No Frozen thread? OPEN SPOILERS

I don’t recall the last time a Disney movie has come out and no thread was started to discuss it on release day. I took my kids aged 5 (almost 6) - 14 (4 girls, 1 boy) to see it today, and here are my impressions:

The visuals are STUNNING. The scene where Elsa the Snow Queen makes her ice castle is the most amazing piece of animation I’ve ever seen. The landscapes are first-rate.

The story…not overly awed by it. It’s certainly a decent plot, but probably the least compelling (to me) of any Disney movie since Chicken Little. (I have not seen The Princess and the Frog or Winnie the Pooh, but I can say that I liked Meet the Robinsons, Bolt, Tangled and Wreck-It Ralph better plot-wise.) I will say that Hans’s turning out to be a villain was a twist I didn’t expect (I assumed that Kristoff was going to end up as Elsa’s love interest and Anna was going to marry Hans as planned), but it, as well as the “Weasel town” guy, seemed shoe-horned in as if there was an afterthought, “Hey, we need some real villains in here, not just the sister who’s out of control.”

The songs - loved the “Summer” song, liked “Let It Go,” which went perfectly with the ice-castle scene I mentioned above. The rest seemed intrusive to me. It seemed like more of a musical, than a movie containing songs.

The kids all loved it, and the 5-year-old got scared during the snow-monster chase.

I’ll say that I really enjoyed it, and I disagree with your feelings about the villains being squeezed in. I thought the Weaselton guy was designed to seem like a classic Disney villain for the express purpose of keeping us from thinking about there being someone a little more devious, which helped make the twist a bit more surprising. It caught me by surprise, too (although I make no claims about being brilliant at deducing such things when I’m in the middle of a movie).

I could have done without most of the music (although the summer song and a few lyrics to some of the other songs were amusing), but overall thought it was quite well done.

This thread reminds me that I wanted to look up some of the details on the short at the beginning.

I went and saw it yesterday, I thought it was pretty good. I wouldn’t be surprised if it did a hell of a weekend box office as the Friday shows here were sold out, I took my girls at 9:30 on Saturday and it was packed. I saw Catching Fire last weekend and there were not that many people in the theater.

I think my kids enjoyed it, though they are at the age where they enjoy almost everything.

I sat near a preschooler who asked, “Is she (Elsa) gonna kiss the ice cube? Is she gonna kiss the ice cube?” until Anna unfroze.

The music was very good. “Let It Go” (Elsa’s power ballad) was clearly written by someone who’d seen Idina Menzel as Elphaba and wanted to give her something along the lines of “Defying Gravity”. She knocked it out of the park. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was nominated for Best Song, and quite possibly won.

If you sit through the credits (and read them) you’ll see a notice right before the end in which it states something like “Kristoff’s statement about all men picking their noses when they’re alone is solely his opinion, and does not represent the opinion of the Walt Disney Corporation in any way.”

If you wait until the very end, you’ll see the giant snow monster back in Elsa’s ice castle. He puts on her crown, which she’d left behind, and preens at the camera.

I thought it was awfully cute, and I appreciated the updates in the Disney princess tropes: that Anna saved herself by acting for someone else rather than vice versa, that she chose Elsa over running to Kristoff, that they didn’t show Anna and Kristoff having some magical evidence of their love or rushing into a wedding, etc.

I agree with all of this. I loved the movie. Loved the songs. See it in 3D if only for the short that precedes the movie. Great use of 3D.

Dendarii Dame:

No argument, and I also think the song benefited from the ice-castle graphics going on around it. Made an already good song very memorable. And how can you not love a song in which the singer refers to fractals?

jsgoddess:

That was good, though I have to say I was expecting Olaf’s willingness to melt for her to be the saving act when he said “Some people are worth melting for.”

Yookeroo:

I saw it on a standard screen with no glasses, and the preceding short looked quite 3-dimensional to me. I’m not sure exactly how they did that, but I wonder if genuine 3-D was significantly different from my experience.

Saw it on Thanksgiving with an 8 year old boy and 11 year old girl. They loved it as expected. I thought the songs were lame, with the exception of Olaf’s “In Summer” which was a delight.

I have to admit the villain reveal was a complete surprise to me, and I like the message of it (hey kids! You can’t fall in love in just one night.) My kids commented that there wasn’t a great huge bad guy, along the lines of Maleficent or Ursula, and I agree. Hans was a pretty pedestrian bad guy.

Kristoff was a great character, very relateable, and his comic moments with Sven were great.

Finally, I felt like they left something on the cutting room floor. Why do the trolls not tell Anna they know her and have met her and helped her before? It seems like a hole in the plot.

My kids are up for seeing it again though, so that means it was a success.

The short was a blast.

An enjoyable enough film but I was thinking “Pixar light” by the end.

Except for the teaser of – as we find out – Olaf and Sven vying for the same carrot, I didn’t see any trailers for the film. Were there any out there and I messed 'em? I didn’t even know there was a Disney Princess™ or two involved until I read a review. The marketing seems odd.

I liked it! Olaf and Sven and Kristoff cracked my shit up. I’m no animation expert but I thought the human movement in this film was their best yet. the Hans part really caught me by surprise and I liked that.

I didn’t know beforehand who did the voices, but I convinced myself that Anna was Ellie Kemperer (sp?) from The Office. I was like “they even made the character look like her.” oh well. Heh

Actually, the more I’ve thought about this movie, the deeper it seems.

