Introducing Tiana

This is why I am excited about new Disney films again:

Disney is going back to traditional 2-D, hand-drawn animation (for the first time since 2004) with 2009's The Princess and the Frog.

I don't have anything against computer animation - or rather, nothing against GOOD computer animation. Pixar, for example, makes AMAZING animated films. However, I am less than impressed by the rather ho-hum quality of the latest non-Pixar Disney films. No moving story lines, no musicals - what is that about? I want the rich tradition of the Disney films back - the awesome films I grew up with. I want something along the lines of Beauty and the Beast, not Chicken Little.

Fortunately for all of us, The Princess and the Frog seems to be a return to awesome, traditional Disney films - it will be hand-drawn, a musical, and the first Disney film since Aladdin to feature a princess (if you don't count Enchanted). Additionally, this film will feature the first African-American Disney Princess, named Princess Tiana (voiced by Anika Noni Rose) and it will be set in 1920's Jazz Age New Orleans.

Other reasons I have high hopes for this movie:

• The film will be directed by John Musker and Ron Clements, who directed The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and Hercules - that's an impressive resume in my book.
• Most of the voice cast is made up of actors who have Broadway experience - the highlight is Anika Noni Rose, who was in "Dreamgirls." This means no more "sound-alike" singing voices, which I've always considered something of a cop-out. Instead, we'll have a princess in the tradition of Jodi Benson (Ariel) and Paige O'Hara (Belle), who both spoke and sang their roles.
• Randy Newman (who wrote the score for A Bug's Life, Monster's Inc., Cars and both Toy Story films) will be writing the music for The Princess and the Frog. To be honest, I would have been happier if the legendary Alan Menken - the man who wrote the soundtrack to my childhood with his scores for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Hercules - was doing the score, but Randy Newman is great as well, so I'm not worried.