# Why is Frozen so Successful?



## valiant12 (Aug 6, 2015)

Disney officially announces that there will be frozen 2. Not surprising considering how much money they made from the first movie. So, why people like frozen?
The animation and the voice actors are really good and children love snowmen, but is this really enough?
The thing I find particularly hard to understand is why people like the character.
The reindeer man, for example, is obviously a gold digger.
Elsa is hard to relate to - she is a queen, she has godlike powers, she is skinny and her sister doesn't hate her despite the fact that she almost kill her and the whole kingdom. Yet she is a popular character?
So what's the secret?


----------



## Mythopoet (Aug 6, 2015)

Among little girls? My experience leads me to believe it's really just one thing...

Elsa has way cool ice powers. 

No other Disney princess to date has had way cool powers and the little girls LOVE it. They all want to be Elsa because she has way cool ice powers. It's really that simple. Seriously. I once asked my 7 year old daughter why she liked Elsa so much more than Anna. The answer was that Elsa has ice powers.


----------



## Philip Overby (Aug 6, 2015)

I agree. I haven't seen Frozen, nor will I ever, but ice powers seem cool. And the songs are catchy as hell, so that helps.


----------



## Tom (Aug 6, 2015)

Simple--why shoot for true cinematic quality when princesses and easy-to-sing-along-to musical numbers are the go-to way to haul in the cash? Plus, a lot of people can relate to Elsa, in her struggles to accept who she is and have others accept her as well. And Anna's unconditional love for and loyalty to her sister is something a lot of siblings can understand and empathize with.  

Personally, I didn't like Frozen. Really the only part I liked was the emotional bond between Elsa and Anna. The songs were unoriginal (though Idina Menzel's performance as Elsa was great), and the animation underwhelming. Sure, it was nice, what with the detailed environments and special effects, but it just lacked...life. I was very disappointed with the character design--I was expecting Disney's classic visual storytelling, the kind that can tell you a character's personality just by their body shape and facial features. Take away trappings such as differing hair and dress styles, and Elsa and Anna look exactly the same. And it's not because they're sisters--it's because the same base was used for both of them (as well as their mother). That's just lazy animation. 

Bleh. 

I can't believe they're making a second one.


----------



## BWFoster78 (Aug 6, 2015)

I enjoyed Frozen quite a lot. As the father of a now 5 year old, I've had the opportunity to see it at least a dozen times, and it still hasn't gotten old.

At its core, the two main characters face really relateable problems:

Anna is lonely. Elsa is afraid. Who hasn't been lonely or afraid?

The film moves a great pace. There's plenty of conflict and action and good humor mixed in. The songs are catchy. And I think that a lot of people loved the fact that it thwarted expectations. A typical movie like this is about the princess being rescued by a prince. Frozen is about a princess rescuing her queen sister. 

I don't think it's a mystery at all: Give people a relateable character, lots of conflict, have stuff happen, and end it in an emotionally satisfying way.  Why wouldn't it be popular?


----------



## Garren Jacobsen (Aug 6, 2015)

I want to touch on a couple of things. First, ice powers meet the first standard in creating a magic system, the rule of cool (Sanderson's Rule 0). Second, the movie was well done technically and those songs are catchy. Third, while being a queen isn't relatable being afraid and sad is. Relateability has little to do with station, because who knows what it's like to be a hobbit, and more to do with more visceral things. Like wanting to stay home when everything is pushing you to do something dangerous and scary, even if it is needed. Further, you came to at least like the characters or like to hate them. (Side bar: Cristoff is not a gold digger. He didn't even like Ana at first.) Look at Hans, he's a jerk. People, adults mind you, cheered when Ana decked him in the schnoz. You can't get that kind of reaction without at least some emotional connection to both Ana and Hans. So it was very successful, it hit all the right points. Is it a masterpiece of cinema? No, probably not. But it is still a great flick.


