<P> 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 . It was later reported that Tyra Banks was considered for the role as well . By April 2007, it was confirmed that Rose would be voicing Tiana . Three months later, it was reported that Keith David would be doing the voice of Dr. Facilier, the villain of the film . </P> <P> 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". "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 ." 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 . 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 . </P> <P> 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 ...". 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 ." Lasseter also felt that traditional animation created more character believability . 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 ." 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 . </P> <P> 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 . The Harmony software was augmented with a number of plug - ins to provide CAPS - like effects such as shading on cheeks and smoke effects . 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 . </P>

What is the name of the alligator in princess and the frog