The Princess and the Frog / YMMV

Accidental Aesop:
- There are no guarantees in life. It's revealed that when Tiana isn't working double shifts, she's cleaning up the old sugar mill she wants to turn into a restaurant. The realtors let her because it was free labor while planning to not let her have the deed unless she has the full amount, which they know perfectly well is not possible at the beginning of the movie. Don't accept handshake agreements outright.
- The movie simultaneously tries to shoot for, "Don't neglect your personal life for a goal," and, "What you want isn't always what you need." However, Tiana simply doesn't want Naveen badly enough to feel her heart torn over him until quite late in the movie, and when she does, she's only briefly conflicted. Dr. Facilier offering her her dream on a platter is far more tempting. Thus, a fair moral would be, "Desires are powerful, important things, and there will be times when you're painfully torn over what you want in life. You may or may not be able to have both, but the main thing is that you don't step on anyone else to get there."
- Be Nice to the Waiter. While Lawrence allying with Dr. Facilier is not excusable, if Naveen has showed him any appreciation for his work, Lawrence wouldn't feel so vengeful as to accept Facilier's deal.
- Not all skinfolk are kinfolk. While this movie is set at a time period when racism was rampant, a few of Tiana's naysayers/enemies were fellow people of her own race (Facilier and Buford the Chef).
- Don’t make deals if you know you will have issues paying back the debt. It’s heavily implied that Facilier knew that he would have issues paying back his "Friends on the Other Side," but he kept on pushing back the time he would actually pay back his debt until the "friends" were fed up with the delays.
- Don’t call just anyone your friend. The "Friends on the Other Side" were most certainly not Facilier’s friends, since it’s heavily implied that they were rooting for him to fail when it came to repaying his debt.
Alternate Aesop Interpretation: "Work smarter, not harder" could be the Aesop here. Tiana crunches and grinds for hours, whether it's at her shifts at the restaurant or cleaning up the mill. As noted above, the realtors let her because it was free labor and then turned her down for a buyer that was offering more, on top of disparaging her race. By contrast, Tiana gets the last bit of money she needs when she offers to cater Lottie's party, and is given a generous payment because she has a good working relationship with Lottie and her father. She also gets her restaurant thanks to Naveen's influence and intimidating the realtors with an alligator, suggesting that she might have been better served networking and making the contacts who could help her achieve her goals rather than trying to do it all herself, playing by racists’ rules, and working herself to the point of exhaustion (while actively refusing handouts).
Alternative Character Interpretation:
- Are the Friends on the Other Side legitimately evil, or actually a case of Dark Is Not Evil, orchestrating a massive Batman Gambit for the main character’s good and give Facilier what’s coming to him? Some of the Loa are known for helping the hard-working underdogs of society against the "fat cats." When Facilier takes advantage of Naveen, Charlotte and Big Daddy, it's probably okay with them, but when he starts picking on Tiana, it becomes a whole different story. (And once Naveen makes the choice to get a job to help her, he becomes an underdog as well...) No wonder the Friends don't listen to Facilier's attempts to placate them after Tiana breaks the fragile talisman necklace. While they smiled when Facilier offered up all the souls of New Orleans however, they could be smiling knowing that Facilier wouldn't be able to do so. Furthermore, a reason they were so unwilling to listen to Facilier and enjoyed damming him so much is that they were getting tired of his constant excuses and were waiting for him to screw up massively so they could have an excuse to damn him.
- Did Charlotte overpay Tiana for the beignets because she's a reckless spendthrift who doesn't know the value of a dollar, or because she wanted to help Tiana and knew her friend wouldn't accept handouts? Also, is she a true friend to Tiana despite her occasional social-climbing and misplaced loyalty, or does she have a more sinister motive of trying to usurp Prince Naveen and the life of luxury?
- Did the Fenners really meet someone willing to outbid Tiana for the cost of a sugar mill, or did they lie about it out of racism? Or did the white residents of the area pool their money to keep Tiana out?
- Why does Dr. Facilier have a shrunken head of his mother? Did he kill her and then shrink it, or is it a twisted way of him remembering her after she died? Also, was him promising to get Tiana her restaurant genuine, or was he just manipulating her? Did he really sympathize with her about her dad? The fact that he shows sympathy to both Lawrence and Tiana — both of whom were implied to grow up poor (not to mention implications of Facilier growing up poor) — heavily implies he did sympathize about her dad.