----------



## Legendary Sidekick (Aug 6, 2015)

No other film resulted in my daughters doing this:








Two years in a row, there were Frozen-themed birthday parties. And even as recent as last night, my 2-year-old wanted to watch the Frozen Emoji video. My 7-year-old reads the _Whatever After_ series, which smartly released "Snow Queen" to legally sponge off the popularity of Frozen. (The whole series is based on classic fairy tales, but the author wisely only used fairy tales that have been made into Disney movies, even though she follows the actual tale… so, for example, the MC needs to prevent the little mermaid's death which actually happened in the real fairy tale.)

A few reasons/explanations for the success:
1 - Disney knows their audience well.
2 - Frozen has a princess (Anna) and a teenage queen (Elsa). That they're sisters really wins over little girls with sisters. My 5-year-old's a middle sister, so she can identify with either princess.
3 - Mythopoet nailed it. Elsa's more powerful than any princess OR knight in shining armor.


EDIT - @Brian, yeah, I liked Hans getting punched out. I was laughing and cheering, and I did enjoy the music too. My brother hates it, but he only watched a YouTube vid and he doesn't have kids. Watching it as a family helps, at least for me.


----------



## Mindfire (Aug 6, 2015)

Lets hope the sequel has a decent villain this time.


----------



## Devor (Aug 6, 2015)

It's the song.  It's "Let it Go."  It's basically a fancy way of saying "Screw the world."  And everyone feels that way, a little bit, even if eventually we have to go back and be queen.

There are some other elements as well, though.  For instance, the way it parodies older Disney movies' portrayal of love at first sight and these hey-we-met-let's-marry thing.  Having two princesses also creates a very different dynamic than most movies of this type, which helps it stand out.


----------



## Trick (Aug 6, 2015)

I have two boys, the older has natural interest in the arts and loves music in the same way so many young children do. The younger is too small to really explain what he likes but, of the two, he is the more classically "boyish." They both sing along to the movie and ask to have the songs played on my wife's tablet... a lot! My older son likes all of the characters, especially Olaf. He will walk around singing In Summer. He has told me that Elsa is pretty. He also is fascinated by the trolls who turn into rocks and wants to understand it. My younger son (tries very hard to) sing along specifically with Let It Go, and he even dances to it. That's the macho one BTW.

As far as I can tell, this is a case of Disney knowing exactly what they're doing but perhaps putting less work into animation than they should have. 

Also, I find it interesting that no one has mentioned Once Upon A Time, which, already being a Disney/Classic Fairy Tale TV show, immediately included Frozen's characters to borrow the popularity just like the show LS mentioned above, and Once is supposed to be for adults (although I think it falls short).


----------



## Svrtnsse (Aug 6, 2015)

I'm a single, middle-aged male, with no kids, and I like Frozen too - a lot. I bought it for myself upon recommendation from a friend and I've watched it a handful of times (which is quite a lot for me).

What I like the most about it is that the bad guy (Elsa), isn't technically bad. She just tries to do what she thinks best and doesn't really realize what actually happens. My favorite parts are the ones where the story puts Elsa and Anna against each other trying work things out, but it just doesn't work.

I'm not too bothered with the second half of the movie, but I like the beginning - and I like the music.


----------



## Ruby (Aug 6, 2015)

Hi, I was disappointed when I saw Frozen as I'd read all the hype about it. I expected the Snow Queen and... Well, where was she? 

The song, Let It Go, is pleasant enough, but I thought the plot was flawed, to say the least. I mean, how come Elsa's gloves don't turn to ice when she puts them on?

Admittedly, I'm not their target audience, but I know a few little girls who hate the film as well as some who love it.

I haven't asked any little boys what they think...


----------



## Tom (Aug 6, 2015)

My little brother actually likes it a lot, and he's a very "boyish" little boy. He loves riding ATVs, playing with Nerf guns, picking fights, and...watching Frozen. And Tangled. And Brave, and Beauty and the Beast, and Mulan....

It's kind of funny to me, but also encouraging. Maybe if he can subvert the "princess movies are for girls" stereotype, he can subvert other gender stereotypes as well!


