The Princess and the Frog

In this three-dimensional, computer-generated age, new studio chief John Lasseter’s desire to take Disney animation back to basics seems a risky proposition. But what’s surprising about ‘The Princess and the Frog’ is just how far back they’ve gone: this isn’t ‘The Lion King’ or even ‘The Jungle Book’: with its sensuous, hand-drawn animation, soft pastel palette and jazz-age setting, this is an exercise in retro recreation as rigorous and rewarding as ‘Far from Heaven’.

The plot is thin but fun, following the adventures of a poor New Orleans waitress with big dreams and a haughty prince of indeterminate foreign stock after they’re transformed into amphibians and marooned in the Louisiana bayou. Randy Newman’s songs are a little too blandly Randy Newman-ish and the story is uneven, but there are some great characters, some even better jokes, a general sense of good humour and that entrancing, eye-ravishing old-school animation.