- There are hints that Tiana is a Workaholic to deal with the grief of losing her father. She keeps a photo of him by her bedside, talks to him after every shift, and hopes to make his dream restaurant down to the tiniest detail. Her mother is the only one that tries to talk to her about it, while Charlotte does what she can to help Tiana financially, and her neighbors have No Sympathy. Ironically, it's Dr. Facilier who gets to the heart of the matter; he reminds her how her father was a good man that deserved more out of life, showing Tiana a memory of him working hard and coming home tired. This gives Tiana closure when she sees the memory with clarity of her dad being happy despite his working hard and tiredness and comes to terms with his death because he had a good life. To show she's moved on, the restaurant is a little different when it comes to life, from the name to the alligator trumpeter.
- Some have wondered if Charlotte is a lesbian, either secretly or obliviously. Whenever she talks of marrying a prince, she only seems interested in the status of a princess and living a life like her fairy tales. She never says anything about having a husband to love her, and doesn't seem to have any interest in Naveen beyond "he's a prince." In fact, she never even really alludes to finding him (or any man) attractive. While her being so willing to have a Fourth-Date Marriage with "Naveen" could easily just be her Gold Digger and Thinks Like a Romance Novel tendencies, it could also be because she figures, hey, she'll never get to be with someone she actually loves, so she may as well settle down with someone who can let her live out her princess fantasy. She is also very attached to her BFF Tiana, to the point of sacrificing her lifelong dream for her without a second of hesitation.
- The kiss to Naveen from Charlotte at Mardi Gras doesn't work supposedly because When the Clock Strikes Twelve, she ceases being a princess in the technical sense. But she even lampshades that the clock might be fast when it doesn't work the first time. Time is of course a complex unit with all sorts of loopholes (indeed, midnight on anything only registers as whenever the clock is set for) - so the escape clause failing because one clock signals midnight doesn't account for other such variables. And Charlotte being the Princess of Mardi Gras still wouldn't have her recognised as a true princess. But Tiana legally married into royalty, which is far more concrete, and that's why her kiss worked.
- Why exactly is Louis so interested in playing for a band and being so involved in human life despite the fearful reception he has received? Does he simply like the idea of being a musician and performing for an audience, or is there more unrevealed backstory to Louis and he has a longing to be among human beings that is uncharacteristic of his supposed feral alligator history.
Awesome Art: Whatever else you might think of the movie, it looks very pretty; in a time when 3D-animation dominated completely, the filmmakers really did their utmost to show off what hand-drawn animation was capable of.
Awesome Music: Lots of jazz and zydeco (a seldom-represented genre in movies), befitting the New Orleans setting. Courtesy of Randy Newman, no less!
Base-Breaking Character:
- The poachers. Their existence is foreshadowed, but they still feel disconnected from the rest of the story and contribute little to nothing to the overall plot. It boils down to either a few minutes of gratuitous slapstick, or the scene that made Naveen realise that Tiana wasn't a complete stick in the mud, and made them like each other more.
- Ray, depending on who you ask, is either an obnoxious stereotype or a fun and helpful character.
- To a lesser degree, Big Daddy LaBouff. He's a wealthy white Southern Gentleman who treats Tiana with genuine respect, supports her with generous tips and acts to her as something of a Parental Substitute. While not hated as a character, some people mention him as another example of the Politically Correct History present in the film. To others, he's a spot-on character who makes it clear that not everyone back then was in line with the racist mentality and laws of the time; if anything, the racial context of the movie makes his character even more lovable.
Broken Base:
- Back in 2006, Disney fans were not happy when it was announced that Randy Newman would be replacing Alan Menken as the composer of the film. After the film was released, the reaction was more mixed. Some thought that Newman's jazzy tunes fit the movie's setting very well, others still wish that Menken had stayed to produce the less generic songs he's known for.
- Ray's death. There seem to be accounts of movie audiences breaking down sobbing or breaking down laughing or saying that it was too dark in equal numbers.
- Some viewers feel that the film should have been a more realistic (or at least less optimistic) depiction of the Jim Crow-era American south, saying that, while not quite Politically Correct History, it's too much of a fairy tale depiction to take seriously. Others have been quick to point out that it's supposed to be a fairy tale and therefore a more lighthearted interpretation can be forgiven. A third group believes that the film makes a good work at conveying the racial situation of the era in a way that is sensitive enough for children, but recognizable for adults. (Examples including Tiana and her mother sitting on the back of the bus and living in the less privileged part of the town, along with the not-very-subtle prejudiced attitude the Fenner bros. show toward Tiana when they tell her she was supposedly outbid on the building for her restaurant).
