Our "Princess and the Frog" Experience

We've been debating for a while whether we should take the kids to see the newest Disney movie "The Princess and the Frog" because we have tried to be cautious about what the kids watch. Both of our girls are "into" princesses (from books, toys and movie previews) and Chris is always up for an adventure.

While on vacation earlier this week we decided to go ahead and bring them to their first movie! We read the review on pluggedinonline.com and knew of some of the themes and elements. There were some things we weren't excited about. But the trailers and storyline looked cute. It was a good time since Brian had time off and Grandma was with us... so one adult per child:)

Chris settled well into one of the movie boosters. He loved seeing the screen better while sitting up high! He was too cute:)

Lydia started in Brian's lap but was in her own seat during most of the movie.

Anna stayed in Grandma's lap.... good time to snuggle! I'm sure Grandma was glad for the snuggle time :)

As we watched the previews we got a little worried. The previews seemed worse than the actual movie. The kids all did fine... Brian and I were just cringing and noting all the things that kids could be picking up or have questions about!!

The kids did well throughout the whole movie.....


although I have to mention that like MOST Disney movies that I remember there is always an element of MAGIC that causes trouble/harm to others in the movie and that the "good" characters had to "fight" against. This element was DEFINITELY present in "The Princess and the Frog", had we seen it before them we probably wouldn't have gone.


Since it was based in New Orleans, the Magic was a form of voodoo and extended throughout the whole movie... from palm reading, tarot cards, spells, calling to deceased spirits to help the "bad" guys and then dragging the Shadow Man to his death. While most kids may not understand all the elements of voodoo, the deceased spirits chasing down the frogs really got to Chris. He was still talking about it after the movie. And at one point he got out of seat and "hid" behind the seats in front of us and then sat on my lap.


After the movie I asked the kids if they liked it. My older two quickly said that it was "too scary". Lydia loved it:)


We should have known better because it was a Disney movie! I guess we were just hoping that this one wasn't going to fit the same scenario. There were some good points, I didn't hear anything that made me cringe that my kids were hearing (besides the Shadow Man scenes). And they saw a couple good themes about working hard and having dreams. Oh and that the whinny girl didn't get "everything" she wanted :)

Not a parenting moment I am proud of.... but in many ways it confirmed our hesitations about bringing them to movies. I didn't ruin them though, they haven't really talked about the scary parts!! And since Brian and I enjoy movies it was fun to share the "experience" with them... although they really didn't see impressed... LOL!!