Disney's Frozen

[droosan]

It's not the next Lion King, but I liked it. It's probably the best animated feature I've seen this year (though that's not saying much; out of the other ones I've seen, only Monsters University provides any competition. I haven't seen The Wind Rises or any non-US films yet).

I'd personally have a really hard time choosing a favorite, if Frozen and The Croods are among the final Oscar nominees; both were gorgeously art-directed, full of amazing (and sometimes) unpredictable moments, and -- while each was a slightly 'mixed' bag, in terms of their plot and pacing -- ultimately, both were very 'satisfying' movies, overall.

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 surprised (and delighted!) me with some really 'fun-to-watch' rubbery cartoon-y animation, and its extremely imaginative 'foodimals' .. but its story just seemed really 'padded', in spots. Despicable Me 2 had several delightful (and funny!) moments -- and beautiful art direction -- but didn't quite reach the quirky heights set within the first film. Monsters University was rather fun -- and equally gorgeous, design-wise -- but, of these three sequels, seemed the most 'conventional'/predictable in its presentation and plot.

I missed-out on catching The Wind Rises during its 'Oscar-qualifying' run, last month .. but I've heard nothing but good things about it. I also haven't yet seen Epic .. but I do intend to, eventually..!

The song that plays over the opening studio logos and the "Frozen" title gave me chills. It was as if the film was announcing to the audience, "This is an event. You are about to see something magical." The actual "opening number" that follows (which James accurately describes as "requisite" in his review) can only be a disappointment in comparison.

That opening chorale (which is reprised during a climactic moment in the film) is titled "Vuelie" -- and it is my favorite portion of the soundtrack, as well. There's a similar (but all-too-short) chorus leading into the coronation scene.

I liked all of the songs, personally; even Ashman & Menken's collaborations (or for that matter, the Sherman Bros') featured some variety in the styles of songs presented within their films.

Christophe Beck's score ties it all together quite nicely, weaving the songs' melodies into orchestral phrases at appropriate moments (the melody of that 'requisite' opening song -- "Frozen Heart" -- itself punctuates a dramatic event in one pivotal scene).

[EricJ]

I also haven't yet seen Epic .. but I do intend to, eventually..!

Don't get your hopes up (having just watched it last month)--
It's BlueSky AFTER Rio, which means that once the pretty characters open their mouths, the script will stay in the safe territory of slavishly copying every "bad Dreamworks" trope--loser heroes, whiny heroines, Seth Rogen comedy-relief clones--in their continuing quest to take the studio past "What Would Chris Do?" and not make any unmarketable missteps.
(Which means we now have William Joyce projects at three of the major studios, and can compare: Disney's Meet the Robinsons, post-DelToro Dreamworks' Rise of the Guardians, and Fox's Epic. You tell me which is the least imaginative.)

The song that plays over the opening studio logos and the "Frozen" title gave me chills. It was as if the film was announcing to the audience, "This is an event. You are about to see something magical."

Ack--EVERY day that I've tried to go out and see this, the weather hasn't played along.
I'm determined to see this by Christmas, and my mall shopping has suffered as a result.

[Dacey]

Eric, your "vendetta" against Chris Sanders has really gotten old.

[EricJ]

Eric, your "vendetta" against Chris Sanders has really gotten old.

(Er, hahhh?? Thought I was referring to Fox/BlueSky still pretending to be "the Ice Age studio", even though Chris Meledandri went over to Universal, and nobody left in the building still knows how to make CGI comedies anymore, except to crib notes on what they saw Dreamworks do in "Megamind" and "Turbo".)

[Ben]

Well...Blue Sky is the "Ice Age" studio that Chris WEDGE built, Eric. And he's still there, having just directed Epic.

[droosan]

we now have William Joyce projects at three of the major studios, and can compare: Disney's Meet the Robinsons, post-DelToro Dreamworks' Rise of the Guardians, and Fox's Epic.

FWIW -- Blue Sky's Robots was a William Joyce project, too.

I'm not certain whether it contributes toward 'proving' or 'disproving' your hypothesis, though.

[Vernadyn]

I liked all of the songs, personally; even Ashman & Menken's collaborations (or for that matter, the Sherman Bros') featured some variety in the styles of songs presented within their films.

I did like most of the songs in the movie but was admittedly a bit underwhelmed by "Frozen Heart" and "Fixer-Upper." Not to say that either song is chopped liver, but the melodies didn't grab me as much as those from some of the other songs. My experience with previous songs from the Lopezes is limited to the 2011 Winnie the Pooh and "I Believe" from The Book of Mormon.

Christophe Beck's score ties it all together quite nicely, weaving the songs' melodies into orchestral phrases at appropriate moments (the melody of that 'requisite' opening song -- "Frozen Heart" -- itself punctuates a dramatic event in one pivotal scene).

With the exception of Paperman, I don't think I've heard a Christophe Beck score before, but he did do a nice job. Nothing in it stood out as exceptionally outstanding other than his arrangement of "Vuelie" (which is apparently composed by one Frode Fjellheim), but it was certainly better than so many of the drone scores being "composed" today. For the most part, though, animated films still tend to get scores that range from the decent to the sublime; inanities like Shark Tale are the exception rather than the rule.

Ack--EVERY day that I've tried to go out and see this, the weather hasn't played along.

