Why’d it Bomb? The Princess and the Frog (2009)

Remember hand-drawn animation?  For generations, Disney pioneered the art form.  But following the studio’s renaissance, tastes and economics changed.  Traditional animation was out and computer animation was in.  In 2009, Disney made one last attempt to revive the artform it helped create.  The goal was nothing less than the return of feature-length hand-drawn animation.  Unfortunately, The Princess and the Frog fell short.  Kevthewriter examines what went wrong.

Back in October, I wrote a couple of articles about how the Frozen phenomenon kind of left the other modern animated Disney movies in the dust.  For the first article, I focused on the merchandising aspect of Disney and didn’t really talk about what I thought was really interesting, which was not only that the other movies lacked merchandise but it felt like Frozen was the only one that really had any staying power while the other movies were pretty much forgotten after a while. In the second article, I talked more about my feelings towards this (as well as the lack of merch for the other films) but I feel like I might have underestimated the popularity of some of the movies I mentioned in that article as I later realized that some of the movies that “used to be popular but have been forgotten” I mentioned in the article (like Up or Inside Out) aren’t really forgotten and are still pretty popular. However, today were going to talk about a Disney movie whose merchandise sold pretty well yet Disney still found to be a disappointment because hardly anyone went to see the movie itself.

I am of course talking about The Princess and the Frog. Even to this day, Tiana can still be found on the Disney Princess line (I even saw her on a Disney Store bag a lady was holding the other day) so it seems like the merchandise sold well enough. In fact this movie did actually sell a lot of merchandise . Plus you can still meet Tiana and Naveen at Disney World.
But at the box office? It was not only a disappointment but it gave Disney cold feet about future Disney Princess movies. Both Tangled and Frozen‘s Disney Princess elements were downplayed in the trailers and they were portrayed as Dreamworks-style comedies, when they were anything but.

They even gave the movies vague titles that more or less hid they were Disney Princess movies while this movie pretty much made it clear it was a Disney Princess flick.

But why did this movie underperform at the box office?

Some people think it might’ve been because of two factors: they think the princess title might’ve turned off boys from the movie, as it made them think it was a little girls movie, and the second reason is some people think the movie might’ve turned people off because Tiana is black. They might have a point with the former thing but I’m not sure that Tiana being black had anything to do with it. Yes that probably did turn off a lot of very racist people (out of all the Disney movies, Trump is probably not going to show Barron this one) but, seeing as Tiana dolls sold well despite her race, I don’t think that had a huge influence on the movie’s box office.
Instead, I think it might’ve been these things:

4. People thought the movie was racist
While I doubt racists themselves affected the movie’s box office gross, there were rumors about the movie that turned some people off and made them think it was racist. Some of these things were changed (like Tiana was changed from a chamber maid to a waitress) but, even when the movie’s trailers started airing, there were still things that people found to be problematic of the movie, like the fact that the first Black Disney Princess spends most of the movie being a frog. It didn’t help that many Disney movies in the past have had racial stereotypes in them. In their defense, most of those movies happened back when racial stereotyping was the norm but, at least back then, people still gave Disney a hard time for it.

3. Maybe Disney didn’t do enough to promote the movie
If you read the article above, you’d think this movie had a lot of promotion. Yet, I have to be honest, I don’t remember that many commercials for it airing on TV. Oprah, who was in the movie, didn’t even promote it on her show. And many audience members probably find out what movies are coming out through either trailers or commercials. As a result, some people might’ve not even known there was a new Disney Princess movie out. It probably didn’t help that it was released during the Christmas season, when a lot of successful movies were coming out, which meant that it couldn’t help but get lost in the shuffle.

2. Children have become too used to animated movies being comedies
In my article about Epic, I said that animated comedies seem to sell better nowadays than other types of animated movies. And that is pretty much true. I think it has to do with the fact that it’s been a decade since Shrek and, in that time, many studios have tried to ape Shrek’s success by making all of their animated movies comedies. As a result, I think that many children have grown up with more goofy animated movies and expect every animated movie to be a joke fest like Shrek was. Yet The Princess and the Frog was not only trying to be like an old fashioned animated movie but it was promoted as such.

However, seeing as kids have grown up with comedic animated films, they probably weren’t interested in seeing something that was more akin to The Little Mermaid or Beauty and the Beast and, therefore, they stayed away.

1. It came out around the same time as Avatar, a movie praised for it’s technological advancements
The Princess and the Frog was an attempt by Disney to bring back 2D animation. Unfortunately, at the same time, Avatar came out, which was being praised by people for making special effects look even more realistic than before. Having The Princess and the Frog come out around the same time as Avatar might’ve made it look more old fashioned and out of date by comparison, which might’ve turned many people off and caused them to flock to Avatar instead, where they could oogle at how cool the Na’vi looked and how far we’ve come in terms of special effects.

These are all possible reasons the movie’s box office intake was…mediocre to say the least. Could it also be that people just didn’t want to see a 2D animated movie in 2009? Maybe. Although, who knows, in a less busy time, the movie might’ve done better, even in 2009. But we’ll never know and, unfortunately, it did not revive 2D animation for Disney like everyone thought it would.

