document_title: The A-Team

question_text: who played face on the a team tv show

question_tokens: who played face on the a team tv show

root

text: The A-Team

text: History[edit]

text: The A-Team was created by writers and producers Stephen J. Cannell and Frank Lupo at the behest of Brandon Tartikoff, NBC's Entertainment president. Cannell was fired from ABC in the early 1980s, after failing to produce a hit show for the network, and was hired by NBC; his first project was The A-Team. Brandon Tartikoff pitched the series to Cannell as a combination of The Dirty Dozen, Mission Impossible, The Magnificent Seven, Mad Max and Hill Street Blues, with "Mr. T driving the car".[1][2][3][4]

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text: The A-Team was not generally expected to become a hit, although Stephen J. Cannell has said that George Peppard suggested it would be a huge hit "before we ever turned on a camera".[5] The show became very popular; the first regular episode, which aired after Super Bowl XVII on January 30, 1983, reached 26.4% of the television audience, placing fourth in the top 10 Nielsen-rated shows.[6] The A-Team was portrayed as acting on the side of good and helping the oppressed.

text: The show remains prominent in popular culture for its cartoonish, over-the-top violence (in which people were seldom seriously hurt), formulaic episodes, its characters' ability to form weaponry and vehicles out of old parts, and its distinctive theme tune. The show boosted the career of Mr. T, who portrayed the character of B. A. Baracus, around whom the show was initially conceived.[7][8] Some of the show's catchphrases, such as "I love it when a plan comes together",[9] "Hannibal's on the jazz", and "I ain't gettin' on no plane!" have also made their way onto T-shirts and other merchandise.[citation needed]

text: The show's name comes from the "A-Teams", the nickname coined for U.S. Special Forces' Operational Detachments Alpha (ODA) during the Vietnam War,[10] although this connection was never mentioned on-screen.

text: In a 2003 Yahoo! survey of 1,000 television viewers, The A-Team was voted the one "oldie" television show viewers would most like to see revived, beating out such popular television series from the 1980s as The Dukes of Hazzard and Knight Rider.[11]

text: Plot[edit]

text:
"In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire... the A-Team."
(Narration originally stated "10 years ago" instead of "In 1972".)

- John Ashley's opening narration.

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text: The A-Team is a naturally episodic show, with few overarching stories, except the characters' continuing motivation to clear their names, with few references to events in past episodes and a recognizable and steady episode structure. In describing the ratings drop that occurred during the show's fourth season, reviewer Gold Burt points to this structure as being a leading cause for the decreased popularity "because the same basic plot had been used over and over again for the past four seasons with the same predictable outcome".[12] Similarly, reporter Adrian Lee called the plots "stunningly simple" in a 2006 article for The Express (UK newspaper), citing such recurring elements "as BA's fear of flying, and outlandish finales when the team fashioned weapons from household items".[13] The show became emblematic of this kind of "fit-for-TV warfare" due to its depiction of high-octane combat scenes, with lethal weapons, wherein the participants (with the notable exception of General Fulbright) are never killed and rarely seriously injured (see also On-screen violence section).

text: As the television ratings of The A-Team fell dramatically during the fourth season, the format was changed for the show's final season in 1986–87 in a bid to win back viewers. After years on the run from the authorities, the A-Team is finally apprehended by the military. General Hunt Stockwell, a mysterious CIA operative played by Robert Vaughn, propositions them to work for him, whereupon he will arrange for their pardons upon successful completion of several suicide missions. In order to do so, the A-Team must first escape from their captivity. With the help of a new character, Frankie "Dishpan Man" Santana, Stockwell fakes their deaths before a military firing squad. The new status of the A-Team, no longer working for themselves, remained for the duration of the fifth season while Eddie Velez and Robert Vaughn received star billing along with the principal cast. The missions that the team had to perform in season five were somewhat reminiscent of Mission: Impossible, and based more around political espionage than beating local thugs, also usually taking place in foreign countries, including successfully overthrowing an island dictator, the rescue of a scientist from East Germany, and recovering top secret Star Wars defense information from Soviet hands. These changes proved unsuccessful with viewers, however, and ratings continued to decline. Only 13 episodes aired in the fifth season. In what was supposed to be the final episode, "The Grey Team" (although "Without Reservations" was broadcast on NBC as the last first-run episode in March 1987), Hannibal, after being misled by Stockwell one time too many, tells him that the team will no longer work for him. At the end, the team discusses what they were going to do if they get their pardon, and it is implied that they would continue doing what they were doing as the A-Team. The character of Howling Mad Murdock can be seen in the final scene wearing a T-shirt that says, "Fini".

text: Connections to the Vietnam War[edit]

text: During the Vietnam War, the A-Team were members of the 5th Special Forces Group (see episode "West Coast Turnaround"). In episode "Bad Time on the Border", Colonel John "Hannibal" Smith, portrayed by George Peppard, indicated that the A-Team were "ex-Green Berets". During the Vietnam War, the A-Team's commanding officer, Colonel Morrison, gave them orders to rob the Bank of Hanoi to help bring the war to an end. They succeeded in their mission, but on their return to base four days after the end of the war, they discovered that Morrison had been killed by the Viet Cong, and that his headquarters had been burned to the ground. This meant that the proof that the A-Team members were acting under orders had been destroyed. They were arrested, and imprisoned at Fort Bragg, from which they quickly escaped before standing trial.

text: The origin of the A-Team is directly linked to the Vietnam War, during which the team formed. The show's introduction in the first four seasons mentions this, accompanied by images of soldiers coming out of a helicopter in an area resembling a forest or jungle. Besides this, The A-Team would occasionally feature an episode in which the team came across an old ally or enemy from those war days. For example, the first season's final episode "A Nice Place To Visit" revolved around the team traveling to a small town to honor a fallen comrade and end up avenging his death, and in season two's "Recipe For Heavy Bread", a chance encounter leads the team to meet both the POW cook who helped them during the war, and the American officer who sold his unit out.

text: An article in the New Statesman (UK) published shortly after the premiere of The A-Team in the United Kingdom, also pointed out The A-Team's connection to the Vietnam War, characterizing it as the representation of the idealization of the Vietnam War, and an example of the war slowly becoming accepted and assimilated into American culture.[14]

text: One of the team's primary antagonists, Col. Roderick Decker (Lance LeGault), had his past linked back to the Vietnam War, in which he and Hannibal had come to fisticuffs in "the DOOM Club" (Da Nang Open Officers' Mess).[15] At other times, members of the team would refer back to a certain tactic used during the War, which would be relevant to the team's present predicament. Often, Hannibal would refer to such a tactic, after which the other members of the team would complain about its failure during the War. This was also used to refer to some of Face's past accomplishments in scamming items for the team, such as in the first-season episode "Holiday In The Hills", in which Murdock fondly remembers Face being able to secure a '53 Cadillac while in the Vietnam jungle.

text: The team's ties to the Vietnam War were referred to again in the fourth-season finale, "The Sound of Thunder", in which the team is introduced to Tia (Tia Carrere), a war orphan and daughter of fourth season antagonist General Fulbright. Returning to Vietnam, Fulbright is shot in the back and gives his last words as he dies. The 2006 documentary Bring Back The A-Team joked that the scene lasted seven and a half minutes,[16] but his death actually took a little over a minute. His murderer, a Vietnamese colonel, is killed in retaliation. Tia then returns with the team to the United States (see also: casting). This episode is notable for having one of the show's few truly serious dramatic moments, with each team member privately reminiscing on their war experiences, intercut with news footage from the war with Barry McGuire's Eve of Destruction playing in the background.

text: The show's ties to the Vietnam War are fully dealt with in the opening arc of the fifth season, dubbed "The Court-Martial (Part 1–3)", in which the team is finally court-martialed for the robbery of the bank of Hanoi. The character of Roderick Decker makes a return on the witness stand, and various newly introduced characters from the A-Team's past also make appearances. The team, after a string of setbacks, decides to plead guilty to the crime and they are sentenced to be executed. They escape this fate and come to work for a General Hunt Stockwell, leading into the remainder of the fifth season.

text: Episodes[edit]

text: The show ran for five seasons on the NBC television network, from January 23, 1983 to December 30, 1986 (with one additional, previously unbroadcast episode shown on March 8, 1987), for a total of 98 episodes.

text: Characters[edit]

text: The A-Team revolves around the four members of a former commando outfit, now mercenaries. Their leader is Lieutenant Colonel/Colonel John "Hannibal" Smith (George Peppard), whose plans tend to be unorthodox but effective. Lieutenant Templeton Peck (Dirk Benedict; Tim Dunigan appeared as Templeton Peck in the pilot), usually called "Face" or "Faceman", is a smooth-talking con man who serves as the team's appropriator of vehicles and other useful items, as well as the team's second-in-command. The team's pilot is Captain H.M. "Howling Mad" Murdock (Dwight Schultz), who has been declared insane and lives in a Veterans' Administration mental institution for the show's first four seasons. Finally, there is the team's strong man, mechanic and Sergeant First Class Bosco "B.A.", or "Bad Attitude", Baracus (Mr. T).

text: The team belonged to the 5th Special Forces as seen in the left side shoulder patch on Hannibal's uniform in the episode A Nice Place to Visit. A patch on Hannibal's uniform on the right shoulder in the episode "A Nice Place To Visit" indicates he belonged to the 101st Airborne during a prior combat assignment, but that patch was replaced by the 1st Air Cavalry Division patch in the episode "Trial by Fire". The patch worn on the left sleeve according to uniform wear in the Army is the current assignment of the person wearing it and in the episode A Nice Place to Visit shows that the team was assigned to the Special Forces with a tab Airborne over the shoulder patch. Also their berets in that episode are green and have the tab of the 5th Special Forces in Vietnam on them. In the episode "West Coast Turnaround", Hannibal stated they were with the 5th Special Forces Group. Then, in episode "Bad Time on the Border", Hannibal refers to his friends as "ex-Green Berets". Though the name they have adopted comes from the "A-Teams", the nickname coined for Special Forces Operational Detachments Alpha, these detachments usually consisted of twelve members; whether the four were considered a "detachment" of their own or had once had eight compatriots who were killed in action was never revealed. In the episode A Nice Place to Visit Ray Brenner is stated to have been a Major and part of Hannibal's team in Vietnam.

