I did not see the Disney movie “Frozen”, even though it got very good reviews, because I saw a trailer in the theater that concentrated almost exclusively on Olaf, the snowman. It looked like crappy physical humor aimed at very young kids, so I ignored the movie when it opened.
However, once I started reading the reviews, they described a completely different movie than the trailer suggested. It sounded like a decent plotline.
But I still would hesitate to see “Frozen”, because I am worried that Olaf is “comedy relief” much in the way that Jar Jar Binks was in TPM - that is, not funny, and a character who detracts from and cheapens the whole movie.
So, what’s the deal? Is Olaf just a throwaway character and the trailer scenes are about all we see of him? Is he actually funny in other scenes? Or are my suspicions correct and he’s Jar Jar on ice?
Nah, Olaf’s character isn’t as nearly as annoying when you watch the movie. As someone who went into the theater expecting to loathe the movie and find Olaf to be terrible, he turned out to be a pretty good character. He even had me chuckle a few times and I usually can’t stand the “comedy relief” character.
I really do encourage you to see the movie. Olaf is no Jar Jar Binks by any means.
Echoing everyone else. Olaf is very funny, with some pathos, and the movie is excellent all-round (for adults as well as for kids.) Say what you will about Disney, they’ve recognized from the beginning that the way to be successful is to make movies that are targeted at kids, but that adults will enjoy as well.
Olaf was charming. He doesn’t appear at the beginning, and seems to be unnecessary to the narrative when he arrives, but he adds to the story rather than taking away.
I found Olaf one of the best parts of the movie, although I’m in the minority for not really liking the movie much. It was OK, I’m just disappointed that from the very first song there was so much emphasis on the girl pining for a guy she might fall in love with. As the father of two young girls, I had hoped Disney would opt for more female characters who don’t feel they’re incomplete if they don’t have a man, but evidently most people don’t see it that way because the reviews have generally been strong.
When Olaf finally appeared he was a funny diversion.
Jar-Jar is an odd comparison seeing as how he’s the worst incarnation possible of comic reliefs. He wasn’t funny, and in a movie where there didn’t need to be a comic relief character. Olaf would be more comparable to Mushu from Mulan, the Genie from Aladdin, or Turk from Tarzan except with a much smaller role than any of the aforementioned.
He’s definitely not as manic as Jar Jar, his kookiness is a bit more laid back. I kind of like the actor who voiced him Josh Gad although I really only know him from 1600 Penn.
What I really do like about the movie, and I’ll spoiler it for those who haven’t seen it and want to watch it yet:
The big hoodoo frozen curse can only be undone, it’s revealed, by true love. So now they tease that it’s true love between Anna and Prince Hans. Surely a Disney princessey movie would have true love between the guy and the girl win out over everything. Nope, it’s the true love between the two sisters that is the actual bond that saves everything. I like that the movie says that the girl doesn’t have to find a guy in the end.
Yeah…this Disney movie is no different than any other Disney movie. There’s a goofy comic relief guy who tags along, who is very funny and cute and hopefully sells a lot of stuffed animals (I totally want a stuffed Olaf!)
Not sure why it needs to be compared to Star Wars. Why not compare it to Jon Stewart’s role in Half Baked? Or Concorde in Monty Python & The Holy Grail? Weird.
I gave the movie a thumbs up (not way up). YMMV. Still…
I didn’t think the movie ended up being a paeon to romantic love. Remember first that [spoiler]the handsome prince Hans, whom Princess Anna expects to save the day, turns out to be a bad guy.
Then remember second that Kristoff the ice cutter, though a brave and good guy, does NOT save the day. Princess Anna does!
We’re all so used to romantic love being a magical force that will bring about a happy ending. All through the movie, we’re told that “only an act of love” can melt a frozen heart.
And that’s true- but the act of love we expect (a passionate kiss between Kristoff and Anna) doesn’t happen. Instead, it’s an act of SISTERLY love that melts frozen hearts.[/spoiler]
Just saw the movie this weekend with my 14 yr old… good movie, didnt understand the lion king type songs in the beginning, Olaf was predictable as comic relief I saw him more as the sloth type character from ice age… on a marketing point of view I wanted a rock troll doll.
Yeah, I get that. But (it seems a little silly to spoiler this, but to be safe):
we only learn at the very end that the “true love” was sisterly love, not romantic love. By that point, young girls (the real demographic) have seen the main female character spend several scenes throughout the prior 90+ minutes dreaming about their true love, and which guy it would be, and what he might be like, etc. The fact that sisterly love is what saved the relationship doesn’t undo the effect of what they’ve seen already, it just serves to send the resolution off in a different direction. Not to mention, when Elsa created her ice castle she suddenly became sultry and shapely with a long dress showing off her curvy figure, complete with thigh-high slit and cleavage. Her character walked toward the camera with a definite hip sway. Way to carve out some new territory, Disney.
I think your complaints are way off, corkboard. Romantic love in the movie is either a dangerous lie or a red herring, and the sisters are active participants in their own story. Anna is a fearless and proactive hero whose naivete leads her to fall victim to romantic expectations. Her strengths should be emulated and her mistakes learned from.
Character analysis/comments on Anna and Elsa forthcoming:
I too thought that both Anna and Elsa were amazingly well written characters who can be looked up to while both having their faults. It was great that Anna was the heroine of the story and while Christoff was important, he wasn’t the hero. The reveal that Hans was using her is forshadowed a little in the song “Love is an open door” when they sing together, “Our mental synchronization, can have but one explanation.” Extremely clever and cleverly foreshadowed twist with that.
And what did Anna do when she found out? Was she devastated? Yes. But did she give up? HELL No! She fought and fought with Olaf’s help and others to save her sister who had been cruel and indifferent to her almost her entire life (for possibly good reasons of course). She was admirable in an heroic sense, but her fault with falling in love too fast with Hans serves as a great warning message and almost completely contradicts every other Disney movie ever made, sending the message to little girls that if a guy seems too good to be true from the very beginning, he probably is.
Elsa on the other hand, with the noblest intentions, made a huge mistake shutting her sister and everyone else out of her life for so long. In the end she ends up claiming pride and acceptance for herself and her abilities, but still doesn’t control them well enough and ends up hurting and almost killing her sister. Girls can look up to Elsa as a role model for accepting yourself, but also as a cautionary tale about not shutting people out and turning your emotions off just to protect other people and yourself.
So basically walk the middle ground between leaving yourself too open (fall in love too fast) or too closed (locking yourself up in an enchanted ice fortress.
Speaking of which, Olaf is gave me my biggest laugh of the film where he:
Looked on in wonder and amazement while Christoff and Anna had wide-eyed looks of terror when Elsa conjured the giant snowmonster
Remember, both of them had been cut off from the rest of the world for something like a dozen years. The gates finally repoen and they’re overcompensating: Anna can finally have the attention of a male who is not on their staff and Elsa changes her manner of dress to illustrate that she’s finally comfortable with who she really is rather than always be the good girl she had been taught since the first visit with the trolls.