Disney's Frozen or Damn it, Elsa, No One Asked for a Polar Vortex

I honestly wasn't sure what to expect when I went to see Frozen. I'd heard that it was Disney, good, and that Idina Menzel was singing in it. All three of which were more than enough for me to shrug and say sure, why not? I'd not really seen any of the promotional materials. I knew it had a quirky, anthropomorphic snowman, but that was about it.

Admittedly, I'd also been watching Tangled on repeat for about three days at this point. I was in a mood, and Frozen was well in that wheelhouse. Or so I was hoping. So perhaps while I didn't know what to expect, my standards were also a bit higher as a result.

I'd also like to take this chance to thank my husband. He deserves some sort of Best Husband award for willfully taking me to see a Disney movie at the cinema. And not only that, but sitting through it with me despite the screaming children. Oh yeah. Screaming children.

But to the point: Frozen. I had heard good from people who had seen it, but not anything actually about the plot. Just a lot of flailing and crying about feels, to be honest. Though, having seen the movie, I can't disagree with the sentiment.

In short, I loved Frozen. I'll admit, it's not without its issues, but it is a solid (...there's a pun there somewhere) film. The story is an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen story "The Snow Queen". The film focuses on two sisters, Elsa and Anna. Elsa, from birth, is "cursed" with the ability to create and manipulate snow and ice. From an early point in the movie, we are shown the downside to these powers, and Elsa does her best to hide away to protect those around her, namely her younger sister Anna.

However, when Elsa comes of age and becomes Queen, her powers are exposed in a somewhat troublesome way. She flees the kingdom. Anna, worried that she's lost her sister for good, goes after her, trekking into the mountains in hopes of bringing Elsa home. She leaves her fiance Hans in charge of the kingdom. Anna quickly discovers that setting off on her own wasn't the best or brightest idea she's ever had, but luckily she meets Kristoff, a young man who knows the area well. Kristoff, after a bit of...persuasion, agrees to help Anna find Elsa. Kristoff has a reindeer named Sven who could take Maximus from Tangled in a sass-off. In the journey to find Elsa, Anna and Kristoff come across a snowman named Olaf, who has longs to find out what summer feels like.

Yeah. Shhhh. We don't tell Olaf what happens in summer. That would be cruel.

The film handles flipping between three settings fairly well. We see Elsa in her Ice Palace, Kristoff and Anna trekking up the mountain, and what's happening back in the Kingdom. It brings all three together almost seamlessly. It doesn't really come as a surprise that Frozen won the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature Film and that it is nominated for the Oscar as well.

Now for the technical mumbo jumbo I so dearly enjoy.

We'll start with the music. The tone of the music throughout fits the story, and with a cast full of Broadway alumni it was beautifully executed. One thing about it shocked me though: it wasn't written by Alan Menken. I know. It's strange. It made my head spin a bit. I don't love it any less as a result, but it did shake me slightly. Yes, I know Disney is capable of hiring other writers, but as someone who grew up on Menken-style Disney...well. You get the picture.

Here's the kicker though. The original music was written by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Mark Lopez. Doesn't sound familiar? Well, this will. Mark Lopez is more well known for two of his little Broadway projects: The Book of Mormon and Avenue Q.

So, Broadway veteran songwriters and Broadway alums belting it out? I was giddy. Well and properly giddy. Let It Go, Elsa's main solo, was nominated for Best Original Song at the Golden Globes, and has scored the same nomination for this year's Oscars. I'll admit: I've only listened to the album/movie version. I haven't listened to the Demi Lovato version. But come on, Elsa is voiced by Idina Menzel. I'll get to the cast (because boy, do I have some flailing to do about them), but first, Let It Go:

Just take a minute to recover. I hope so, because now I need to talk about the cast.