text: For its first season and the first half of the second season, the team was assisted by reporter Amy Amanda Allen (Melinda Culea). In the second half of the second season, Allen was replaced by fellow reporter Tawnia Baker (Marla Heasley). The character of Tia (Tia Carrere), a Vietnam war orphan now living in the United States, was meant to join the Team in the fifth season,[17] but she was replaced by Frankie Santana (Eddie Velez), who served as the team's special effects expert. Velez was added to the opening credits of the fifth season after its second episode.

text: During their adventures, the A-Team was constantly met by opposition from the Military Police. In the show's first season, the MPs were led by Colonel Francis Lynch (William Lucking), but he was replaced for the second, third, and earlier fourth season by Colonel Roderick Decker (Lance LeGault) and his aide Captain Crane (Carl Franklin). Lynch returned for one episode in the show's third season ("Showdown!") but was not seen after. Decker was also briefly replaced by a Colonel Briggs (Charles Napier) in the third season for one episode ("Fire") when LeGault was unavailable, but returned shortly after. For the latter portion of the show's fourth season, the team was hunted by General Harlan "Bull" Fulbright (Jack Ging), who would later hire the A-Team to find Tia in the season four finale, during which Fulbright was killed.

text: The fifth season introduced General Hunt Stockwell (Robert Vaughn) who, while serving as the team's primary antagonist, was also the team's boss and joined them on several missions. He was often assisted by Carla (Judith Ledford, sometimes credited as Judy Ledford).

text: Character traits[edit]

text: John "Hannibal" Smith is a master of disguise. His most used disguise (onscreen only on the pilot episode) is Mr. Lee, the dry cleaner. This is one of the final parts of the client screening process, as he tells the client where to go in order to make full contact with the A-Team. He dresses most often in a white safari jacket and black leather gloves. He also is constantly seen smoking a cigar. Hannibal carries either a Browning Hi-Power, Colt M1911A1 or a Smith & Wesson Model 39 as a sidearm, most often "Mexican carried" although he uses a holster when on missions. His catchphrase is "I love it when a plan comes together". Often said, usually by B.A., to be "on the jazz" when in the fury of completing a mission.

text: Templeton "Faceman" Peck is a master of the persuasive arts. The team's scrounger, he can get virtually anything he sets his mind to, usually exploiting women with sympathy-appeal and flirtation. However, he is not without integrity, as stated by Murdock in the episode "Family Reunion": "He would rip the shirt off his back for you, and then scam one for himself." Faceman is also the A-Team's accountant. He dresses suavely, often appearing in suits. Faceman carries a Colt Lawman Mk III revolver for protection, and drives a custom white 1984 Corvette with orange trim.

text: Bosco "B.A." (Bad Attitude) Baracus is the muscle for the A-Team, able to perform amazing feats of strength. He is also the team's mechanic. B.A. affects a dislike for Murdock, calling him a "crazy fool", but his true feelings of friendship are revealed when he prevents Murdock from drowning in his desire to live like a fish. B.A. also has a deep fear of flying, and the others usually have to trick and/or knock him out in order to get him on a plane. It is very rare that B.A. is awake while flying, and even rarer for him actually to consent to it. When he does, however, he then goes into a catatonic state. B.A. generally wears overalls and leopard or tiger print shirts in the early seasons, then later wears a green jumpsuit in the later seasons. He is almost always seen with about 50 pounds of gold necklaces and rings on every finger, and also wears a weightlifting belt. Baracus's hair is always styled in a mohawk-like cut. He drives a customized black GMC van, which is the team's usual mode of transport.

text: H.M. "Howling Mad" Murdock is the A-Team's pilot, and can fly any kind of aircraft with extreme precision. However, due to a helicopter crash in Vietnam, Murdock apparently went insane. He lives in a Veterans' Hospital in the mental wing. Whenever the rest of the team requires a pilot, they have to break him out of the hospital, generally using Faceman to do so. In Seasons 1–4, Murdock has a different pet, imaginary friend, or persona in each episode. Whenever one of his pets or imaginary friends is killed by an enemy, Murdock snaps and takes revenge (but never kills). Many times, when B.A is mad at Murdock for being crazy, Hannibal will side with Murdock in a sympathetic way. Once he is discharged from the hospital in Season 5, Murdock has a different job each episode. Murdock usually wears a leather flight jacket, a baseball cap, and basketball sneakers.

text: Casting[edit]

text: Although the part of Face was written by Frank Lupo and Stephen J. Cannell with Dirk Benedict in mind, NBC insisted that the part should be played by another actor, instead. Therefore, in the pilot, Face was portrayed by Tim Dunigan, who was later replaced by Dirk Benedict, with the comment that Dunigan was "too tall and too young".[18] According to Dunigan: "I look even younger on camera than I am. So it was difficult to accept me as a veteran of the Vietnam War, which ended when I was a sophomore in high school."[19]

text: Carrere was intended to join the principal cast of the show in its fifth season after appearing in the season four finale,[17] providing a tie to the team's inception during the war. Unfortunately for this plan, Carrere was under contract to General Hospital, which prevented her from joining The A-Team. Her character was abruptly dropped as a result.

text: According to Mr. T's account in Bring Back... The A-Team in 2006, the role of B. A. Baracus was written specifically for him. This is corroborated by Stephen J. Cannell's own account of the initial concept proposed by Tartikoff.[1]

text: James Coburn, who co-starred in The Magnificent Seven, was considered for the role of Hannibal in The A-Team, while George Peppard (Hannibal) was the original consideration for the role of Vin (played by Steve McQueen instead) in The Magnificent Seven.[16] Robert Vaughn, of course, actually appeared in the film.

text: According to Dirk Benedict, Robert Vaughn was actually added to the cast in season 5 because of his friendship with the notoriously prickly George Peppard. It was hoped that Vaughn would help ease worsening tensions between Peppard and Mr. T. In a later interview, Vaughn recounted how T's verbosity and loud personality would get on everyone's nerves, including his, even though he had been hired specifically because of his easy going and calming personality.

text: Notable guest appearances[edit]

text: Notable guest stars included:

text:
Dean Stockwell as Officer Collins in "A Small & Deadly War".
Wendy Fulton as Kelly Stevens in "Bounty". Fulton and Dwight Schultz had married a few years before the episode, and the episode plays on the theme of Kelly and Murdock falling in love.
Boy George as himself in "Cowboy George".
Isaac Hayes as C.J. Mack in "The Heart of Rock n' Roll".
Hulk Hogan as himself in "Body Slam" and "The Trouble With Harry". In "Body Slam", other WWF wrestlers such as The British Bulldogs and "Mr Wonderful" Paul Orndorff also made a cameo appearance.
Rick James as himself in "The Heart of Rock n' Roll".
David McCallum as Ivan Trigorin in "The Say U.N.C.L.E. Affair". McCallum guest stars as a former associate of Robert Vaughn's character General Stockwell. Vaughn and McCallum had co-starred together as friendly American and Russian secret agents in The Man from U.N.C.L.E.. This The A-Team episode sent up many aspects of the classic series, such as Stockwell saying "Open Channel D" (an U.N.C.L.E. catchphrase).
Joe Namath as T. J. Bryant in "Quarterback Sneak", season 5, episode 4.
William "The Refrigerator" Perry as himself in "The Trouble With Harry".
Markie Post as Rina Turian in "Hot Styles" and Sister Teresa/Leslie Becktall in "The Only Church in Town".
Pat Sajak as himself in "Wheel of Fortune".
Vanna White as herself in "Wheel of Fortune".
Yaphet Kotto as Charles F. Struthers in "The Out of Towners".
Shecky Greene as himself roasting Gen. Harlan "Bull" Fulbright, in "Members Only".
Della Reese as Mrs. Baracus in "A Lease with an Option to Die".
Steven Keats in the episode "Harder than it Looks" before co-starring in All My Children.
Professor Tanaka in episode "The Spy Who Mugged Me"

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text: Reception[edit]

text: During the show's first three seasons, The A-Team managed to pull in 17% to 20% of the American households on average. The first regular episode ("Children of Jamestown"), reached 26.4% of the television watching audience, placing fourth in the top 10 rated shows, according to the Nielsen ratings.[6] By March, The A-Team, now on its regular Tuesday timeslot, dropped to the eight spot, but rated a 20.5%.[20] During the sweeps week in May of that year, The A-Team dropped again but remained steady at 18.5%,[21] and rose to 18.8% during the second week of May sweeps.[22] These were the highest ratings NBC had achieved in five years.[23] During the second season, the ratings continued to soar, reaching third place in the twenty-highest rated programs, behind Dallas and Simon & Simon, in January (mid-season),[24] while during the third season, it was beaten out only by four other NBC shows, including The Cosby Show.

text: The fourth season saw The A-Team experience a dramatic fall, as it started to lose its position while television viewership increased. As such, the ratings, while stable, were relatively less. The season premiere ranked a 17.4% (a 26% audience share on that timeslot) on the Nielsen Rating scale,[25] but after ratings quickly declined. In October, The A-Team had fallen to the 19th and by Super Bowl Night had fallen still to 29th the night on which the show had originally scored its first hit three years before.[26] For the remainder of its fourth season The A-Team managed to hang around the 20th spot, far from original top 10 position it had enjoyed during its first three seasons.

text: After four years on Tuesday, NBC decided to move The A-Team to a new timeslot on Friday for what would be its final season. Ratings continued to drop, and after seven episodes, The A-Team fell out of the top 50 altogether with a 13.3 Nielsen Rating.[27] In November 1986, NBC cancelled the series, declining to order the last nine episodes of what would have been a 22-episode season.

text: Ratings[edit]

text:
Season
Time slot (ET)
Rank
Rating[28]

1982–83
Sunday at 9:00 pm (Episode 1)
Sunday at 10:00 pm (Episodes 2-3)
Tuesday at 8:00 pm (Episodes 4-14)
10
20.1 (Tied with Monday Night Football)

1983–84
Tuesday at 8:00 pm (Episodes 1-5, 7-23)
Tuesday at 9:00 pm (Episode 6)
4
24.0

