I’ve gone to see The Princess and the Frog, Disney’s new animated film, and I came back disappointed. Make no mistake, I’m grateful that this film exists and that it wasn’t half-assed. One thing I wouldn’t accuse the filmmakers of would be laziness. Every frame, each line of dialogue, sang of the hard work that went into this movie, and that’s a positive sign if nothing else. Many things about it, such as the voice acting, were superb. But it still wasn’t enough to rekindle my faith in Disney’s animation wing, or to challenge the notion that their Renaissance period is long dead.

For starters, the story was not as well told as in many previous Disney films. You might think it is because most Disney classics are based on fairy tales while Princess is a story Disney made up itself, but the reality is that Disney is essentially making up the story no matter what. In its basic form, a fairy tale is actually not cinematic at all. The raw story structure in most fairy tales is bizarre, dreamlike and rambling, and most of the impact of the story comes from symbolism rather than interpersonal drama. Disney’s “fairy tale” films are so heavily adapted as to be largely unique, as they have to add progression and focus to the plot and to flesh out the one-dimensional archetypical characters.

The story in Princess is not carelessly put together, but it lacks dynamic energy. It fulfills all its story needs in a paint-by-numbers sort of way, without giving the audience time to really get to know the characters or to become fully immersed in the setting. And this is the important part: the characters are interesting and likable and the setting is cool. But we are rushed from place to place and event to event so fast that we have no time to bond.

You spend about three seconds here.

What should be fascinating and evocative becomes a mushy blur, and we witness the actions of the characters while we’re still unclear as to what their motivations are. The villain especially suffers from this–he’s flavorful, unique, and badass, but we don’t know what he’s trying to accomplish until the middle of the film, and even then it doesn’t seem to make complete sense. “Surely such an interesting fellow must have more to him than that,” we think. Unfortunately, we never get to see any more.

Also, and this is key in a Disney animated feature, the music was generally uninteresting. Musical numbers, sex scenes, and fight sequences all suffer from the same form of misuse in a mediocre film: they are put in not to advance character or plot, but because the filmmaker figures “it’s about time we had one of these.” Many of the songs in Princess seem obligatory rather than sensational, seemingly cropping up whenever a new character is introduced, a plot development occurs, or the setting changes. The Cornerstone Disney Plot Songs are all present-–the heroine’s Longing Song, the Helper Song, the Love Song, and the Villain Song–-but too little character development is done to give them emotional weight. If you compare the use of music in Princess to something like The Little Mermaid, in which every song serves an important structural purpose (as well as being memorable and entertaining in its own right), it just can’t measure up.

Reading what I just wrote, it sounds as though I hated this movie, which actually isn’t true. It’s just that disappointment stings so much more than plain mediocrity. I was hoping for at least a Mulan level of quality, and I feel that The Princess and the Frog fell short. I was hoping, just as Disney was hoping, that this movie would be a needed shot in the arm for their flagging animation department, and help transfer Disney’s focus back to hand-drawn animation and away from awful 3-D and live-action treacle. Although I guess that the palpable effort they put into this film, and the somewhat underperforming result, matter less in that regard than its box-office returns. Perhaps Disney will release more traditional animated features in the future, and if this movie is the reason why, then it was all worth it.