First shot of animation: Stars spin and fall to the streets of New Orleans as fireflies

Remember when these looked really good? Hasn’t happened since Treasure Planet. Pencils and paper are back, and so are a lot of staff laid off with the transition to 3D, and they really take pride in it. Digital elements are rarer than they’ve been since their introduction over 20 years previous. They drew the dang water again, and it’s a breath of fresh air. Painted backgrounds! With paint! Lottie and Facilier move with such vibrance, and the constant dance in Naveen’s step. I love it.

And maybe the creators loved it a little too much. It lags in the middle, the plot and theme aren’t terribly consistent. After all these films it’s almost shocking to see a travel song followed immediately by another travel song with no incident between. It’s okay to tell Randy Newman no sometimes.

The romance unfolds very sweetly, and is easily the best part of the story. It develops in little looks and unnoticed moments during straight action, saving the sweeping moments for the musical numbers where they belong. The dance in the Evangeline number really is magical.

Happened to do this the first day of Splash Mountain’s transformation into Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. I’m hitting that SEO, baby.