1984–85
Tuesday at 8:00 pm (Episodes 1-2, 4-25)
Tuesday at 9:00 pm (Episode 3)
6
21.9

1985–86
Tuesday at 8:00 pm (Episodes 1, 3-23)
Tuesday at 9:00 pm (Episode 2)
30
16.9

1986–87
Friday at 8:00 pm (Episodes 1-8, 10-11)
Tuesday at 9:00 pm (Episode 9)
Tuesday at 8:00 pm (Episode 12)
Sunday at 8:00 pm (Episode 13)
Not in the Top 30

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text: In syndication[edit]

text: The series has achieved cult status through heavy syndication in the U.S. and internationally. It has also remained popular overseas, such as in the United Kingdom, where the show has been on-air almost continuously in some form since it was first shown in July 1983. It is airing on satellite and cable channel Esquire Network. The series was to begin airing over NBC-TV's OTA digital subchannel network, Cozi TV, in January 2016.[29] Forces TV started showing the series every weekday since October 17, 2016. The series has been airing in Spanish on Telemundo-TV's OTA digital subchannel network, TeleXitos since December 2014. The series is currently available through Starz.

text: International[edit]

text: The A-Team has been broadcast all over the world; international response has been varied. In 1984, the main cast members of The A-Team, George Peppard, Mr. T, Dirk Benedict and Dwight Schultz were invited to the Netherlands. George Peppard was the first to receive the invitation and thus thought the invite pertained only to him. When the other cast members were also invited, Peppard declined, leaving only Mr. T, Benedict and Schultz to visit the Netherlands.[30] The immense turn-out for the stars was unpredicted, and they were forced to leave early as a security measure. A video was released with the present actors in which Dwight Schultz apologized and thanked everyone that had attended.[31]

text: In Australia The A-Team was broadcast on Channel Ten. From 2010 7mate has been showing reruns of show. The show was broadcast in New Zealand on TV2. In Brazil, the series was broadcast on SBT from 1984 to 1989, later moving to Rede Globo in the early 1990s. In the UK, the program was shown on ITV, starting on Friday, July 22, 1983; when it return for its second run (resuming mid-second season) it moved to Saturday evenings. The series continued to be repeated on ITV until 1994. The series was later repeated on UK Gold from 1997 through 2007 at various times. Then in 2002 it took a break from the channel before returning 2005 to 2006. It was also repeated on Bravo from 1997 to 1999. It returned to the channel in 2009. In 2017 the digital channel Spike began showing the series from the beginning. Although ratings soared during its early seasons, many television critics described the show largely as cartoonish and thereby wrote the series off. Most reviews focused on acting and the formulaic nature of the episodes, most prominently the absence of actual killing in a show about Vietnam War veterans.

text:
They are all Vietnam veterans. The gradual assimilation of Vietnam into acceptable popular mythology, which began solemnly with The Deer Hunter, has reached its culmination with The A-Team: No longer a memory to be hurriedly brushed aside, but heroes of a network adventure show. Their enemy is a comic army officer, Col. Lynch, see Sgt. Bilko, see Beetle Bailey, see M*A*S*H*, whose pursuit of our heroes is doomed to slapstick failure. This is classic right-wing American populism; patriotic, macho, anti-authority, and is unlikely to be understood in Britain, where to be right-wing implies an obsequiousness towards officers and the status quo. But right-wing this series certainly is. The bandits, it turns out, are in league with a group of sinister guerrillas who are trying to destabilise the country. Thanks to the A-Team's hearts and minds policy, the villagers rise up and put them to rout, in a 20-minute series of comic-book battle scenes, over-turning cars and airplane stunt-tricks, in which not a single person is hurt.

Mary Harron, New Statesman[32]

text: Criticisms[edit]

text: On-screen violence[edit]

text: The violence presented in The A-Team is highly sanitized. People do not bleed or bruise when hit (though they might develop a limp or require a sling), nor do the members of the A-Team kill people. The results of violence were only ever presented when it was required for the script. In almost every car crash there is a short take showing the occupants of the vehicle climbing out of the mangled or burning wreck, even in helicopter crashes. However, more of these types of takes were dropped near the end of the fourth season. According to Stephen J. Cannell, this part of the show did become a running joke for the writing staff and they would at times test the limits of realism on purpose.[33]

text: The show has been described as cartoonish and likened to Tom and Jerry. Dean P. of the Courier-Mail described the violence in the show as "hypocritical" and that "the morality of giving the impression that a hail of bullets does no-one any harm is ignored. After all, Tom and Jerry survived all sorts of mayhem for years with no ill-effects."[34] Television reviewer Ric Meyers joked that the A-Team used "antineutron bullets—they destroy property for miles around, but never harm a human being".[35] According to certain estimates, an episode of the A-Team held up to 46 violent acts. Stephen J. Cannell, co-creator of the show responds: "They were determined to make a point, and we were too big a target to resist. Cartoon violence is a scapegoat issue."[2] Originally, The A-Team's status as a hit show remained strong, but it ultimately lost out to more family-oriented shows such as The Cosby Show, Who's the Boss? and Growing Pains.[2] John J. O'Connor of The New York Times wrote in a 1986 article that "...a substantial number of viewers, if the ratings in recent months are to be believed, are clearly fed up with mindless violence of the car-chasing, fist-slugging variety".[36]

text: Sexism[edit]

text: During its tenure, the show was occasionally criticized for being sexist.[16] These critiques were based on the notion that most female roles on the show were either a lead-in to the episode's plot, the recipient of Face's affections, or both. The only two regular female members of the cast, Melinda Culea (season 1 and the first half of season 2) and Marla Heasley (the latter half of season 2) did not have long tenures with the show. Both Culea and Heasley had been brought in by the network and producers to stem these critiques, hoping that a female character would properly balance the otherwise all-male cast.[37] Culea was fired during the second season because of creative differences between her and the show's writers; she wanted more lines and more action scenes.[38] Culea's character of Amy Allen suddenly disappeared between two episodes, and was only briefly referred to once in the episode "In Plane Sight", and a couple of times in "The Battle of Bel Air" in which she was cited to have taken a correspondence job overseas (in Jakarta, Indonesia). The latter episode also introduced Heasley's character, Tawnia Baker. The new character was also an assisting reporter character, but with a more fragile and seductive quality to her. Ultimately, she was written out of the show at the start of the third season when the network determined that a female cast member was not necessary. Tawnia left the team on-screen, choosing to marry and move out of Los Angeles.

text: As Marla Heasley recounts in Bring Back... The A-Team (May 18, 2006), although sexism was not prevalent on the set per se, there was a sense that a female character was not necessary on the show. On her first day on set George Peppard took her aside and told her "We don't want you on the show. None of the guys want you here. The only reason you're here is because the network and the producers want you. For some reason they think they need a girl." The interview continues with Heasley noting that on her last day of work Peppard took her aside again, saying: "I'm sorry that this is your last day, but remember what I said the very first day, that we didn't want a girl, has nothing to do with you. You were very professional, but no reason to have a girl." In Bring Back... the A-Team, Dirk Benedict also remarked that: "It was a guy's show. It was male driven. It was written by guys. It was directed by guys. It was acted by guys. It's about what guys do. We talked the way guys talked. We were the boss. We were the God. We smoked when we wanted. We shot guns when we wanted. We kissed the girls and made them cry... when we wanted. It was the last truly masculine show."

text: GMC van[edit]

text: The 1983 GMC Vandura van used by the A-Team, with its characteristic red stripe, black and red turbine mag wheels, and rooftop spoiler,[39] has become an enduring pop culture icon. The customized 1994 Chevrolet G20 used on the A-Team movie was also on display at the 2010 New York International Auto Show.[40]

text: A number of devices were seen in the back of the van in different episodes, including a mini printing press ("Pros and Cons"), an audio surveillance recording device ("A Small and Deadly War"), Hannibal's disguise kits in various episodes, and a gun storage locker.

text: Early examples of the van had a red GMC logo on the front grille, and an additional GMC logo on the rear left door. Early in the second season, these logos were blacked out, although GMC continued to supply vans and receive a credit on the closing credits of each episode.

text: The van was commonly said to be all-black,[citation needed] but the section above the red stripe was metallic gray. The angle of the rear spoiler can also be seen to vary on different examples of the van within the series. Additionally, some versions of the van have a sunroof, whereas others, typically those used for stunts (and including the one displayed in the aforementioned Cars of the Stars Motor Museum) do not. This led to continuity errors in some episodes, such as in the third season's "The Bells of St. Mary's", in a scene where Face (his double) jumps from a building onto the roof of the van with no sunroof. Moments later, in an interior studio shot, Face climbs in through the sunroof. Also, in many stunts where the van would surely be totaled, other makes have been used, such as a black Ford Econoline with red hubcaps painted to simulate the original red turbine mag wheels.

text: Many GMC/Chevrolet Vandura vans, and many of the very similar Bedford CF vans, were styled after the A-Team's van by fans of the show.

text: Merchandise[edit]

text: The huge success of the series saw a vast array of merchandise, including toys and snacks released both in America and internationally. There were several sets trading cards and stickers, action figures of the characters were produced by Galoob as well as vehicles, including B.A.'s van and Face's Corvette (available in several different sizes), as well as items such as helicopters, trucks and jeeps to fit in with the line, from model car manufacturer Ertl. Some of the other array of items available included jigsaw puzzles, View-Master reels containing 21 3-D pictures (over three reels) of the second seasonA-Team story "When You Comin' Back, Range Rider?", was produced by View-Master International (available both as a pack of reels, and also as a "gift set" with 3-D viewer), an electric race car track with A-Team vehicle covers instead of normal cars, and a TYCO produced train set with various accessories and pieces themed for the A-Team look. The set includes a Baldwin shark nose engine painted up like the Van and a matching Caboose. Following the original cancellation of the series, further merchandise has appeared as the series has achieved cult status, including an A-Team van by "Hot Wheels". In 2016 Lego released a pack that includes a B.A. Baracus minifigure and constructible van; the pack will unlock additional A-Team themed content in the video game Lego Dimensions, including all four team members as playable characters.[41]

text: Comics[edit]

text: Marvel Comics produced a three-issue A-Team comic book series, which was later reprinted as a trade paperback. Similarly, in the United Kingdom, an A-Team comic strip appeared for several years in the 1980s as part of the children's television magazine and comic Look-In, to tie in with the British run of the series. It was preceded, though, by a short run in the final year (1984) of TV Comic, drawn by Jim Eldridge.

