For those of you that just can’t wait to get Jim Cummings’ latest feature film performance home with you, I have some good news! The Princess and the Frog will be on DVD and Bluray as early as March 16th, 2010.

You can pre-order your copy today!

Just a friendly reminder from your friends at The Cult of Cummings that Jim Cummings’ new movie, Disney’s The Princess and The Frog opens nation wide tonight. From the people who got to see it when it was in limited release, it’s getting great reviews with many review citing Jim Cummings as the best part of the film so it is very exciting.

You can read all the reviews as they come in over at Rotten Tomatoes.

But I want to know what YOU think! Did you see the movie? Did you like it? Let us know and share your thoughts below!

I wanted to give you a sneak peek at Jim Cummings’ two songs as Ray in the upcoming The Princess and The Frog.

I have been trying for a while to get my streaming audio player to work and I just can’t get it to cooperate so I am posting these on the honor system. These are meant for you to listen to as a preview so listen to them and enjoy but then, please, delete the file and support Jim Cummings’ career by purchasing the music yourself.

Gonna Take You There
performed by Jim Cummings featuring Terrance Simien on Accordion

Ma Belle Evangeline
performed by Jim Cummings featuring Terence Blanchard on Trumpet

If anyone knows of a good plugin or other tool for posting audio on Wordpress, please let me know. The search has been frustrating!

You all remember the controversy that the original teaser trailer for The Princess and the Frog rained down on Jim Cummings for his Cajun firefly character, Ray. Jim Cummings himself has stated that the character is his new favorite character on his resume.

But, unfortunately, an extended clip of the film that was displayed at the San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) this weekend brought the controversy back to the forefront.

The Council for the Development of French in Louisiana, or CODOFIL, a state agency charged with the protection and promotion of French in Louisiana, is taking issue with the portrayal of a Cajun character in the film, a toothless, lovesick firefly voiced by former New Orleans resident and preeminent voiceover actor Jim Cummings.

“It’s a continuation of the stereotyping of Cajun people, which is inaccurate,” CODOFIL President Warren Perrin said of the character this week from his Lafayette law office. “It has been done in so many movies over so much time, people think that’s the way we are — and it’s just wrong. I can list several other movies where they have portrayed us as backward, toothless, illiterate people who fart.”

This week, Perrin sent a letter to Robert Iger, the president and CEO of the Walt Disney Co., expressing his concerns and offering his organization’s free assistance in answering “any questions the movie’s producers, directors and promoters might have regarding the Cajun people, as well as south Louisiana history and culture in general,” according to a draft of the letter provided by Perrin.

Throughout, the letter maintains that same cordial tone, while pointing out that derogatory portrayals of Cajuns wound “the pride and morale of all ethnic groups.”
The movie poster for ‘The Princess and the Frog.’

A studio spokeswoman said the letter had been “referred to the appropriate office at Disney,” although Disney officials had not responded as of Friday.

Of the footage released so far by Disney, the Cajun firefly character — named Ray — figures prominently in only a few seconds of a short teaser trailer. (Watch it at the official “Princess and the Frog” site.)

Set against the backdrop of a beautifully lit French Quarter, he flits into the frame as the movie’s Princess Tiana agonizes over the idea of kissing a frog, prince or no. Ray points a thumb at the couple and says to the camera in a heavy Cajun accent, “Oh, ho! Look like this gonna take some time!”

His jagged, jack-o-lantern smile never shows more than eight or so teeth.

With a Dr. John song as musical accompaniment, the sleepy-eyed Ray then buzzes over to a neighboring building that has a sign emblazoned with the movie’s title. “That’s a catchy title right there,” he says, before a Dr. John lyric — “Dreams do come true in New Orleans” — brings the trailer to a close.

Perrin acknowledged that he is basing his judgment on only a tiny piece of film, but he said if his objections help head off a potential insult to Cajuns, then it’s worth it. “I’m simply saying, ‘Let me help you not make a mistake,’” Perrin said.

[SOURCE]

The article continues on to discuss the controversies that the lead character is not “black enough” (their words, not mine), the anger over her job as a chambermaid (which Disney has since changed) and the multi-racial couple.

