting is a transformed victim of the character.
- Following the timeline given from the Room for One More Event, the character of Constance Hatchaway would still be alive during the events of the film and possibly still in ownership of the mansion.