Disney princess expert Mark Henn, the supervisior animator on Tiana from this years Princess and Frog talks about his latest Disney heroine and his soft spot to often draw Disney princesses.

Since he joined the Disney studios in the late 70′s he supervised almost all Disney heroines. He shared supervising duties with Glenn Keane on Ariel, worked alongside James Baxter to animated Belle. Mark was solely responsible to design of Jasmine. Did animation for Pocahontas he also supervised the creation of Mulan and did animate Gissele in Enchanted.

It’s been a while since I wrote about The Princess and the Frog because there wasn’t much relevant to say that changed yesterday when new clips appeared on YouTube. Taken from an interview with the big chief John Lasseter.

The intro showed a little snippet of A Whole New World being also directed by John Musker and Ron Clements. From Princess and the Frog it showed little Tiana, the villain Facilier (notice how his shadows pushes the chair), the alligator and firefly sidekicks and Tiana with Prince Naveen in frog form. The footage shown reminds me of the slapstick and cartoony animation of Aladdin and Hercules.

In the Ultimate Disney forum, where the footage was posted, there’s a discussion that “the animation of Tiana is too squash and stretch-y” And not a Disney Princess worthy since neither of the older girls showed such comic. Others compare her with Jasmine’s cartoony animation even providing a collage of both girls.
Personally I always found Jasmine’s expressions not cartoony at all. Perhaps not realistic like Belle to name another Mark Henn girl but in the line that Aladdin had Genie, Jafar and Iago for the cartoony animation I felt it was good to keep the hero and heroine realistic.
Well just read what sotiris2006 wrote that’s what I’m trying to say here. -:)
The Princess and Frog is in a theater near you December 2009 and near me February 2010.