Lost in the Plot

Disney Animation’s The Princess and the Frog is out this weekend, and it’s a fantastic return to a classic style of storytelling and animation. My personal highlights were Eric Goldberg’s Louis, Nick Ranieri’s amazing Charlotte, and of course Ray the firefly.

One upside of this traditional Disney fairytale being released in internet-connected 2009 is the amount of information available about the film online. In wandering the web I’ve come across videos, links and info about the production of The Princess and the Frog.

With the help of IMDB’s full credits, a rundown of the lead animators and their characters-

Mark Henn – Princess Tiana
Randy Haycock – Prince Naveen
Randy Cartwright – Tiana and Prince Naveen as frogs
Bruce Smith – Dr Facilier
Eric Goldberg – Louis
Nick Ranieri – Charlotte
Andreas Deja – Mama Odie
Ruben Aquino – Eudora and James
Anthony de Rosa – Lawrence
Duncan Marjoribanks – Big Daddy La Bouf
Michael Surrey – Ray

From Disney Animation’s official Site: Short, but very inspiring conversations with Ron Clements & John Musker, Andreas Deja and Bruce Smith. While those interviews aren’t directly on the subject of Princess and the Frog, they do have an awesome gallery of visual development artwork from the film.

From The Princess and the Frog’s official YouTube channel: Eric Goldberg draws Louis, deconstructs his process (always fascinating), and discusses the design evolution of the character. Bruce Smith draws Dr Facilier and explains his approach to animating the character, and Michael Surrey draws Ray and talks about discovering his style.

Also there, John Lasseter discusses the return to the traditional, sincere fairytale, and how it’s like finding a forgotten, favorite pair of comfy old shoes. There’s also a clip of Lasseter discussing hand drawn animation, which includes some fantastic clips of rough animation. I recommend checking out the other videos on this channel, lots of great stuff.

From Disney Animation’s official YouTube channel: Excellent (if brief) clips of rough animation show at ComicCon, and a clip from the film of Eric Goldberg’s Louis.

Lastly, AWN has a great article featuring Andreas Deja, Eric Goldberg and Bruce Smith, and PRX has an audio interview with Mark Henn and Michael Surrey.

I’m sure there is even more out there on the interwebs, but that’s enough links for one blog post. To finish, some high-res pics for your enjoyment!