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.
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