http://jam.canoe.ca/Movies/2009/12/04/12041171-sun.html
'Princess' star reduced to tears By KEVIN WILLIAMSON -- Sun Media LOS ANGELES -- Mickey Mouse may be black and white, but that doesn't make Disney's The Princess and the Frog any less of a landmark. Yes, the titular frog is green. But for a studio famed for Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, it's the identity of its newest princess that reduced its star, Anika Noni Rose, to tears. The character she voices, Tiana, is African-American. "I just started crying. Even talking about it now, I'm such a wuss," says the 37-year-old actress, recalling the first time she saw her animated alter-ego projected on a big screen at a New York toy fair. "It was the most amazing, awesome. I don't even know if I have real words for it ... This is something I've always dreamed of doing." Yet even while this self-described "Disney geek" dreamed as a child, she remained realistic. "I do remember wondering to myself whether there would ever be a Chocolate Brown and not just Snow White. I mean, they named it (Snow White)! But I didn't necessarily feel deprived. When you're a child, you don't know. You're living in your world." Voicing Tiana, not surprisingly, exceeds all expectations, she says. "I could have been a dandelion and I would have been really happy. So this is like when your dreams take off and become bigger than what you had imagined." In the musical comedy, which will also mark the comeback of 2D hand-drawn animation when it opens Friday, Tiana is a waitress in 1920s, jazz-fuelled New Orleans whose lifelong ambition is to open her own restaurant. But those plans -- and everything else -- are derailed when she meets a Brazilian prince (Bruno Campos) who has been transformed into a frog by a Voodoo-wielding con man. But instead of returning the prince to human form when she kisses him, she's turned into a frog as well. Together, the amphibious pair, aided by a trumpet-playing alligator and a Cajun firefly, fight to reverse the spell. For Terrence Howard, who voices Tiana's caring hard-working father, the role presents obvious parallels both to the present-day political landscape and his own personal life. "When they began production on this film, the initial talks on this film, Barack Obama wasn't in the White House. So it's very apropos we have two African-American princesses at the same time this movie is coming out. It's a happy accident, a wonderful coincidence. But there's always been nobility in every culture and every race, just the same way there's geniuses in every culture and every race. It's nice to have Disney platform that." He adds, "It's also one of the easiest roles I've ever done because I've got two daughters who are my princesses ... (Playing the part) came from a natural inclination to teach my own children." Still, The Princess and the Frog remains a showcase for Rose, who appeared in Dreamgirls, won a Tony for the Broadway musical, Caroline, Or Change and starred in the HBO series The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. None of those roles compare to the impact -- culturally and on her career -- The Princess and the Frog may present. And she admits she still isn't prepared to be called a role model for young girls. "That's difficult. I'm honoured that people would think of me as a role model. On the other hand, I think that it's sort of dangerous to choose a person and lift them up so high -- because you know, I'm going to play a role that somebody doesn't like. At some point, they're going to be like, 'She was awful!' I think if we can separate those things and think I like how she handles her career and how she handles herself as a person, then I'm honoured." She believes the film itself will "mean different things to different people, as they sit in that theatre. It will mean different things, depending on what time they grew up in. For my nephew, it will be the norm. He will think nothing of it. It will be his first princess -- period. "For my mother, it will be something she's been waiting for ... And for my grandmother, it will be something she never thought would happen. Each person sitting in that theatre will have a different journey that they're bringing to the story and it will make the story different for them. "So I think that's something that's really beautiful about what's being made. Disney is Americana and we have simply opened a new chapter in Americana -- something that's been here for a very long time but hasn't necessarily been shared. So in that respect, it's just another step in the completion of the story of what America is in this fantasy world." For his part, while Howard is thrilled with the new ground the movie breaks, he also observes, "Disney has always covered most of the world in the films they have made because the little mermaid was a fish but every little girl could relate to that fish."