- Whether or not the "work hard to achieve your dreams" is an anvil that needed to be dropped or a dead unicorn Aesop. The former argues that the entire Disney Princess franchise required it since the earlier princesses were passive Distressed Damsels who got saved by handsome princes and whisked off to better lives. The latter argues that the earlier princesses had gone through their own struggles (as the classic three had grown up in poverty prior to becoming royalty) and still had to earn their happy endings too. As Disney became infamous in The New '10s for pandering to bad faith criticisms in live-action remakes of their animated films, it sticks out as either being the start of a bad trend or a less heavy-handed example.
Cargo Ship: Ray the firefly and Evangeline the evening star until Ray dies and becomes a star next to Evangeline.
Catharsis Factor: After all the evil he committed—even though he's undeniably cool too, Facilier being literally dragged to the Other Side while potentially nightmare-inducing is still pretty satisfying though.
Complete Monster: Dr. Facilier, the Shadow Man, is a "very charismatic" conman and voodoo sorcerer who employs his demonic "Friends on the Other Side" for his own ambitious ends. Facilier tricks Prince Naveen into giving him his blood, cursing the prince into the form of a frog, while roping his greedy valet Lawrence into posing as the prince to marry into the inheritance of New Orleans' wealthiest sugar baron Eli "Big Daddy" LaBouff, ensuring Facilier can murder LaBouff and Naveen after to secure the fortune for his own. Plunged deep into debt to his "Friends" with his soul at stake, Facilier sinks to his lowest when he offers up the souls of New Orleans' citizens to his demonic "Friends" to glut themselves on, and even cold-bloodedly kills Ray the firefly when he poses an obstacle to his plans. Defined by his thirst for power, even Facilier's elastic, unmistakable charm can't disguise the monster he truly is underneath his conman facade.
Crossover Ship:
- Odette/Dr. Facilier seems to be pretty popular. Understandable, seeing how her backstory is similar to what Facilier does to the main characters.
- Tiana/Nanami Kento or Tianami has gained a rise in popularity in 2023. Particularly due to Nanami being a mature, sensible and reliable man who can serve as an ideal partner for Tiana. It also helps that he loves sweets which fits well with Tiana being a wiz at baking.
Cry for the Devil: Dr. Facilier spent nearly the entire movie trying to kill Big Daddy and enslave the souls of the entire city of New Orleans as a goodwill payment to his "friends", and mode-locked Naveen into a frog, but the manner of his demise is rather horrifying. He is, rather graphically, dragged into Hell by his shadow, begging for more time (and his life) the entire time. It's so bad that Tiana, whom he just put in a Lotus-Eater Machine and is the indirect cause of his death, can only watch in abject horror.
Cult Classic: Despite the movie's underperformance when it came out, it's in the years since been hailed as one of the best animated Disney movies in recent years—with its 2D animation in particular also helping it to be able to stand tall with many of the best Disney animated movies out there as well.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Despite having little screen time, the fandom absolutely loves Charlotte, probably due to her sweet nature, hilarious behavior, loyalty to Tiana, and subverting all the tropes normally expected from a beautiful, rich girl.
Epileptic Trees: There's a popular fan theory that says that Evangeline, the star that Ray The Fire Fly is in love with, is actually The Blue Fairy from Pinnochio. She reciprocated his love for her and reincarnated Ray as a star right next to her immediately after Dr Facilier killed him. Thus Ray and Evangeline literally became Soul Mates for Eternity.
Evil Is Cool: Again, Dr. Facilier. He's got a cool and unique design coupled with an absolutely glorious performance courtesy of Spawn himself, Keith David. Plus, he's just so charismatic and has a great Villain Song as well.
Fandom-Specific Plot: Most fics often have Tiana and Naveen going to Paris for multiple reasons, most popular of them having Paris as their honeymoon destination.
Fanon:
- Despite (or because of) the fact he's from a fictional country, many fans still throw Fan Wank fits over Prince Naveen's "real" ethnicity — namely, whether he was closer to Mediterranean or Middle Eastern and/or Indian on the sliding scale of Ambiguous Brownness. That is until some people picked up on a throwaway line in "Friends on the Other Side" ("You come from two long lines of royalty") and ran with it. The final conclusion? He's all of them.
