Disney's Frozen

[Dacey]

Glad you enjoyed.

[Dan]

Not to pick needless-grammar nits, but I'm assuming that's not taking "Wickedly" as just a generic intensifying adverb?

Nope...just quoting John Travolta...

He even had a script to read from and still couldn't say it right.

[EricJ]

Here's the interesting thing about that:

At the beginning of the film, it's implied that the palace gates were only planned to be open for a single day before being closed again, this time for who knows how long. Because of this, it makes complete sense that Anna and Hans would want to be married right away as otherwise, they might never see each other again. Elsa's refusal likely had everything to do with her fear of being found out and the whole line about "you just met him" was merely a convenient excuse. Later, when Anna leaves Hans in charge, we see that he takes the job seriously and Anna's faith in him was well placed. This would have been an excellent setup for the lesson that sometimes you have to go with your gut even when everyone else says you're wrong for doing so.
Unfortunately, all that setup and character development went completely out the window in the film's much weaker second half. Disney has openly admitted that Hans being the villain was a late addition when they realized the film had no villain, apparently forgetting that they have themselves done villainless films before and nobody minded then. This is why Frozen was ultimately a disappointment. They took a great premise with interesting, multilayered characters and threw it away in favor of a typical clichéd good-vs-evil plot. Why people are citing this as Disney's best film is beyond me.

And while that's certainly a more plausible explanation than the female screenwriter inserting Disney-revisionist "Girls, don't marry princes!", it definitely didn't help.
(It would throw cold water on the "Disney is being progressive and creating a liberated heroine!" gushing that most of the core fangrrls have been doing.)

I should apologize in advance for sharing this...

And the irony is, that's probably closer to the true context of the song than most of the interpretations we've seen so far.
(When we get African children's choirs singing "The cold never bothered me anyway", I'm starting to wonder just how many of the danged lyrics people are actually listening to.)

[Dacey]

This is epic...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... sPoug7NcZo

[James]

I'm disappointed! I thought we had some Wicked fans here!

It may not be popular but thank goodness someone is picking grammar nits!. I'm a sentimental man and I miss the days of writing letters and thank you notes. But kids today don't care - with their texting and facebooking, just dancing through life thinking everything is going to be wonderful. But if you don't pay attention to things like grammar and you can't communicate well with others in our connected world, something bad will become of your future prospects -- they'll be gone for good! One short day is all it takes to make a bad impression with potential employers and co-workers. After you're stuck working in a fast food restaurant your whole life, you'll be saying "What is this feeling?" Regret, my friend. Regret that you didn't care about little things like grammar when you were younger. I know what some of you are thinking out there: "I'm not that girl, James. I write good!" No. No you don't.

Anyway, watch out Eric. No good deed goes unpunished and I'm sure you'll be laughed at for caring.

[Dan]

I'm disappointed! I thought we had some Wicked fans here!

It may not be popular but thank goodness someone is picking grammar nits!. I'm a sentimental man and I miss the days of writing letters and thank you notes. But kids today don't care - with their texting and facebooking, just dancing through life thinking everything is going to be wonderful. But if you don't pay attention to things like grammar and you can't communicate well with others in our connected world, something bad will become of your future prospects -- they'll be gone for good! One short day is all it takes to make a bad impression with potential employers and co-workers. After you're stuck working in a fast food restaurant your whole life, you'll be saying "What is this feeling?" Regret, my friend. Regret that you didn't care about little things like grammar when you were younger. I know what some of you are thinking out there: "I'm not that girl, James. I write good!" No. No you don't.

Anyway, watch out Eric. No good deed goes unpunished and I'm sure you'll be laughed at for caring.

I knew there was something familiar to those words the first time I looked through it.

[EricJ]

I'm disappointed! I thought we had some Wicked fans here!

Ah. (lightbulb goes on, clouds part, gets joke now.)

I'm afraid Wickie-fangirl jokes go somewhat over my head, as I don't live near NYC, I can't afford to go to many stage shows, I'm still waiting for that movie Universal says they're going to do someday (giving us all those other crap Oz and fairytale-villain-revisionist movies that the other studios want to rush in first), and in Wicked's case...I'm heterosexual.

(But I still say teen slang has been shaped by movie-critic blurbs over the last few decades, and I'll have do a thesis someday.)

[James]

[ShyViolet]

Very interesting article by Ed Catmull:

http://www.fastcompany.com/3027544/gett ... up?partner

[EricJ]

Very interesting article by Ed Catmull:
http://www.fastcompany.com/3027544/gett ... up?partner

At least they credit Meet the Robinsons with starting the whole upward movement for story--
No mention of turning American Dog into Bolt, but same principle at play.

[Dan]

Thanks to the blu ray/DVD release, the soundtrack is once again Number One on the Billboard charts for a seventh week. Furthermore, it had its best selling week, moving 202,000 copies (an astonishing 104% jump from the previous week, when it was still Number One). They projecting Frozen will stay at Number One next week, making the first album to have as many weeks at the position since Adele's 21.

To add to the success, "Let It Go" by Idina Menzel has jumped back up into the Top 10 of the singles charts, peaking at the moment at Number Five.

[Randall]

Frozen's success continues to astonish. Nice to see Dis finally have a huge hit on so many fronts.

And now I await the announcement of the 3D Blu-ray release. (I know, still a little way's off--- but a release is expected before Christmas.) I had pre-ordered the region-free UK release that comes out right away (which has a beauty of a Steelbook too), but the North Am release may have more material on it.

[EricJ]

Frozen's success continues to astonish.

"Astonish" is DEFINITELY the word.

And now I await the announcement of the 3D Blu-ray release. (I know, still a little way's off--- but a release is expected before Christmas.)

In fact--given a few leaked marketing flyers for ancillary Frozen book/toy marketing--it's expected October 14th.
Disney's own distributor PR has been mentioning a "Super Synergy" Frozen/princess retail push for Oct. 7th and 14th, and I don't think they're just talking about the Sleeping Beauty reissue.
(Especially when the Frozen flyers mention "to tie in with the upcoming 3D Blu-ray release in October".)

[Ben]

Well for a billion dollar grossing movie the BE they just put out is extremely disappointing. Anyone else expecting that "how did we make Frozen" thing to be the intro to a great doc? How lame was that when it just ended!?

So, yeah, you can bet there's a packed Ultimate set on the way...

[Randall]

That's what I figured. I wasn't sure if the UK set has more on it already, but I highly doubt it. Thus, holding out for what comes later.

Thank goodness I've become smarter with my purchases over the years. So sick of double dipping.