2013: A Lookback (or "Top 10 Things That Happened To Me This Year")

Well, it's getting to be that time of year again…no, not the holiday season, but rather the time of season that we look back at everything that happened in the past year. Be is major news events to everyday life occurrences, everyone tries to relive and reflect on 2013 right before it becomes 2014.

Yes, there's still quite a few days left and that for many people and how Christmas will turn out will dramatically change their view of the year, still, its gives me a weird giddy kind of feeling to see all the lists and big events through-out the past year, be it top 10 movie lists, top 10 songs list, a list of everybody famous who've died. Lists are fun, and December brings you more lists than any month. They're like early Christmas gifts in and of themselves.

So I thought since we've only got so many days left of 2013, everyone else is doing it, and I'll be on vacation at the end of the year(which means I probably will be doing something "fun" instead of typing lists for an internet blog), I decided to make my Top 10 "Things That Happened To Me List". 

2013 was a solid year for me. It was definitely a big improvement over 2012. It wasn't perfect, there were some disappointments, and not everything I wanted to do I did in 2013. An outsider would probably think my year was a big nothing; they'd probably be right, but that's fine by me as I'm not too fond of a life that's too busy anyway. 2014 definitely will be a huge change from what I'm sensing. I don't want to go into details now, but I expect the "Top 10 Things That Happened To Me in 2014" will be bigger and more exciting. But that's then, this is now.

10. We said goodbye to a lot of people who died this year. Everyone from Hollywood icons like Annette Funicello and Peter O'Toole to world leaders like Margaret Thatcher and Nelson Mandela. Only two deaths really made a big impact on me personally though: Roger Ebert, whom I considered a huge influence, and inspired me to see a lot of movies I might otherwise never had checked out as well as just communicate my ideas in general. I can remember seeing him on tv along with Gene Siskel as a kid years ago. Of course, I continued to watch him on tv all the way up to his last moments with Richard Roeper. Thanks to the internet, I not only got to check out his written reviews and watch/rewatch episodes of the tv show  I even got to connect with Ebert directly a couple times. Still getting used to the fact his reviews of all the new movies aren't here and will never come. The other death that really impacted me was Ray Manzerick. The Doors were really my introduction to "music" that wasn't just from the movies or awful pop-junk of the time that everyone else was listening to. To this day, The Doors are my favorite band. There are rumors Robby Krieger and John Densmore will team up for a tribute concert, unfortunately, it won't be the same without Ray. The Doors may have lost its face when it lost Morrison, but it lost its heart with Manzarek.

Also want to give a shout-out to Jonathan Winters and Huell Howser, both of whom I gained a newfound appreciation looking back at their lives.

9. Increased my autograph collection, by adding Don Rickles, Dick Van Dyke, June Foray, Bill Farmer, Margaret Kerry and Tom Wilson(more on those last three later).

8. Left my shitty job once and for all. Of course, that just left me unemployed, but I'm working on a couple things that will hopefully fix that. 

7. Visited Las Vegas: Very fun. Got to stay at the Wynn, which to date is the nicest hotel I've ever stayed at(how many times can you claim you've been to a bathroom that comes with its own television?). I even got to win a little bit of money! Didn't get to see any shows unfortunately, but that could easily happen next trip.

6. Played DuckTales: Remastered. Great game. Never got to play the original NES game, but this was a great trip back to childhood regardless. In fact, it temporally got me back into playing video-games as it inspired me to enter the Grand Theft Auto fad(which really is just ok at best). Fitting I would go back to playing video-games right when all the companies are releasing the next generation of systems.

5. Rediscovered my love for Back to the Future: Ok, I didn't really ever "lose" my love for it, I just saw the movies, especially the first one, too many times and grew tired of them. But from finally getting the movies on Blu-Ray, seeing Tom Wilson(Biff Tanen) do stand-up, getting the Delorean lego set, seeing the props from the movie in person and seeing the first film on the big scream, the only way I see 2015 topping this year is if they finally release those damn hooverboards. 

4. Started A Blog: Hey, it's something I was always intrigued in doing, and now I finally got around to doing it. You wouldn't be reading this list without it(of course, chances are you're just me rereading your pathetic ramblings).