What’s so great about it, is that this something I don’t see very often. It’s a deconstruction which doesn’t stop at being a deconstruction. Or maybe it’s post-modernist to the point of being premodernist. I can’t tell. While they clearly advertise that it’s a sibling story, it also breaks-but-not-quite the mold of the classic Princess Tale. It breaks the classic story while still fulfilling it.

*The first element I liked is that Else fits the villainous archetype to a tee. Think about it: she’s a Queen with wild magical powers. She gives herself a friggin Ice Fortress. And the whole time she’s bringing destruction to the land. Yet she’s not actually a villain, but gives them some room to play with the idea. (I mean, really - are any Disney Queens are good unless they’re the princess character’s mother… in which case they’re usually dead off-screen? I’m drawing a blank here…)

*Let It Go, in addition to being an awesome song, also uses some subtle juxtaposition to communicate a deeper message. While we see Elsa letting go of the emotional barriers, she hasn’t actually overcome her fears. This Step 1 on her journey. Her song is actually about her trying to hide away from everyone - just in an even more remote location. Which is why the storm is still present; it’s still there inside her (she literally says as much). And at the end, she slams her doors shut. When she says the cold doesn’t bother her, she’s actually lying. Not about the physical cold, but about being coldly cut off and isolated.

*Her counterpart Hans, (Yes, Hans is Elsa’s foil, not actually Anna’s) is, obviously, the handsome, heroic Prince. Of course, he’s also a scheming bastard, which is really not quite expected. However, the movie hints in subtle ways - possible too subtle - that Hans isn’t what he appears. I realized that he was wearing gloves. And gloves in the movie symbolize cutting ones’ self off emotionally. Likewise, during the “falling in love” song there are some silly bits (i.e., “We finish each other’s- Sandwiches!”). You’re meant to see it as being cute, but it’s actually him manipulating Anna the whole time. Likewise, Hans appears perfect. He’s charming, generous, humorous, warm-hearted, noble, perceptive and honorable in addition to being handsome, strong and skilled. However, later on the “Fixer-Upper” song tells us that everyone needs a certain amount of acceptance to love and be loved. Everyone except Hans… who was depicted as being without flaws at all… hence his flaws must be very carefully hidden…

*Anna may not have any superpowers, but she’s also clearly meant to be a metaphor for fire. She has red hair and passion, prone to action and confrontation to the same degree that Elsa is retiring and aloof. And of course, no one ever said that an Act of True Love had to be between two lovers…

*Kristoff is an interesting character in that, while he’s not precisely the hero or main protagonist, he’s also capable and intelligent. Disney avoided making this a “Girlz Rule!” flick, and I expect this will be part of its appeal. (Actually, Hans, too - he may be evil but he’s extremely dangerous and skilled.) We see that Kristoff brings out the best parts of everyone he meets… albeit sometimes by accident For all that he’s a bit standoffish, he has all the qualities that Hans has - but he also has true humility.

*The “Fixxer-Upper” song is possibly the single most mature love song I’ve ever heard, without being depressing. It’s optimistic, but not blind about it. And its core message is realistic but hopeful as well.

*Alan Tudyk as the Duke of Weselton is awesomely funny.

My only real complaint with this (and the writing and animation were excellent) was that after a certain point…it seemed to forget it was a musical.

Most of the songs, I liked, except for the trolls’ which seemed sort of shoehorned in. But there were no other songs after that…not even something romantic for Kristoff. And by the “rules” of musicals, there’s usually some sort of singing at the tail-end (in Disney movies, it’s usually a background chorus singing the main theme). But this didn’t have anything like that.

Otherwise, it was great. I’ll have to go back and see it in 3D. I hope they do more musical fairy tales again in the future. “The Wild Swans” would make a great one.

Aurora’s mother, in Sleeping Beauty, is good and alive, although she’s offscreen for most of the movie. Also, the good fairies are Aurora’s adoptive mothers, and they are on screen for most of the movie. I read somewhere that even though people think of that movie as having a passive heroine, the good fairies (and Maleficent, of course) are the real powers in that film, and not some male characters.

Something that just occurred to me: the phrase “let it go” (referring to Elsa’s cold powers) sort of echoes the phrase “let it snow”.

OK, so just one question…

If Hans wanted to kill Elsa and have Anna and therefore the kingdom for himself, why did he say “Don’t hurt the Queen!” when he stormed the ice castle with the guys, and try to save her? Am I not remembering that right?

Theobroma:

It was assumed that a living Elsa could restore summer to Arendelle, no one knew whether the eternal winter would disappear upon her death. Hans didn’t want to rule a frozen wasteland, if he could avoid that.

Am I the only one that caught the Arrested Development theft…uh, I mean homage?

From Arrested Development:

They copy the “finish each other’s…sandwiches”. Huh.

I really liked it, and look forward to seeing what they do with it when it eventually shows up on Broadway.

Though I don’t think they’ll be able to pull of Idina Menzel by the time they get it there.

Just saw this last night and I was impressed. The story was actually a lot deeper and more interesting than most Disney movies I love, and the characters more complex and memorable than most animated films these days. I absolutely loved the music and only wished they would have included a villain song. The reveal about Hans would have been great if he sang it instead of just told it. Would have really had us hating him more.

Overall I was extremely impressed. For some reason this wasn’t even on my radar and I’m lucky there was still a theater playing it so I could go see it.

Mommypants and I finally saw Frozen this past weekend. We both really enjoyed it. Probably my favorite Disney movie since Wall-E (Pixar, I know… I know). Also, the best animation I’ve seen since How to Train Your Dragon.

I enjoyed the Mickey short before Frozen even more than the movie. The animation was stunning- the shadows, the colors, the shading - perfect.