----------



## Ireth (Aug 6, 2015)

Svrtnsse said:


> I'm a single, middle-aged male, with no kids, and I like Frozen too - a lot. I bought it for myself upon recommendation from a friend and I've watched it a handful of times (which is quite a lot for me).
> 
> What I like the most about it is that the bad guy (Elsa), isn't technically bad. She just tries to do what she thinks best and doesn't really realize what actually happens. My favorite parts are the ones where the story puts Elsa and Anna against each other trying work things out, but it just doesn't work.
> 
> I'm not too bothered with the second half of the movie, but I like the beginning - and I like the music.



Elsa isn't the bad guy, though. Possibly slightly antagonistic when in certain scenes with Anna, but she's definitely NOT the villain.


----------



## Legendary Sidekick (Aug 6, 2015)

She certainly appears to be, or at least that was my take the first time I watched it. I was glad Hans turned out to be the villain. He just came off as sort of a… well, I don't know. I was watching the movie with my daughters, so when Elsa wouldn't let Anna marry the guy she just met I was like, _​yeah, Elsa! Way to fill the role of your dead parents. I wouldn't let my daughters near this creep either._

Even though lots of Disney princesses agree to marry the guy they just met, it was somehow creepy in this case. Of course, here I was thinking as a parent after epically failing to consider what crappy parents Anna and Elsa had. In my defense, lots of Disney princesses are locked in their room for an entire childhood and/or century.


----------



## Ruby (Aug 6, 2015)

Hi Legendary Sidekick, thanks for posting the video. Have you seen the one for how Tangled should have ended? Brilliant!

I must admit that the first time I watched Frozen I was confused about who Anna should marry. So, is this a film for girls, or do boys also enjoy it as Tom Nimenai says? Are films gender specific in terms of their target audience and should they be?


----------



## Feo Takahari (Aug 6, 2015)

I can't speak for anyone else, but for me, it wasn't "Let it Go" that made the movie. It was "Do You Wanna Build a Snowman?" It reminded me of _The Wall_ as Elsa separates herself from the person who cares most for her. And of course, in the end the wall falls, and she realizes that she didn't have to be afraid. I've had my own issues with walling myself away, so I sympathized.


----------



## BWFoster78 (Aug 6, 2015)

So let's assume I'm seeking monetary success with my writing. Which is more advantageous: legitimately enjoying popular works of fiction like _Twilight _and films like _Frozen _or having more "artistic" tastes?

Seems to me that the obvious answer is that the author who enjoys writing things that people actually love reading is in a far better situation.

I kinda feel for writers who do desire monetary success but honestly don't get what people liked about popular works.

Just a random thought tangentially related to the topic.


----------



## Trick (Aug 6, 2015)

BWFoster78 said:


> So let's assume I'm seeking monetary success with my writing. Which is more advantageous: legitimately enjoying popular works of fiction like _Twilight _and films like _Frozen _or having more "artistic" tastes?
> 
> Seems to me that the obvious answer is that the author who enjoys writing things that people actually love reading is in a far better situation.
> 
> ...



The thing I'd say about this is, if you're not writing something you like, then you need to rethink some things. Also, if your main goal in writing something is to please the masses and hopefully go gargantuan like Twilight etc. then you will probably be disappointed. Obviously, a lot of people like Twilight and the Hunger Games and whatnot but I don't. I do like some authors who are incredibly popular, perhaps only within their genre but still, and I want to emulate them. I don't want to emulate Twilight, even considering its success. So, as long as I accept that I probably won't write number one best sellers and choose to be happy with even a few fans some day, I will be able to live with myself and keep writing.


----------



## Reaver (Aug 6, 2015)

If anyone who has seen the movie can refute anything in this Honest Trailer, then I'll watch it. If not, I'll leave it to all the little girls who made it such a box office and merchandising success.