- There's also the matter of Tiana being outbid on the restaurant. It has generally become accepted amongst fans that the "other buyer" story was orchestrated by the mill's owners, with them either outright lying or getting someone to outbid Tiana's offer, in order to prevent a black woman from owning her own business. While this does explain why Tiana conveniently is outbid the very day she tells the owners she's ready to purchase the place (and why no "other bidder" gets angry when Tiana has Louis scare them into selling), there's no official explanation for it in-movie.
- It's never explained in the film, but it's generally accepted by fans that the curse on Tiana and Naveen ceased being transferable once Tiana broke Dr. Facilier's pendant, explaining why Charlotte was unaffected by kissing Naveen after midnight, when she was no longer a princess.
- Dr Facilier's first name is Andre.
Genius Bonus:
- Take a look at Tiana and Naveen in their frog forms side by side. They don't exactly look alike, do they?◊ Well, consider this: These are two characters from very different ethnic backgrounds, so the spell changed them into different species of frog. Naveen's olive-green skin, brownish spots, and heavily muscled legs mark him as a southern leopard frog, while Tiana sports light green skin, a white stripe on each side of her body, more slender limbs, and no webbing between her toes — hallmarks of the American green tree frog.
- When Facilier shows Naveen his future and changes around the images on his cards, The "XVI"—or Tower—card shows Naveen in front of a tower with his pockets turned out. In the Tarot, the sixteenth card is "The Tower", representing a sudden crisis or disaster, a fall from grace, and realizations of falsehoods. "IX" shows Naveen with a bride and her father with treasure around them, which is the Minor Arcana card "Nine of Coins/Pentacles"—achieving fortune through hard work and reaping the benefits of dedication and planning. Lawrence's card, meanwhile, is the Ten of Wands, which is frequently depicted in the Rider-Waite deck as a man carrying a bundle of sticks and portrays over-burdened people carrying more than they should. The XV card—Naveen with two beauties on either side—is the Devil, which is both Naveen making a deal with a devil-like figure for the pursuit of material gains and being chained to something that one can let go of if they simply stop holding on to it. The card that Facilier hands him as he sings "It's the green that I see" in Naveen's future looks like it's marked 0, the traditional number for The Fool - the very first card of the Deck, which signifies a new beginning and adventure, but also risk if one doesn't look where one is going. (Given that it's magic, Facilier's deck isn't very consistent with depicting the Major and Minor Arcanas; many decks use Roman numbers for majors and spelled-out numbers for minors along with whatever suit it is, but the cards don't have this.)
- Ray's lover, "Evangeline", is a reference to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic poem of the same name, which chronicled the expulsion of the French-speaking Acadian (Cajun) people from Eastern Canada before their migration to Louisiana. The poem is widely considered the unofficial national epic of the Cajun people, so it's quite fitting that the very Cajun firefly Ray would fall for a woman of that name.
- One of the stipends of Voodoo Magic is that you cannot actually cast magic on yourself, only on others, such as Facillier does with Lawrence and Mama Odie demonstrates with Juju. Another is that the power is not yours, but borrowed or traded for, making it genuinely dangerous to fall into debt. Facillier falls into debt in his use of power, while Mama Odie is much more restrained in how she uses magic, only using it sparingly.
- When the "Friends On The Other Side" manifest themselves more properly during their eponymous number (and its Dark Reprise during Facilier's end), symbols spark through the air and often spiral around Facilier. Those are called Veve, and are ancient elements of Voodoo practice that are used to harness the power of Loa deities during rituals. They can be also seen on the floor when Faciler talks to his Friends on the Other Side about updating his deal; using a veve in this way is the proper way to communicate with a Loa in Vodou.
Girl-Show Ghetto: The movie did okay at the box office for Disney, but not nearly as good as their previous animated films. Disney determined that this trope was the reason and was rumored to completely shut down adapting fairy tales into movies. For Tangled's marketing, they completely downplayed the fairy tale-ness of the movie, put the male hero character front and center, and marketed like a Dreamworks comedy film. The advertising brought a whole lot of backlash, but in the end it paid off as Tangled more than doubled what Frog did; Disney took the same tact with the formerly-named The Snow Queen, rechristening it Frozen and giving it a similar marketing strategy as Tangled, right down to using the same music for its TV spots as the other film. It's funny when you realize that arguably, The Princess and the Frog is among the least stereotypically "feminine" Disney Princess movies, alongside Mulan and Moana - it features a very menacing villain, a road trip plot, a great deal of slapstick humor, strong leads that aren't romantically interested in each other at all at first... In comparison, Tangled is a girlier movie, with less peril, less Nightmare Fuel and more "princess"-stuff.
