Walt Disney Animation Studios' The Princess and the Frog marks the return of the hand drawn animated musical fairy tale...with a Princess. And when writer/directors Ron Clements and John Musker pitched their idea for the film to studio head John Lasseter, they had one composer in mind—longtime Lasseter collaborator (and Oscar winner) Randy Newman, who was very happy to accept. Star of Broadway (with a Tony Award) and movies, Anika Noni Rose, was chosen as the English-language voice of the newest Princess in the Disney cavalcade of royal young ladies, Tiana, who doesn't wish for her prince to come—instead, she wishes to finally make enough money to purchase and open her own restaurant...Tiana is a very new kind of Princess.

We sat down with composer and performer to discuss The Princess and the Frog.

Randy, how different is it to write for a movie?

Randy Newman: The primary difference in a song for a film is that it's supposed to do something to put the story forward a little bit. The story doesn't stop for the song. You can tell something about someone or describe some action that is to come.

What was the most important thing to get across?

Randy Newman: Different things for different scenes. No one over-arching thing. It wasn't so much what I did, but it has to be natural for people to break into song. Or animals to sing. Come to think of it, it's also got to be natural for an alligator to play the trumpet. And that was done for me, in a sense. I wrote the songs, and I think it certainly doesn't seem artificial that those songs are where they are. I mean, like the songs or not, I don't think they're inappropriate to the setting or the story.

Mr. Lasseter said you spent summers in New Orleans with your family?

Randy Newman: Summers, yeah. I did. I don't know whether it had any effect on me, other than to give me bad work habits. But, I certainly have a deep affection for the city and for the music that's associated with it.

How did it affect the writing of this movie?

Randy Newman: Well, I know the music from the city, the pianists, the performers. Professor Longhair and Jelly Roll Morton and Dr. John. Louis Armstrong. King Oliver. I heard them and listen to them all the time. But I listened to them again with a different intent...looking for something to steal. And I did. I mean, I tried to do it justice with the arrangements as best I could. It may not be as good as Fletcher Anderson, but it sounds, maybe on an off-day, it sounds pretty good, the New Orleans stuff we did.