Western Animation / The Princess and the Frog

"♫ The evening star is shinin' bright.
So make a wish, and hold on tight.
There's magic in the air tonight,
And anything can happen... ♫"

— Tiana

Released on December 11, 2009, The Princess and the Frog is the 49th animated feature of the Disney Animated Canon, as well as the first since 2004's Home on the Range to be traditionally animated, and the last 2D film to have original characters. It's inspired by the novel The Frog Princess, E. D. Baker's take on the classic fable "The Frog Prince," and written and directed by Disney staples John Musker and Ron Clements. It is also notable for introducing the first black and first American Disney Princess into the official line-up. ^note Not counting Pocahontas, who is "American" in the sense of "a native of North America" but not in the sense of "a citizen of the United States", which do not yet exist at the time that film takes place.

In 1920s New Orleans, 19-year old waitress Tiana (Anika Noni Rose) struggles to earn money in order to create her own restaurant — a dream she and her dad shared before he passed away. Things seem to be turning around when the handsome prince Naveen (Bruno Campos) comes to town, prompting Tiana's rich friend Charlotte (Jennifer Cody) to pay her lots of money if Tiana will cater at the party Charlotte throws for Naveen. Unfortunately, Charlotte is not the only one interested in the egocentric prince, as an evil voodoo sorcerer named Dr. Facilier (Keith David) manages to trick him into a Deal with the Devil and replaces the prince with his transformed manservant. Naveen is turned into a frog and requires a princess' kiss to lift the spell. Mistaking Tiana for a princess at Charlotte's costume party, he asks her to kiss him. Tiana, disillusioned because her attempt at getting the restaurant failed, reluctantly agrees to kiss Naveen if he pays for her restaurant, but there's a twist — since she's not a princess, the plan backfires and she's turned into a frog as well! As Tiana and Naveen have very different outlooks on life, they have a hard time cooperating, but they're forced to bond together and embark on a journey through the lush bayou of Louisiana to find the mystical Mama Odie (Jenifer Lewis) who can lift their spell. While they are joined by Louis (Michael Leon Wooley), an alligator jazz enthusiast, and a Cajun firefly named Ray (Jim Cummings), Dr. Facilier is hot on their trail, hellbent on using Naveen's blood for further nefarious purposes.

For almost a decade, Disney had been firmly entrenched in the growing 3D/CGI movement (not counting Direct to Video sequels); a Disney exec announced that Princess would be a long-overdue return to the animation tradition the company maintained for over fifty years. Randy Newman composed the songs for a film that harkens back to the age of Disney where music played as much a character as the actual cast members themselves. The film is also in large part a love letter to the city of New Orleans, a town even Walt Disney himself considered to be the most magical city in the world.

Following the release of this film, Tiana was added to the official Disney Princess lineup.

Before adding examples, note that tropes pertaining to the more sensitive political issues (gender and race) have been moved to the analysis page.

In June 2020, it was announced that the Disneyland and Walt Disney World versions of Splash Mountain would be re-themed to the film. While the official announcement came in the midst of renewed calls to change the attraction after waves of international Black Lives Matter protests and greater awareness of racially problematic material (especially considering the ride was based on such a problematic film, 1946's Song of the South), the retheming itself was already in development for a year by that point and was delayed because of the COVID-19 Pandemic. While Splash Mountain would continue to run for a few more years, the ride is set to reopen in late 2024 as Tiana's Bayou Adventure.

During Disney's Investor Day on December 10, 2020, it was announced that Tiana, an animated series based on the film focusing on the eponymous character stepping into the role as a princess of a new country, will be heading to Disney+, it was intially going to debut in 2022 but has been pushed to a 2024 release.

Previews: Teaser, Trailer 1, Trailer 2

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"And I have tropes on the other side!"

#-B

• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: Facilier's cards are computer generated. Also, all the vehicles in the film (streetcars, carriages, parade floats, etc.)
• Accidental Kiss: When Tiana and Naveen (as frogs) try to catch the same firefly, their tongues get tangled and yank them into each other mouth-first.
  Naveen: (muffled) Hello.
• Act of True Love: Naveen ultimately decides to go through with his marriage to Charlotte on the condition she gives Tiana the money needed to finally buy the restaurant she's dreamt of having, even though he's come to love her very much. Tiana turns down his attempt, deciding her dream wouldn't be complete without him in it.
• Actor Allusion:
  • The weird psychedelic filter effect on Dr. Facilier's face as he sings "I hope you're satisfied" during his Villain Song makes him look like one of the aliens from◊ They Live!, a horror movie in which Keith David, Dr. Faciler's voice actor, starred prominently.
  • Michael-Leon Wooley, the voice of Louis, has previous experience playing a green, man-eating non-human creature in a musical - he voiced Audrey II in the 2003 Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors.
  • Marlon the Gator, voiced by celebrity Cajun chef Emeril Lagasse, says Lagasse's Catchphrase "BAM!" when snapping his jaws.
• Adaptation Explanation Extrication: The movie doesn't even try to explain why kissing Naveen initially turned Tiana into a frog, beyond the fact that she wasn't a princess at the time. Her literary counterpart in Tales of the Frog Princess happens to be wearing a magical charm bracelet that reversed the intended transformation, but in the movie's case, it appears to just be a side effect of Facilier's spell.
• Adaptation Title Change: The Princess and The Frog is inspired by the novel The Frog Princess, which is itself a title change from the original fairy tale "The Frog Prince".
• A Friend in Need: The fireflies acting as guides.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Downplayed. While the audience probably isn't supposed to feel sympathy for him, Tiana has this reaction to Facilier's final encounter with his "Friends".
• All There in the Manual:
  • The cat's name is Marcel.
  • Naveen's brother Ralphie's name is never given in the movie, but is given in the book "Tiana Is My Babysitter".
• All There in the Script: The names of the Fenner bros are confirmed in end credits: Henry (tall skinny one) and Harvey (fat short one).
• Almost Dead Guy: Ray is stepped on by Dr. Facilier but lives just long enough to see Tiana and Naveen happily together before he passes.
• Almost Kiss:
  • At the gala, there was a guy and a woman in costumes who almost kissed until Tiana and Naveen (as frogs) accidentally ruined their moment.
  • Naveen and Tiana, after their Dance of Romance. Tiana is the first to realize what's happening, and they both cut it off.
• Ambiguous Situation: A very brief but thought-provoking example—in his Villain Song, it's shown that Dr. Facilier keeps a Shrunken Head of his mother. It's not clear if this is meant to imply that he killed her and shrunk her head himself, if it's just a very twisted invocation of the Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas trope, or if it's a fake and he just has it for show to make himself more relatable to Naveen.
• Ambition is Evil: Played with. Facilier is motivated by a desire for power, and Lawrence wants to take Naveen's place as a prince after being shoved around so much, and they're examples of the trope played straight. Meanwhile, Tiana is extremely ambitious in her goal to open her own restaurant. While her ambition isn't presented as evil, the story does show how it clouds her judgment regarding what she wants versus what she needs.
• Amusing Injuries: The frog-meets-book Running Gag is powered by this. Both times Naveen is reduced to a broken mess of limbs, but recovers immediately.
• Anachronism Stew
  • A mild example but Louis mentions that he wants to eat Bananas Foster even though the dish wasn't created until 1951. Another example is alcohol served even though Prohibition was at its height (though this can be justified by New Orleans' tendency to ignore legislation that gets in the way of having fun).
  • At one point, Ray can be heard humming Leon Russell's "Cajun Love Song," which came out in 1971.