Heartwarming in Hindsight: Charlotte, who has a pink theme for pretty much everything, just so happen to have a blue dress that perfectly fits Tiana.
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- The frog-like Greninja which debuted out in 2013 has the tendency to wrap its long tongue around its neck, creating a look similar to the scene where Naveen shoots out his tongue and accidentally wraps it around his neck.
- One of the very first lyrics in Dr. Facilier's song is "You're in my world now, not your world" and claims that he comes from a line of royalty on his mother's side. 11 years later, his voice actor, Keith David, appeared in Disney's Amphibia as the king of the titular amphibian-populated world, where three human girls are trapped in. Basically, it is an embodiment of that line, down to the actor performing it and is royalty himself. The Cherry On Top? Season 3 introduces a major character played by Tiana's voice actor, Anika Noni Rose, who acts as Anne and the Plantars' Secret-Keeper (though this time, she doesn't get turned into a frog herself).
- Dr. Facilier's ultimate fate is being Dragged Off to Hell by his friends on the other side. Nine years later, Keith David would be the one dragging wicked people off to Hell in Tales from the Hood 2. WELCOME TO HELL, MOTHERFUCKER!
- Keith David would go on to have real friends on the other side.
Jerkass Woobie: Lawrence is definitely in the wrong for wanting to work with an evil voodoo doctor, but considering the torment he goes through and has suffered all his life, he's definitely someone who can pity.
Just Here for Godzilla: A lot of people's appeal for the film comes less from the plot and characterization (which, while not outright terrible, are considered somewhat lackluster by some compared to other Disney films) and more from it being traditionally animated in an era in which those kinds of films are so rare. As (nearly) every other Disney animated film since has been done with CGI, it still has a significant appeal as one of the last 2-D animated films from them.
Les Yay: Charlotte and Tiana have shades of this; they've sustained a years-long friendship from childhood, and it's obvious from Charlotte's many acts of kindness and devotion that she loves Tiana best in the world.
Love to Hate: Dr. Facilier is considered a very cool, fun villain with a great Villain Song and powerhouse performance from Keith David, who gives Facilier the perfect mixture of charisma and sliminess so as much as you enjoy watching him hustle, you also enjoy watching his Evil Plan fall apart. He's widely considered one of the best things about the film (along with Charlotte).
Memetic Molester: Charlotte dancing with Naveen's six-and-a-half-year old brother in the ending, saying that she's, "waited this long," has been taken out-of-context by the fanbase to be her attempting The Jailbait Wait, despite her in-context saying that her dream is to dance with a prince.
Memetic Mutation:
- The most enduring piece of the movie is "Friends On The Other Side", with Facilier's "I've got friends on the other side!" being sometimes used to refer to any kind of magical patronage or Deal with the Devil-fueled scenario.
- Dr. Facilier's death has become a meme due to its overly dramatic nature, often being used to symbolize someone being forced into something they're unprepared for.
- Won't you shake a poor sinner's hand? ^Explanation
Misaimed Fandom: Lawrence and Dr. Facilier may have Freudian Excuses to feel bitter about their lots in life, living in the service or shadows of "fat cats in their fancy cars" and wanting to break away from it. But some viewers miss the mark that this isn't an excuse to use magic to try to lie, cheat, steal, trick, and murder their way into money. There are several fans who go so far as to say they should have gotten away with their scheme from beginning to end, even though it would have ultimately resulted in destroying the lives of countless people, none of whom would deserve it. The fact that Facilier decided to target the nicest rich man in New Orleans, who gives huge tips to the people who work for him and treats the black persons working for him with respect in the 1920s, doesn't help Faciler's cause. He was also ready to sell the souls of all the people of New Orleans to his Friends on the Other Side in order to enlist their help, most of whom had nothing to do with his hardships. That moment all by itself is meant to make the audience think that Faciler has crossed the Moral Event Horizon, because while he may have a hard lot, sacrificing an entire town to break out of it is way beyond acceptable. The fans also miss that Mama Odie has been using the same magic that Facilier was doing, but indulges far less and is living a perfectly comfortable life. In short, Lawrence and especially the Shadow Man got what they deserved for their Greed, but some fans twist this to say that they should have succeeded because of said Freudian Excuse.