text: Books[edit]

text: Several novels were based on the series, the first six published in America by Dell and in Britain by Target Books; the last four were only published in Britain. The first six are credited to Charles Heath. The books are generally found in paperback form, although hardback copies (with different cover artwork) were also released.

text:
The A-Team (adapted from the pilot written by Frank Lupo and Stephen J. Cannell)
Small But Deadly Wars (adapted from the episodes "A Small and Deadly War" written by Frank Lupo and "Black Day at Bad Rock" written by Patrick Hasburgh)
When You Comin' Back, Range Rider? (adapted from the episode of the same name written by Frank Lupo)
Old Scores to Settle (adapted from the episodes "The Only Church in Town" written by Babs Greyhosky and "Recipe for Heavy Bread" written by Stephen J. Cannell, although the novel features the latter episode first)
Ten Percent of Trouble (adapted from the episodes "Steel" written by Frank Lupo and "The Maltese Cow" written by Thomas Szollosi and Richard Christian Matheson)
Operation Desert Sun: The Untold Story, credited on the cover to Charles Heath but on the title page to Louis Chunovic. (This is an original story that tells of the events of the mission that got the team sent to prison for a crime they didn't commit.)
Bullets, Bikinis and Bells by Ron Renauld (adapted from the episodes "Bullets and Bikinis" written by Mark Jones and "The Bells of St. Mary's" written by Stephen J. Cannell)
Backwoods Menace by Ron Renauld (adapted from the episodes "Timber!" written by Jeff Ray and "Children of Jamestown" written by Stephen J. Cannell)
The Bend in the River by David George Deutsch (adapted from the episode of the same name written by Stephen J. Cannell and Frank Lupo)
Death Vows by Max Hart (adapted from the episode "Till Death Us Do Part" written by Babs Greyhosky - this is the only book in the series to be based on one standard-length episode)
Two "Choose Your Own Adventure|Plot-your-own-adventure" books, where the reader would read a section of text and choose from several options of what to do next, were also released as part of the same range, again only available in Britain.

text: In the United Kingdom from 1985 to 1988, four Annuals were produced, each consisting of text and comic strip stories, puzzles, and photos of the show's stars, with a further one produced by Marvel Comics consisting of several reprinted comic strips, released in 1989/1990.

text: A Panini set of stickers, which adapted six TV episodes (from the first and earlier second season) using shots from the episodes, could be stick into an accompanying book, with text under each inserted sticker to narrate the story.

text: Video games[edit]

text:
In 1983 the series was adapted into a video game for the Atari 2600.
The A-Team in 1985 on Commodore 64.
The A-Team in 1989 on Amstrad CPC, DOS, MSX, ZX Spectrum.
The A-Team in 2010 on J2ME.

text: Soundtrack[edit]

text: The original main theme by Mike Post and Pete Carpenter was released on the vinyl LP Mike Post – Television Theme Songs (Elektra Records E1-60028Y, 1982) and again on the Mike Post – Mike Post LP (RCA Records AFL1-5183, 1984), both long out-of-print; however, this was not the same version of the theme as heard on-screen. The theme, as heard on seasons two through four (including the opening narration and sound effects), was also released on TVT's Television's Greatest Hits: 70s and 80s.

text: Though no original music other than the theme has been released, in 1984 EMI issued an album of re-recorded material from the series conducted by Daniel Caine (reissued by Silva Screen on compact disc in 1999, SILVAD 3509).

text:
Theme From The A-Team (3:13)
Young Hannibal (2:57)
B. A.'s Ride (2:34)
The A-Team In New York City (2:43)
Bandits (2:08)
Taxi Chase (2:13)
The A-Team Escape (1:16)
The A-Team Prepare For War (2:08)
Showtime (3:22)
Move, Sucker (1:04)
Let's Get Busted (1:06)
Murdock's "Face" (3:01)
Helicopters (2:36)
More Bandits (1:22)
Theme From The A-Team (3:27)

tag: ol

text: Production notes[edit]

text: Awards[edit]

text: During its time, The A-Team was nominated for three Emmy Awards: In 1983 (Outstanding Film Sound Mixing for a Series) for the pilot episode, in 1984 (Outstanding Film Sound Mixing for a Series) for the episode "When You Comin' Back, Range Rider?" and in 1987 (Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series) for the episode "Firing Line".

text: Professional wrestlers[edit]

text: The show featured professional wrestlers such as Hulk Hogan, Professor Toru Tanaka, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, The Dynamite Kid, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, Davey Boy Smith (The British Bulldog), Big John Studd and Greg "The Hammer" Valentine, in most cases playing themselves. In the episode "Body Slam", which featured Hogan, wrestling interviewer and announcer "Mean" Gene Okerlund also appeared.

text: In addition, the music video for John Cena's "Bad, Bad Man" (on Cena's You Can't See Me album) featured the Chain Gang as a three-man A-Team—Cena as Hannibal, plus Cena's cousin Tha Trademarc as Howling Mad and Bumpy Knuckles as B.A.

text: Theme song[edit]

text: The opening theme tune was composed by Mike Post and Pete Carpenter.

text: Weapons[edit]

text: In early episodes the team used Colt AR-15 SP1 semi-automatic rifles (with automatic sound effects, simulating the M16), while in later seasons they used the Ruger Mini-14, and on rare occasions, the selective fire AC-556K variant of the Mini-14. Hannibal is also seen using an M60 machine gun (which Hannibal called "Baby") in some episodes as well as a Micro-Uzi. MAC-11s with parts added to simulate the Uzi appear in at least two early episodes. Hannibal's sidearms are either a nickel-plated Smith & Wesson Model 59, or a stainless steel Smith & Wesson Model 639. Unusually in the episode "Black Day At Bad Rock" he is seen carrying a Browning Hi-Power. Many antagonists and members of the team are seen using 1911s as well. Starting from Season 4, the then-exotic Steyr AUG bullpup rifle also became prominent in the series. "So many different firearms were used in the 1980s hit 'The A-Team' that it’s impossible to list them all. For five seasons, the wrongly accused foursome used rifles, handguns, submachine guns and shotguns to bring justice for the little guy while trying to stay out of jail. And the best part had to be that regardless of the number of explosions or rounds fired, nobody ever got seriously hurt except for the occasional flesh wound of a team member."[42] As a result, the American Rifleman declared The A-Team the Number One Show on Television to regularly feature firearms.[42]

text: Home media [edit]

text: Universal Studios Home Entertainment has released all five seasons of The A-Team on DVD in Region 1, 2, and 4. In Region 2, a complete series set entitled The A-Team--The Ultimate Collection was released on October 8, 2007.[43] A complete series set was released in Region 1 on June 8, 2010.[44] The set includes 25 discs packaged in a replica of the A-Team's signature black van from the show. The complete series set was released in Region 4 on November 3, 2010.

text: All 5 seasons were re-released in Region 2 with new packaging on June 21, 2010. The series has been remastered and was released on Blu-ray disc in the United Kingdom on October 17, 2016.[45]

text:
DVD name
Ep#
Release dates

Region 1
Region 2
Region 3

Season One
14
June 8, 2004
September 13, 2004
December 3, 2004

Season Two
22
April 12, 2005
July 4, 2005
July 13, 2005

Season Three
25
January 31, 2006
May 22, 2006
(R2 has different cover art)
July 20, 2006

Season Four
24
April 4, 2006
September 18, 2006
September 19, 2006

Season Five:
The Final Season
13
October 10, 2006
February 12, 2007
(R2 has different cover art)
February 21, 2007

The Complete Series
98
June 8, 2010
DVD: October 8, 2007
Blu Ray: October 17, 2016
November 3, 2010

text: Bring Back... The A-Team (2006)[edit]

text: On May 18, 2006, Channel 4 in the UK attempted to reunite the surviving cast members of The A-Team for the show Bring Back... in an episode titled "Bring Back...The A-Team".[46] Justin Lee Collins presented the challenge, securing interviews and appearances from Dirk Benedict, Dwight Schultz, Marla Heasley, Jack Ging, series co-creator Stephen Cannell, and Mr. T.

text: Collins eventually managed to bring together Benedict, Schultz, Heasley, Ging and Cannell, along with William Lucking, Lance LeGault, and George Peppard's son, Christian. Mr. T was unable to make the meeting, which took place in the Friar's Club in Beverly Hills, but he did manage to appear on the show for a brief talk with Collins.

text: Feature film[edit]

text: A feature film based on The A-Team was released on June 11, 2010, and was produced by 20th Century Fox.[47] Both Dirk Benedict (Face) and Dwight Schultz (Murdock) made brief cameo appearances in the film (as a prisoner using a sunbed and a psychiatrist overseeing Murdock's shock therapy, respectively); because of timing issues, these scenes were moved to the end of the credits. They were later reinserted for the extended-cut of the film.