I hope I didn't build up that song too much. It could come across as cheesy, pseudo-world music pap to some. But I genuinely loved it.

[James]

I was underwhelmed by the score. Barely noticed it the first time. Tried to make an effort the second time but still missed it! I have the soundtrack though. It's serviceable but not anything I'd go out of my way to listen to over and over.

[EricJ]

I hope I didn't build up that song too much. It could come across as cheesy, pseudo-world music pap to some. But I genuinely loved it.

It didn't feel as Nordic as that great ice-cutter's "Frozen Heart" number--I kept expecting reindeer to appear on Pride Rock.

And that opening number was what I thought was good and bad about the movie:
When was the last time we had a good old-fashioned epic opening-chorus number to set the time and place, like "Fathoms Below", "Circle of Life", or "The Virginia Company"?
Problem is, the Broadway styling got a bit heavy after that--Tangled had the right balance, but this has to be THE stagiest stage-bound "Characters standing around big sets singing" New Amsterdam-ready musical since Hunchback, and that one was intentional. (There's talk of using it to replace the Aladdin stage musical at Disneyland once Aladdin goes national, and...gee, ya think??)
You could practically picture the "Act I: Intermission" sign after

Elsa zaps Anna in the Big Palace Set.

I loved Tangled, but you sympathized with Rapunzel--Here, we have a good old fashioned "What I want" song for the heroine (oh, and doesn't it feel like it's just rubbing it in Enchanted's face lately? ), but I would have sympathized with her more if the female screenwriter didn't keep having her jabbering away for the first half of the movie like a Dreamworks heroine.
About halfway through, I had that queasy feeling that I probably wouldn't be buying the Blu-ray, and haven't had those guilty feelings of doubt since the...ahem...(P-F words)... Not saying it WAS, but I wanted to like it a lot more for it to be Tangled II.

[Scar]

I just went to see Frozen earlier this week and I've turned into a major fanboy of it. I loved absolutely everything about it, from the impressive animation to the songs like The First Time In Forever and Let It Go. I even enjoyed the Olaf character even though his presence in the early trailers made me initially concerned about how the film was going to turn out. But I loved the movie's twist on the whole "let's hurry up and get married after we just met!" romances of past Disney princess films and I enjoyed how they balanced out the lighter comedy moments with some truly darker scenes. I think Kristoff and Sven were my favorite characters with Elsa in a close runner up. I wish it was out on video already so I could get it. Has anyone seen the Soviet Union animated Snow Queen film? How does that movie compare to Frozen if you've seen it and is it worth watching?

[EricJ]

But I loved the movie's twist on the whole "let's hurry up and get married after we just met!" romances of past Disney princess films

OTOH, that came off as the big ol' red flag that we were watching a female-scripted Disney movie: The paranoia that Cinderella and Snow White "waiting for their princes" was sending evil un-PC messages to little girls, and determination that this outdated notion be "fixed" for modern sensibilities at all costs...C'mon, didn't we spend the entire first post-Eisner years of the Lasseter era trying to get OUT of that panicked historical-revisionism mode?
(Okay, maybe I've still got lingering delayed-reaction traumas from "Brave", but still... And Tiana harping on and on about her darn restaurant in P&tF was left over from the previous Shrek-traumatized administration.)

Seems like when the heroines aren't paired with princes--like Rapunzel who never met any, Aurora who didn't even know she had one, or Jasmine who was "spoiled" enough to set her tiger on them the minute they walked in the door--there's a lot less baggage to get in the way of an interesting heroine. In the original Snow Queen tale, the characters were a sister and a brother (two sisters here), and a funny bandit girl who lends the heroine a reindeer and goes along for the ride--Which, in this case would be Kristoff.
Where the heck did the prince come in, let alone having him be a

deceptive "don't let the looks fool you" Gaston knockoff that our heroine made the TERRIBLE MISTAKE of wanting to marry?

Uh, that's rhetoric, btw, we already know where.

(Not to mention...no, could someone female let us guys in on this, is it really THAT funny when female comic leads start turning into chirpy nervous human-fly stumblebums who keep worrying they're saying the wrong thing? I mean, really?--We don't have that innately self-loathing image problem, so we wouldn't know, but we keep seeing it a lot.)

[Scar]

Uh, what's wrong with women writing movie scripts?

[gaastra]

Has this been posted yet? Frozen easter eggs!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/1 ... ertainment

Tangled cameo.
Mickey Mouse doll!
Anna is eating suger rush! Run Vanellope Run!

[droosan]

A painting from Tangled makes an appearance during Anna's song "For The First Time In Forever."

While it's true that this image was used for the 'moving painting' proof-of-concept shot, created during the early stages of the film that became Tangled -- and was not (IIRC) used in the finished version of that film -- in both cases, it is based entirely upon the famous Rococo painting "The Swing" (also sometimes titled "The Happy Accidents of the Swing"), painted by Jean-Honoré Fragonard in 1767.

In fact, all of the paintings Anna 'talks' to and interacts with in that song sequence are adaptations of famous works of art.

[Ben]

Yeah...I haven't seen the film yet (Hobbit tonight...hopefully Frozen at the weekend) and even I knew that and others were in there. Strange how they used a Tangled concept in another film...that can't really have pleased Glen too much, eh?