Moral Event Horizon: When Facilier offers every living soul of New Orleans to his "friends" in exchange for their cooperation shows such a callous lack of respect for their lives that it marks the moment that makes him irredeemable.
Narm:
- For those who don't consider Ray's death one of Disney's biggest and most shocking Tear Jerker, it's so hammered in and over the top that it becomes hilarious.
- Tiana’s final defiant “It’s not slime, it’s mucous!” really loses something when you realize Dr. Facilier never heard them talking about that, so the line would just seem totally random to him.
Narm Charm:
- It's almost too easy, to the point of cliché, that Ray ends up as a star alongside Evangeline. And yet... it's sweet, and it's fitting, and it works.
- The preceding scene can also count, if you don't consider it plain old Narm. Ray gets a drawn-out death scene, after being stepped on, and is given a viking funeral in which he's sent out on the bayou in a leaf boat. The entire scene is ludicrous, but is played completely straight, and works strangely well.
- During the "Ma Belle Evangeline" dance, when Ray sings "Look how she lights up the sky", and Naveen looks to Tiana and sees a very cartoony sparkle in her eyes. And yet, it's just too adorable a moment to feel awkward.
One-Scene Wonder:
- Mama Odie has about 15 minutes of screen time, but steals the show when she first appears.
- To a lesser extent, the hillbilly frog hunters.
- Charlotte's dog Stella managing to speak out to Tiana (in her frog form) for about a minute at the LaBouff's party.
One True Threesome: The movie has Naveen/Tiana/Charlotte for those who think Tiana and Charlotte would make a cute couple but don't want to tear apart the Official Couple. It helps that both Charlotte/Tiana and Charlotte/Naveen tie up Charlotte's plot-thread about wanting to marry royalty.
Popular with Furries: The film is very accommodating to frog fans with Tiana and Naveen both contending with being stuck in amphibian forms as a major plot point. It also helps that they both befriend Louis, the anthropomorphic alligator, who is very protective of his new friends, would rather play trumpet than hunt, and has a dream to become human himself, earning him more than a few scalie fans. Louis will still use his alligator traits to protect his friends and intimidate enemies, so he knows when to use his advantages too.
Shocking Moments: Ray's death. That isn't invalidated by the end. Yep, no Disney Death here. A cute animal sidekick was just coldly Killed Off for Real.
Refrain from Assuming: Without looking at the soundtrack listing, it's easy to assume that "Gonna Take You There" is actually called "Going Down the Bayou".
Rooting for the Empire: A few fans were rooting for Facilier and Lawrence to succeed in their goal, considering how Naveen was really unlikable in the beginning due to him being spoiled, lazy, and being (unknowingly) inconsiderate towards Lawrence. Anyone who has been in Lawrence’s position would have been understandably fed up with putting up with that abuse, whether it was intentional or not.
Retroactive Recognition: One of Naveen's animators is Benson.
Signature Scene:
- The scene accompanying Dr. Facilier's Villain Song "Friends On The Other Side", which many consider to be one of the best Disney Villain songs since "Be Prepared".
- The death of Dr. Facilier, in part because of the uniqueness of him getting his own Villain Song turned against him by the "Friends On The Other Side", as well as the utter Nightmare Fuel of Facilier being dragged, begging and pleading for his life, to what is essentially never-ending suffering.
Squick: Mama Odie greets her pet snake Juju with several kisses. On the mouth. With tongue. The others' reactions are quite understandable.
Strawman Has a Point: While manipulating Tiana into giving him the tailsman, Facilier wasn't incorrect when pointing out everything that Tiana had sacrificed and those who had doubted her abilities, especially pointing out that her father had never got the restaurant he always dreamed of since he too worked so hard each and every day. Too bad it backfires on him, since Tiana knew that her father had one important thing: Love.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
- Stella, Charlotte's dog finds out that the frog she's chasing is Tiana, causing her to go Oh, Crap! as Tiana and Naveen float away. We don't see her trying to go for Timmy in a Well.