----------



## WooHooMan (Aug 6, 2015)

Reaver said:


> If anyone who has seen the movie can refute anything in this Honest Trailer, then I'll watch it. If not, I'll leave it to all the little girls who made it such a box office and merchandising success.



Pocahontas wasn't the last good Disney musical.  In fact, I'd argue it wasn't a good Disney musical period.
Other than that, I'd say the video is pretty accurate.

I think most older people dig it because it goes against their expectations of a Disney princess movie (major relationship is between siblings, true love is a familial thing, prince is the bad guy, heroic-ish woman with powers, main character is the annoying dork instead of the talking object).  I think older people give the movie "points" for that stuff and they end-up thinking the movie's more clever/engaging than it really is.  
So, they're probably more okay with buying merchandise for their kids, hence why Frozen prints money.

I think it says something about Disney that "Disney princess musical" is a genre in and of itself that can be parodied, played with and reinvented.



Feo Takahari said:


> I can't speak for anyone else, but for me, it wasn't "Let it Go" that made the movie. It was "Do You Wanna Build a Snowman?" It reminded me of _The Wall_ as Elsa separates herself from the person who cares most for her. And of course, in the end the wall falls, and she realizes that she didn't have to be afraid. I've had my own issues with walling myself away, so I sympathized.



Did you just compare Frozen to The Wall?  Like the Pink Floyd musical about a psychotic neo-nazi rockstar?  You could not have picked two more different animated musicals.
I never thought anyone could talk about Disney and Pink Floyd in the same breath.
Unless they're talking about Hercules, I guess.


----------



## Feo Takahari (Aug 6, 2015)

WooHooMan said:


> Did you just compare Frozen to The Wall?  Like the Pink Floyd musical about a psychotic neo-nazi rockstar?  You could not have picked two more different animated musicals.
> I never thought anyone could talk about Disney and Pink Floyd in the same breath.
> Unless they're talking about Hercules, I guess.



I dunno. Apart from the profanity, "Outside the Wall" feels very Disney.

As for Honest Trailers . . . Well, it's Honest Trailers. When was the last time they did a movie trailer that was remotely fair to the movie in question? (Seriously, I have no idea how their video game trailers can be so spot-on while their movie trailers are so nitpicky and pointless.)


----------



## Reaver (Aug 7, 2015)

Feo Takahari said:


> As for Honest Trailers . . . Well, it's Honest Trailers. When was the last time they did a movie trailer that was remotely fair to the movie in question? (Seriously, I have no idea how their video game trailers can be so spot-on while their movie trailers are so nitpicky and pointless.)



Well, no one been able to successfully refute or dispute the Honest Trailer for Frozen, so I'll stick with my decision to leave it to those millions of little girls whose parents made everyone involved with that movie very, very rich.


----------



## Garren Jacobsen (Aug 7, 2015)

Reaver said:


> If anyone who has seen the movie can refute anything in this Honest Trailer, then I'll watch it. If not, I'll leave it to all the little girls who made it such a box office and merchandising success.



Ice being their primary export is pure speculation and is not a salient point since they probably couldn't actually export the ice.. The Duke is not a merchant, he's a Duke. Also, what's wrong with fighting against people that have the same job as your allies? All songs in musicals, especially openers, are expository in some way or another. No confirmation about whether or not Cristoff is turned on by reindeer. In fact, it's more that he hates people. While the snowman song is comic relief it gives important information about the character so it serves as more than just a joke, which again is common with comedic musicals. (_See e.g. Urinetown_ "Don't be the Bunny."


----------



## valiant12 (Aug 7, 2015)

> The song, Let It Go, is pleasant enough, but I thought the plot was flawed, to say the least. I mean, how come Elsa's gloves don't turn to ice when she puts them on?



When Elsa puts her gloves for the first time, she was a young girl. Her parents told her that the gloves stop her ice magic, so she subconsciously thinks that they do.


----------



## Guy (Aug 7, 2015)

My 7 year old daughter saw it and it had absolutely no impact on her. She's devoted to How to Train Your Dragon.


