Disney's Princess and the Frog is, quite simply, a magical movie experience. Up remains the pinnacle of 2009 animated entertainment, but Princess and the Frog is a wonderful return to form in the realm of traditional hand drawn animation. It's hard to believe that the last hand drawn effort from Disney was 2004's tepid Home on the Range. Princess and the Frog is more on par with the likes of the films that brought Disney back from it's early 80's funk. Films like The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. While not at the same level as those first class masterworks, this charming fantasy, while familiar, benefits from the New Orleans bayou setting, a strong female lead, and one of the studio's all time great villains--a lanky, voodoo practicing fiend known as Dr. Facilier, aka the Shadow Man (brilliantly voiced by Keith David).

At the heart of this Disney fantasy is Tiana (voiced by Anika Noni Rose), a young woman with aspirations of opening her own restaurant in a Jazz era New Orleans. A magical spell finds our heroine turning into a frog and engaging in a tense adventure on the Bayou. This adventure leads her to a colorful host of characters including a trumpet playing croc, a lovable but dimwitted firefly, and a fellow frog who might just turn out to be Tiana's prince charming. The songs in Princess and the Frog aren't quite as memorable as the tunes from past Disney features (save for a couple of winners from New Orleans native Randy Newman), but overall, this film is positively charming, and there's enough witty banter and high energy antics to keep both adults and children happy. You can't ask more from an animated feature. Hopefully, Princess and the Frog and Miyazaki's Ponyo have led Disney to the realization that's there's plenty of room for both computer animated films and traditionally hand drawn features.