- Lawrence could have been a much more interesting character if he had received more development. When Facilier shows him his tarot readings, we learn that he has a pretty decent Freudian Excuse for his back-stabbing, as he was pushed around by everyone in his life, including his family and the prince. And in one scene after that, he actually offers to give his amulet back to Facilier and not go through with his plan. But none of that comes up again after those scenes, after which he passively goes along with Facilier.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
- Dr. Facilier's issues with his Friends on the Other Side would have made a perfectly good story on their own. Dr. Facilier is basically Disney's version of Dr. Faustus. He had unimaginable demonic power at his fingertips, and all he could think to do was scam a butler and get some money. When his debt is finally called in, he begs for "just a little more time." Indeed, one of the movie's most prominent criticisms is that the villain was underplayed.
- In the same sense, Facilier's personal Living Shadow minion turned out to be a conceptually impressive hit, which makes it a big shame that in the movie proper, the Shadow ends up doing little more than acting as an extra pair of hands.
- Tiana and Facilier appear to know each other or at least know of the other. We see that he frequents the restaurant where she waits tables and enjoys her beignets. Tiana mentions he's a bogey story. However, they don't actually meet until the climax of the film. No attempt is made to give the two a connection beforehand, making it rather odd when Facilier offers Tiana a Deal with the Devil just like with Naveen (and there it was a little more justified, since Naveen was new in town and didn't know Facilier - whereas Tiana knew exactly who he was). Facilier was desperate and didn't want Tiana to smash the amulet, but the connection between the two is entirely informed.
Ugly Cute: Ray the firefly stands out for his peculiar looks even among other Disney sidekicks: with his droopy eyes, snaggletoothed smile, scruffy hair and big abdomen, he's definitely not meant to be physically cute. But he's very friendly and sweet, is a Hypercompetent Sidekick and his love for Evangeline is pure in its devotion, thus he comes off as absolutely adorable.
Unintentionally Sympathetic: Lawrence comes off as unintentionally sympathetic to a couple of viewers of this movie due to his backstory. While yes he did go too far regarding his retribution towards Naveen, Naveen did treat Lawrence with little to no respect before his Character Development.
Unintentional Uncanny Valley: Most of the background characters that can be picked out of any given scene. They tend to be drawn and animated less-realistically and with more fluid motions than the main cast, which can come off as a little unsettling whenever they happen to share the screen. In addition, some of them are given exaggerated smiles and expressions that also remain completely static and unchanging, making them look even creepier.
Vanilla Protagonist: Tiana. With Naveen as the love interest clearly needing to learn An Aesop, a charismatic villain and entertaining side characters, Tiana mainly falls into a sort of Team Mom role. Her only flaw is that she's a workaholic, so she spends most of the movie teaching the Aesops rather than learning them. Notably the villain's plot has very little to do with her, making her a bit of a Pinball Protagonist too. The confrontation between her and Facilier is the first time that they meet in the film. That being said, she still works very well as being a protagonist.
Vindicated by History: The film didn't do as well as other films from Disney at the time for a number of reasons, but like all of their traditionally animated films, it's since found a special place with Disney fans and is generally very well liked today.
What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: Despite its fantastical elements, the film discusses themes like class divide and racism.
- The gap between rich and poor is also brought up, with the likes of Charlotte and Naveen being allowed to slide through life because of family money, while the likes of Tiana and Lawrence have to slave away to earn pennies with little respect or rewards are thrown their way. Even Dr. Facilier shows deep jealousy of the wealthy, with his magical abilities offering him little temporal rewards.
- Tiana being told that she shouldn't aspire to more because of her..."background" can be taken as a barely veiled reference to how people of color were denied economic mobility for decades, and still face discrimination in obtaining loans and credit.
The Woobie: Tiana undergoes a lot during the movie which makes you feel sad for her.
- First, she loses her father, whom she was very close to, at a pretty young age. She sees that he never got to fulfill his dreams, and it haunted her.
- Then she works herself to exhaustion with her two jobs.
- As a result of her hard work, she is able to make a bid on a building so she can have the restaurant she always wanted... but she's shooed away from this by the seller for no particular stated reason (though worse, it's heavily implied to be because of outright racism/discrimination).
- Then she has a Hope Spot when Charlotte decides to hire her for her party and she meets Frog!Naveen who offers to help her if she kisses him. Instead of this working out, she gets turned into a frog herself, and then has to fight for her life because she and Naveen (as frogs) are being hunted.
- Even when they finally get to Mama Odie, they can't be turned back into humans.
- Then just as she's starting to get some romantic feelings for Naveen, the latter seems to be going to marry Charlotte instead of her. Which was in an effort to turn Naveen and Tiana back into humans... but again, doesn't work out.

YMMV / The Princess and the Frog

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