• Animal Sweet on Object: Ray the firefly mistakes a star for another firefly named "Evangeline" and falls in love with it. Ray's final fate implies it's not as one-sided as it may initially seem.
• Animal Talk: Once Naveen and Tiana are turned into frogs, they're able to understand and communicate with other animals, first noted in a very brief encounter with Charlotte's dog, Stella. Interestingly, they can still talk to regular humans as well likely because they were humans.
• Animated Musical: Alongside Winnie the Pooh, the film is one of Disney's last 2-D animated films, and features eight musical numbers.
• Anthropomorphic Zig-Zag: As frogs, Naveen and Tiana constantly switch between frog-like and human-like movement / poses throughout the movie.
• Anticipatory Breath Spray: Froggy Naveen does this with some perfume on the dresser as Tiana agrees to kiss him and break the curse.
• Anticipatory Lipstick: After Naveen tells Charlotte about how the spell placed on him can only be broken with a princess's kiss, she quickly applies lipstick and attempts to kiss him before being interrupted by Tiana. Subverted slightly in that Lottie does still leave him Covered in Kisses afterwards to try breaking the spell, but it has no effect since time had already expired.
• Anti-Villain: Lawrence is horrified when Naveen is turned into a frog and later loosens the lid of the jar he is in upon seeing him gasping for breath, which allows Naveen to escape. It's never shown at any point if he's aware that Facilier intends to kill "Big Daddy" and he definitely has no clue about his intent to sacrifice a large portion of New Orleans to his "Friends". He just wants to marry Charlotte in order to get some respect, which nobody has shown him before.
  Facilier: You've been pushed around by your mother, and your sister, and your brother. And if you was married...You'd be pushed around by your wife!
• Art Evolution: The digital-ink-and-paint process for the film was done using Toon Boom Harmony software, as opposed to the now-obsolete CAPS system used by Disney from 1990 to 2004.
• Artistic License – Biology: Frogs don't have long, projectile tongues like chameleons, as shown in the film.
  • The alligators that attack Tiana and Naveen are depicted with interlocking teeth like crocodiles. It gets jarring in that Louis has his lower teeth hidden when he closes his mouth, like a real alligator.
  • Juju the snake is seen narrowing his eyes against the light, something snakes can't do since they lack eyelids. He also seems to be able to hear Mama Odie's commands, despite having no external ears (though it's possible her magic facilitates their communication).
  • The elderly firefly has a zimmer-frame, despite being able to fly. She actually carries it through the air!
• Artistic License – History: "Tiana" was virtually unheard-of as an American woman's name in the 1920s; it's one of several predominantly African-American given names (such as "Malik" and "Latisha") that didn't become commonplace until the 1970s due to the cultural influence of the Black Power movement, ultimately reaching the peak of its popularity as a baby name in the 1990s.
• Artistic License – Religion: A rare invoked example - Disney didn't want to use any actual symbols for fear of offending Real Life practitioners of Voudou (or summon any evil spirits). They essentially give a bit of this since Dr. Facilier and Mama Odie appear to practice magic and call it "Voodoo", however give Facilier a little bit of credit - he says "I got voodoo, I got hoodoo, I got things I ain't even tried", implying he (and the writers) are well aware that "Voodoo" isn't just a catch-all-term for folk magic. There's a bit of Genius Bonus too - Facilier appears to be using easily-bribed spirits, not so much caring for actual voodoo rituals so much as aligning with what will give him more power.
• Art Shift: In "Almost There", the animation switches to an Art Deco style to denote Tiana's fantasy sequence.
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: After Dr. Facilier kills Ray the firefly by stepping on him, Ray becomes a star alongside his love, the star Evangeline.
• Aside Glance: Ray glances at the fourth wall when Louis over-reacts to getting a thorn stuck in his finger.
• Astonishingly Appropriate Interruption:
  • After Naveen and Tiana land in the swamp, Naveen explains why he's poor even though he's royalty.
    Naveen: My parents are fabulously wealthy, but they cut me off for being a... (sees a leech attached to his arm) LEECH!
  • A few moments later, when Tiana tries to make Naveen keep his promise to help him pay for the place where Tiana wants to open her restaurant.
    Naveen: I made that promise to a beautiful princess, not a cranky wait— why are those logs moving?
• Award-Bait Song: "Never Knew I Needed" by Ne-Yo, in Ye Grande Olde Disney tradition. The duet version with Cassandra Steen seems to be trying to push it further. Also duet version two with Italian singer Karima.
• Awesome Moment of Crowning: When Tiana and Naveen marry while in their supposedly incurable frog forms, they kiss and are transformed back into humans. Mama Odie reveals that when Tiana married Prince Naveen she became a princess, which satisfied the requirements to break the curse!
• Baffled by Own Biology: When Tiana turns into a frog, she's shocked at the slime she's secreting, which Naveen explains is mucus.
• Beautiful Condemned Building: The abandoned sugar mill that Tiana - and her father before her - wants to convert into her restaurant.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Prince Naveen wished to be free of his old responsibilities. He should have paid attention to the clues getting dropped by Dr. Facilier, and was turned into a frog when he agreed to the contract.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Tiana and Naveen constantly bicker with each other over the course of their journey, on top of Naveen's unsubtle flirting and their...compromising situation when fly-catching. Though most of the sexual tension starts when the belligerence dies down.
• The Big Easy: All the best of New Orleans is on display in the film, from the firefly-lit swamps, cruising steamboats, jazz music, and gumbo for all!
• Big Damn Heroes: Mama Odie comes out of nowhere to save Naveen (in frog form) from being kidnapped by the Friends on the Other Side.
• Big, Thin, Short Trio: The three frog hunters. Darnell is the lumbering muscle, Reggie is their short leader, and Two Fingers is his thin, crotchety Lancer.
• Blatant Lies: As could be expected, Dr. Facilier specialized in these.
  Dr. Facilier: That's an echo, gentlemen. Something we have here in Louisiana, a little parlour trick, don't worry.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Mentioned by Naveen in his, Tiana’s and Louis' “I Want” song.
• Blood Magic: Dr. Facilier gives Lawrence a talisman that disguises him as Naveen, but it only works with Naveen's blood fueling it.
• Book Ends: The movie begins by showing the Evening Star, then fireflies flying down from the night sky onto New Orleans. The movie ends by showing fireflies flying up from New Orleans into the night sky, encircling two Evening Stars.
• Bouquet Toss: At the end at Tiana and Naveen's "human" wedding, Tiana tosses her flowers to the waiting bridesmaids. Of course Charlotte catches it, with a fantastic leap that would make an Olympian cry.
• Break the Haughty: Naveen's parents cut him off financially in an effort to teach him a little humility (and, presumably, the importance of working to support himself). It doesn't work at first—even getting turned into a frog doesn't seem to bother him much. However, after being The Load in his and Tiana's efforts to reach Mama Odie, he admits that his carefree attitude is at least partly an act to hide the fact that he "doesn't know how to do anything."
• Break-Up/Make-Up Scenario: As a result of Lawrence using voodoo magic to make himself appear as Prince Naveen, Tiana sees him with Lottie on their float and believes he's chosen to pursue her after all. She shuts down Ray's comfort in a heartbroken rage, thus making it both a romantic and platonic example.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Mama Odie establishes herself as having considerable mystic power when she zaps away the living shadows pursuing Naveen and Tiana. However, the peculiar attitudes and odd behaviors she demonstrates once they follow her home raises some understandable doubts about her mental acuity.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: Charlotte stuffing her neckline with napkins (we're supposed to believe it's to wipe off sweat since she's nervous, but...). Later, Charlotte pulling up her bust before going back to the party.