3. Watched The Finale Season of Breaking Bad. A bit sad to say goodbye to the greatest television show of all time, but it ended well. It's seriously impossible to overrate this show. While I didn't see it right when it first aired, I'm grateful I got to see it while it was new. It's the closest equivalent I'll ever get to seeing Twin Peaks of The Twilight Zone on their original airing date. Eager for Better Call Saul to come out next year.

2. I finally got to complete my internship. It was basically for my local tv station where I worked hard to bring Colorado television programs no one living in the state will bother to rewatch and remember, let alone people across the world. Still, I put it at #2 only because it could potential lead to something that is exciting and worthwhile in life.

1. I finally achieved one of my biggest dreams: went to the D23 Expo. Well, it was sort of linked with "going to Comic Con" which I still haven't done, but I did finally get a big trip and see what it truly means to be a "fan" of something. Among the highlights were that I got to meet heros like Marty Sklar, Dave Smith, Bill Farmer and Margaret Kerry(and get photos/autographs), hear some of my other heros like Bob Gurr, Alice Davis and Xavier Antencio speak, see Richard Sherman and Alan Menken play the music of my childhood, watch John Goodman, Bill Crystal, Tony Baxter and Glenn Keane accept Disney Legends awards as well as to see them posthumously include Ed Wynn, Dick Clark, Collin Campbell and Steve Jobs(John Lasseter accepted on Jobs' behalf and gave a particularly emotional speech), saw clips of several movies before they come out and of course bought a lot of Disney merchandise. Even got to meet podcasters I've been listening to for a while. There were rumors that this would be the last expo, but Bob Iger confirmed at the expo that there would one be in 2015, which I might attend again. Maybe then I'll get to spend even more time chatting and hanging out with fellow fans.

Review: Frozen

Even with the internet helping me become an expert on just about everyone and everything, I know very little about Hans Christen Anderson. I just never bothered to look much information on him or seek out any of his classic works. So I have no real knowledge of "The Snow Queen", his classic story that has become that basis for Disney 53rd and most recent "Animated Classic" Frozen. This is actually a story Disney considered adapting back when Walt Disney was still alive, but along with several other projects got shelved. Amazing its taken 2013 to finally see it come to the big screen, not just from Disney, but from any US studio.

 Seeing how Disney introduced me(and I'm sure a large majority of young generations) to The Little Mermaid and The Ugly Duckling, it's fitting they would be the ones to introduce me to The Snow Queen(I was read "The Little Match Girl" when I was young, so I can't claim Disney introduced me to that Anderson story).I don't have to look it up to tell you it's not faithful; this is the same company in which its founder adapted The Jungle Book by advising his crew to avoid reading the Rudyard Kipling story, so its pretty safe to judge Frozen like an original story.

If you follow this movie at all, you probably know the film synopsis, so I won't repeat it here. You also probably have heard the rave reviews this has been receiving. It currently has an 84% on Rotten Tomatoes, with those positive reviews being pretty enthusiastic. The one critic's quote Disney has been repeating a lot in the ads it "The Best Disney Animated Film Since The Lion King". Following Tangled, Winnie The Pooh and Wreck-It-Ralph, Disney's Animation Department seems to have officially recovered from the uneven 2000s, and recovered their long-held spot as the greatest and most powerful animation studio(we'll ignore Pixar for now which is owned by Disney anyway).

I try to keep expectations reasonable regardless of the movie, but for the past few days I couldn't help but be eager to check out Frozen. I'm always intrigued at the latest animated Disney movie and the glowing reviews from critics and fans alike meant I had to see it in theaters, especially since 2013 has been pretty lackluster one for cinema. 

While the film has it moments, it felt lacking, especially following the excellent Wreck-It-Ralph. One reason could be its getting tiring to see Disney push the princess angle. Disney has had to battle with the stigma of being "just for kids" for a while now, but in recent years they've gotten a reputation of being for girls, which is odd when looking at their entire film library, the vast majority of them are either about talking animals or male-centered stories like Pinocchio or Peter Pan. We have Disney's marketing and the billions of crappy Princess merchandise likely to thank for that. Disney's hopes to appeal to young males was likely the huge motivational factor of the purchasing of Marvel and Lucasfilm(now the Disney stores can have a variety of boy toys). Disney also changed its marketing to appeal to young boys. Instead of "Snow Queen" this film is now "Frozen"; they did the same with changing "Rapunzel" to "Tangled" 3 years prior. 