----------



## Miskatonic (Aug 8, 2015)

I don't see the appeal of these animated films to begin with, other than the visuals, but even those haven't changed by leaps and bounds in the past few years. But if they are focused on entertaining young kids then It really doesn't take all that much to be successful as long as you hit all the right marks.


----------



## BWFoster78 (Aug 8, 2015)

Miskatonic said:


> But if they are focused on entertaining young kids then It really doesn't take all that much to be successful as long as you hit all the right marks.



And yet not all of them do succeed.  And exceedingly few of them reach Frozen's level of success.


----------



## Svrtnsse (Aug 8, 2015)

Feo Takahari said:


> As for Honest Trailers . . . Well, it's Honest Trailers. When was the last time they did a movie trailer that was remotely fair to the movie in question? (Seriously, I have no idea how their video game trailers can be so spot-on while their movie trailers are so nitpicky and pointless.)



I just watched it, and it feels a bit like it's done by some kid who's definitely too old for cartoons - because cartoons are for little kids.


----------



## Ankari (Aug 8, 2015)

Svrtnsse said:


> I just watched it, and it feels a bit like it's done by some kid who's definitely too old for cartoons - because cartoons are for little kids.



That's a constraint made by modern Western social norms. The first cartoons were meant for adults. I'm talking about the original Mickey Mouse and Popeye the Sailor. In the East, cartoons are consumed by all ages. Anime is a great tool for storytelling, especially fantasy and sci-fi.


----------



## Svrtnsse (Aug 8, 2015)

Ankari said:


> That's a constraint made by modern Western social norms. The first cartoons were meant for adults. I'm talking about the original Mickey Mouse and Popeye the Sailor. In the East, cartoons are consumed by all ages. Anime is a great tool for storytelling, especially fantasy and sci-fi.



I'm aware. I'm a big fan of cartoons, both traditional hand drawn and modern computer generated ones. I think the sarcasm in my previous post may not have come through too well.


----------



## Ankari (Aug 8, 2015)

Ha-ha, yeah. Sorry, bud.


----------



## Miskatonic (Aug 9, 2015)

Ankari said:


> That's a constraint made by modern Western social norms. The first cartoons were meant for adults. I'm talking about the original Mickey Mouse and Popeye the Sailor. In the East, cartoons are consumed by all ages. Anime is a great tool for storytelling, especially fantasy and sci-fi.



Old school Donald Duck was the man. Mickey Mouse also used to be a bit of a jerk until they turned him into Mr. "Squeaky" clean. 

Popeye used to portray black kids as humanoids with a monkey-like head. When I was like 7 or 8 and watching the old cartoons on Nickelodeon, I always wondered why the kids in the class had a pet monkey that looked like a person. Little did I realize what was going on. Yikes.


----------



## valiant12 (Aug 9, 2015)

> Cristoff is not a gold digger. He didn't even like Ana at first.



He is a Disney character.








Spoiler: WARNING: F-bomb


----------



## Uffda (Aug 11, 2015)

valiant12 said:


> So what's the secret?



Really catchy songs.


----------



## evolution_rex (Aug 12, 2015)

This movie is successful because it has a broad audience. Yes, it's mainly for young girls, but the whole family can enjoy it (which, to me, separates it from many of the older Disney Princess movies, which I absolutely cannot stand [except for maybe Snow White]). The music is also written well enough that one of them managed to go viral with people singing it everywhere online, especially kids, causing further marketing for the movie. It had all the ingredients it needed to have pretty much anyone watching it interested. It's simple and sweet and people love that sort of thing. But really, I think it's mostly the marketing Disney does.

Personally though, I just thought it was okay, but I'm also not a kid so it's hard for me to judge (however, I love the LEGO movie and I'm not a kid). I also don't see how it would help anyone writing fantasy unless it was of the same young girl audience and had similar subject matter. Catchy music can't go viral for a book, nor do books have the same level of marketing that movies do.