text: Reboot series[edit]

text: In September 2015, Fox announced that they were developing a reboot A-Team series with Chris Morgan as executive producer with Cannell's daughter, Tawnia McKiernan, and Albert Kim writing. The team is to be made up of both male and female characters.[48]


document_title: Mohenjo-daro

question_text: who executed the site of mohenjo daro in sindhi

text: Mohenjo-daro

text: Etymology

text: Mohenjo-daro, the modern name for the site, has been variously interpreted as "Mound of the Dead Men" in Sindhi, and as "Mound of Mohan" (where Mohan is Krishna).[2][5] The city's original name is unknown. Based on his analysis of a Mohenjo-daro seal, Iravatham Mahadevan speculates that the city's ancient name could have been Kukkutarma ("the city [-rma] of the cockerel [kukkuta]").[6] Cock-fighting may have had ritual and religious significance for the city, with domesticated chickens bred there for sacred purposes, rather than as a food source. Mohenjo-daro may also have been a point of diffusion for the eventual worldwide domestication of chickens.[7]

text: Location

text: Mohenjo-daro is located west of the Indus River in Larkana District, Sindh, Pakistan, in a central position between the Indus River and the Ghaggar-Hakra River. It is sited on a Pleistocene ridge in the middle of the flood plain of the Indus River Valley, around 28 kilometres (17 mi) from the town of Larkana.[8] The ridge was prominent during the time of the Indus Valley Civilization, allowing the city to stand above the surrounding flood, but subsequent flooding has since buried most of the ridge in silt deposits. The Indus still flows east of the site, but the Ghaggar-Hakra riverbed on the western side is now dry.[9]

text: Historical context

text: Mohenjo-daro was built in the 26th century BCE.[10] It was one of the largest cities of the ancient Indus Valley Civilization, also known as the Harappan Civilization,[11] which developed around 3,000 BCE from the prehistoric Indus culture. At its height, the Indus Civilization spanned much of what is now Pakistan and North India, extending westwards to the Iranian border, south to Gujarat in India and northwards to an outpost in Bactria, with major urban centers at Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, Lothal, Kalibangan, Dholavira and Rakhigarhi. Mohenjo-daro was the most advanced city of its time, with remarkably sophisticated civil engineering and urban planning.[12] When the Indus civilization went into sudden decline around 1900 BCE, Mohenjo-daro was abandoned.[10][13]

text: Rediscovery and excavation

text: The ruins of the city remained undocumented for around 3,700 years until R. D. Banerji, an officer of the Archaeological Survey of India, visited the site in 1919–20, identifying the Buddhist stupa (150–500 CE) known to be there and finding a flint scraper which convinced him of the site's antiquity. This led to large-scale excavations of Mohenjo-daro led by Kashinath Narayan Dikshit in 1924–25, and John Marshall in 1925–26.[14] In the 1930s, major excavations were conducted at the site under the leadership of Marshall, D. K. Dikshitar and Ernest Mackay. Further excavations were carried out in 1945 by Ahmad Hasan Dani and Mortimer Wheeler. The last major series of excavations were conducted in 1964 and 1965 by Dr. George F. Dales. After 1965 excavations were banned due to weathering damage to the exposed structures, and the only projects allowed at the site since have been salvage excavations, surface surveys, and conservation projects. However, in the 1980s, German and Italian survey groups led by Dr. Michael Jansen and Dr. Maurizio Tosi used less invasive archeological techniques, such as architectural documentation, surface surveys, and localized probing, to gather further information about Mohenjo-daro.[3] A dry core drilling conducted in 2015 by Pakistan's National Fund for Mohenjo-daro revealed that the site is larger than the unearthed area.[15]

text: Architecture and urban infrastructure

text: Mohenjo-daro has a planned layout with rectilinear buildings arranged on a grid plan.[16] Most were built of fired and mortared brick; some incorporated sun-dried mud-brick and wooden superstructures. The covered area of Mohenjo-daro is estimated at 300 hectares.[17] The Oxford Handbook of Cities in World History offers a "weak" estimate of a peak population of around 40,000.[18]

text: The sheer size of the city, and its provision of public buildings and facilities, suggests a high level of social organization.[19] The city is divided into two parts, the so-called Citadel and the Lower City. The Citadel – a mud-brick mound around 12 metres (39 ft) high – is known to have supported public baths, a large residential structure designed to house about 5,000 citizens, and two large assembly halls. The city had a central marketplace, with a large central well. Individual households or groups of households obtained their water from smaller wells. Waste water was channeled to covered drains that lined the major streets. Some houses, presumably those of more prestigious inhabitants, include rooms that appear to have been set aside for bathing, and one building had an underground furnace (known as a hypocaust), possibly for heated bathing. Most houses had inner courtyards, with doors that opened onto side-lanes. Some buildings had two stories.[citation needed]

text: Major buildings

text: In 1950, Sir Mortimer Wheeler identified one large building in Mohenjo-daro as a "Great Granary". Certain wall-divisions in its massive wooden superstructure appeared to be grain storage-bays, complete with air-ducts to dry the grain. According to Wheeler, carts would have brought grain from the countryside and unloaded them directly into the bays. However, Jonathan Mark Kenoyer noted the complete lack of evidence for grain at the "granary", which, he argued, might therefore be better termed a "Great Hall" of uncertain function.[13] Close to the "Great Granary" is a large and elaborate public bath, sometimes called the Great Bath. From a colonnaded courtyard, steps lead down to the brick-built pool, which was waterproofed by a lining of bitumen. The pool measures 12 metres (39 ft) long, 7 metres (23 ft) wide and 2.4 metres (7.9 ft) deep. It may have been used for religious purification. Other large buildings include a "Pillared Hall", thought to be an assembly hall of some kind, and the so-called "College Hall", a complex of buildings comprising 78 rooms, thought to have been a priestly residence.[citation needed]

text: Fortifications

text: Mohenjo-daro had no series of city walls, but was fortified with guard towers to the west of the main settlement, and defensive fortifications to the south. Considering these fortifications and the structure of other major Indus valley cities like Harappa, it is postulated that Mohenjo-daro was an administrative center. Both Harappa and Mohenjo-daro share relatively the same architectural layout, and were generally not heavily fortified like other Indus Valley sites. It is obvious from the identical city layouts of all Indus sites that there was some kind of political or administrative centrality, but the extent and functioning of an administrative center remains unclear.

text: Flooding and rebuilding

text: The city also had large platforms perhaps intended as defense against flooding.[19] According to a theory first advanced by Wheeler, the city could have been flooded and silted over, perhaps six times, and later rebuilt in the same location.[21]

text: Notable artefacts

text: Numerous objects found in excavation include seated and standing figures, copper and stone tools, carved seals, balance-scales and weights, gold and jasper jewellery, and children's toys.[22] Many important objects from Mohenjo-daro are conserved at the National Museum of India in Delhi and the National Museum of Pakistan in Karachi. In 1939, a representative collection of artefacts excavated at the site was transferred to the British Museum by the Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India.[23]

text: Dancing Girl

text: A bronze statuette dubbed the "Dancing Girl", 10.5 centimetres (4.1 in) high[24] and about 4,500 years old, was found in 'HR area' of Mohenjo-daro in 1926.[24] In 1973, British archaeologist Mortimer Wheeler described the item as his favorite statuette:

text: "She's about fifteen years old I should think, not more, but she stands there with bangles all the way up her arm and nothing else on. A girl perfectly, for the moment, perfectly confident of herself and the world. There's nothing like her, I think, in the world."

text: John Marshall, another archeologist at Mohenjo-daro, described the figure as "a young girl, her hand on her hip in a half-impudent posture, and legs slightly forward as she beats time to the music with her legs and feet."[25] The archaeologist Gregory Possehl said of the statuette, "We may not be certain that she was a dancer, but she was good at what she did and she knew it". The statue led to two important discoveries about the civilization: first, that they knew metal blending, casting and other sophisticated methods of working with ore, and secondly that entertainment, especially dance, was part of the culture.[24]

text: Priest-King

text: In 1927, a seated male soapstone figure was found in a building with unusually ornamental brickwork and a wall-niche. Though there is no evidence that priests or monarchs ruled Mohenjo-daro, archaeologists dubbed this dignified figure a "Priest-King." The sculpture is 17.5 centimetres (6.9 in) tall, and shows a neatly bearded man with pierced earlobes and a fillet around his head, possibly all that is left of a once-elaborate hairstyle or head-dress; his hair is combed back. He wears an armband, and a cloak with drilled trefoil, single circle and double circle motifs, which show traces of red. His eyes might have originally been inlaid.[26]

text: Pashupati seal

text: A seal discovered at the site bears the image of a seated, cross-legged and possibly ithyphallic figure surrounded by animals. The figure has been interpreted by some scholars as a yogi, and by others as a three-headed "proto-Shiva" as "Lord of Animals".

text: Seven-stranded necklace

text: Sir Mortimer Wheeler was especially fascinated with this artifact, which he believed to be at least 4,500 years old. The necklace has an S-shaped clasp with seven strands, each over 4 ft long, of bronze-metal bead-like nuggets which connect each arm of the "S" in filigree. Each strand has between 220 and 230 of the many-faceted nuggets, and there are about 1,600 nuggets in total. The necklace weighs about 250 grams in total, and is presently held in a private collection in India.[citation needed]

text: Conservation and current state

text: An initial agreement to fund restoration was agreed through the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris on 27 May 1980. Contributions were made by a number of other countries to the project:

text:
Country
Contribution US$

 Australia
$62,650.00

 Bahrain
$3,000.00

 Cameroon
$1,000.00

 Egypt
$63,889.60

 Germany
$375,939.85

 India
$49,494.95

 Iraq
$9,781.00

 Japan
$200,000.00

 Kuwait
$3,000.00

 Malta
$275.82

 Mauritius
$2,072.50

 Nigeria
$8,130.00

 Saudi Arabia
$58,993.63

 Sri Lanka
$1,562.50

 Tanzania
$1,000.00

text: Preservation work for Mohenjo-daro was suspended in December 1996 after funding from the Pakistani government and international organizations stopped. Site conservation work resumed in April 1997, using funds made available by the UNESCO. The 20-year funding plan provided $10 million to protect the site and standing structures from flooding. In 2011, responsibility for the preservation of the site was transferred to the government of Sindh.[27]

text: Currently the site is threatened by groundwater salinity and improper restoration. Many walls have already collapsed, while others are crumbling from the ground up. In 2012, Pakistani archaeologists warned that, without improved conservation measures, the site could disappear by 2030.[4][28]

text: 2014 Sindh Festival

text: The Mohenjo-daro site was further threatened in January 2014, when Bilawal Bhutto Zardari of the Pakistan People's Party chose the site for Sindh Festival's inauguration ceremony. This would have exposed the site to mechanical operations, including excavation and drilling. Farzand Masih, head of the Department of Archaeology at Punjab University warned that such activity was banned under the Antiquity Act, saying "You cannot even hammer a nail at an archaeological site." On 31 January 2014, a case was filed in the Sindh High Court to bar the Sindh government from continuing with the event.[29][30]The festival was held by PPP at the historic site, despite all the protest by both national and international historians and educators.