Frozen of course is a very "modern" Disney movie, heck it's probably better labeled a "post-modern" Disney as even LIttle Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast seem of the past in comparison. Gone are the days of a princess falling in love at first sight or having a relationship with a man be the end all be all of a woman's life. However, I felt Tangled approached this a lot better than Frozen, largely because Rapunzel got a lot more focus whereas Frozen is split between being about Elsa(The Snow Queen) and her little sister Anna. Elsa is the more interesting character because she's restraint from everyone, even herself, thus a romance is never even considered for her, but most of the movie follows Anna, and Kristoff, who predictably becomes a love-interest. I couldn't help but  feel the sister relationship should've been explored even more, as without giving film away, something happens in the film that one isn't sure is particularly earned. 

Another problem is the music. I agree with Greg of "The Last Disney Blog Ever" who claims this film's best moments are when the characters don't break into song. Another thing the trailers didn't promote was that this was a full-fledge musical, similar to the Menken films, most recent Disney films only tipped the fine-line between "musical" and "non-musical". I have no problems with musicals as long as the music is good. Frozen is a bit of a mixed-bag. "Let It Go" is a great song that feels destined to be a classic(it's already a hit at Disney's World Of Color), "In Summer" is also a delightful song, feeling similar to songs like "Under the Sea" or "Hakuna Matata", making Olaf my favorite character of the film. The others? "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" is memorable because that line is repeated over and over again, but the song doesn't stick out as something particularly special. The other songs I couldn't even hum you the melody or quote any lyrics. Of course it can be tricky to know which songs will be memorable or not unless you hear them 3 or 4 times, so maybe I need to give them time. I sort of felt something similar about Tangled, only to have the soundtrack more or less grow on me on repeat listens. But in this case, I felt a couple of songs could've been cut out(does anyone out there like the troll song?) which doesn't really speak much of them in general.

The problem I feel is Robert Lopez and Kristen Lopez were the songwriters. Disney clearly hopes these two can follow the line of great Disney songwriters of the Sherman Brothers and Alan Menken/Howard Ashman. While there's no denying Lopez is a big talent(he did Avenue Q/Book Of Mormon), I feel when he's not writing satire he's rather slight. Now slight worked perfectly for Winnie The Pooh, but for Frozen, seeing the wide amount of emotions expressed through-out, the songs felt lacking. I'd be surprised if a melody from this movie played at the entrance of Disneyland that I(or the majority) would be able to distinguish it.

I guess my overall feeling of the movie is simply the sum of its parts worked more than the whole did. It felt largely uneven, and the parts that did work felt too similar to the films of the past. That's why I'm reluctant to claim that it's Disney's "return to form" or make bold statements like "Best since The Lion King"  as unlike The Lion King or Aladdin or even Nightmare Before Christmas, I feel this film doesn't add anything truly new or significant to the Disney brand. Albert  Gutierrez of FromScreenToTheme.com points out that Frozen is a tribute to all things Disney and coincidently came out during the 90th anniversary of the Walt Disney Studios. Hopefully when we get to the 100th Anniversary, Disney releases something truly extraordinary and special.

On a side-note, its pains me to write the Disney's Get a Hose is an even bigger disappointment. It starts off great, being retro of the classic black-and-white Mickey cartoons of the 1920s-1930s, but then the films 'cheats', probably out of fear that young generations are too ignorant enough to respond to a 7-minute black-and-white cartoon. A missed opportunity for something charmingly old-fashioned. I'm sure now that I know what to expect I'll like it better on repeat viewings, unfortunately, without giving the twist away, this short really only works on the big-screen as if you were to see this on your home tv or, god-forbid, your phone, the "effect" is lost. I'm sure it'll look amazing in 3D, but unsure that I really want to pay extra to rewatch Frozen in 3D just for the short.