C-D

• The Cameo:
  • Randy Newman appears as Ray's cousin Randy.
  • The pianist playing in Tiana's restaurant resembles late Disney animator Frank Thomas.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Naveen attempting to confess his love for Tiana and propose to her. Justified because Naveen never expected to fall in love. Even coming to New Orleans to marry, he had only intended to marry for money, not for love. Plus, although he bragged about his romantic peccadilloes, he had never taken any of those dalliances seriously. And then there's the fact that if he does finally spit it out, he'll break his deal to marry Charlotte and doom Tiana to a life without realizing her dream of owning a great restaurant.
• Capture and Replicate: Part of Facilier's plot involves Naveen's servant Lawrence passing as him. This is done thanks to a talisman that lets Lawrence look just like Naveen, but periodically needs to be recharged with some of Naveen's blood. However, Naveen escapes early in the movie and the bad guys spend much of it trying to recapture him before the talisman stops working.
• Career Versus Man:
  • Inverted: Though the movie does appear to leaning toward this trope at some points (particularly when Naveen agrees to marry Charlotte if she'll fund Tiana's restaurant), Tiana doesn't so much choose one as acknowledge that she wouldn't be truly happy without both. Also, the man in this case is 100% supportive of her career even at his own expense and in the end, she gets both.
  • Naveen is a Rare Male Example, with being a member of the Idle Rich as the "career." At first, he's only getting married at all because he needs a rich wife so he can use her inheritance to support his idyllic lifestyle. After he starts falling for Tiana, however, he starts to consider that working for a living might not be so bad if he gets to marry her. Also played with; after deciding he loves Tiana more than being rich, Naveen is still willing to marry Charlotte so Tiana can become human again and he'll be able to fund her restaurant with Charlotte's money. In the end, he does marry Tiana and goes to work in her restaurant, with the implication that his new job makes him happier than being a rich playboy ever did.
• Carnivore Confusion:
  • Louis the 'gator does not want to eat frog-form Tiana and Naveen unlike his fellow alligators. His stated preferences are for New Orleans cuisine — human food. He even lists frog legs as something he'd like to eat (not that Naveen and Tiana should really care, not being real frogs and all).
  • Despite being driven to eat bugs, Tiana and Naveen manage to keep their tongues away from Ray once Tiana cooks them all some swamp gumbo.
• Chain of Deals: Dr. Facilier turns Naveen into a frog so he can get Naveen's disgruntled valet Lawrence to disguise himself as Naveen to woo and marry Charlotte. Once Lawrence marries Charlotte, Facilier will kill Charlotte's father and take heirship of the LaBouff family, and promptly take control of New Orleans via the disguised Lawrence as well as take all the LaBouffs' wealth. After all that, he'll promptly offer the souls of all the people of New Orleans to his "Friends on the Other Side".
• Chekhov's Gun: Facilier's Shadow's ability to manipulate objects in the real world, promptly countered by another one; Tiana, as a frog, has a sticky tongue.
• Chew Toy: Lawrence.
  "On you, little man, I don't wanna waste much time
  You've been pushed around all of your life -
  You've been pushed round by your mother, and your sister, and your brother,
  And if you was married — you'd be pushed around by your wife!"
• Celestial Deadline: Charlotte is only princess until midnight, when Mardi Gras is over.
• Central Theme: Recognize that what you want and what you need are very different. The Big Bad Dr. Facilier represents the "Want" side of things: his goals are based on Greed, having literally sold his soul for magic that would give him a leg-up and will often make deals with other characters that gives them the thing they want (revenge, social status, hair, "green"), but it will often not be what they actually wanted. In contrast, Big Good Mama Odie represents "Need", her entire song number "Dig A Little Deeper" being about how what the protagonists want to be turned human for personal reasons (Tiana wanting to own her own restaurant, Naveen wanting his playboy lifestyle, Louis wanting to be in a band) before explaining to them that what they want isn't what they need. While Facilier's short-sighted ambitions end with him being Dragged Off to Hell, the protagonists all get what they need in the end. While Tiana does get that restaurant in the end, it's with the help of her new friends and the man she fell in love with Naveen. While Naveen doesn't get to be Idle Rich like he wanted, he marries Tiana and finds fulfillment working at her restaurant. Louis manages to play in a Jazz band without needing to be turned human, playing at Tiana's restaurant every night.
• Cerebus Retcon: it's first Played for Laughs that Ray is in love with a star he calls Evangeline. Everyone awkwardly tiptoes around the fact that he's serenading a ball of light that can't respond. When he dies, another star appears next to her, which implies that she was once a firefly and died, leaving Ray a widower.
• Circling Monologue: Dr. Facilier does this to Tiana when trying to convince her to give him back the talisman that turned Naveen into a frog.
• Clapper Gag: An elderly firefly turns on her light by clapping.
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience:
  • Dr. Facilier wears a black Baron Samedi-esque outfit while Mama Odie wears white, which is the traditional color for voodoo garb. This also fits with the way they represent shadow and light respectively.
  • Purple, traditional hallmark of comic book villains, is part of the Doctor's costume and no one else, even though it's one of the standard Mardi Gras colors (Purple, Green and Gold).
  • The person who wrote the color script made a conscious decision to include the three Mardi Gras colors: Facilier has purple in all of his scenes (since, of the three colors, purple is the most "unnatural"), the scenes in the swamp with frog Tiana and Naveen are green, and Mama Odie's scenes are awash in gold.
• Comically Missing the Point:
  • Tiana, after the "Dig A Little Deeper" sequence, in which Mama Odie explains that you have to find out what you NEED to do, not WANT to do, and she asks Tiana if she understands. Tiana's answer: "Yes! I need to dig deeper, and work even harder to get my restaurant!" Mama Odie's response is an understandable Facepalm.
  • Louis makes the exact same mistake, though he also gets the point later. It's more understandable since the song wasn't directed at him.
  • Tiana and Naveen head out on their journey. Tiana quickly realizes she's going to be pulling most of the weight.
    Tiana: I could use a little help.
    Naveen: Oh. I will play a little louder!
• Comically Oversized Butt: Ray the firefly has a big, glowing posterior, and he tends to make references to it ("Don't make me light my butt!"). He even says girls like guys with a "big back porch".
• *Cough* Snark *Cough*: Naveen does this towards Tiana by calling her a "killjoy" and a "stick in the mud" while coughing.
• Compressed Vice: The Fenner Brothers seem to be professional gentlemen until their ill-fated encounter with Tiana at the party. Their awkward attempt to let her down lightly has racist undertones that come right out of nowhere and certainly weren't in evidence when they spoke with her about the sale earlier. The only thing these lines do is make the audience hate them when all they were really guilty of was being willing to accept payment for the sugar mill from someone else. Although there may not have even been another buyer, which completely changes the tone of the interaction.
• Covered in Kisses: Naveen, courtesy of Charlotte, though it doesn't do any good since the rain of kisses didn't start until after the clock started tolling midnight ending her position as a "princess".
• Creator Cameo: Directors Ron Clements and John Musker appear on a Mardi Gras float tossing beads. Walt Disney himself appears at the parade, and in the ending watching the wedding procession and as a customer at Tiana's Palace. The directors also appear in Doctor Facilier's villain song. If you look at the Floating Masks behind Naveen's chair, two are barely recognizable caricatures.
• Creative Closing Credits: The credits use a minimalistic style of various scenes of the bayou and the characters.
• Creepy Jazz Music: Dr. Facilier's Villain Song "Friends on the Other Side". While it being jazz isn't notable in itself (the film has a jazz-influenced soundtrack), the tempo, minor key, and call-and-response elements make the song much creepier than other songs from the film. What's more, the song seems to be bit of a tribute to Minnie the Moocher, another case of this trope. Facilier looks a bit like Cab Calloway, and the weird dancing and Disney Acid Sequence aspects are reminiscent of some of the old cartoons.
• Cue the Falling Object: After Tiana and her mother clean up the warehouse and leave, a small marble column falls over.
• Cue the Rain: Just as Ray's light goes out, the rain starts.
• Curse Escape Clause: Only a kiss from a princess will release Naveen from the frog curse. This comes with two twists. First, Charlotte temporarily qualifies as a princess because her father was voted king of the Mardi Gras parade. Second, after Tiana and Naveen give up on turning human and just get married as frogs, Tiana qualifies on the technicality that she's married to a prince.
• Daddy's Girl: Both Tiana and Charlotte have strong relationships with their fathers and grow up similar to them; a hardworking chef and a jovial upperclass.
• Dance of Romance: Naveen teaches Tiana how to dance after she teaches him how to mince.
• Darkest Hour: Naveen and Tiana figure that their curse is permanent, and have decided to stay together as frogs. Then they find Ray...
• Dark Reprise:
  • "Almost There" gets a short, somber reprise after Tiana loses the restaurant. It only lasts a few bars, but the "I'm almost there" becomes "I was almost there."
  • The creepy undermelody of "Friends on the Other Side" is reprised when the Shadows grab Naveen to take him back to Facilier... and then once more, with gusto, when the Friends decide Facilier has used up all their good will — a rare example of a villain's tune being used against him.
  • Likewise, "Friends on the Other Side" revisits a line from "Down in New Orleans":
    Down in New Orleans: Get everything you want/But lose what you had
    Friends on the Other Side: You got what you wanted/But you lost what you had!
  • The melody of "Almost There" also is reprised (albeit slower) when Facilier begins his Circling Monologue.
  • Don't forget the somber reprise of "Evangeline" that's played during Ray's funeral.
• Deadly Dodging: Naveen and Tiana make good use of their hopping with the hunters. They're so quick and small that the hunters end up pummeling each other to pulps.
• Didn't Think This Through: A rare positive variation. Tiana and Naveen decide to live their lives as frogs, and get married as such. None of them realized, however, that Tiana becoming Naveen's wife makes her a princess, and their kiss at the wedding turns them back into humans.
• Digging Yourself Deeper: Naveen, when he tries to propose to Tiana, stumbles through it and offends her with each sentence.
• Dish Dash:
  • Tiana's waitressing skills include being able to catch and carry flying plates full of food stacked on every available extremity and her head.
  • Naveen eventually picks this up as well. Just see him dancing around Tiana's restaurant with loaded trays.
• Disney Acid Sequence: "Friends on the other Side" is depicting supernatural events that are actually happening, but is still quite freaky, especially that one bit with Facilier's face.
• Disney Death: Ray the firefly gets stepped on, and it looks like they've been killed. Later, near the end, it turns out that they are still alive! Subverted because it turns out they were only holding on for a few more minutes and then dies for real.
• Disney Princess: Tiana joined the line up in the "by marriage" category.
• Disappeared Dad: Downplayed. We see that Tiana's dad is present during her childhood and played a significant role in fostering her dream to open a restaurant. He is definitely missing when the story shifts to Tiana as a young woman. It is suggested that he died at some point between her childhood and teenage years, with the most likely explanation that he died fighting in World War I, due to the photo of him in a WWI-style uniform on Tiana's dresser that has a Distinguished Service Cross on the frame.
• Does He Have a Brother?: Luckily for Charlotte, Naveen does have a younger brother. He's 6.5 years old but she'll wait!
• Don't Explain the Joke: Naveen teases Lawrence after their failed dancing in the street.
  "You're finally getting into the music! Do you get my joke? Because your head, well, it's in a tuba."
• Double Entendre: Any time Naveen makes a comment about being a frog, really, it's nearly always accompanied by a suggestive tone or grin.
• Dramatic Drop:
  • Blink and you'll miss it. Naveen almost buried in gold coins during "Dig A Little Deeper" but then he turns and sees Tiana, and he drops the coin he was left holding after Mama Odie rescued him and pointed him at Tiana.
  • When Charlotte shoves several massive wads of cash into Tiana's hands as payment for catering her party, Tiana realizes that there's enough extra to finally open her own restaurant. Buford, the diner's chef who had mocked her dream earlier, is shown dropping a fried egg from his spatula onto the counter bell.
• Dramatic Sit-Down: Tiana sees fake Naveen ready to marry Charlotte. She runs into the French graveyard and sits down on a tombstone, completely depressed.
• Dramatic Necklace Removal: After his first outing in Naveen's shoes, Lawrence rips the voodoo talisman from around his neck in a moment of regret. Facilier ties it back on later, though, and Lawrence never tries it again.
• Due to the Dead: Tiana wants to honor her father's memory by opening the restaurant he always dreamed of having. At the end, she and Naveen attend Ray's funeral.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: Implied with Tiana's father. In her bedroom is a portrait of her father in US Army uniform, with a Distinguished Service Cross hanging from the frame. The DSC is the second-highest military award after the Medal of Honor, awarded for extraordinary heroism in action against the enemy.

