Ritchie Montgomery never knew what his latest character

looked like. He never even got a copy of a complete script for his latest role. But that never discouraged him from jumping feet first into the role that has him on the big screen this winter.

Montgomery lent his voice to Reggie the frog catcher in Disney’s latest blockbuster “The Princess and the Frog.”

“I thought ‘This is Disney, the big deal. I’m going to give it all I’ve got,’” he said. “I had nothing to lose.”

But originally Montgomery didn’t think he would be a good fit for a role in the animated film set in Louisiana. When he got a phone call about the casting from his talent agent in New Orleans, Montgomery was told Disney was looking for actors with real Cajun blood — which the Miss-Lou native doesn’t have.

But at the urging of his agent, Montgomery decided to give it a shot.

“I went in (to the casting) and told them I was from Thibodeaux,” he said in the Cajun accent he used in the movie.

“They said where about in Thibodeaux so I said ‘I have a little house down on Bayou LaFourche,’” Montgomery said in the same dialect.

Lucky for him, they bought his accent and signed him on.

In the hand-drawn animated screenplay, a Louisiana waitress, Tiana, with dreams of opening her own restaurant is turned into a frog after kissing frog Prince Naveen.

To break the spell that has them both green, Tiana and Prince Naveen set out on a adventure through the bayous of South Louisiana.

That is where the humans turned frogs encounter Montgomery’s character Reggie the frog catcher and his two frog-catching sons, Darnell and Two Fingers. The frogs outwit the hillbilly frog catchers in a series of scenes that Montgomery says have the audience doubled over in laughter.

“I’ve seen it several times in different places, and that scene always has the audience cracking up,” he said. “Heck, I’ve seen it all those times and I’m still laughing at it.”

Montgomery, who has appeared in such films as “Soul Men,” “The Great Debaters,” “Premonition” and “The Dukes of Hazzard” and has been acting since the late 1970s said working on the Disney feature was definitely a highlight in his career.

On his first trip to Los Angeles to do a bit of voice work for the film, Montgomery got a taste of what working with Disney was like.

“I was headed down to New Orleans to spend the night and catch the early flight out to L.A.,” he said. “I was about to Woodville, when I got a call and they said to turn around because a limo was coming to pick me up.

“Problem was, the limo didn’t come until 3 a.m. so no one got to see me get in it,” Montgomery joked.

Once in L.A. Montgomery experienced more of the wonderment of working for the animation kings when he was ushered into the hallowed-ground of Studio B.

Montgomery said if working on one of Disney’s biggest projects in recent history wasn’t enough to make him nervous, performing in the same sound booth as Robin Williams and other voice talent for Disney films like “Aladdin” and “The Little Mermaid” had the butterflies in his stomach working overtime.

“When I got there, they told me we could go ahead and start working,” Montgomery recalled. “I asked them if they minded if I just walked around a little bit to take it all in.

“Truthfully, I was trying to calm myself down.”

Once he got his wits about him again, Montgomery was ready to bring Reggie the frog catcher to life. And he didn’t just stand around and read lines, Montgomery said he was “hooping and hollering in the booth and really getting into it.”

“I called the sound guy Doc in to lower my microphone and he said ‘You’ve got them laughing their (butts) off. You’ve got them right where you want them.’”

After his voice work was over, the animators got to work drawing his character. Montgomery said some people see a physical resemblance between him and Reggie, but he said he doesn’t quite see it. Montgomery did say he and Reggie definitely share some of the same mannerisms.

“When you are recording they have two cameras on you — one on your face and a long shot,” Montgomery said. “I guess they show that to the animators, because some of the things I was doing in the booth, Reggie is doing out there on the bayou.”

The film, because it is all hand-drawn animation, has been in the works for about three years.

“The colors and the scenery, that makes the movie come to life,” he said. “You can’t have a favorite part. The entire movie is just a good romp, a good Disney movie.”

The movie is currently being played at Natchez Mall Cinema IV. For a schedule of showings call 601-442-5218.