# Disney's Frozen



## A. E. Lowan (Dec 10, 2013)

Yeah... so pre-addicted...


----------



## Ophiucha (Dec 10, 2013)

Idina Menzel is such a great singer - I wish they'd animated Elsa to show the same emotion I know Idina has on her face when she sings. Her ice dress looks gorgeous, though.


----------



## Feo Takahari (Dec 10, 2013)

I don't think I've ever seen such a sharp division between people who've watched a movie and like it, and people who haven't watched it and hate it. People are angrily announcing that they won't see this film for every reason from "I'm sick of these annoying cutesy mascot characters" (the snowman is one of the most popular characters) to "Disney took a story about a girl and made it all about the guys" (the film centers around the bond between sisters) to, um, something about Sami representation (most people are ignoring this, though I've heard a couple arguments that the male love interest is supposed to be of Sami descent and is positively portrayed.) Apparently, there were people doing this as early as Brave, but I don't recall them being so omnipresent.

As for the film itself, it's the kind of movie my elderly mother loves. I kind of liked it, and I enjoyed that it subverted my expectations a few times, but I didn't like it quite as much as Tangled. I guess I could at least call it inoffensive (ironic, considering.)


----------



## Ophiucha (Dec 10, 2013)

The snowman was _really _prominent in the trailers for the movie, so if you haven't seen it I can understand why you'd hate him. He's very downplayed in the film, which makes him much less irritating. And even though I _did_ like the relationship and conflict between Anna and Elsa, as a fan of the original fairy tale, I am pretty annoyed that they cut out all the cool female characters in favour of a bunch of comparatively bland male/animal/snowperson characters. Not enough to_ boycott_ the film, but then again, I wasn't the one who paid for my ticket.  

It was okay... I found the animation really lifeless when it came to the characters, and I didn't like how they handled the... let's just say the 'villain' to avoid any spoilers. But the snow was gorgeous, the songs ranged from inoffensive to pretty (though not memorable), the characters themselves were good, and I thought the love interest was more charming than the guy from _Tangled_. I thought the reindeer was a much better sidekick than the horse or the... chameleon or whatever from _Tangled_, too.

I didn't notice too much with the Saami for most of the film, but the opening was a little... I don't know, having a Saami song open the movie and then kind of just using their imagery to make the coats look pretty without having any explicitly Saami characters or worldbuilding notes taken from their culture? I see why that wouldn't be popular.


----------



## Ophiucha (Dec 11, 2013)

Who did the music for this film by the way? The composition sounded... familiar, I guess. Particularly that one song that Anna and the prince sing together - I actually really liked that one. Really light-hearted and sweet.


----------



## A. E. Lowan (Dec 11, 2013)

I'm not sure who wrote the songs, but Christophe Beck, of Buffy the Vampire the Slayer fame wrote the score.

I finally saw this last night, and was extremely pleasantly surprised.  Now, I, know, I'm tough to NOT make happy.  But there was a plot twist that I really did not see coming, and it was awesome.

What did shock me was the little cartoon at the beginning.  I'm going to rant, so I'll do it under a spoiler tag...



Spoiler: Cartoon Rant Ahead



There is what looks like a 1930's style cartoon with the whole old-fashioned cast riding a hay truck doing their thing, and along come Pete in his car honking for them to speed up.  Then he eyes Minnie with a lecherous leer and grabs her.

Now this is where the weird stuff happens and the cartoon walls of reality break down.  In his attempt to wrest Minnie from Pete's clutches, Mickey is ripped our of the cartoon into the modern cartoon world.  Interesting concept, but the sequence continues with Pete's threatened sexual assault on Minnie while her friends try to help her.

All is made right in the end, of course, but I was left shocked and more than a little offended that Disney would present this sort of sexual violence, the "I can rape what's yours and you can't do anything to stop me" within the context of children's entertainment.  This is the sort of material I put in my very adult writing, and deal with the aftermaths - and nobody's laughing.


----------



## Ophiucha (Dec 11, 2013)

Oh, Christophe Beck? If I see it again, I'll have to pay attention to the score...

Regarding the opening cartoon:



Spoiler: spoilers



Yeah, I get what you mean. I was a bit too distracted by the nauseating 3D (which didn't bother me at all during the actual movie, but with all the 'pushing out of the screen' bits I felt a bit nauseous), but I've always had that problem with the older Mickey and Minnie cartoons in general. She gets kidnapped by Pete, we get him being creepy and lecherous and her getting toppled over so we can see her bloomers, Mickey saves the day and gets his kiss. Never liked that narrative, and was happy when Pete started being phased out of the cartoons (he seemed to come back after a while, but he was much less creepy) and the stories were more about Mickey and Minnie's kids/nephews/whatever. 

I didn't really need them to make a new cartoon with that same story, it's ridiculously outdated and doesn't match the sort of feminist angle both the story and the film as a piece (being the first Disney animated feature to have a female director) were being advertised as.


----------



## IrelandBeaver (Aug 6, 2015)

The songs were written by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez. They did the music for the 2011 Winnie the Pooh movie as well as the musicals Book of Mormon and Avenue Q.


----------