document_title: The Princess and the Frog

question_text: what is the princess's name in the princess and the frog

question_tokens: what is the princess 's name in the princess and the frog

text: The Princess and the Frog

text: Plot[edit]

text: In 1912 New Orleans a seamstress, Eudora, is reading the story of The Frog Prince to her daughter, Tiana, and her friend, Charlotte La Bouff. Charlotte finds the story to be romantic, while Tiana proclaims she will never kiss a frog. Fourteen years later, Tiana has grown into an aspiring young chef who works as a waitress for two local diners, so she can save enough money to start her own restaurant, a dream she shared with her deceased father James.

text: Prince Naveen of Maldonia arrives in New Orleans to better his financial situation. After being cut off by his parents, Naveen intends to marry a rich southern belle, and Charlotte is the perfect candidate. Eli "Big Daddy" La Bouff, a rich sugar baron and Charlotte's father, is hosting a masquerade ball in Naveen's honor. Charlotte hires Tiana to make beignets for the ball, giving her enough money to buy an old sugar mill to convert into her restaurant.

text: Meanwhile, Naveen and his valet, Lawrence, encounter voodoo witch doctor Dr. Facilier. Inviting them into his emporium, Facilier convinces them that he can make their dreams come true, but neither man gets what they are expecting; Naveen becomes a frog, while Lawrence is given a voodoo charm that makes him resemble Naveen. Facilier intends for Lawrence to marry Charlotte, after which he will kill Big Daddy and claim his fortune.

text: At the ball, Tiana discovers she may lose the mill to a higher bidder. Tiana then meets Naveen, who, believing her to be a princess because of her costume, asks her to kiss him and break Facilier's spell. In exchange for the money needed, Tiana accepts, but when she kisses Naveen, she is turned into a frog herself. A chase ensues, and Tiana and Naveen escape to a bayou.

text: At the bayou, Tiana and Naveen meet Louis, a trumpet-playing alligator who longs to be human, and Ray, a Cajun firefly. Louis and Ray offer to lead Tiana and Naveen to the hoodoo priestess Mama Odie, who they believe can undo the curse. During this time, Tiana and Naveen develop feelings for each other. Meanwhile, Facilier makes a deal with the voodoo spirits, offering them the souls of the people of New Orleans in exchange for finding Naveen.

text: When the four find Mama Odie, she tells them that Naveen must kiss a true princess in order to break the spell. They return to New Orleans to find Charlotte, who is the princess of the Mardi Gras Parade, but only until midnight. Naveen tells Ray he loves Tiana and is willing to give up his dreams for her, but before he can tell her, he is captured by the demons and brought to Facilier.

text: After Ray tells Tiana that Naveen loves her, Tiana goes to the Mardi Gras parade to find a human "Naveen" marrying Charlotte; but Ray rescues the real Naveen and steals the charm that disguises Lawrence. Ray finds Tiana, gives her the charm and attempts to hold off the demons so she can escape, but Facilier kills him. Facilier then offers Tiana to make her restaurant dream come true in exchange for the charm. Realizing she would rather be with Naveen, Tiana destroys the charm. The angered voodoo spirits claim Facilier himself as payment for his debts and drag him to Hell, killing him.

text: Tiana and Naveen then reveal their love to each other and explain the situation to Charlotte, who agrees to kiss Naveen, as Lawrence is taken away by the police. However, the clock strikes midnight before she can kiss him, but the two decide they are content to live together as frogs. Then they bid farewell to Ray along with Louie, later to find out Ray finally joined Evangeline. Tiana and Naveen are wed by Mama Odie; and because of Tiana's new status as princess, they are restored back to human form after their kiss. Later, the couple returns to New Orleans to legally get married and celebrate, and together the two open their new restaurant. The movie ends with Tiana and Naveen dancing as the two stars, Ray and Evangeline, twinkle in the sky.

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Anika Noni Rose as Tiana/"Tia", a 19-year-old waitress and aspiring chef/restaurateur. She is a smart, hard-working, and independent young woman, but one who works so hard that she often forgets important things such as love, fun, and family.[9] Originally, Tiana was supposed to be known as "Maddy". Mark Henn served as the supervising animator for Tiana in both human and frog form, making her one of several Disney lead female characters he has animated.[10] Henn declared that he attempted to make a character that could stand on its own "without repeating what I've done on Belle, Ariel, and Jasmine", with Tiana having a more cynical and grounded personality. Rose's performance influenced much of the animation, with the actress even suggesting to Henn for Tiana to be left-handed like herself.[11]

Elizabeth Dampier voices Tiana as a child.

Bruno Campos as Prince Naveen, the prince of Maldonia. Naveen is a 24-year-old ne'er-do-well and playboy who has been cut off from his family's riches until he learns the value of responsibility. Randy Haycock served as the supervising animator of Naveen in both human and frog form.[12] As a prince from the fictional kingdom of Maldonia (which the directors describe as "located in an East of the Sun and West of the Moon location"), Campos adlibbed a French accent with his Brazilian accent to make up a Maldonian accent.[citation needed]
Michael-Leon Wooley as Louis, a friendly, neurotic, trumpet-playing alligator whose dream is to become human so he can join a jazz band. His name comes from the famous jazz artist and trumpeter, Louis Armstrong. Eric Goldberg, the supervising animator of Louis and other miscellaneous characters,[12] won the Annie Award for Character Animation in a Feature Production for his work on the film.[13]
Jim Cummings as Ray, a Cajun firefly. He and his vast family are close friends with Mama Odie, so he offers to help the frogs get to her. Ray has an unrequited love for the Evening Star, which he believes is another firefly named "Evangeline" (a reference to the 19th-century Longfellow poem).[14] Mike Surrey was the supervising animator for Ray. Ray's name comes from the blind pianist Ray Charles.[12]
Keith David as Doctor Facilier, also known as The Shadow Man, a voodoo bokor (witch doctor). Bruce W. Smith, supervising animator of Doctor Facilier, referred to the character as the "lovechild" of his two favorite Disney Villains: Captain Hook from Peter Pan (1953), and Cruella de Vil from One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961).[15] Smith was nominated for the Annie Award for Character Animation in a Feature Production for his work.[13]
Jennifer Cody as Charlotte "Lottie" La Bouff, a wealthy Southern débutante and Tiana's best friend since childhood who dreams of marrying a prince. Nik Ranieri served as the supervising animator of Charlotte as an adult and child.[12] Jennifer Cody won the Annie Award for Voice Acting in a Feature Production for her performance.[13]

Breanna Brooks voices Charlotte as a child.

text:
Jenifer Lewis as Mama Odie, a blind, 197-year-old voodoo priestess, who serves as the film's 'Fairy Godmother figure'. Andreas Deja was the supervising animator for both Mama Odie and her pet snake, Juju, and was nominated for the Annie Award for Character Animation in a Feature Production.[13][16]
Peter Bartlett as Lawrence, Prince Naveen's valet, whom Dr. Facilier recruits as a partner in his scheme by transforming him to look like Naveen using a blood charm. Anthony DeRosa was the supervising animator for the Lawrence character, whose design was influenced by the Mr. Smee character from Peter Pan.[14]
John Goodman as Eli "Big Daddy" La Bouff, a very wealthy Southern sugar mill owner and father of Charlotte La Bouff. While he spoils Charlotte with everything she asks for, he is a loving and generous man, and loves Tiana's cooking. Duncan Marjoribanks was the supervising animator for Eli "Big Daddy" La Bouff.[12]
Oprah Winfrey as Eudora, Tiana's mother who wants to see her happy and worries that Tiana focuses too much on her dream of owning a restaurant.[17] Ruben A. Aquino animated both Eudora and her husband, James.[12]
Terrence Howard as James, Tiana's father, who helped instil a strong work ethic in Tiana. He served in World War I as evidenced by a dresser-top portrait photo of him in a World War I uniform. The circumstances of his death were not stated in the film; however, his portrait is accompanied by the Distinguished Service Cross, a US medal awarded to soldiers who demonstrated great heroism or risk of life in battle.
Frank Welker as Stella (vocal effects), Charlotte's pet dog who talks to Tiana during the film, when she is chasing Tiana and Naveen as frogs on the table. She loves Tiana's beignets and begs at Tiana when she wants one.
Dee Bradley Baker as Juju, Mama Odie's green pet snake.
Corey Burton and Jerry Kernion as the Fenner Brothers, two real estate agents who eventually sell Tiana the sugar mill.
Ritchie Montgomery, Don Hall, and Paul Briggs as Reggie, Darnell, and Two-Fingers, three bumbling frog hunters who try to catch Tiana and Naveen as frogs. Their resemblance to the Three Stooges has been noted.
Kevin Michael Richardson and Emeril Lagasse as Ian and Marlon, the two alligators.

