Who better to pass down one of the all-time pieces of woman-to-woman wisdom than Oprah Winfrey?
The daytime chat queen has signed on to lend her larynx to The Princess and the Frog, it was announced today at the Walt Disney Studios' Showcase, a presentation of the studios' upcoming projects.
The Mouse House's next hand-drawn offering set in New Orleans and featuring Anika Noni Rose as the lovelorn Princess Tiana, who learns that sometimes you have to kiss a frog or two before you find Mr. Right.
Winfrey, already a mama bear to millions and previously the woman behind animalistic characters in Bee Movie and Charlotte's Web, will voice Eudora, the mother of the first black princess in Disney's long line of lunchbox- and pj's-ready royal heroines.
Randy Newman has penned six new songs for the 2-D film, which is due out Christmas Day next year.
Disney and Pixar chief animation officer John Lasseter made the announcement at Hollywood's Kodak Theatre.
Speaking of casting coups, Disney also announced that Johnny Depp has come onboard Tim Burton's live-and-CGI reworking of Alice in Wonderland as the unbirthday-celebrating Mad Hatter, the Hunter S. Thompson of Wonderland's tea-party set.
This will be Burton's eighth time directing Depp.
Lasseter also revealed that, contrary to recent trends in the economy- and strike-battered biz, Cars 2—the sequel to the 2006 blockbuster—is ahead of schedule and will be zooming into theaters in 2011, a year earlier than planned.
A Cars Toon, a series of Cars-themed animated shorts featuring some of the sidekick characters from the movie, will also be screening in theaters, as well as airing on the Disney Channel.
"You’ll see them everywhere,” Walt Disney Studios Chairman Dick Cook said. “We’re going to keep this Cars thing going."