African American Female Lead For Disney Cartoon

This week, the news broke that Randy Newman would be scoring Disney's upcoming The Frog Princess. This really rocked the boat in animation circles, seeing as Newman was set to replace Disney vet Alan Menken, previously the composer on Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Little Mermaid. One of the Mouse House old guard getting booted for a Pixar boy? And John Lasseter was wearing the boot?

But there seems to be a very good reason for this switcheroo. As the film is now being planned, the setting is going to be a hot and steamy New Orleans, our heroine is to be African American and the music, accordingly, is going to be jazzy. A couple of blogs have mentioned this development, but I found the source. I also did a little digging myself and, yes, it all seems to be true.

A lot of oranges and greens in the colour scheme, a black heroine, Randy Newman composing and Dr. John lined up to provide some of playing and singing - that's all I know so far, but I like the sound of every word.