text: Production[edit]

text: Early development[edit]

text: Disney had once announced that 2004's Home on the Range would be their last traditionally animated film. After the company's acquisition of Pixar in early 2006, Ed Catmull and John Lasseter, the new president and chief creative officer of Disney Animation Studios, reversed this decision and reinstated hand-drawn animation at the studio.[18] Many animators who had either been laid off or had left the studio when the traditional animation units were dissolved in 2003 were located and re-hired for the project.[19] Lasseter also brought back directors Ron Clements and John Musker, whose earlier works include The Great Mouse Detective (1986), The Little Mermaid (1989), Aladdin (1992), Hercules (1997), and Treasure Planet (2002).[20][21] The duo had left the company in 2005, but Lasseter requested their return to Disney to direct and write the film and had let them choose the style of animation (traditional or CGI) they wanted to use.[14]

text: The story for the film began development by merging two separate projects in development at Disney and Pixar at the time, both based around the "Frog Prince" fairy tale.[14][19] One of the projects was based on E. D. Baker's The Frog Princess, in which the story's heroine (Princess Emma) kisses a prince turned frog (Prince Eadric), only to become a frog herself.[19] The Princess and the Frog returns to the musical film format used in many of the previously successful Disney animated films, with a style Musker and Clements declared, like with Aladdin and The Little Mermaid, had inspiration from Golden Age Disney features such as Cinderella.[11]

text: Musker and Clements thought that given all fairy tales were set in Europe, they could do an American fairy tale.[11] They stated that they chose New Orleans as a tribute to the history of the city, for its "magical" qualities, and because it was Lasseter's favorite city.[14][22] The directors spent ten days in Louisiana before starting to write the film.[11]

text: The Princess and the Frog was originally announced as The Frog Princess in July 2006,[18] and early concepts and songs were presented to the public at the Walt Disney Company's annual shareholders' meeting in March 2007.[23] These announcements drew criticism from African-American media outlets, due to elements of the Frog Princess story, characters, and settings considered distasteful.[24][25] African-American critics disapproved of the original name for the heroine, "Maddy", due to its similarity to the derogatory term "mammy".[24] Also protested were Maddy's original career as a chambermaid,[25] the choice to have the black heroine's love interest be a non-black prince, which upset opponents of on-screen interracial romance,[24] and the use of a black male voodoo witchdoctor as the film's villain.[24] The Frog Princess title was also thought by critics to be a slur on French people.[26] Also questioned was the film's setting of New Orleans, which had been heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, resulting in the expulsion of a large number of mostly black residents.[27] Critics claimed the choice of New Orleans as the setting for a Disney film with a black heroine was an affront to the Katrina victims' plight.[24][27]

text: In response to these early criticisms, the film's title was changed in May 2007 from The Frog Princess to The Princess and the Frog. The name "Maddy" was changed to "Tiana",[26][28] and the character's occupation was altered from chambermaid to waitress.[24] Talk show host Oprah Winfrey was hired as a technical consultant for the film, leading to her taking a voice acting role in the film as Tiana's mother Eudora.[14]

text: Writing and themes[edit]

text: The head of story, Don Hall, described the plot as a fairy tale "twisted enough that it seems new and fresh", with a kingdom that is a modern city, a handsome prince that is a "knuckleheaded playboy" and a variation on the fairy godmother with Mama Odie. Co-writer Rob Edwards also said The Princess and the Frog was "a princess movie for people who don't like princess movies". As the writers thought Tiana's character motivation of simply dreaming of having her own restaurant was not appealing enough, they expanded so it was her father's as well, with the extra philosophy of "food bringing people together from all walks of life". Musker and Clements stated that while Tiana already starts as a sympathetic character, the events of the plot make her "understand things in a deeper level" and change people around her. Both protagonists would learn from each other — Naveen to take responsibilities, Tiana to enjoy life — as well as figuring from Ray's passion for Evangeline that the perfect balance is brought by having someone you love to share the experience.[11] Tiana became the first African-American Disney Princess.[29][30]

text: Voice cast[edit]

text: On December 1, 2006, a detailed casting call was announced for the film at the Manhattan Theatre Source forum.[31] The casting call states the film as being an American fairy tale musical set in New Orleans during the 1920s Jazz Age and provides a detailed list of the film's major characters.

text: In February 2007, it was reported that Dreamgirls actresses Jennifer Hudson and Anika Noni Rose were top contenders for the voice of Tiana, and that Alicia Keys directly contacted Walt Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook about voicing the role.[32] It was later reported that Tyra Banks was considered for the role as well.[33] By April 2007, it was confirmed that Rose would be voicing Tiana.[34] Three months later, it was reported that Keith David would be doing the voice of Dr. Facilier, the villain of the film.[35]

text: Animation and design[edit]

text: Clements and Musker had agreed from very early on that the style they were aiming for was primarily that of Lady and the Tramp (1955), a film which they and John Lasseter feel represents "the pinnacle of Disney's style".[36] "After that, everything started becoming more stylized, like Sleeping Beauty, 101 Dalmatians – which are fantastic films as well, but there's a particular style (to 'Lady and the Tramp') that's so classically Disney."[37] Lady and the Tramp also heavily informed the style of the New Orleans scenes, while Disney's Bambi (1942) served as the template for the bayou scenes.[36] Bambi was described as a stylistic reference for the painted backgrounds, as according to art director Ian Gooding "Bambi painted what it feels like to be in the forest instead of the forest" so The Princess and the Frog would in turn try capturing the essence of roaming through New Orleans.[11]

text: The former trend in Disney's hand-drawn features where the characters and cinematography were influenced by a CGI-look has been abandoned. Andreas Deja, a veteran Disney animator who supervised the character of Mama Odie, says "I always thought that maybe we should distinguish ourselves to go back to what 2D is good at, which is focusing on what the line can do rather than volume, which is a CG kind of thing. So we are doing less extravagant Treasure Planet kind of treatments. You have to create a world but [we're doing it more simply]. What we're trying to do with Princess and the Frog is hook up with things that the old guys did earlier. It's not going to be graphic...".[38] Deja also mentions that Lasseter was aiming for the Disney sculptural and dimensional look of the 1950s: "All those things that were non-graphic, which means go easy on the straight lines and have one volume flow into the other – an organic feel to the drawing."[38] Lasseter also felt that traditional animation created more character believability.[39] For example, with Louis the alligator, created by Eric Goldberg, Lasseter said: "It's the believability of this large character being able to move around quite like that."[39] Choreographer Betsy Baytos was brought by the directors to lead a team of eccentric dancers that gave reference to make each character a different style of movement. The character design tried to create beautiful drawings through subtle shapes, particularly for most characters being human. For the frog versions of Tiana and Naveen, while the animators started with realistic designs, they eventually went for cutesy characters "removing all that is unappealing in frogs", similar to Pinocchio's Jiminy Cricket.[11]

text: Toon Boom Animation's Toon Boom Harmony software was used as the main software package for the production of the film, as the Computer Animation Production System (CAPS) system that Disney developed with Pixar in the 1980s for use on their previous traditionally animated films had become outdated.[40] The Harmony software was augmented with a number of plug-ins to provide CAPS-like effects such as shading on cheeks and smoke effects.[16][38] The reinstated traditional unit's first production, a 2007 Goofy cartoon short entitled How to Hook Up Your Home Theater, was partly animated without paper by using Harmony and Wacom Cintiq pressure-sensitive tablets. The character animators found some difficulty with this approach, and decided to use traditional paper and pencil drawings, which were then scanned into the computer systems, for The Princess and the Frog.[16]

text: The one exception to the new Toon Boom Harmony pipeline was the "Almost There" dream sequence, which utilized an Art Deco graphic style based on the art of Harlem Renaissance painter Aaron Douglas.[41] Supervised by Eric Goldberg and designed by Sue Nichols,[42] the "Almost There" sequence's character animation was done on paper without going through the clean-up animation department,[14] and scanned directly into Photoshop. The artwork was then enhanced to affect the appearance of painted strokes and fills, and combined with backgrounds, using Adobe After Effects.[15][16]

text: The visual effects and backgrounds for the film were created digitally using Cintiq tablet displays.[16][43] Marlon West, one of Disney's veteran animation visual effects supervisors, says about the production; "Those guys had this bright idea to bring back hand-drawn animation, but everything had to be started again from the ground up. One of the first things we did was focus on producing shorts, to help us re-introduce the 2D pipeline. I worked as vfx supervisor on the Goofy short, How to Hook Up Your Home Theater. It was a real plus for the effects department, so we went paperless for The Princess and the Frog." The backgrounds were painted digitally using Adobe Photoshop, and many of the architectural elements were based upon 3D models built in Autodesk Maya.[16] Much of the clean-up animation, digital ink-and-paint, and compositing were outsourced to third-party companies in Orlando, Florida (Premise Entertainment), Toronto, Canada (Yowza Digital Animation), and Brooklin, São Paulo, Brazil (HGN Produções)[12]

text: Music[edit]

text: During Disney's 2007 shareholder meeting, Randy Newman and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band performed the film's opening number, "Down in New Orleans", with famous New Orleans singer Dr. John singing, while slides of pre-production art from the film played on a screen.[23] Other songs in the film include "Almost There" (a solo for Tiana), "Dig a Little Deeper" (a song for Mama Odie), "When We're Human" (a song for Louis, Tiana and Naveen [as frogs]), "Friends on the Other Side" (a solo for Doctor Facilier), and "Gonna Take You There" and "Ma Belle Evangeline" (two solos for Ray).[23] Newman composed, arranged, and conducted the music for the film, a mixture of jazz, zydeco, blues, and gospel styles performed by the voice cast members for the respective characters while R&B singer-songwriter Ne-Yo wrote and performed the end title song "Never Knew I Needed", an R&B love song referring to the romance between the film's two main characters, Tiana and Naveen. Supported by a music video by Melina, "Never Knew I Needed" was issued to radio outlets as a commercial single from the Princess and the Frog soundtrack.[44]

text: The film's soundtrack album, The Princess and the Frog: Original Songs and Score, contains the ten original songs from the film and seven instrumental pieces. The soundtrack was released on November 23, 2009, the day before the limited release of the film in New York and Los Angeles.[45]

text: Release[edit]

text: The film premiered in theaters with a limited run in New York and Los Angeles beginning on November 25, 2009, followed by wide release on December 11, 2009.[46] The film was originally set for release on Christmas Day 2009, but its release date was changed due to a competing family film, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, scheduled for release the same day.[47] The Princess and the Frog will have a limited re-release in AMC Theatres, lasting from October 6-12, 2017 as part of the Dream Big, Princess campaign.[48][49]

text: Marketing[edit]

text: The Princess and the Frog was supported by a wide array of merchandise leading up to and following the film's release. Although Disney's main marketing push was not set to begin until November 2009, positive word-of-mouth promotion created demand for merchandise well in advance of the film.[50] Princess Tiana costumes were selling out prior to Halloween 2009, and a gift set of Tiana-themed hair-care products from Carol's Daughter sold out in seven hours on the company's website.[50] Other planned merchandise includes a cookbook for children and even a wedding gown.[50] Princess Tiana was also featured a few months before the release in the Disney on Ice: Let's Celebrate! show.[51] The film itself was promoted through advertisements, including one from GEICO where Naveen, as a frog, converses with the company's gecko mascot.[52]