E-H

• Early Personality Signs: When Charlotte was a little girl, she appeared to be in a Princess Phase... only, it was never a phase and as an adult, she still wants to marry a prince. Tiana has also wanted to own a restaurant since she was a little girl.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: After years of hard work, Tiana finally gets to open her dream restaurant, and as a bonus is able to fill it with friends and family, as well as marry a handsome prince who is fully supportive of her career.
• Eldritch Abomination: Dr. Facilier's Friends on The Other Side are creatures from another plane of existence. They appear as shadows, masks, and dolls and they presumably eat souls.
• Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Light beats darkness. Ray's crowning moment is based on this—his "light" basically torches Facilier's "Friends" away.
• End of an Age: This film was the last 2D Disney Princess movie. Alongside Winnie the Pooh it also marks the end of traditionally animated films before Disney made the full jump to 3D.
• Establishing Character Moment:
  • How do we know Facilier's not a nice man? It's not the outfit or the Living Shadow, but his first customer on-screen. Man suffers from male pattern baldness, so Facilier hits him with a magic powder that grows a full head of hair... followed by the rest of his body. A moment later we also see him glaring jealously at Mr. LaBouff driving by in his expensive car, and then looking disdainfully at the single coin he scammed the bald man out of. For all that he has genuine supernatural abilities, Facilier is ultimately just a two-bit street hustler - and he hates that.
  • Tiana-as-an-adult is introduced as coming in from an obviously hard shift at work and collapsing on her bed... for all of two seconds before getting up to start another shift. This, with the in-between moment of her adding to her large stash of cash and speaking to her father's picture, establishes that Tiana is a hard worker with the hard-set goal of getting the restaurant her father wanted.
  • Naveen appears arriving in New Orleans, a prince with a dazzling smile and regal clothing. He promptly throws the clothing off and begins to dance around and flirt with girls, all while Lawrence is left to struggle with his luggage. Prince though he may be, Naveen is very immature and doesn't give much mind to more important things.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Lawrence shows he has lines he won't cross. When Naveen is turned into a frog he is horrified by this. When Naveen is trapped in a jar and starts gasping, he loosens the lid for him to breath inadvertently allowing Naveen to escape. He even attempts to back out of Facilier's plan at one point.
• Everything's Better with Sparkles:
  • Invoked at the ball—Charlotte's dress is already an oversized pink balloon of a gown, but when making her entrance to Naveen, she tosses a handful of sparkles in the air for effect.
  • The fireflies of the swamp and Evangeline the evening star are both shown as lovely, shining lights.
• Everything Is an Instrument: Including Lulu the potato bug/squeezebox. Also, Naveen manages to make a fully functional frog-size ukulele out of a stick and a spider web. Twice.
• Everything Sounds Sexier in French: Probably the trope responsible for Naveen's accent. The Maldonian accent (and language, from what we hear) sounds almost like a mix between French and Spanish. It only makes Naveen's suave flirting more effective.
• Evil Gloating: After Tiana refuses to take Dr. Facilier's deal and tries to smash his talisman, Facilier's shadow catches it before it hits the ground and gives back to him, then he does this to Tiana while pinning her to the ground. This quickly leads to his downfall.
  Dr. Facilier: Y'all should've taken my deal. Now you're gonna spend the rest of your life being a slimy little frog!
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Facilier is actually aware of this, so he's very cautious about his plans with Lawrence and keeping the talisman intact. Unfortunately for him, taunting Tiana in the climax lowers his guard just enough for her to snatch the talisman away and destroy it for good.
• Evil Plan: Dr. Facilier turns Naveen into a frog, has his traitorous butler impersonate him, and tries to have him marry a rich woman to kill them and take the money, When his Friends question how deep he's digging himself debt-wise, he then offers the souls of New Orleans to keep his own safe.
• Exact Words:
  • Word to the wise; when the creepy voodoo man says he sees 'green' in your future, do not assume he means money. Similarly, Lawrence probably assumes Facilier is speaking figuratively when he says he'll make him "Exactly the man he always wanted to be").
  • Tiana accuses Naveen of lying about being rich, but he never said he was rich. He said he came from a rich family.
  • The Curse Escape Clause: In order to be freed, the affected victim has to "kiss a princess". In this case, Charlotte qualifies as the daughter of a 'King' (her father being declared King of Mardi Gras), but technically, a "princess" can be anyone who is married to a prince...even if said marriage just happened and the prince in question is also the one affected by the curse.
• Expressive Hair: In the beginning, the young Tiana's hair defies gravity when startled by the frog on the ledge and later, one of Facilier's unfortunate clients make a hair raising discovery that Facilier is not honest in his services
• Eyelash Fluttering:
  • In the song "Friends on the Other Side," Dr. Facilier flutters his eyelids on the line "you come from two long lines of royalty" that he sings to Naveen, to accentuate the perceived innocence of the line. He also suddenly grows a set of lashes just to flutter.
  • When Lottie wants to catch the attention of Prince Naveen (who she doesn't realize is Lawrence in disguise), she redoes her makeup, covers herself in glitter, and bats her eyelids at him as a spotlight hits her.
• Face Palm: Mama Odie understandably does this when Tiana misses the point of her "Dig A Little Deeper" song.
• Fade Around the Eyes: Dr. Facilier does this at the end of "Friends on the Other Side," not just with his eyes, but also with the skull mask that he wears during the last part of the song. There is a big firework display that ends with the screen going black except for the mask and his eyes, and then the mask disappears, followed by his eyes.
• The Fair Folk: The "Friends on the Other Side" are about as friendly as "The Fair Folk" are fair, and so called for similar reasons.
• Family-Unfriendly Death:
  • Dr. Facilier is dragged into the voodoo spirit world — screaming and struggling— by his "Friends on the Other Side" when it's apparent his plan to pay off his "debt" to them is foiled for good. It's unsettling to watch the man have a Villainous Breakdown as he is dragged away. The expression of terror captured in the face that remains on his tombstone is quite unnerving.
  • Ray being stepped on is not shown, and he's not in horrible physical shape after, but we do hear a crunch. It also completely subverts Disney Death, which is unexpected for a Disney film.
• Fan Disservice: Mama Odie French-kissing her pet snake Juju. Eeeew!
• Fangirls: The women who swoon over Prince Naveen.
• Fantasy Americana: Most of the film takes place in the Louisiana bayou, providing a lush wilderness setting for the fairy tale. Otherwise, scenes take place in the homely streets of New Orleans in the 1920's.
• Fashion Dissonance: A couple outfits look like they raided the costumes from Cinderella, though it should be noted that the pimped out clothes we see are costumes or magically generated. Tiana's blue princess dress actually belongs to Charlotte, who was both rich and completely obsessed with being a princess from time of childhood. Charlotte gives it to Tiana after Tiana's own simple, High Middle Ages maiden costume is ruined. The characters' street clothes are a bit more accurate for the time period.
• Fat Bastard: Buford, the Chef who mocks Tiana's dream of having her own restaurant.
• Fat Flex: The blood charm transforms Lawrence to appear as Naveen. When the effects start to disappear, or if it's taken off, his body reverts back to his old, flabby self.
• Fat Idiot: The largest of the frog-trappers. He's loud, bumbling, and slow to react.
• Feminist Fantasy: Tiana is a hard-working, determined young woman with a dream of opening her own restaurant. She faces down the Big Bad to save Naveen, winning through her refusal to accept the temptation of an easy fix. She then confronts the businessmen who refused to sell the restaurant to her after agreeing on a price, and goes on to achieve her dream of opening a thriving business that she runs with Naveen at her side.
• The Final Temptation: Facilier promising Tiana will be returned to human form and will gain her dream restaurant if she gives him the talisman.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Tiana and Naveen finally start to get along after they fight the redneck frog hunters together.
• Flashback Cut: Louis when he remembers the last time he tried to play trumpet for humans. Given an Ironic Echo when he tries again, but luckily for him the band members are dressed as animals for Mardi Gras and mistake him for a costumed trumpet player, thus granting his dream.
• Foil:
  • Rich, spoiled, princess-wannabe, desperate-for-a-prince Charlotte in contrast to level-headed, workaholic Tiana who couldn't care less about marrying a prince. In a twist, Charlotte is not the Alpha Bitch; she's Tiana's best friend, and likable in her own right.
  • Tiana is a dedicated, hardworking woman whose goal is to open her own restaurant, but she has become so focused on her dream that she has little time for family, friends, or fun. Naveen, meanwhile, is a lazy, pampered prince who is self-absorbed to the point that he doesn't care much about anyone else.
• Following in Relative's Footsteps: Tiana has wanted to be a restaurant owner since childhood since she was inspired by her dad's cooking.
• Food Shove Gag: Charlotte La Bouff and her father visit Duke's cafe to share the news with Tiana that Prince Naveen is coming to New Orleans and staying at their mansion. Charlotte, in her excitement, keeps interrupting Big Daddy until he shoves a beignet into her mouth so he can finish telling Tiana for her.
• Food Porn: As Tiana's goal is to open a restaurant, the glorious depiction of food is prominent in this film. The breakfast-serving montage in the diner offers a mouth-watering display of food and it seems that even non-transformed animals are in love with the fine New Orleans fare.
• Foreshadowing:
