Disney's Frozen

[Dan]

Frozen just might become the 5th highest grossing film of all-time worldwide sooner than I thought. The film did gangbusters in Japan during Golden Week (a period that a number of holidays are combined together). After Sunday, May 4, it had grossed $143 million in total over there. Two days later on Tuesday, which marked the end of Golden Week, it had grossed $156 million.

It helped that Disney timed the release of the 3D Japanese-language version to coincide with Golden Week, but it nevertheless accomplished a number of achievements as a result. It is now the highest grossing Western animated feature in Japan, the highest grossing Disney feature (dethroning Armageddon, believe it or not), and it shot past both Avatar and Ponyo to become the 10th highest grossing film of all-time in Japan.

Frozen needed to gross around $46 million to overtake Iron Man 3 as the 5th highest grossing film of all-time worldwide going into Monday, so to cut the deficit by $13 million in just two days is incredible. It will be interesting to see how much the film grosses this weekend.

[Dan]

Hidden because it is a big spoiler regarding a certain show on ABC.

Fans were in for a big surprise at the end of last night's season finale of Once Upon a Time.

Elsa has arrived in Storybrooke.



The show's creators and showrunners Eddy Kitsis and Adam Horowitz noted to Entertainment Weekly that Elsa won't be the only resident of Arendelle to appear. "We’d be disappointed if Elsa was the only one we saw, but we’re not quite ready yet to tell you who else we may encounter," Horowitz said.

In addition to playing Anna on Broadway, Kristen Bell has also expressed interest in playing her on Once Upon a Time.

[Randall]

I... don't know what to say about that clip. It's kind of awesome, or maybe just really cheesy. But kind of awesome. The show is a bit on the cheesy side anyway (from my limited viewing of it), so maybe it will work.

[eddievalient]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MAKE IT STOP!!!!!! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, MAKE IT STOP!!!!!!!!!!!

[Bill1978]

Let it go.

[Ben]

Well...

[Dacey]

No one's going to make you watch, Eddie. The show was in need of a ratings boost. It's as simple as that.

[eddievalient]

So, they're going to completely ruin it in the process? First of all, as a general rule, characters on this show DO NOT wear the exact same outfits as their movie counterparts. It looks incredibly cheesy and, although some cheesiness is inevitable with a show like this, they've done their best to minimize it thus far so the audience might be able to take the story seriously. Secondly, although the characters are influenced by the Disney versions, they primarily take their cues from the original, darker version of the fairy tales, making for a nice blend of the two. Elsa as a character literally DOES NOT EXIST in the original story, meaning that instead of getting the ACTUAL Snow Queen as a character (which could have been amazing if done right), we're stuck with a lame, illegitimate version of her from a mediocre, overhyped film which bears no resemblance whatsoever to the original Anderson tale and thus has absolutely no place in the universe they spent three full seasons setting up. Make no mistake, Once Upon A Time has officially jumped the shark. No matter how much longer it runs, it doesn't matter because, creatively speaking, it's dead.

[Dacey]

Eddie, please remove the profanity from your post. This was already coming across as too angry, but the use of that word pushes it over the limit.

[EricJ]

Eddie, please remove the profanity from your post. This was already coming across as too angry, but the use of that word pushes it over the limit.

(What, "bastardized"? That's a word. And frankly, mild in post-S1 OUAT's case.
Although, considering Chip and Gaston never existed in the original tale of Beauty&Beast, Season1 wasn't exactly innocent either.)

and thus has absolutely no place in the universe they spent three full seasons setting up.

I'm still waiting for "Rapunzel" to be a young teenage artist with her own painting loft, the princess who kissed the frog to be a new black woman who runs the diner, and the local video arcade to be run by a big guy who used to work in construction.

[Dacey]

On most "family sites" I've been to, the word is either automatically censored, or removed. It may "be a word," but the "profane" nature of it is still there. And "mild by season 1 of OUAT's standards" doesn't really matter. We rarely ever even use the word "damn" around here.

It is possible I'm wrong and that Ben, Rand or James will feel differently, in which case I genuinely apologize, but either way, there are ways to have a respectful opinion here without posts spinning into "angry" rants. Which has been happening in this topic for quite some time, unfortunately.

[EricJ]

You are: It's only censored when the target ISN'T one. When they are, it's legal.
Otherwise, when it's used to metaphorically describe the process by which something can have dubious/corrupted "illegitimate" origin, Oxford similarly has no problems whatsoever.

(And that's coming from the, quote-fingers, "angry" guy, folks. Let's start some serious character reappraisals, here.)

[Bill1978]

It will be interesting how this is handled on the show. As Eddie stated, the show while borrowing from Disney canon, has never had the character look 100% identical to the Disney version. I will admit that I see this as a cheap way to entice new people into the show, but based upon how she was introduced I fear people aren't going to be happy with this Elsa. She seems to be set up to be the main Big Bad for Season 4, and I wouldn't be surprised if they decide to go the path of the true Snow Queen, which would upset all those Frozenites who have connected to the misunderstood Elsa. I can see it now if they do go down the 'bad' track, there will be complaints about how they have tarnished Elsa

[Ben]

Andersen.

[Dan]

My interpretation based on reading the EW interview and going over the events of that episode leading up to Elsa's reveal: It sounds to me like they're going to stay faithful to her character in the film, but will obviously incorporate their twists to really play up some drama.

Hidden because it relates to spoilers from the show:

Elsa had been trapped in an urn by Rumpelstiltskin along with other relics that contained magic he deemed too dangerous even for him to try to control. The question becomes how did she end up in the urn in the first place. Was she captured by Rumpelstiltskin and forced in there or did she willingly get herself locked away in her belief it will protect Anna and the citizens of Arendelle? In my opinion, if the writers are indeed going to stay faithful to her character in the film, then I would imagine it more likely she willingly got herself locked away and at the very least the first half of the fourth season will see her accidentally causing trouble in Storybrooke given she is in a strange new land and she still doesn't have full control over her emotions to better handle her powers. But that's just an opinion.