text: A live parade and show called Tiana's Showboat Jubilee! premiered on October 26, 2009, at the Magic Kingdom theme park at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida,[53] and on November 5 at Disneyland in California.[54] In Disneyland, actors in New Orleans Square paraded to the Rivers of America and boarded the park's steamboat.[54] From there, the cast, starring Princess Tiana, Prince Naveen, Louis the alligator, and Doctor Facilier, would sing songs from the movie, following a short storyline taking place after the events of the film. The Disneyland version's actors actually partook in singing, while the Walt Disney World rendition incorporated lip-syncing.[54]

text: Tiana's Showboat Jubilee! ran at both parks until January 3, 2010.[53][54] At Disneyland Park, the show was replaced by a land-based event called Princess Tiana's Mardi Gras Celebration, which features Princess Tiana along with five of the original presentation's "Mardi Gras dancers" and the park's "Jambalaya Jazz Band" as they perform songs from the movie.[55] "Tiana's Mardi Gras Celebration" officially ended on October 3, 2010. However, it returned to Disneyland from 2011-2013 as part of the "Limited Time Magic" family-fun weekends.[56][57][58]

text: Tiana also appears in Disneyland Paris' New Generation Festival.[59] Some of the characters appear frequently during World of Color, the nightly fountain and projection show presented at Disney California Adventure. Disney announced on June 4, 2009, that they would release a video game inspired by the film and it was released on November 2009 exclusively for Wii and Nintendo DS platforms. It has been officially described an "adventure through the exciting world of New Orleans in a family-oriented video game", featuring events from the film and challenges for Princess Tiana.[60]

text: Home media[edit]

text: The Princess and the Frog was released in North America on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on March 16, 2010.[61]

text: The film is available on DVD, Blu-ray Disc, and Blu-ray Disc combo pack editions; the combo pack includes DVD and digital copies of the film, along with the Blu-ray Disc version.[61] The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc in Australia on June 2, 2010, and on June 21, 2010, in the United Kingdom. As of December 2010 the DVD has sold 4,475,227 copies and has made $71.3 million in DVD sales,[62] making it the ninth-best-selling DVD of 2010.[63]

text: Reception[edit]

text: The financial and critical success of The Princess and the Frog persuaded Disney to green-light at least one new hand-drawn animated film to be released every two years.[19] However, the blog /Film noted in July 2014 with the release of hand-drawn concept art for the 2013 computer animated film Frozen, that any future hand-drawn animated films have been "killed" for the time being due to The Princess and the Frog failing "to ignite the box office".[64] Two months later, however, many Disney artists announced they were working on a new independent hand drawn animated film, Hullabaloo as part of an attempt to bring back hand-drawn animation.[65] Despite such speculation, Walt Disney Animation Studios has continued to use both hand-drawn animation and computer animation in subsequent films.

text: Box office[edit]

text: On its limited day release, the film grossed $263,890 at two theaters and grossed $786,190 its opening weekend.[66][67] On its opening day in wide release, the film grossed $7 million at 3,434 theaters.[68] It went on to gross $24.2 million over the opening weekend averaging $7,050 per theater,[69] ranking at #1 for the weekend, and making it the highest-grossing start to date for an animated movie in December, a record previously held by Beavis and Butt-Head Do America.[70] The film went on to gross $104.4 million (in the United States and Canada) and $267 million (worldwide), making it a box office success, and became the fifth-highest-grossing animated film of 2009.[71] While the film did out-gross Disney's more recent hand-drawn films such as The Emperor's New Groove, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Treasure Planet, Brother Bear, and Home on the Range, it was less auspicious than the animated films from Walt Disney Animation Studios' 1990s heyday. Disney animator Tom Sito compared the film's box office performance to that of The Great Mouse Detective (1986), which was a step up from the theatrical run of the 1985 box office bomb The Black Cauldron.[72]

text: Looking back on the experience four years later, Catmull acknowledged that Disney had made a "serious mistake" in the process of marketing and releasing the film.[73] The Walt Disney Studios' marketing department had warned Disney Animation that the word "princess" in the title "would lead moviegoers to think that the film was for girls only," but the animation studio's management insisted on keeping the "princess" title because they truly believed that the film's excellent quality and beautiful hand-drawn animation would bring in all quadrants anyway.[73] In Catmull's words, this belief "was our own version of a stupid pill."[73] The marketing department turned out to be correct in their prediction that many moviegoers would and did avoid the film because they thought it was "for little girls only."[73] This error was further compounded by the fact that the film opened five days before Avatar.[73]

text: Looking back seven years later, Lasseter told Variety: "I was determined to bring back [hand-drawn animation] because I felt it was such a heritage of the Disney studio, and I love the art form ... I was stunned that Princess didn’t do better. We dug into it and did a lot of research and focus groups. It was viewed as old-fashioned by the audience."[74]

text: Critical reception[edit]

text: The film received largely positive reviews from critics, praising the animation, characters, music and themes. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 84% of 185 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 7.4 out of 10.[75] The site's general consensus is that "The warmth of traditional Disney animation makes this occasionally lightweight fairy-tale update a lively and captivating confection for the holidays."[76] Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 0–100 from film critics, has a rating score of 73 based on 29 reviews.[77]

text: Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly gave the film an "A" grade and applauded the film's creative team for "uphold[ing] the great tradition of classic Disney animation".[78] Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter praised Walt Disney Animation for "rediscovering its traditional hand-drawn animation" and for "a thing called story".[79] David Germain of the Associated Press wrote that "The Princess and the Frog is not the second coming of Beauty and the Beast or The Lion King. It's just plain pleasant, an old-fashioned little charmer that's not straining to be the next glib animated compendium of pop-culture flotsam."[80] Justin Chang of Variety was less receptive, stating "this long-anticipated throwback to a venerable house style never comes within kissing distance of the studio's former glory".[81] Joe Neumaier of the New York Daily News gave the film 3/5 stars while saying "The Princess and the Frog breaks the color barrier for Disney princesses, but is a throwback to traditional animation and her story is a retread".[82] Village Voice's Scott Foundas found that "the movie as a whole never approache[d] the wit, cleverness, and storytelling brio of the studio's early-1990s animation renaissance (Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King) or pretty much anything by Pixar".[83] Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times gave the film a positive review claiming that "the dialogue is fresh-prince clever, the themes are ageless, the rhythms are riotous and the return to a primal animation style is beautifully executed."[84] Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars and admired Disney's step back to traditional animation, writing, "No 3-D! No glasses! No extra ticket charge! No frantic frenzies of meaningless action! And...good gravy! A story! Characters! A plot! This is what classic animation once was like!", but stated that the film "inspires memories of Disney's Golden Age it doesn't quite live up to, as I've said, but it's spritely and high-spirited, and will allow kids to enjoy it without visually assaulting them."[85]

text: S. Jhoanna Robledo of Common Sense Media gave the film three out of five stars, writing, "First African-American Disney princess is a good role model".[86] Saint Bryan of the NBC-TV Seattle praised the film and called it "The Best Disney Movie Since The Lion King".[87]

text: Upon its release, the film created controversy among some Christians over its use of Louisiana Voodoo as a plot device.[88] Christianity Today's review of the film cited its sexual undertones and use of voodoo, arguing that the scenes with Dr. Facilier and his "friends on the other side" contain many horror elements and that young children might be frightened by the film.[89] The film's treatment of Louisiana voodoo as a type of magic instead of a religion also drew criticism from non-Christian factions.[90]

text: Awards and nominations[edit]

text: The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and twice for the Academy Award for Best Original Song, but lost to Up and Crazy Heart, respectively.[3][91] It was also nominated for eight Annie Awards and, at the 37th Annie Awards Ceremony on February 6, 2010, won three.[13]

text:
Award
Category
Nominee
Result

2009 Satellite Awards[92]
Best Motion Picture, Animated or Mixed Media
The Princess and the Frog
Nominated

Best Original Song
Randy Newman
(Almost There)

Randy Newman
(Down in New Orleans)

African-American Film Critics Association Awards 2009
Top 10 Films
The Princess and the Frog
Won

Best Screenplay
John Musker, Ron Clements and Rob Edwards — Tied with Geoffrey Fletcher for Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire

2009 Producers Guild of America Awards[93]
Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures
Peter Del Vecho
Nominated

2009 Online Film Critics Society Awards[94]
Best Animated Feature
The Princess and the Frog

67th Golden Globe Awards[95]
Best Animated Feature Film

2009 Chicago Film Critics Association[96]
Best Animated Feature

2009 Critics Choice Awards[97]
Best Animated Feature

Best Score
Randy Newman

Best Song
(Almost There)

2009 Black Reel Awards[98]
Best Film
The Princess and the Frog

Best Song, Original or Adapted
Ne-Yo
(Never Knew I Needed)

Anika Noni Rose
(Almost There)
Won

Anika Noni Rose
(Down in New Orleans)
Nominated

Best Voice Performance
Keith David

Anika Noni Rose
Won

Best Ensemble
The Princess and the Frog
Nominated

37th Annie Awards[13]
Best Animated Feature

Animated Effects
James DeValera Mansfield
Won

Production Design in a Feature Production
Ian Gooding
Nominated

Character Animation in a Feature Production
Andreas Deja

Eric Goldberg
Won

Bruce W. Smith
Nominated

Voice Acting in a Feature Production
Jennifer Cody ("Charlotte")
Won

Jenifer Lewis ("Mama Odie")
Nominated

82nd Academy Awards[3][91]

Best Animated Feature
John Musker and Ron Clements

Best Music, Original Song
Randy Newman
(Almost There)

Randy Newman
(Down in New Orleans)

41st NAACP Image Awards
Outstanding Motion Picture

Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture
Anika Noni Rose

36th Saturn Awards[99]
Best Animated Film
The Princess and the Frog

2010 Teen Choice Awards[100][101]
Choice Movie: Animated

2011 Grammy Awards[102]
Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media
Randy Newman
(Down in New Orleans)

Women Film Critics Circle
Best Animated Females
Anika Noni Rose (Tiana), Jennifer Cody (Charlotte La Bouff), Oprah Winfrey (Eudora), Jenifer Lewis (Mama Odie), and all other female characters in The Princess and the Frog.
Won

text: Television[edit]

text:
Tiana made a guest-appearance on Sofia the First in the season 2 episode titled "Winter's Gift".[103]
A live-action version of Tiana will also be a main character on the seventh season of Once Upon a Time.[104][105][106]