  • The opening song gives us the phrases below. Later, there's magic good (Odie) and bad (Facilier), and Naveen loses everything he had.
    We got magic, good and bad
    Make you happy or make you real sad
    Get everything you want, lose what you had
    Down here in New Orleans.
  • "You just wanna be free; hop from place to place. But freedom... takes green!" (As it turns out, he's not talking about money...) Note that on the card ("And when I look into your future, it's the green that I see!"), the part of the background with the dollar bills all over it is in the shape of a lily pad.
  • When Facilier holds out his hands for Lawrence and Naveen to shake, we see Lawrence immediately seize the outstretched hand with a selfish, greedy grin on his face, whereas Naveen noticeably hesitates, but ultimately allows his desires to override his common sense.
  • The movie opens with Tiana and Charlotte as children, apparently in the middle of playing dress-up; Charlotte is dressed as a princess, but Tiana is the one wearing the crown.
  • Doctor Facilier makes a note of how he can't conjure anything for himself, which means that if someone were to ever retaliate against him directly, he'd be helpless. The talisman he wears doesn't actually grant him power outside of what others allow him, but he's still violently protective of it. Sure enough, once his creditors turn on him, there's nothing he can do to stop them.
  • Tiana's blue dress has long gloves. Since the previous two Disney Princess characters, Cinderella and [1] who primarily wear gloves are both royalty by marriage...
• For Halloween, I Am Going as Myself: A variation because it's Mardi Gras, but thanks to a musician complimenting him on his alligator "costume", Louis gets to play with a Jazz Band.
• Form-Fitting Wardrobe: 1920s-style clothing generally did not accentuate the waist or bust like that.
• For the Evulz: Facilier curses some guy to grow hair all over his body just for his own amusement.
• Fourth-Date Marriage: The relationship Tiana and Naveen create is the typical speed for a Disney movie. Their meeting and falling in love happens in the span of approximately three days, albeit it's unclear how long after the main story their wedding happens.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • Mama Odie kissing her snake Juju - as if that moment wasn't gross or uncomfortable enough, in a few frames she is clearly sucking on his tongue!
  • As "Down In New Orleans" kicks in, the carpet a woman is fluffing out of a window is the Magic Carpet from Aladdin
  • The newspaper seen when Naveen gets off the boat says April 1926
• Friend-or-Idol Decision: Dr. Facilier offers to give Tiana her hopes and dreams in return for his voodoo pendant which would doom Naveen to being a frog forever. He makes the mistake of reminding her that her father never reached his dream... Because not only does she realize that her father was still a happy man, thanks to his family, but it reminded her that she always believed in working hard to reach her goals.
• Friendship Moment: Charlotte goes over to ask Tiana for her party beignets. She then sees Tiana next to a toppled table, covered in beignet filling with the pastries askew. As Tiana tries to explain what happened, Charlotte helps her up, excuses the two of them to go clean up, and tells her she has the perfect dress for Tiana. Charlotte doesn't need an explanation; her bigger concern is making sure her best friend is okay.
• Genre Savvy:
  • Tiana, Charlotte, and Naveen are all familiar with the tale of the Frog Prince. As a result, both girls are willing to try kissing the frog to solve the problem.
  • Facilier is fully aware of what happens to those who fail to uphold their end of a deal with the Loa, reacting with rage when Lawrence threatens to destroy the talisman and killing Ray for trying to destroy it. Of course, his lust for power drove him to make a deal with the Loa anyway.
• Glad You Thought of It: When Louie the Alligator refuses to take the heroes to Mama Odie to break their spell (due to how dangerous it is), Naveen starts saying that is a pity he cannot fulfill his dream of playing jazz in the river boats, and that maybe if he wasn't a gator, it may be possible. After a few seconds, Louie says that he could ask her to become human, with Naveen calling him a genius for "getting" that idea.
• Good Witch Versus Bad Witch: Mama Odie is aware of Facilier's dark doings with the shadow demons to point that she asks point blank:
  Mama Odie: Now which one of you naughty children is messing around with the Shadow Man?
• Gorgeous Garment Generation: Tiana is married as a frog wearing a veil. After the kiss breaks the spell, she transforms back into a woman in a proper wedding dress.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Charlotte shrieks "Cheese and crackers!" at one point. This is well known among more prudish folk as a way of saying "Jesus Christ!"
• Gray Rain of Depression: After Ray dies, the funeral is held in the swamp which is now gray and rainy. Nowhere near as brightly lit as before.
• Green Gators: Louis is an olive-green alligator.
• Groin Attack: Reggie gets this with a shotgun. Don't worry, he only takes Clothing Damage, revealing Goofy Print Underwear.
• Happily Ever After: After dealing with the big bad, the heroine marries her love interest and fulfills her dream of opening a restaurant.
• Handshake of Doom: Dr Facilier begins the climax of his Villain Song by inviting Naveen and Lawrence to shake his hand and accept the Deal with the Devil he's offered them. The moment they shake the offered hand, Naveen is transformed into a frog and Lawrence is transformed into a double of Naveen to act as a pawn in Facilier's grand plans for New Orleans.
• Handsome Lech: Naveen. During the song, "When We're Human," he sings an entire verse about all the pretty girls he plans to spend time with once he's human again. When Tiana interrupts to point out that he's getting married, he just shrugs and says that he'll have to "leave a string of broken hearts" behind him. By the end of the movie, he's happily married to Tiana and shows no interest in going back to his old ways.
• Hands Looking Wrong: When Tiana turns into a frog, we see from her perspective the first thing she notices is her now green hands.
• Hands-On Approach: When Tiana teaches Naveen how to mince vegetables. In the time it takes him to make one slice, she has a whole mushroom minced.
• Hard-Work Montage: Tiana and Naveen renovating the sugar mill is shown in this manner, culminating in the restaurant's opening.
• Hates Rich People: In the movie we're first introduced to Dr. Facilier when Big Daddy LaBouff gives a little newspaper boy tons of money, but drives past Facilier without even looking at him, prompting dirty looks from Facilier and his Living Shadow. Later on, Facilier implies his hatred of the Idle Rich even more when he tells Lawrence, "Aren't you tired of living on the margins while all those fat cats in their fancy suits don't give you so much as a sideways glance?" This is presumably what fuels Facilier's plan to trick Big Daddy's daughter Charlotte into marrying a disguised Lawrence, after which he'll kill Big Daddy with a Voodoo Doll and give over all the souls in New Orleans to his Friends on the Other Side. Well, that, and the need to clear his debt to his Friends.
• He Is Not My Boyfriend: Tiana says this about Naveen. Ray assumed so because their (long froggy) tongues were tangled up all around them.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Ray gives the Talisman to Tiana and stays to fight off the Shadow monsters. It works because he's a lightning bug. Unfortunately, it doesn't work against the Shadow Man himself.
• Hellish Pupils: Inverted. The alligators attacking Naveen and Tiana have ordinary slitted pupils; Louis' pupils, however, are round dots, him being an exception to Reptiles Are Abhorrent.
• Historical Fantasy: The movie takes place specifically in New Orleans in The Roaring '20s instead of a generic fantasy kingdom in an indeterminate time. It also features a lot of magic in the form of Hollywood Voodoo.
• Hollywood Voodoo: Though in this case Disney did a good job showing a more varied and less cliched presentation of "Voodoo".
  • Mentioning Hoodoo and giving themselves an escape hatch when Facilier says "I've got things I ain't even tried." implying he isn't stuck on any one tradition; he'll work with anything and anyone that can give him power.
  • Mama Odie Disney is portrayed as a 'good' Voodoo priestess dressed in the traditional white, since Voodoo is usually seen as only something evil in Hollywood Voodoo.
  • Facilier makes use of Voodoo dolls, usually the cliched object used to signify Voodoo is being used. However, the use of this object is actually traditional to Louisiana Voodoo.
  • The use of any traditional religious symbols was avoided because they didn't want to offend anyone who practiced Voudou in real life (or risk summoning any evil spirits).
  • No Catholic trappings are to be found, despite the fact that many Voodoo adherents are also practicing Catholics and almost all Loa are identified with different saints. Mama Odie’s gospel inspired number though could be a shout-out to this.
  • Facilier's "job" appears to be that of a bokor, a hired intermediary between humans and loa. And Mama Odie, being a priestess, DOES NOT like him for his troublemaking—which is the view of bokors in real life.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Facilier is dragged to ‘the Other Side’ by his ‘Friends’ after failing to keep up his end of the deal with them.
• Horrible Judge of Character:
  • Naveen has no reservations about following a shady guy with a skull on his hat down a dark alley, and when the floating voodoo masks start singing and the shadows start moving things around, he's obliviously enjoying the show with a big goofy grin on his face. This is lampshaded when Tiana comments about Naveen "messing with the Shadow Man", for which he responds, "He was very charismatic!"
  • Lawrence; when it comes to shaking hands and actually sealing the deal, Naveen is the one who looks doubtful and hesitates for a moment- whereas Lawrence digs right in, complete with a greedy look on his face.
• Hope Spot: Charlotte is ready to kiss Naveen and undo the spell, both pucker and lean in... then the clock strikes midnight.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • Naveen: [to Ray] Pardon me, but your accent... it is funny, no?. Note that Naveen has his own foreign accent.
  • Charlotte: I thought wishing on stars was for babies... and crazy people! [Eye Twitch] She spends the whole movie wishing on stars and encouraging wishful thinking.

