Disney's Frozen

[Bill1978]

Random question for the weekend - Are Elsa and Anna not joining the Disney Princess line? I remember before it opened that they were joining, but it seems with the breakout success the film has had has resulted in them becoming their own franchise.

[EricJ]

Tricky question--Together, they're considered "princesses" for the general sake of marketing, but Elsa is clearly identified as "Queen", and therefore disqualified.

That's one of the technical stickler reasons they avoided the "Princess Coronation" stunt they did for Rapunzel and Merida.
(They already get enough guff from the folks asking why Pocahontas and Mulan are "princesses".)

[droosan]

.. not to mention why Kida, Eilonwy and Maid Marian aren't.

[Ben]

And yet...Cinderella was never actually a princess to begin with and went straight to being a queen...

[EricJ]

.. not to mention why Kida, Eilonwy and Maid Marian aren't.

Think they explained that, too:
Kida temporarily gave up her princesship to go exploring (in the vidquel/pilot), Eilonwy's kingdom was destroyed, Giselle never did get around to marrying the prince, and Maid Marian was a ward of the castle and never royalty to begin with.

And yet...Cinderella was never actually a princess to begin with and went straight to being a queen...

No, the Prince's violent-psychotic King dad's going to be around for a while, she's just Mrs. Charming.

[droosan]

Presumably, Giselle is excluded from the Princess line because Disney would have to pay Amy Adams for use of her likeness.

Aquata, Andrina, Arista, Attina, Adella and Alana .. because their sister has legs, and she was there first.

[Ben]

All true!

[Dan]

Another clip from the Frozen FANdemonium at D23, Josh Gad decided to show up unexpectedly to sing "In Summer" and help the Lopez' provide insight in its development.

[Dan]

So a few months back Disney published a book "A Frozen Heart". Written by Elizabeth Rudnick (who has done junior novel adaptations of the likes of Maleficent, The Lone Ranger, Thor, Captain America, and Pirates of the Caribbean), it delves into Anna and Hans' thoughts throughout the film, providing insight into their characters. The Anna sections essentially breakdown what we pretty much figured visually in the film, as she starts to realize her notions of love are not what she thought them to be. It's the Hans section that's sure to draw the most interest as it explores the motivations behind his actions and his desire to achieve his goal above all others. While tagged as a young adult novel, it's very well written and I believe adults would enjoy it, too.

Let me know if you guys want me to write up a proper review to be used on the site as I think it would be interesting to include.

[Dacey]

The book's a few months old now, so it's a little late (okay, probably very late) for this one, but reviews of that sort are something I think we could look into doing in the future.

[Randall]

Maybe it could part of a larger piece, including another more recent book(s)?

[Dan]

Alrighty, the teaser trailer to the sequel has launched.

And quite frankly, it looks epic.

[Dacey]

How to Train Your Elsa.

No, seriously, this looks pretty much like How to Train Your Dragon II in terms of tone.

Looks great!

[James]

Not a fan of the name. Also note that the trailer calls it "Frozen II" but the text Disney uses in the video title and description is "Frozen 2".

[Dacey]

Going by the seasonal shift, they could've simply called the film "Autumn."