'Princess and the Frog' Score Ruled Ineligible for Oscar Consideration

Variety reports this morning that Randy Newman's score for Disney's The Princess and the Frog has been ruled ineligible for Oscar consideration by the Academy music-branch executive committee.

The score is reportedly disqualified for falling into The category of "scores... diminished in impact by the predominant use of songs."

Newman's Princess score was the last musical on the list to be declared ineligible for consideration, the scores of Nine and Where the Wild Things Are having already been declared invalid.  The score for Crazy Heart was not entered for nomination consideration for this reason. 

According to Variety, it is believed by many that the fact that the Princess score was left on the list at all was an oversight, as the rule disqualifying scores dominated by song was created in the 1990s in response to a series of Disney animated musicals such as The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, who won in this the score category typically designed to honor dramatic movie scores - not musicals. 

Four original songs from the score -- three by Newman, one by Ne-Yo -- remain eligible in the original song category.

A musical set in the legendary birthplace of jazz -- New Orleans -- "The Princess and the Frog" introduces the newest Disney princess, Tiana, a young African-American girl living amid the charming elegance and grandeur of the fabled French Quarter. From the heart of Louisiana's mystical bayous and the banks of the mighty Mississippi comes an unforgettable tale of love, enchantment and discovery with a soulful singing crocodile, voodoo spells and Cajun charm at every turn.

Princess Tiana joins eight other Disney princess characters, who have generated $3 billion in global retail sales since 1999. Disney Princesses is the fastest-growing brand for the company's Consumer Products division reported .

Disney introduced its first non-white animated heroine in 1992's "Aladdin": a Middle Eastern character named Jasmine. Three years later an American Indian princess appeared in "Pocahontas."

The creation of the Chinese heroine from "Mulan" came in 1998. Other Disney princesses are the main characters from "Cinderella," "Sleeping Beauty," "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Little Mermaid."

The film also such stage (and movie) greats as Anika Noni Rose (who voices Princess Tiana) Rose, John Goodman, Jenifer Lewis, Keith David, Michael-Leon Wooley, and Peter Bartlett. Oprah Winfrey also lent her voice to the film as Princess Tiana's mother, Eudora.

Currently appearing in Shrek The Musical, Broadway favorite Jen Cody is also in the film as well, voicing Charlotte LaBouff.

The movie is written and directed by John Musker and Ron Clements and features the music of Randy Newman, who wrote 6 new songs for the film.

 

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