I-L

• I Can't Believe a Guy Like You Would Notice Me: Ray and Evangeline. He says in "Ma Belle Evangeline" that he's amazed someone so beautiful could love someone like him.
• I Can't Dance: Tiana, but she learns pretty quickly, especially considering she is a frog at the time. In her defense, she's never danced before.
• I Can't Hear You: Ray and Naveen on the Mardi Gras float.
  Naveen: Ray! Get me out of this box!
  Ray: I can't hear you! I'mma get you outta this box!
• Image Song: Several of the characters get these in the "Bayou Boogie" album inspired by the film, performed by their voice actors:
  • Tiana has "Everyday Princess" and "Sing Away the Blues".
  • Louis has "I Was Born To Blow This Horn", "Live To See You Smile", and "Play With The Band".
  • Ray has "Zippin' to the Zydeco", "When You're In Love You'll Understand", and "Life in the Swamp".
  • Mama Odie has "Mama Odie's Kitchen Song" and "Night and Day".
  • Dr. Facilier has "Do What I Wanna Do", "Shadow Man", and "Love is a Magical Mystery".
• Immune to Slapstick: Played with. None of the female characters run into any slapstick, least of all Tiana... as a human. When she's a frog, all bets are off and everything is Played for Laughs - in fact, her first few minutes as a frog involves a madcap, slapstick-rich chase sequence across the masquerade party.
• Impossibly Cool Clothes: How does Tiana's dress stay up? Doesn't matter, it looks beautiful.
• Impossibly Tacky Clothes: Some of Charlotte's dresses fall under "trying too hard" to look like a princess. In particular, her ballgown is about ten feet wide.
• Inelegant Blubbering: Charlotte, for comedic effect. Complete with a handkerchief and smeared mascara.
• Inexplicably Awesome: Dr. Facilier and Mama Odie are both this, since they are both eccentric and have awesome Voodoo powers, but their backstories of how they got them are never explained. It's heavily implied that Facilier sold his soul to his "Friends" on the Other Side and has been racking up a considerable debt with them by promising more souls in his place, all in exchange for more power. Whether the Friends are Loa or demons or Satan is never made explicit, however. Odie's case is almost definitely more benign, but goes unexplained and plays the trope fairly straight.
• Innocently Insensitive: Zigzagged with Charlotte at the party. On the one hand, she gushes to Tiana about how both of their dreams are coming true that night, without knowing that the realtors engaged in Moving the Goalposts and snatched the mill from Tiana's hands. Then again, she also lets Tiana stay in her room that night after helping her clean up and lending her a princess gown, without pressuring her to return to the festivities. Perhaps Charlotte knew that Tiana was upset about something and wanted to give her some space.
• Insistent Terminology: It's not slime. It's mucus.
• Instant Fan Club: The squealing girls who briefly follow Naveen around upon his arrival in New Orleans.
• Instant Gravestone: Dr. Facilier gets one after they are dragged off to the "Other Side".
• Instant Leech: Just Fall in Water!: Naveen gets one on his elbow after landing in the swamp as a frog.
• Interclass Friendship: There's Tiana, a poor working-class black cook who dreams of owning a restaurant, and Charlotte, a wealthy white debutante who dreams of marrying a prince. Despite being divided by both their economical standing and their race, the two are Childhood Friends who are very supportive of one another. Charlotte even helped out Tiana by hiring her to cater her party for the visiting Prince Naveen.
• Inter-Class Romance: Naveen is rich (but cut off) and Tiana is poor. By the end of the film, they reach a sort of halfway point together. Naveen is no longer living a life of utter luxury, Tiana is no longer living in a tiny house and working miserable shifts, and the two of them are more than capable of providing for themselves with their successful restaurant.
• In the Blood: Tiana inherited her passion for cooking from her father, who passed his skills on to her when she was little.
• Intimate Healing: This particular line from after Tiana and Naveen escape from gators into a tree trunk...As if this wasn't blatant enough already, we hear Tiana slapping him afterwards.
  Naveen: Well, waitress, it looks like we're going to be here a while. We might as well get... comfortable.
• Inverse Law of Utility and Lethality: You'd think that between the two comic effect characters, the giant alligator and the firefly, you know which one would be the combatant. You'd be wrong. When fighting shadow monsters, a firefly is quite effective, and Louis is useless at all of the physical threats that come up.
• Involuntary Smile of Incapacitation: One frog-hunter accidentally clubs his fellow frog-hunter on the head while aiming at Bewitched Amphibians Tiana and Prince Naveen. The clubbed frog-hunter has a dazed and goofy grin on his face as he collapses from the clubbing.
• Irony: A throwaway line at the masquerade party was Big Daddy calling one of the party goers "senator". Said party goer was in a devil costume.
• Ironic Echo: Done twice in quick succession; the former example...
  Dr. Facilier: You're almost there...
  • ...is significantly less dark than the latter.
    Friends from the Other Side: ARE YOU READY?
    Dr. Facilier: No! I'm not ready at all!
• Ironic Nickname: The Friends on the Other Side are shown to be anything other than friends once they decide the debt owed to them cannot be repaid.
• I Take Offense to That Last One:
  Tiana: Listen mister, this "stick in the mud" has had to work two jobs her whole life, while you've been sucking on a silver spoon, chasing chamber maids 'round your ivory tower.
  Naveen: ...Actually, it was polished marble.
• It's Always Mardi Gras in New Orleans: Justified in that Naveen's visit instigates the plot, and it would make sense that he'd choose to travel there in time for the festivities. Also, the Mardi Gras king is a plot point.
• It Was with You All Along: Since, as a prince, any woman he marries becomes a princess, Naveen always had the potential to break the curse by himself. However, it would require said woman to agree to marry a talking frog and to find someone who would actually perform such a marriage. In addition, him being a Handsome Lech was as big an obstacle for marriage as the whole frog curse.
• I Want Grandkids: While her mother is supportive of Tiana's dream, she also fears she's working too hard and overlooking some of the other joys of life like marriage and family. She even mentions that she wants grandkids.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy:
  • Right before Naveen proposes to Tiana, it occurs to him that she will never be able to afford her restaurant unless he keeps his promise to marry Charlotte and reward Tiana for helping him when he's rich again. He unselfishly abandons the sincere proposal and resigns himself to his fate.
  • In a more platonic sense, Charlotte loves Tiana best in the world. The one thing she's always wanted more than anything else is to be a real princess, and because of the aforementioned marriage plan, she could get it. However, the moment she finds out that Tiana is in love with Naveen — a love that the real Naveen clearly reciprocates — she agrees to kiss him with no strings attached so they can be together, human, and happy.
• "I Want" Song:
  • "When We're Human", sung by Tiana, Naveen, and Louis about what they're going to do when Mama Odie turns them human. Tiana wants her restaurant, Naveen wants to be rich again, and Louis wants to be a jazz player.
  • "Ma Belle Evangeline", sung by Ray. It's a song mostly about how beautiful love itself is, but doubles as him talking about how much he wishes he could be with his love.
  • "Almost There", although it's more of an "I've Just About Got It" song. Tiana is celebrating her finally getting a location for her restaurant, and her plans for what comes next.
• Jar of the Bizarre: Mama Odie is blind and toothless, and keeps what appear to be her original eyes and teeth inside a jar in her house in the bayou (a boat in the branches of a tree). The eyes can still move and follow Naveen and Tiana when they walk past them.
• Jerkass: Buford, the short order cook in the beginning of the movie, who mocks Tiana's dream of opening a restaurant.
• Jerkass Has a Point: A tiny moment from Charlotte when she tells Travis that saying she'll dance "later" means "not ever" and she's not required to dance with him. Though the delivery is quite snappish and rude, she's completely right about the last part.
• Job Song: A variation in "Almost There", which is about Tiana's future job as the owner of a restaurant.
• Just the Way You Are:
  • Tiana and Naveen declare their love for one another and decide that they don't care if they're humans or frogs as long as they can stay together.
  • Likewise, in the end, Louis the Alligator is never turned human. Instead, Tiana and Naveen hire him to perform at their restaurant. No one argues since Louis is harmless and shreds on the trumpet.
• Karmic Death: When Dr. Facilier's demonic amulet gets shattered, that's considered to his Friends on the Other Side as breaking their contract, causing the shadowy demons that once worked for him to drag him into a gaping mouth to the Other Side, all the while singing the exact song he was when he was cursing Naveen.
• Kick the Dog:
  • There's a guy in the intro song that wants a cure for his male-pattern baldness. Facilier's cure makes him grow hair everywhere, and he likely knew this would happen. It has nothing to do with his Evil Plan; just a quick buck. It's also an Establishing Character Moment for Facilier - this is the first time the audience sees him and it describes him perfectly.
  • The Fenner Brothers could have just simply told Tiana about the sudden challenge to her claim on the mill^note She was outbid for the sugar mill by a gentleman prepared to pay the full amount in cash and she had to come up with a competing amount in several days. and leave it at that, but the movie sets them up for righteous vengeance with an alligator by having them attempt to let her down easy with condescending lines about how a "woman of [her] background" is better off where she's at.
• Killed Off for Real: Poor ol' Ray is the first Disney protagonist since Mufasa to suffer this fate at the hands of a villain. It's bittersweet since he turns into a star after dying.
• Kill the Cutie: We see Ray give his last words and close his eyes for the last time. Then the shot pulls back and we see his firefly light flicker then finally fade out, removing any hope that this was a Disney Death.
• Kneel, Push, Trip: There's a scene where Facilier manages to pull this trick on Naveen using their shadows.
• A Lady on Each Arm: Naveen sings about this, specifically a brunette and a redhead.
• Lascivious Beauty Mark: Invoked by Charlotte. Upon being told that Prince Naveen, who she hopes to woo, has arrived at the ball, Charlotte quickly touches up her make-up, including painting on a fake beauty spot, before greeting him.
• Laser-Guided Karma: The Fenner brothers get splattered with cake during Tiana and Naveen's attempt to escape the partygoers.
• Lecherous Licking: Naveen licks his lips when preparing for his first kiss with Tiana.
  Tiana: Just... one kiss?
  Naveen: Just one.... [perverted/suggestive tone and grin] Unless you beg for more [licks lips]
• Leaf Boat: Ray goes out on the bayou in one of these during his funeral.
• Left the Background Music On: During "Down In New Orleans", we can hear the musicians in the street playing and dancing to the song itself, even though the song is being sung from an outside perspective.
• Let's Get Dangerous!:
  • Ray steps up to the plate to hold off the Shadow Man in the climax. He buys enough time for Tiana to get a headstart with the amulet, at the cost of his life.
  • Louis would much rather be friendly and play in a jazz band, but when one of his True Companions is on the line, he will literally drop everything and be the big scary 'gator that his friends need him to be.
• Light Equals Hope: Ray the firefly is a profound example.
  • He shows up for the first time when Naveen is just about to be dragged screaming back to Facilier by his shadowy "friends from the other side". Ray's tail light dispels the shadows and saves Naveen.
  • Facilier, in revenge for Ray's interference and attempt to break his gris-gris, steps on him. Ray lights up one more time in happiness as he hears that Naveen and Tiana are in love and plan to stay together, even as frogs.
  • Ray does not survive Facilier stepping on him. Tiana, Naveen, and his family throw him a proper New Orleans funeral and send his body off on a leaf. But the universe rewards Ray for his heroic deeds and service in the fight against evil by making him a literal star in the sky, right next to his beloved Evangeline. The night is briefly lit up like daytime, and Ray's grieving loved ones go from weeping to cheering.
• Like an Old Married Couple: Naveen and Tiana. It's mentioned by name in a deleted scene.
• Literal Money Metaphor: Dr. Facilier tells Naveen he needs "the green" to continue living the easy life. When Naveen accepts, he gets turned into a frog (who is green).
• Living Out a Childhood Dream: Charlotte is seen as a little girl wanting to be a princess and marry a prince. When she grows up, she still wants to do so.
• Loophole Abuse:
  • It's how Tiana and Naveen become human again. Naveen needed to kiss a princess, which Tiana instantly became upon marrying him.
  • The frogs' plan to become human again by having Naveen kiss Charlotte during Mardi Gras. Though she isn't royal by birth or marriage, being the daughter of the king of the Mardi Gras parade is apparently enough to make her count as a princess—but only during the Mardi Gras itself.
• Lotus-Eater Machine: Dr. Facilier attempts this on Tiana in order to get the talisman back. It almost works.
• Love Epiphany: For Naveen it starts during the Dance of Romance when Naveen sees the stars shining in Tiana's eyes and they lean in for an Almost Kiss. But it crystalizes during the "Dig a Little Deeper" number, when he realizes it's Tiana that makes him happy - not the money he thought he wanted.
• Love Informant: Naveen intends to confess his feelings for Tiana and propose, but gets cold feet due to a combination of I Want My Beloved to Be Happy and Poor Communication Kills. Ray has to fill her in instead.

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 from Behind: Tiana, in the vision created by Facilier in The Final Temptation scene, has a Hope Spot when she sees in her restaurant, from behind, a man that resembles Naveen, and plays the ukulele like him. But the musician turn around, and we see that his face looks nothing like Naveen. Tiana's disappointment make it clear she now does not enjoy her dream without Naveen.
• 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.
• Mistaken for Romance: When Tiana and Naveen are tied together by their tongues and Louis comes to help by tying their tongues around each others' bodies. According to Ray's reaction, it was entirely intentional.
• 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.
  Naveen: Y'know, if you're gonna let every little thing bother you, it's gonna be a very long night!
• 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 up on 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.
• Nightmare Hands: Dr. Facilier's "friends on the other side" drag him away with dark hands after his amulet talisman breaks.
• 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: Zigzagged 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.
• 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.
• Pictorial Letter Substitution: In the title logo, a crown makes up the hollow of the "O".
• 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, complete with opera-length gloves, 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 animation^note 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.

