By Adam Hetrick
25 Nov 2009

"The Princess and the Frog" star Anika Noni Rose and her alter-ego Princess Tiana
photo by Eric Charbonneau (Rose); © Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Disney's new animated feature "The Princess and the Frog," featuring the voice of Caroline, or Change Tony Award winner Anika Noni Rose, premieres in movie theatres in New York and Los Angeles Nov. 25.

Rose — the Tony-winning Best Featured Actress in a Musical for Caroline, or Change; and Maggie of Broadway's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof — lends her voice as Princess Tiana, Disney's first African-American princess. Rose also starred in the film "Dreamgirls."

"The Princess and the Frog," featuring original songs by Academy Award-winning composer Randy Newman, will be released nationwide Dec. 11. The picture marks Disney's return to hand-drawn animation in almost six years. It's part of a recent tradition of such animated Disney musicals as "The Little Mermaid," "Beauty and the Beast" and "Aladdin." Both Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid arrived on Broadway as full scale musicals. "The Lion King," another hand-drawn animated feature, was also expanded to become a Broadway hit. "Tarzan" was also reinvented for Broadway.

The cast also includes Jenifer Lewis (Mama Odie), Peter Bartlett (Lawrence), Oprah Winfrey (Eudora), John Goodman (Eli "Big Daddy" La Bouff), Jennifer Cody (Charlotte La Bouff), Terrence Howard (James), Bruno Campos (Prince Naveen), Keith David (Dr. Facilier), Jim Cummings (Ray) and Michael-Leon Wooley (Louis).

Disney has reset the Grimm Brothers fairy tale in New Orleans during the Jazz Age. "The Princess and the Frog" is written and directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, who together delivered "Aladdin" and "The Little Mermaid" to Disney.

Newman penned a series of songs for the film inspired by the New Orleans sounds of jazz, zydeco, blues and gospel. Songs in the film include "Down In New Orleans," "Almost There," "Friends on the Other Side," "When We're Human," "Gonna Take You There," "Ma Belle Evangeline" and "Dig A Little Deeper."

Newman's new musical, Harps and Angels, will premiere in fall 2010 at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. He is known for penning the songs "I Think It's Going to Rain Today," "Sail Away," "Feels Like Home," "Real Emotional Girl" and "You've Got a Friend in Me" for the animated film "Toy Story." His music has been heard on stage in The Education of Randy Newman and Randy Newman's Faust.

Frog Naveen (Bruno Campos) and Princess Tiana (Anika Noni Rose) in "The Princess and the Frog"
photo by © Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.