Film #19 - The Princess and the Frog (2009)

The Princess and the Frog was an interesting one for Disney; a nostalgic look back at no doubt one of their most consistent formulas given a modern remix. Replacing the fairyland castles of old with a jazzy New Orleans and the idea of blood born royalty replaced by the spoilt daughter of the richest man in town TPatF was in one way a breath of fresh air for Disney, while on the other hand it wasn't.

As much as they gave their 'fairytale princess story' generating machine a fresh lick of paint, the workings on the inside are very much the same. It's fair to say that you may securely predict how this film will end within five minutes of it starting, and while I would usually say that is not so much a bad thing with Disney as much it is their trademark...if they're gonna really put all this effort into refreshing this genre they could of put some real effort into it at least?

Please, do not be mistaken. This film is very enjoyable with some very likable and fun characters and your standard set of sugar coated Disney songs littered throughout the film (although once again they fail to manage any songs that could stand proud amongst the classics) and is certainly delivering a more worthwhile and honest moral to the younger audience than a lot of animated films are managing too these days. Overall, you'll have fun watching this and while some of the new ideas are interesting I can't help but feel there was some real potential lost somewhere along the line with this one.

8/10

Film #11 - (500) Days Of Summer (2009)

(500) Days Of Summer is sort of a rom-com. Apart from it's not got many comedy moments in it, and the romance element of it is in a far more reversed order to most of the genre. This is not a bad thing. The exact reason I found interest in this film was all the buzz I heard of the different angle it was taking on perhaps the most tired and generic genre of them all, and it's worked so well. But luckily it's not the only thing that works about this. The two leads, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel have genuine chemistry (or anti-chemistry when the relationship takes the worse points) and there's no doubt that without this key factor the film would of flopped hard.

But the main thing that makes this film succeed and stand out in a boring and repetitive genre is it's far more realistic take on love. There is no fairytale ending too this and will no doubt disappoint those who simply want another film portraying the idea of perfect and true love. But for those who were waiting for the stagnant rom-com drama to finally find it's breath of fresh air, this is a refreshing and honest film about love with a pretty decent soundtrack to boot.

8/10