Q-T

• Race Against the Clock: The final third of the movie becomes this; Tiana and Naveen have to find Charlotte and get her to kiss Naveen before midnight when Mardi Gras ends.
• This Is Reality: Invoked when Tiana, shortly after a fight with Naveen, lashes out at Ray when he talks about his Evangeline.
  Tiana: Evangeline is nothing but a star, Ray! A big ball of hot air, a million miles from here. Open your eyes now, before you get hurt.
• Rhyming with Itself: The song "When We're Human" rhymes "right" (as in "my right arm") with "right" (as in "correct").
• Road Trip Romance: The traditional gender roles are reversed, with Tiana having the experience and skills to guide on the journey, while Naveen more or less tags along. The end result is the same.
• The Roaring '20s:
  • According to the newspaper Big Daddy reads during "Down in New Orleans", it's 1926. The date is left ambiguous: the front of his newspaper says "Friday, April 25, 1926" (actually a Sunday), the back says "Friday, July 16, 1926", and none of the real events the headlines are referring to (including Mardi Gras) actually took place on either of those dates.
  • Early on in the film, when Young Tiana and her mother board the trolley, a man is seen in one of the front seats reading a newspaper with the headline "Wilson Elected". This dates the prologue to November 1912.
• A Rotten Time to Revert: Lawrence uses a talisman given to him by Dr. Facilier to take on Prince Naveen's appearance, all so he can marry Charlotte as part of Facilier's plan to get Big Daddy LaBouff's money. The talisman's magic is fueled by Naveen's blood, so when it starts to run out following Naveen's escape, Lawrence starts to revert back to his normal appearance in a Bit-by-Bit Transformation just as he's about to propose to Charlotte. Lawrence is barely able to hide the changes before he succeeds in proposing to her, with the talisman's magic wearing off after she leaves. Unfortunately for him, Lawrence still has to actually marry the girl, forcing Facilier to ask for help from his Friends on the Other Side to recapture the real Naveen.
• Running Gag: "Allow me to introduce myself! I am Prince Naveen!" [freaked out girl slams a book on him and from crumpled lips, he finishes] "...of Maldonia."
• Ruritania: The kingdom of Maldonia, whose name is a portmanteau of Maldives and Macedonia; during the "Down In New Orleans" montage, the newspapers mention that Maldonia isn't found on any of the maps.
• Scatter Brained Senior: This little exchange with Mama Odie and Ray.
  Mama Odie: How your grandma doin'?
  Ray: She got into a little trouble for flashin' the neighbors again [Ray's butt lights up]
• Scenery Porn: From the town to the bayou, it's New Orleans in all its glory.
• The Scottish Trope: The animators clearly did research on Vodou imagery, but decided against using real symbols for any of Dr. Facilier's Instant Runes, and instead created fake ones in the same style.
• The Scream: Dr. Facilier screams when the demons take him to the underworld at the end of the film.
• Sealed with a Kiss: Tiana and Naveen go out to the balcony of the new restaurant and kiss. Cue credits.
• "Setting Off" Song: "Gonna Take You There".
• Shadow Discretion Shot: Played with, and Played for Laughs. It looks like Big Daddy is going to give Little Charlotte a stern talking to because she's so spoiled, but then he produces a puppy out of nowhere!
• Shapeshifting Excludes Clothing: Zig-zagged. Tiana emerges from her now-empty princess dress after kissing Naveen turns her into a frog. However, since this is a Disney movie, she averts Naked on Revival when her Happy Ending kiss of Naveen changes both of them back, appearing instead in a gorgeous gown.
• Shipper on Deck: Ray, Louis, Mama Odie, and even Charlotte for Tiana and Naveen.
• Shout-Out: Has its own page.
• Shown Their Work: Multiple:
  • Disney chief John Lasseter, the Pixar head whose brainchild it was to bring back 2D animation, insisted on setting the film in New Orleans. When he found out Disney Renaissance directors Clements and Musker had never been to The Big Easy, he paid them to visit the post-Katrina city three times. Their research strongly influenced the plot as well as the look: Tiana's character was based on a person they met who dreamed of opening a restaurant.
  • Clements and Musker researched voodoo for the movie. However, they insisted on not using real voodoo symbols, only fake ones for fear of conjuring spirits (or angering actual voodoo practitioners).
  • The music (by New Orleans native Randy Newman) is also extremely location-specific and culture-specific.
  • The clothing for the period is perfectly researched. Charlotte in particular is a perfect example of how super-fashionable young women were influenced by Hollywood. Tiana is a Hollywood stunner in her Imagine Spot for "Almost There", with a more realistic version at the end. With the heel on its way up, hats were super-popular, especially with decorations like feathers, dresses were long, straight and loose, and gentlemen favoured ties, sharp jackets and shirts, and long trousers. Spats were also in fashion.
• Shrunken Head: Dr. Facilier states "I'm a royal too on my mother's side" during his Villain Song, and shows a woman's crowned, shrunken head to the prince he sings the song to.
• Sickening "Crunch!": Shadow Man stepping on Ray.
• Signature Instrument: Bayou native Louis the alligator is never seen without his trumpet. His dream is to play with the greats in the riverboats, but the species divide is an obvious problem.
• Simpleton Voice: Although Darnell (the big frog hunter) talks like this, his vocabulary is surprisingly more expansive than that of his father and brother, with the use of words such as "insolence" and "suspicious".
• Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: Charlotte LaBouff, at first. She did make an appearance in the last trailer, causing some people to call shenanigans due to the movie featuring a "blonde princess" as well as a black one.
• Sissy Villain: The creepiness of Charlotte being seduced by a guy in disguise is downplayed by making Lawrence as Naveen extremely effeminate.
• Slasher Smile: Facilier has one towards the end of his Villain Song when he sings "I hope you're satisfied".
• Sleep Mask: Charlotte uses one.
• The Smurfette Principle: The film is ostensibly aimed at girls, and has a female lead character, but otherwise it has a 1:3 female-to-male ratio — female lead, male Love Interest and co-lead, two male (animal) supporting characters. Then one woman in a supporting role (a mentor). Although it does also feature Tiana's mother and her supportive friend, Charlotte.
• Something Else Also Rises: When Naveen insists on a kiss from Tiana to help break the spell and he puckers up, his throat also expands largely.
  Naveen: You will enjoy, I guarantee. All women enjoy the kiss of Prince Naveen. Come! We pucker!
  [puckers up, then his throat expands]
  Naveen: That's new.... [suggestive grin]
• Soul Jar: Dr. Facilier's amulet, though not granting him immortality, still fits since he sold his own soul to the Friends on the Other Side for the source of his powers. You break it, you bought it!. ^note This is a legitimate Voodoo fetish. A skilled bokor (witch for hire) can trap souls in a ouanga (spirit talisman) to fuel his own magic. However, he can only hold onto the spirits for so long, because all souls belong to Bondye (the one true God) and have to go back to him. It's still considered dark magic because you're interfering with them going to the afterlife.
• Species Subversives: Louis is an alligator who is friendly, rather stupid, has a remarkably low pain tolerance, and would prefer to play jazz trumpet music than eat frogs like the other alligators.
• The Speechless: Juju, even though all the other animals can talk.
• Standard Hero Reward: Gender Flipped. In the end, Tiana marries Naveen and becomes a princess, with her "kingdom" being the restaurant she and Naveen build together.
• Squee:
  • Ray lets out one of these when he begins to gush about Evangeline.
  • Also Charlotte, when she's telling Tiana about Price Naveen coming to the costume ball.
  • Louis pulls the biggest squee-face an alligator can when he sees that Ray has become a star.
• Stars Are Souls: Ray and it's extra fitting because he claimed a star he calls Evangeline is his true love, which he is next to when he becomes a star.
• Stating the Simple Solution:
  • Lawrence asks Dr. Facilier why the Shadow Man can't use the amulet to impersonate the prince himself. Dr. Facilier places the amulet around his neck. Nothing happens; he then explains that he can't use the magic to directly benefit himself, forcing him to use a middleman.
  • Naveen agrees to marry Charlotte after kissing her so that he can Tiana the money she needs to open her restaurant. It turns out that Charlotte loves Tiana too much to deny her happiness and agrees to kiss Naveen with no marriage required.
• Stealth Pun:
  • The realtors share a joint costume of a donkey also known as a "Jack Ass", which properly describes how they treat Tiana when they break the news to her about being outbid for the sugar mill. Bonus points in that the head at least tried to break the news to her gently while the hind one interrupted and put it bluntly.
  • Louis is a jazz playing alligator. "Gator" was a slang term for a jazzman in the 20s. To be more specific, Louis is a trumpet playing Gator: a multi-layer reference to Louis Armstrong.
• Stumbling in the New Form: We see Tiana struggle with her flipper like frog feet and hopping as a method of travel after she's transformed. Naveen references experiencing the same thing himself, though by the time we see him in frog form he seems to have gotten a handle on hopping.
• Suggested by...: The film in relation to the source novel.
• Super-Persistent Predator: The Blue Heron that our heroes run into in the swamp. When the first strike fails, it tries several more times, then flies after them and tries to grab them with its feet.
• Surprisingly Happy Ending: It looks like Tiana and Naveen will be stuck as frogs, only to discover that them marrying makes Tiana a princess, thus giving her kiss the power to turn them back.
• Survival Mantra: Just before she kisses Naveen, Tiana keeps telling herself "Okay, Tiana, you can do this, you can do this, it's just a little kiss, a little kiss..."
• Sweet and Sour Grapes: Tianna and Naveen give up on finding a cure and decide to live their lives as frogs. They marry, kiss, and promptly return to their human forms.
• Sympathy for the Hero: It's uncertain if it's genuine or just for manipulative purposes, but Facilier shows this for Tiana about her growing up poor and about how hard her dad worked when he's attempting to get her to give him the amulet back.
• Synchronized Swarming: The fireflies in "Going Down the Bayou" form a golden stream for the others to follow through the night.
• Talking Animal: The transformed Prince Naveen and Tiana. As frogs, they can understand other animals.
• Tarot Motifs:
  • When Doctor Facilier reads Naveen and Lawrence's fortunes, the cards that are shown actually support what Facilier's talking about! Naveen is depicted holding a flower, which is a common depiction of the Fool. His second card shows him enjoying the company of two ladies, with the card numbered XV — the Devil, which in this case represents the seductive power of the pleasures of the world. Facilier changes it to the Tower (disaster and ruin) when speaking of Naveen's financial difficulties, then into the Nine of Cups, which often represents achieving one's dreams with a side order of 'be careful what you wish for'. Lawrence's reading revolves around the Ten of Wands, which represents burdens and stress, often self-imposed.
  • Downplayed with the back of the cards that feature the Eye of Horus which is often used to obtain protection from evil. It seems odd that Facilier, with his association with the "Friends on the Other Side", would have this motif.
• Tastes Like Friendship: James points out how good cooking brings people together.
• Technicolor Death: Leading to and during Dr. Facilier being "taken" by his Friends on the Other Side, the scene is filled with colorful bursts of magic.
• Tempting Fate: An entire musical number of it early on- "I've climbed a mountain, I've crossed a river, and I'm almost there!"
• Throw It In!: In-universe: the rest of the band playing at the Masquerade Ball assumes the drummer is starting in with some jazzy improv, and follow suit. The drummer was actually trying to strike a frog with his drumsticks.
• Through His Stomach: Tiana reminds Charlotte of this, and Charlotte orders her food for the ball.
• Took a Level in Badass: Naveen starts off as The Load. Tiana has to save him from crocodiles and yells at him for not helping him row her makeshift boat. Then he becomes adept enough in his new body to outsmart frog hunters and distract Charlotte from marrying a disguised Lawrence. He also learns to cook and wield a hammer
• Toothy Bird: Naveen still has his teeth even when he is a frog. Ray the firefly also has teeth, albeit wonky ones. The animator for Naveen said they based his design off of African species of frogs that have teeth.
• Tongue Trauma: Played for Laughs. Tiana and Naveen get stuck together by their tongues trying to catch a fly with their tongues.
• Trailers Always Spoil:
  • One of the last few online behind-the-scenes featurettes uploaded before the film's release gave away Dr. Facilier being dragged away by his Friends on the Other Side to his death.
  • There's also at least one trailer showing that Frog!Tiana, not Human!Tiana, smashes the talisman.
  • Two scenes might be more suspenseful and/or made great reveals if 1.they didn't show Louis in any trailer, with the contrast with the vicious frog-eating alligators introduced beforehand and 2.they didn't show the wedding scene where they turn back into humans!!. Though the latter might be justified, since a Happily Ever After ending is, after all, in the finest Disney tradition.
  • Yeah, most know it now, but back when it was at cinema did the trailers on the Scandinavian Disney Channel showed Tiana becoming a frog.
• Transformation Discretion Shot:
  • When Dr Facilier turns Naveen into a frog, the initial stages of the transformation are obscured by the haze of green energies surrounding him; the next shot is from Naveen's perspective, with Facilier appearing to tower over him as the cursed prince begins to shrink. We then cut to a shot of the back of Naveen's chair, with Lawrence looking on in horror as the transformation concludes.
  • Naveen's attempt to break the spell by getting Tiana to kiss him immediately results in vivid flash of light; consequently, the audience doesn't realize that Tiana has been transformed into a frog as well until the shocked Naveen looks down and notices the empty pile of clothes on the floor.
• Trick Dialogue: Ray overhears Naveen practicing a proposal to Tiana, but believes he's trying to move in on Evangeline.
  • Also, when Naveen translates Ray's endearments to Evangeline for Tiana.
• True Companions: When she realizes that Tiana loves Naveen and he reciprocates, Charlotte sheds Tearsof Joy that her best friend has found happiness and decides to kiss him so he and Tiana will be human again, no marriage required.

