Stars: Voices of Anika Noni Rose, Bruno Campos, Keith David, Jim Cummings, Jenifer Lewis, Michael-Leon Wooley
Rating: G
Running time: 1 hour, 37 minutes
Release date: Friday
Right place. Right time. Right movie.
Just as Disney's storied animation studio decided to create “The Princess and the Frog,” its first hand-drawn animated feature in five years, Omaha native Jeff Draheim found himself working as a Disney film editor in Los Angeles. He applied for his first job as lead editor on a theatrical-release movie, and legendary directors Ron Clements and John Musker (“The Little Mermaid,” “Aladdin”) hired him.
That was in mid-2006, and the result of their work over the past 31/2 years opens nationwide Friday. Set in 1920s New Orleans, “The Princess and the Frog” tells the story of a kindhearted, hardworking girl named Tiana, whose lifelong ambition is to open a Cajun restaurant. She gets sidetracked when a frog appears, claiming to be Prince Naveen under a wicked voodoo spell. One smooch will restore him to human form. But instead of transforming Naveen back into a man, the kiss turns Tiana into a frog.
It will take the help of a jazz-loving, trumpet-playing gator named Louis, a snaggletooth Cajun firefly named Ray and an ancient swamp-dwelling expert on voodoo spells, Mama Odie, to help Naveen and Tiana find happily ever after.
The movie is classic Disney: beautiful heroine, handsome prince, nasty villain (shady New Orleans gent Dr. Facilier, who practices dark magic) and a lively musical score by Randy Newman. A half-dozen production numbers use ragtime, zydeco, gospel and Tin Pan Alley songs that audiences may soon find themselves humming.
The movie breaks the mold in other ways. The heroine, for the first time at Disney, is African-American. The voice talent is almost devoid of big-name entertainers, with the exception of Oprah Winfrey in the small supporting role of Tiana's mother.
And while audiences have flocked to computer-generated cartoon movies in recent years, many of them in 3-D, Disney is taking a calculated risk by returning to the hand-drawn 2-D method that made the Mouse House great.
Schools: Millard High School graduate, 1981; studied film and broadcast journalism at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and University of Southern California
Family: Married Adrienne Biggs, daughter of Maureen and Tipton Biggs of Omaha, 1993; son Adam, 11, and daughter Chloe, 8.
Career: Worked at Morin Advertising in Omaha, then KPTM, Channel 42, as an editor. Moved to Orlando, Fla., in 1991, working for Avid Inc. in video postproduction before being hired by Disney in 1994.
“Hand-drawn takes a bit longer,” Draheim, 46, said in a recent phone conversation from Los Angeles. That — and the manpower needed to make 24 separate drawings for each second on screen — makes it more expensive.
“But people have forgotten how beautiful hand-drawn is,” Draheim said. “So many movies coming out in CG now are just so-so. People will be blown away by the richness, color, texture and fluidity of this movie.”
Draheim said the new head of Walt Disney Animation Studios, John Lasseter, places a premium on development of character and story. Lasseter, who directed cartoon classics such as “Toy Story” and “Cars” at Pixar, has kept a close watch on “The Princess and the Frog” since he came onboard when Pixar merged with Disney in 2006.
Last week's Entertainment Weekly magazine gave the movie a rave review and a grade of A.
Draheim said working on “The Princess and the Frog” is easily the highlight of his professional career.
By age 10, living in Ralston, he said, he knew he wanted to make movies. He was mesmerized watching “The Great Escape” on television with his dad, Jerry Draheim, who worked in real estate and has since retired.
“The next day, I started writing a script and shooting movies on Super 8,” Jeff Draheim said.
At first he used the camera to edit, shooting scenes in order. Later, his dad let him use his Super 8 Moviola, which had a small viewing screen, a rewind handle and a splicer. Dad did a little home movie editing himself, Jeff Draheim said, helping him discover the power of this tool in filmmaking.
“I loved the editing process. You lock yourself in a room and create your craft, putting the pieces together. It was fascinating.”
Looking back on growing up in Omaha in the early 1970s, Draheim said, it now feels innocent and idealized, like the sitcom “The Wonder Years.” His best friend lived across the street. Neighborhood kids were glad to be cast in his films.
When he worked at Wendy's, manager Terry Wolfe joined him in making a short film for television, shown on Dr. San Guinary's film festival on KMTV.
Draheim said a combination of the Midwest and his parents gave him a work ethic that has served him well in the movie business.
After studying film at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the University of Southern California, he went to work for Morin Advertising in Omaha before finishing his degree. He edited video and commercials for Godfather's Pizza, then was an editor for four years at KPTM television in Omaha before taking a film postproduction job at Avid Inc. in Orlando, Fla. His goal was to work for Disney.
Disney hired him in 1994, when “The Lion King” had just come out. He quickly graduated from commercial tie-ins for “The Lion King” to theme park projects, documentaries and video games. His job as associate editor on the feature “Brother Bear” led to lead editing work on a DVD sequel and a cartoon short on how to hook up a home theater, starring Goofy.
By that time, Disney had closed its Orlando animation studio and moved Draheim to Los Angeles.
Though he had never met directors Musker and Clements, he was in awe of their past successes. When “The Princess and the Frog” came along, he threw his hat into the ring for the lead editing job. Over lunch, he hit it off with Musker and Clements. It helped that Clements comes from Sioux City, Iowa, and the two shared a mania for all things “Star Trek.”
“They were so collaborative, so respectful of everybody's opinions,” Draheim said. “That's how I like to work.”
Though editors are sometimes one of the last steps in live-action movies, Draheim said animation editors are involved from the start.
First, he said, comes a full year in development with storyboard artists. Each sequence is planned shot by shot, and dialogue is recorded with stand-in artists.
“My job is to piece it together from all those storyboards and scratch dialogue,” Draheim said. “We map out the sequence, setting the pacing and timing. We put in sound effects, fleshing it out for the director. We even put in (temporary) background music to reflect the proper mood.”
Master animators and voice talent join the party much later, after long collaboration between directors and editors who shape the movie.
Inside tips for viewers: Draheim said animators often make scenes better with how nonspeaking characters react to the one talking. And he has one bit of recorded dialogue, about 20 minutes into the movie. At the masquerade ball, when Zorro yells “En garde!,” that's Draheim. His kids, ages 11 and 8, love hearing dad's line.
What's next? Draheim laughed at the question. He finished work on “The Princess and the Frog” just three weeks ago, and future projects are wrapped in secrecy. What he knows is that he doesn't take his job for granted. While working in film seemed like something unattainable in his Omaha youth, Draheim said that feeling of being the luckiest guy in the world drives his passion for his work.
“With animation editors, it's first on and last off,” Draheim said. But the experience with Clements and Musker was invaluable.
“I've been to the Ron and John school of filmmaking. Their story instincts, how to tell a joke — I've learned a lot working with them.”
Contact the writer:
444-1269, bob.fischbach@owh.com
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