The various organizations involved are petitioning to get Disney to change the character or remove him from the film. While I hope they do not remove his work from the film, if everyone is going to jump all over every new clip, it might be best.

What do you think? Are you offended by the firefly?

Let me start this by saying that I am a massive Disney fan. I usually give them much more benefit of the doubt than any other studio because I love so much of what they have produced. I am totally pumped about the return of classic animation and the classic Disney movie format. I also have been clamoring for a new princess movie for a really long time.

Let me also remind you that I am a huge Jim Cummings fan. I know that this role is important for him both because it is a pretty large, new role for him in a time when he’s mostly been sitting back and only playing his standard characters (Pooh, Tigger, etc) and we already know that he said this role is his favorite in his career. There are both big things for him and big news for us fans.

The official trailer was released a few days ago (as I tweeted when it came out) and I immediately popped over to Apple to watch it in High Definition. If you haven’t done so already, I recommend visiting http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/princessandthefrog/ to do so. My pumped level for this movie was high as heck.

So, taking all of that into account, what I am about to say is going to be total blasphemy but here we go.

I didn’t think it looked very good. This has got to be the first Disney animated trailer I have ever seen that I didn’t think looked good. Mind you, their trailer department is really good. They have made many a terrible movie look good in the trailer. But my reaction after seeing this trailer was just disappointment. It just looks…dumb.

Now, I am willing to reserve judgment until I see the film. Maybe they just did a terrible job with the trailer and the movie is really awesome. But I must say, after seeing this trailer, instead of getting me more excited, my spirits are a little dampened. The frog prince was so smarmy. I hope he’s not like that all movie, I will smack him. And the “funny” parts were…not funny. I actually rolled my eyes twice. That is never a good sign. I laugh at paint drying. Well, I do if it’s a funny color.

I hate to be a Debbie Downer but this is just my honest opinion. Am I alone in this? Did you think the movie looked awesome?

Let me know below.

Here is a fun little tidbit that I, for one, didn’t know.

In the original Disney movie, The Jungle Book, King Louie was a Disney invention as he was not in the original book. He was played by jazz singer Louis Prima.

After Prima’s death, the character of Louie, as we fans know, was taken over by Jim Cummings who played him in TaleSpin and other projects.

But here is the part that I didn’t know until recently. Jim Cummings’ performance and impression of Louis Prima’s voice was good, so good in fact that Louis Prima’s widow sued Disney for unauthorized use of her husband’s voice. Now, of course, Disney wasn’t using her husband’s voice but rather Jim Cummings’ voice and the matter was settled out of court. But in deference to this, King Louie has not appeared in any future projects including The Jungle Book 2 or House of Mouse(where a King Larry appeared instead).

So King Louie fans won’t get any new content from that character because, darn him, Jim Cummings was just too good!

As we covered on Twitter earlier, there is a great interview with Jim Cummings on StarWars.com for his involvement in The Clone Wars animated movie. You can read the full interview here.

If you visit the Cult of Cummings website (for those of you reading in a feed reader), the random quote sidebar spot has been updated to include some of the great quotes from this interview.

One part of the interview I wanted to specifically call your attention to, though, is this part. When asked if he had a favorite character, Jim replied:

I have a brand new favorite for a Disney animated feature coming out next Christmas called The Princess and the Frog. I’m Ray the singing Cajun firefly. New Orleans is my second hometown. I was a deckhand on a riverboat there when I was 18, so I have that Cajun accent down pat. Ray is a lovesick firefly who’s near-sighted and falls in love with the Evening Star. Of course, Winnie the Pooh and Tigger will always be favorites of mine too.

So I think its interesting to note that however large the controversy about The Princess and the Frog’s firefly may be, Jim Cummings himself is either unaware of it or doesn’t care and still cites the character as a favorite. I think its interesting as well that he says he has the accent down pat when that is what most people were focusing on as being racist. Just confirms my idea that it’s not racist if the name grew up there!

There are also some great little tidbits on how Jim creates a character and about meeting Mark Hamill and working on Comic Book the movie which is worth a look. Overall a great interview, better than most so thanks goes out to the Star Wars team for it!