Disney Animation has released some beautiful pre-production artwork for their upcoming animated feature The Princess And The Frog. Set mostly in New Orleans’ French Quarter, the pictures have a rich and lush palate of colors that hopefully will be faithfully translated to the final project. You can check out the pictures below.
A jazz influenced retelling of The Frog Princess, the film marks the first hand-drawn animated feature from the studio in five years. After the disaster that was 2004’s Home On The Range, Disney had gotten out of the handdrawn animation business, choosing instead to concentrate on computer animated features as a hedge against their distribution deal with Pixar not being renewed. Well, Pixar and Disney decided to continue their partnership and Pixar’s John Lasseter became Disney’s Chief Creative officer and promptly returned the company to their creative roots by greenlighting this picture. Lasseter also brought on board The Little Mermaid and Aladdin directors John Musker and Ron Clements to direct. The two had been previously let go from Disney when the copany dissolved its handdrawn animation unit.
The Princess And The Frog will hit theaters Christmas 2009.
