The Frog Prince

Today sees the "wide" release of Disney's newest animated feature (and—rejoice!—return to hand-drawn animation) The Princess and the Frog. To celebrate, how about a look back at another version of the story? It's Jim Henson's Muppets in their own version of The Frog Prince, a TV special that was originally broadcast in 1971. Pictured here is the LP album cover. One of the most fascinating "frog" facts about this special is that for the first time Kermit was identified as a frog—before that Kermit was a character of unidentified origin. This special also introduced another frog, Robin the Brave, who joined the permanent Muppet cast as Kermit's nephew. Need a more tangible Disney connection than the story-origin relation to The Princess and the Frog? Well, Disney now owns the Muppets and theoretically owns The Frog Prince as well as of course the new Princess and the Frog, thus pretty much cornering the market for princesses, princes and frogs.