U-Z

• The Unintelligible: Two-Fingers, one of the frog-hunting rednecks, speaks with mumbles and grunts. Darnell and Pa have no trouble understanding him, though. In some scenes, he's only speaking very quietly rather than unintelligibly.
• Unusual Euphemism: When Naveen crashes the Mardi Gras wedding, Charlotte exclaims, "Cheese and crackers!"
• Unwitting Pawn: Lawrence. He likely doesn't even know that Facilier's endgame is to sacrifice a good part of the city to his Loa patrons. On top of that it's implied Facilier was not going to hold up his own end of their deal and take all, or at least the majority, of the LaBouff fortune for himself.
• Vile Villain, Laughable Lackey: The powerful Witch Doctor Dr. Facilier has this dynamic with the portly, bumbling, cowardly valet, Lawrence.
• Villainous Advice Song: Naveen is tricked by Dr. Facilier during "Friends On The Other Side".
• Villainous Breakdown: Facilier, after the talisman is destroyed. Seeing as his Friends on the Other Side are about to kill him in a terrifying manner, it's very understandable.
• Villain Has a Point: Facilier gets this three times.
  • He outlines Naveen's problems: even though his parents cut him off, Naveen would rather continue his playboy ways and "hop around" rather than change his attitude. Naveen gives a sheepish grin about this, admitting he's guilty as charged.
  • He legitimately points out that Lawrence has been a Butt-Monkey all his life and that unless he makes a change, people are going to keep pushing him around. Lawrence looks at the prince, who has been treating him poorly and starts sporting a Slasher Smile...
  • Later, he tempts Tiana by pointing out how her father never achieved his dreams and he deserved more out of life because he was a good man. Tiana is forced to concede on that mark, but she asserts that her dad was happy regardless and he wouldn't hurt people to get what he wanted.
• Villains Never Lie: Technically, Facilier doesn't lie in any of his conversations with the other characters. He uses Exact Words.
• Villainous Plan Inertia: Doctor Facilier gets dragged into Hell by the Friends On The Other Side, but Tiana still has to find Naveen and Charlotte to break the curse with less than 15 minutes to go She fails, but some Loophole Abuse fixes that later.
• Villain Song: "Friends on the Other Side" establishes Facilier as a rogue, scoundrel, and overall con man. The "Bayou Boogie" album gives him three other songs performed in-character by his voice actor, titled "Shadow Man", "Do What I Wanna Do", and "Love is a Magical Mystery".
• Visual Pun: The realtor who makes a remark about Tiana's "background" was in the back-side of the donkey-suit, making them a jackass.
• War Hero: Tiana's father died while fighting in World War I, and she keeps his Distinguished Service Cross (the U.S. Army's second-highest award after the Medal of Honor) next to his photograph.
• Warts and All: Naveen to Lawrence. Boy, does he regret it. Amusingly, Naveen asks Tiana if she loves him, "warts and all", making it more literal than figurative "warts and all".
• Well, Excuse Me, Princess!: Tiana and Naveen. Early in the film, they both think that they're better than the other. Naveen believes himself to be superior to Tiana because he is a debonair and optimistic prince, while she is a pessimistic & cranky waitress. At the same time, Tiana thinks that she's above Naveen because he's a lazy, good for nothing philanderer, while she has tirelessly worked hard for the things she wants in life. Hence, the throwing of insults begins.
• With This Ring: Naveen, on realizing he's fallen in love with Tiana, fashions a ring for her out of champagne cork wire and a Mardi Gras bead.
• Wham Line: "Tiana?" As said by Stella, Charlotte's dog, when a transformed Tiana calls to her, just as she and Naveen get tangled in party balloons and drift away. Tiana realizes that Stella just talked and they could understand each other. Naveen tiredly says that if it's taking her this long to process the situation, it's going to be a long night.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: During the party, the Fenner Brothers inform Tiana that she was outbid by a third party who was able to pay for the mill in full. When the finale revisits the Brothers, the third party goes ignored as Tiana has Louis threaten the brothers into doing business with her instead.
• What You Are in the Dark: Lawrence fails this. He realizes that the "charlatan" Facilier is actually someone clairvoyant and offers him a chance to betray the prince. While Naveen just thinks the parlor show is entertainment and doesn't know any better, Lawrence gleefully shakes Dr. Facilier's hand and agrees to the deal.
• When the Clock Strikes Twelve: Rare example of midnight being correctly signaled by the start of the clock's strokes rather than the end.
• Who's Laughing Now?: Lawrence eagerly accepts Facilier's plan as it lets him get back at Naveen for "years of humiliation."
• Who Would Be Stupid Enough?: When Ray finds out that Naveen and Tiana are trying to find Mama Odie, he informs them they're heading in the wrong direction, and then asks, "Now what kinda chucklehead told y’all to go this-a way?" Cue Louis coming back happily saying he found a stick.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
  • Ever since his bad... experience on a river boat, Louis freaks out whenever he sees a gun, or anything that looks like it might be a gun.
  • Tiana is afraid of frogs and has been since she was a kid, making it very awkward that she has to kiss one and then be one.
• Wife Husbandry: Gender flipped and used jokingly by Charlotte at the end who, upon Tiana's marriage to Naveen, asks how old his brother is. Cut to her dancing with him and him saying, "Six and a half." How does she respond? "Well, I've waited this long!"
• With Friends Like These...: Facilier's "friends" from the other side promptly take his soul once his plan to repay his debt collapses.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Charlotte believes that she is in a Disney Princess movie, and that all she needs to be happy is to just wait around for her prince to come to her. She's almost right, but she's off on two counts - she is in a Disney Princess movie, but she's not the main character, and it's a modern Disney Princess movie, where the romances are more slowburn and the princess characters more active than the older films.
• You Can Talk?: Tiana's reaction to Naveen, after she stops trying to kill him with a book.
• You Go, Girl!: The plot of the movie outside the Forced Transformation conflict. Tiana aspires to become a businesswoman against all odds.
• You Have Failed Me: An explanation for Dr. Facilier's final fate. With the talisman broken, the plan to pay his debt to his "Friends on the other side" by promising them the wayward souls of New Orleans, was now impossible. He tried to tell them it was a "minor setback (to a major operation)" but they insisted on collecting payment on the debt... now.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:
  • Facilier instructs his shadowy minions to "Bring him to me alive! I need his heart pumpin'... for now", strongly imply that he plans to kill Naveen once he's no longer of use to him.
  • Facilier is on the receiving end when his amulet breaks. The Friends on the Other Side lose patience with him, deciding that he will never succeed in paying back his debt to them. So they cut their losses by claiming just his soul instead.
• You Need a Breath Mint: Ray complains of Louis's breath while the latter is trying to revive him from having nearly drowned.
• You Shall Not Pass!: Ray bravely pulls this on the shadow demons. He fails when he encounters an opponent he cannot easily melt with a burst of light.
• Your Makeup Is Running: Charlotte in the beginning and the end; it ruins the "princess" effect.

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"Dreams do come true in New Orleans!"

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