----------



## Sheilawisz (Aug 14, 2015)

Hello everyone!

Well, many of you know that I am a great _Frozen_ fan because Anna was my avatar for a long time, and sometimes I have also talked about a novella-length Frozen fanfiction that I wrote months ago. I have watched it more times than I can remember, and the rest of my family loves it too.

This is why I think that Frozen is so successful:

1- Frozen is a great story, and the Disney team did a great work telling it very well.
2- The characters are charming and wonderful, with loads of potential.
3- The story involves powerful and mostly positive emotions.

4- Frozen is an excellent combination of adventure, drama, comedy and suspense.
5- Many of us Frozen fans have fallen in love with Arendelle's geography and landscapes.
6- Frozen is very different to Disney's more traditional stories, focusing on family love instead of romance.

7- Yeah, the songs are great!

My favorite character is Anna, she is quite fascinating from my point of view =)


----------



## K.S. Crooks (Aug 16, 2015)

The easy points are- the animation is great and it has the best songs since the Lion King and Aladdin. To delve deeper, it is only the second time that  Disney Princess doesn't end up with a man- the first being in Brave. Elsa is also the first Disney Princess to become Queen. It is also interesting how many boys and girls love Elsa even though Anna is the hero. The movie shows the teaching of Sun Tzu in that "fear" is the true enemy, the only enemy. It also helps that they followed the classic Disney tradition of killing the parents early in the story. At least Bambi's mother made it halfway through the story, now they die within 5 minutes.


----------



## valiant12 (Aug 16, 2015)

> It also helps that they followed the classic Disney tradition of killing the parents early in the story. At least Bambi's mother made it halfway through the story, now they die within 5 minutes.



Is this really improving the plot?


----------



## Devor (Aug 16, 2015)

valiant12 said:


> Is this really improving the plot?



Yes.  But there are more elements to a good story than plot.

Disney does it to give the characters sympathy, a disrupted "home" starting position, early conflict, and to avoid alienating children from broken homes.

And it simplifies things for the screen, which is a big deal.  For instance, in Disney's Aladdin, Aladdin originally had a mother.  There were songs about her, the animators loved her, and so on.  But they chose to cut her, and it streamlined the whole movie.  Consolidating characters gives you better pacing in a movie.


----------



## Xitra_Blud (Aug 16, 2015)

Frozen was a good movie, but I do think they blew it out of proportion. I don't know. My favorite was The Little Mermaid growing up.


----------



## Mythopoet (Aug 16, 2015)

Xitra_Blud said:


> Frozen was a good movie, but I do think they blew it out of proportion. I don't know. My favorite was The Little Mermaid growing up.



My favorite Disney movie was (and still is) Sleeping Beauty.  

Frozen is ok. It has some really brilliant moments. But I think it has some major faults too. But then, I'm not the target audience. The target audience is kids and young people who are much more likely to overlook faults and focus on those moments of brilliance.


----------



## Devor (Aug 16, 2015)

I'm going out on a limb here.

My favorite Disney movie (from the Disney Animations studio) is Wreck-it-Ralph.


----------



## Garren Jacobsen (Aug 16, 2015)

It's hard to say what my favorite Disney Movie is. I find them all about the same general quality (except the Black Cauldron that sucker is _dated_). There are a few standouts Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Wreck It Ralph being the three I can name off the top of my head. Everything is else is about the same to me (good to great). Those three named are exceptional. The Black Cauldron, Bambi, and Snow White I place in the below average to poor (Black Cauldron being the sole Disney Movie in this category).


----------



## valiant12 (Aug 17, 2015)

My favorite Disney movie is Mulan.


----------



## Tom (Aug 17, 2015)

My favorite Disney movies growing up were Mulan, Lion King, and Beauty and the Beast. I still like them a lot. All three have great stories, and really distinct animation styles that make them stand out among the other Disney films (especially Lion King). Watching footage of storyboarding and the animation process for Mulan is actually what really made me want to pursue a career in animation or concept artistry.


----------

