She's Disney's new 'Princess'

MADISON, Miss. - Elizabeth Dampier doesn't get the royal treatment at home, even though the fifth-grader plays a princess-to-be on the big screen.

The 10-year-old Mississippi girl is the voice of young Tiana, the female title character in the new Disney animated movie, "The Princess and the Frog," opening tomorrow.

Elizabeth does chores, sings in a Baptist church choir, makes snacks for her three younger siblings and is a straight-A student in a family of high achievers. Her father, Dr. Arthur R. Dampier, is an optometrist. Her mother, Jeanna, is a molecular biologist.

Sitting in the bedroom she shares with her 7-year-old sister, Elizabeth said she is a bit like her character.

"I'm fine with, like, the princess stuff," Elizabeth said. "I am like her. I don't like kissy and mooshy-gooshy stuff."

Tiana enjoys cooking with her father and dreams of owning a restaurant. Elizabeth said she'd also like to own a restaurant when she grows up - unless she makes it big as an actress or decides to run a toy store.

Elizabeth has appeared in school productions and local commercials, but young Tiana is her first movie role. Anika Noni Rose is the voice of the older Tiana.

"The Princess and the Frog" is set in 1920s Louisiana, and Elizabeth learned a New Orleans accent with the help of family friends who moved out of the city after Hurricane Katrina.

"I got used to shaping my mouth in an 'O' when you want to say something. That is very different from talking like we do in Mississippi," Elizabeth said in lilting drawl.