The information that The Princess and the Frog is trending on Disney+ proves that the leisure big made a serious mistake after they canceled the 2009 cult basic’s deliberate spinoff collection. Launched in 2009, The Princess and the Frog was notable for a number of causes. For one factor, the film was considered one of Disney’s final 2-D animated efforts.
Loosely primarily based on E.D. Baker’s 2002 novel The Frog Princess, The Princess and the Frog adopted a waitress named Tiana who dreamed of sometime opening a café of her personal in 1926 New Orleans. Tiana’s life turns into drastically extra difficult when she kisses a prince who has been become a frog, and this fails to make him human once more.
As a substitute of reworking Prince Naveen again right into a human, Tiana’s kiss turns her right into a frog too, and the pair should discover a option to return to their human kinds earlier than it’s too late. Keith David’s villainous voodoo practitioner, Dr. Facilier, makes issues tougher for the pair, however Tiana and Naveen quickly understand they aren’t as totally different as they thought.
Disney Canceled The Princess and the Frog’s Spinoff Present Mid-Manufacturing
As they muddle by means of this misadventure, the mismatched characters achieve a begrudging respect for one another, and ultimately, a basic Disney romance blossoms. With a stacked supporting solid that features Oprah Winfrey, Terrence Howard, and John Goodman, The Princess and the Frog was a essential success that earned over $270 million on a price range of solely $105 million.
Nevertheless, the film was overshadowed by the next 12 months’s Tangled, which value $260 million and made $592 million upon launch. The modest success of The Princess and the Frog was additional outdone by Frozen in 2013, which value $150 million, however earned a staggering $1.28 billion upon launch. These two films additionally spawned spinoff reveals and, in Frozen’s case, a sequel.
In distinction, though Disney introduced that The Princess and the Frog’s Tiana would obtain a by-product present, plans for Tiana have been abruptly canceled in March 2025. Tiana would have adopted the title character’s persevering with adventures after the tip of the unique film, as she ran her restaurant on the bayou and navigated her chaotic private life.
The Princess and the Frog’s Recognition Proves Tiana Deserves A Spinoff Present
Whereas The Princess and the Frog did give Tiana a standard completely satisfied ending, there was loads extra story for this collection to discover if Disney gave the present the inexperienced gentle. Tiana’s aspirations to run a restaurant made her an atypically impartial and bold Disney princess, so it will have been intriguing to see how her plans performed out.
Sadly, virtually 5 years after Tiana was first introduced, Disney revealed that The Princess and the Frog’s Disney+ spinoff present wouldn’t go forward. Story particulars have been scant, however it appeared that the proposed collection would have adopted Tiana on a journey to the dominion of Maldonia. Nevertheless, the present will now by no means occur resulting from Disney’s cost-cutting efforts.
It is a disgrace, since The Princess and the Frog stays as fashionable with audiences as ever. The 2009 film spent every week in Disney+’s high 10 in late January 2026, proving that audiences are nonetheless going again to the bayou to relive Tiana’s first display journey over a decade and a half after The Princess and the Frog was launched.
A part of what made the unique film nice was The Princess and the Frog’s subversion of Disney Princess tropes, with the film re-imagining the usual components that had grown overly acquainted by the point it was launched. Tiana was removed from the stereotypical Disney princess, and this made her story really feel more energizing and extra authentic.
In comparison with the heroines of the Disney Renaissance’s 2D animated efforts, reminiscent of The Little Mermaid’s Ariel and Magnificence and the Beast’s Belle, Tiana was extra gutsy and audacious. She had a life plan of her personal and was unafraid to take dangers, and her story was by no means overshadowed by that of her love curiosity.
Disney Canceling The Princess and the Frog’s Spinoff Highlights A Greater Drawback
It’s simple to see how this method influenced later hits like Tangled and Frozen, which makes it all of the extra unlucky that The Princess and the Frog’s spinoff didn’t materialize. Nevertheless, the choice to cancel the present isn’t only a query of Disney failing to capitalize on the enduring recognition of the unique film alone.
Outdoors the Frozen franchise, the corporate seemingly has no thought tips on how to take advantage of the Disney princesses as a property. Stay-action reboots like 2025’s Snow White and 2020’s Mulan clearly haven’t impressed critics, and Rapunzel’s Tangled Journey was canceled again in 2020 earlier than Tiana was even introduced.
Thus, it’s clear that the Disney princesses as a unit aren’t spawning the spinoffs, reveals, and different media that they may create for Disney, and it’s powerful to not suppose that Tiana’s canceled present is an encapsulation of this concern. By failing to take an opportunity on The Princess and the Frog’s spinoff present, Disney missed a serious alternative.
- Launch Date
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December 10, 2009
- Runtime
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97minutes
- Director
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John Musker
- Writers
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John Musker
