Princess and The Frog

So this is just a very quick post as it is 1 am and I don't have time to really catch up right now (I will try to do that soon)... But I wanted to post this fast as a heads up to other moms of "princess wanna-be's" who might be planning to see the new Disney Princess and The Frog movie. We took the bigger kids on Friday night. I will start by saying that the story and characters, etc. were super cute! Really great concept infused with a lot of great cultural influence from New Orleans/jazz/etc. I LOVED that princess Tiana is one of the first Disney princesses who finds success based on the principle of hard work and not just wishing on a star... (or being pretty and having a nice singing voice). HOWEVER ..... the villain in the movie was WAY too much for us. I realize that there will certainly be lots of differing opinions on this subject and lots of parents will be fine with it. But we nearly walked out of the movie. The villain is a voodoo doctor who does tarot card readings, has voodoo dolls, and a talisman with the prince's blood. When his evil plot begins to fail, he calls on the help of his "friends from the other side" or demon like spirits. His payment for their help is the promise to give them access to all the wayward souls in New Orleans once he gains power. And when his plans goes completely awry, his blood debt is his own wayward soul. The villain's scene ends with his screaming, horror-filled face being dragged into the flames of what I can only assume must be hell. His gaping mouth of terror is etched into his own tombstone, leading Seth to ask the question "mommy,why was that pirate so sad on the hard wall?" Let me just say, I wasn't quite ready to explain the spiritual realm to that extent of horrifying detail to my 4 year old. We simply said that the man was very bad and made bad choices and his conequence was that he had to go be with the bad people and he was upset about it. I am hopeful that most of the stuff went over the kids' heads and that they won't even remember it. And like I said, I know that some parents would be fine with the movie. I personally felt like it was simply too real. This was no "bippity boppity boo" Disney magic or wave a magic wand and the villain turns you into a toad kind of magic. Voodoo is a very real witchcraft that a lot of people fully practice. It is a very dark, sinister, and evil kind of magic that is actually put into use by people and those people believe that it works and is real. True witchcraft is not somethng to be made light of in my opinion and is definitely not something I want my young children exposed to. I wasn't really planning to take the kids to see a Disney princess movie and then have to have a real conversation about demons and hell and fortune-telling afterwards. Just too much for us. And the kids found it to be scary, especially the parts with the "spirits from the other side." Needless to say, The Princess and The Frog will NOT be joining our Disney video collection. bummer.