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daffystardust
Editor
6 years ago

While I think your above reasons probably played a part in making Princess and the Frog less successful than it could have been, there are other factors that should be considered. #1 is word of mouth. The movie just isn’t as good as Disney’s best. It can be accurately described as “less than the sum of its parts.” The movie suffers from sidekick overload and some painful character tropes. The wise but eccentric old lady and the flat stupid rednecks left some audience members rolling their eyes. #2 the awful teaser trailer seemed preoccupied with the frog getting the heroine… Read more »

lebeau
Admin
6 years ago
Reply to  daffystardust

A few points: The Princess and the Frog didn’t bomb. It underpeformed Disney’s high expectations. A lot of people make the movie out to be an under-rated masterpiece. It’s not. As Daffy points out, it’s a mixed bag. Remove the firefly sidekick and I bet the movie improves a lot. According to John Lasseter, Disney did a lot of research into why Princess and the hand-drawn Winnie the Pooh underperformed. The answer they got was that most audiences though hand-drawn animation was “old fashioned”. I don’t blame Tiana’s movie with killing hand drawn animation. All she did was fail to… Read more »

Kent
Kent
6 years ago

Really you bring TRUMP into this article about a Disney movie. Wow, and I thought this was a blog about movies. Why does everything have to be political these days.

lebeau
Admin
6 years ago
Reply to  Kent

Yeah, who would make a Trump joke in an article about a Disney movie? The nerve!

Kent
Kent
6 years ago

Did I say I was offended? I just ask a simple question. You have the right to write what ever you want. That wasn’t my point. Try not to get so offended by people that ask you something.
Thank you.

lebeau
Admin
6 years ago

I’ve never seen this film, but I remember the marketing for it being rather odd: I recall a GEICO commercial that was a tie-in to the film as really standing out on that front.

lebeau
Admin
6 years ago
Reply to  kevthewriter

I think the commercial was the Gecko talking to The Frog, who appeared on a laptop.

lebeau
Admin
6 years ago
Reply to  kevthewriter

Yep, that’s the one.

Ardis
Ardis
6 years ago

I’m a Black woman who loves fairytales, Disney and cartoons – and I’ve yet to get around to seeing TPATF. I think the thing that bothered me was the fact Tiana was a frog at one point (although a cute enough one) – and I can’t remember if there’s been another Disney where the princess has been an animal (well, besides Ariel of The Little Mermaid). Also, the storyline didn’t have that “oomph” — enough for me at least — to want to race to see. And speaking of race, I believe that’s precisely why it did “bomb.” Realistically, how… Read more »

robbushblog
robbushblog
6 years ago

Well, TANGLED grossed $200 million domestically. Not a bomb for an animated movie even at that time. It didn’t pull SHREK numbers, but nothing had surpassed SHREK 2 until FINDING DORY. TANGLED might have done better (it was certainly a better movie than FROZEN) if it had had a big hit song like FROZEN’s “Let It Go”. That song alone probably contributed half of its domestic box office. THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG was fun. I enjoyed it a great deal and bought the Blu-ray. I think the hand-drawn animation was its biggest roadblock (unfortunately), with race playing a not… Read more »

lebeau
Admin
6 years ago
Reply to  robbushblog

Sounds to me like there was more of an issue with the characterizations of the certain races and not race itself, which is better I guess, but that doesn’t do anything for “The Princess and The Frog” and its bottom line.

lebeau
Admin
6 years ago
Reply to  kevthewriter

$591 million? I know to get to that number takes some patience, but wow, that’s a fat number anyway you look at it.

Chuck
Chuck
6 years ago

I think Avatar box office alone is the biggest problem for this one. It became the highest grossing movie of all time (something that not even the Dark Knight could do) and when you have a box office juggernaut like that running, other movies tend to underperform.
On a side note, I really wish Disney would have tried at least one more traditional 2D Animated movie, But as it stands we may have well witnessed the last of its kind on the big screen

robbushblog
robbushblog
6 years ago
Reply to  Chuck

It would be a shame if we have, because I loved WINNIE THE POOH.

jeffthewildman
6 years ago

Just came across this. Surprised I missed it earlier. While Princess And The Frog isn’t the underrated masterpiece some people say it is, it all isn’t bad at all. It’s not on the level of Disney or Pixar classics. But it’s way ahead of most of what Disney pumped out post the Lion King (with the possible exception of Mulan). When you compare it to a lot of what came before it, especially Brother Bear and Home On The Range, it’s easy to understand why some people call it a masterpiece. It didn’t so much end traditional hand drawn Disney… Read more »

Madison
Madison
4 years ago

Disneys. Princess and the frog was underrated because it shows a girl working independently to get what she wants instead of being so dumb and ditsy it show that her and her prince changed and both had an impact on each other i think no other princess has such a similarity as her so no disney princess can relate wich is why it is underrated i’m a 12 yr old black girl i love this movie and do my research

lebeau
Admin
4 years ago
Reply to  Madison

Thanks for sharing your perspective, Madison. Tiana is one of Disney’s best princesses.

HHGeek
HHGeek
4 years ago
Reply to  Madison

Can’t help feeling that your insight is probably bang on the money, Madison. Goodness knows there’s too few films where women are allowed to be independent and intelligent, let alone for a younger audience (although it is getting better). When you’re a bit older, remember to watch ‘Network’. I think you’ll like it. 🙂

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)

I haven’t gotten a chance to see “The Princess and the Frog” yet, but somebody said on MovieChat.org that the animation style and even some characters (such as the alligator) seemed to be stolen right out of a Don Bluth film. Secondly, the film had a poor and very derivative plot. What I mean is that it seemed very ”quick” in how the writers put it together. Basically, it didn’t work as a comedy, an adventure, a romance, or a fantasy, or a heartfelt drama. By that point, Pixar was producing all those things on a regular basis and this… Read more »

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