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The Frog Prince
Mar. 23rd, 2011 11:58 pmSo at work I watched not one, but two musicals based on fairy tales featuring a dark-haired preteen girl who sings a creepy duet about becoming "friends" with a adult male stranger. Both films were in regular rotation in my childhood, back when the Disney Channel had very little original programming and endlessly cycled through obscure old "family" movies you couldn't see anywhere else and that, frankly, I am astonished are streaming on the internet today.
Here's my review of the first, which I stumbled across on Netflix streaming. The Frog Prince, produced in 1986 and starring Aileen Quinn, who played the titular role in Annie, is greatly adapted from the classic fairytale. In versions of the original story, the princess is spoiled and snobbish, and only reluctantly agrees to care for/kiss the frog in exchange for its help in retrieving her golden ball from the bottom of its pond. The princess is kind of a bitch, in other words.
In this movie, though, there are two orphaned princesses; one sadistically cruel older sister, Henrietta (played by an embarrassed Helen Hunt), and one lonely, terribly good younger sister, Zora, played by Aileen Quinn. Both are in the care of their uncle, the Regent, who is ruling their kingdom until the Baron arrives to pick which sister is the "true princess," in accordance with their parents' will. There's no particular criteria for which girl will be recognized as the "true princess" - and if a scene later in the movie is anything to judge by, this is a decision the Baron will make merely by looking at each girl for about 30 seconds.
Anyway, neglected by her elder sister, Zora wanders around the abandoned palace (not deliberately abandoned, mind you, just missing the budget for extras) and sings about how she has never had a friend, despite being sweet, kind, polite, and profoundly good. Oh my god, is she hard to take. She's just so...good. When Henrietta deliberately tricks Zora into disturbing their uncle the Regent during a meeting, Zora humbly and unnecessarily takes the blame. Her only fault is that she runs in the castle hallways sometimes when she's excited. This is a girl who's too boring to be friends with!
There's also something irritating about Aileen Quinn's performance (or perhaps the direction of her performance) in that she seems to be over-emphasizing every line of dialogue in prose and in song. Almost every line is delivered with excessive deliberateness, kind of the way a person will read a book to a group of preschoolers, as though without the exaggerated emphasis, they won't understand it. Or maybe it's a case of her demonstrating too much enthusiasm, perhaps as a holdover from the days she'd have to perform to the back of the room. This movie was made for kids, sure, but I don't think it was made for toddlers. It doesn't need the extra "help" from its actors.
Anyway, at some point Zora drops her beloved golden ball in the local pond, and a six-foot tall frog-man thing leaps out of the pond, and they become the best of friends. Over the course of like a song and a half.
Oh, and did I mention the six-foot tall frog-man looks like this?
( The rest of the review, with truly creeptastic screencaps, under the cut )
So...this movie has some problems. First, hot off of Annie or no, its female protagonist is way too young for a fairytale story that normally ends with a kiss and marriage. I know that we should view stories on their own terms, but virtually all fairy tales, including most iterations of "The Frog Prince" end with somebody marrying a prince. The movie never addresses what's supposed to happen next, except that Zora and the Prince of Freedling (*giggle*) are presumably going to stay "friends." "Friends" until she's 18 and he's past 40, and they can get married? Would that be any less creepy?
I can't believe I watched this thing 20 times when I was little, or that my parents let me. I know it's likely none of you have seen this obscure (and terrible) musical, but have you ever revisited something from your childhood only to discover it has disturbingly adult undertones?
Next up, the musical version of Little Red Riding Hood.
Here's my review of the first, which I stumbled across on Netflix streaming. The Frog Prince, produced in 1986 and starring Aileen Quinn, who played the titular role in Annie, is greatly adapted from the classic fairytale. In versions of the original story, the princess is spoiled and snobbish, and only reluctantly agrees to care for/kiss the frog in exchange for its help in retrieving her golden ball from the bottom of its pond. The princess is kind of a bitch, in other words.
In this movie, though, there are two orphaned princesses; one sadistically cruel older sister, Henrietta (played by an embarrassed Helen Hunt), and one lonely, terribly good younger sister, Zora, played by Aileen Quinn. Both are in the care of their uncle, the Regent, who is ruling their kingdom until the Baron arrives to pick which sister is the "true princess," in accordance with their parents' will. There's no particular criteria for which girl will be recognized as the "true princess" - and if a scene later in the movie is anything to judge by, this is a decision the Baron will make merely by looking at each girl for about 30 seconds.
Anyway, neglected by her elder sister, Zora wanders around the abandoned palace (not deliberately abandoned, mind you, just missing the budget for extras) and sings about how she has never had a friend, despite being sweet, kind, polite, and profoundly good. Oh my god, is she hard to take. She's just so...good. When Henrietta deliberately tricks Zora into disturbing their uncle the Regent during a meeting, Zora humbly and unnecessarily takes the blame. Her only fault is that she runs in the castle hallways sometimes when she's excited. This is a girl who's too boring to be friends with!
There's also something irritating about Aileen Quinn's performance (or perhaps the direction of her performance) in that she seems to be over-emphasizing every line of dialogue in prose and in song. Almost every line is delivered with excessive deliberateness, kind of the way a person will read a book to a group of preschoolers, as though without the exaggerated emphasis, they won't understand it. Or maybe it's a case of her demonstrating too much enthusiasm, perhaps as a holdover from the days she'd have to perform to the back of the room. This movie was made for kids, sure, but I don't think it was made for toddlers. It doesn't need the extra "help" from its actors.
Anyway, at some point Zora drops her beloved golden ball in the local pond, and a six-foot tall frog-man thing leaps out of the pond, and they become the best of friends. Over the course of like a song and a half.
Oh, and did I mention the six-foot tall frog-man looks like this?
( The rest of the review, with truly creeptastic screencaps, under the cut )
So...this movie has some problems. First, hot off of Annie or no, its female protagonist is way too young for a fairytale story that normally ends with a kiss and marriage. I know that we should view stories on their own terms, but virtually all fairy tales, including most iterations of "The Frog Prince" end with somebody marrying a prince. The movie never addresses what's supposed to happen next, except that Zora and the Prince of Freedling (*giggle*) are presumably going to stay "friends." "Friends" until she's 18 and he's past 40, and they can get married? Would that be any less creepy?
I can't believe I watched this thing 20 times when I was little, or that my parents let me. I know it's likely none of you have seen this obscure (and terrible) musical, but have you ever revisited something from your childhood only to discover it has disturbingly adult undertones?
Next up, the musical version of Little Red Riding Hood.
