Now that I have two daughters, I watch a lot of Disney movies over and over. I really love Princess and the Frog. And it has hands-down the best animation of any of the "Disney Renaissance" movies. In fact it's astonishing how crude the animation in the Little Mermaid is at points.

I think your analysis of the greatness of the plotting is spot-on. It quite spiffily (almost subversively) addresses most of the traditional feminist critiques of the Disney princess movies.

Plus a character actually dies and stays dead! Amazing.

The only fatal flaw is that the songs aren't funny.