• Elsa -Voiced by Idina Menzel: Where to begin to talk about Idina? Broadway, really. She's known perhaps most in the Broadway world as the original Maureen Johnson from Jonathan Larson's RENT and also as the original Elphaba from Wicked. She has a few scattered film credits, including Disney's Enchanted. I enjoyed Enchanted, but as a fan of Idina I was disappointed that they didn't really make use of her singing abilities. I'm glad that Disney didn't squander such a good business relationship. When you have an ace like Idina Menzel in your hand for a musical, you make good use of it. I loved her as Elsa, and Let It Go is slowly but surely climbing its way up into my list of favorite Disney songs.
• Anna - Voiced by Kristen Bell: I'm in agreement with the internet: why did we not know before now that she could sing? Whatever the reason, I'm glad we know now. Odds are you'll be most familiar with Kristen as the star of Veronica Mars and for her role in Gossip Girl. She brought a comedic edge and personality to Anna that developed the character past what the lines simply read. 
• Hans - Voiced by Santino Fontana: I know. You're wondering who he is. I did too, honestly. If you're looking for major television roles, you won't find many. However, Fontana is yet another Broadway alum on the cast. The theater world knows him far better. He was the original Tony in Billy Elliot, and he is currently on Broadway as Prince Topher in Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella, for which he earned a Tony nomination.
• Kristoff - Voiced by Jonathan Groff: Yet another Broadway alum packed into the film. But with that comes one of my only problems with the film: JGroff has a Broadway background, is a major character in the film...but his only song isn't even a minute long. He has some scattered film and television credits, most notable his upcoming performance as Craig in the film version The Normal Heart. He originated the role of Melchior in Spring Awakening on Broadway. 
• Olaf - Voiced by Josh Gad: If you're playing Broadway bingo with your cast list, you can check off this one too. He's got various and sundry television credits, but he's more known as Elder Cunningham from Broadway's Book of Mormon. I don't think I can imagine anyone else as Olaf, he brings something special to the role. 

(And while not a major character, I am obligated as a Whedon fan to share with you that Alan Tudyk is the voice of the Duke of Weselton. The man is just freaking everywhere, I tell you.)

Frozen spent a number of years on the development boards at Disney. Ideas were scrapped and it kept being putting aside because it just wasn't working they way they wanted it to. But something finally clicked and all the pieces fell into place. With the success of Tangled and Wreck-It Ralph looming, they had a standard to reach with Frozen. And I think if they didn't get there, they got pretty damn close. I'll give it four out of five carrots, but only because I think Sven ate the fifth one. 

Agree or disagree? Also, let me know what movie you think I should review next. It is award season, but I'll take any and all suggestions! 

Normally I Like Schedules

I do. I swear. Normally I can be downright anal retentive about schedules. Apparently this blog seems to be an exception to that though. But hey, things happen. Real life, that's a thing.

So while this blog is serving as a way to expend some pent up creative writing energy, I'm also reminded that real life gets in the way sometimes. (You know, the thing that happens when you put your phone or computer away? I know, it's scary as hell, but I promise you it does in fact exist.)

...the above is also a reason why I'm writing this blog before I tell you about my opinions of Disney's Frozen. No, not real life. That ridiculous parenthetical you just read. Because even as I was planning out my review of Frozen in my head, I was already editing it, and while it may seem like I ramble on here a lot, a lot of the more chaotic stuff gets edited out.

Rambletastic. That's a word for it. And screw you, spell check. It's totally a word. It's an adjective describing something (in this case my writing) that has a tendency to go on and on and on... well. You get the picture. If not...I have a few pictures for you. There is a point here, trust me.

When I was in high school, I had a psych teacher who was a little off the wall, but he was a damn good teacher. My best friend Desirae and I used to describe his way of lecturing as follows:

There are a few different kinds of people. You have people who when they speak get directly from Point A to Point B. Like so.

Figure 1

You also have people who talk in circles, which can either mean they never actually reach the point they were trying to make, or they do and it just takes a while. Like so.

Figure 2

Now, while we were sorely tempted to just describe our teacher as the third type, it wasn't so simple. Now, normally when we tell this story, this is where the random flailing begins. I've done my best to reproduce it visually. (MS Paint is a bitch.) 

Figure 3

Our teacher always eventually got to the point, but it usually took the whole class. Now, I know what you're thinking. "I've had those teachers, and they're soooooo damn boring." Not so, dear reader. Even though it seemed like quite a journey to ever get to the point, the tangents were stories and usually entertaining and educational in their own right. 

Figure three is how I would best describe "Rambletastic." (See what I did there? It's all one giant freaking metaphor.) To use the word in a sentence I would say: "I'm sorry, but this blog is going to be more rambletastic than I may have led you to believe." 

But I hope that's okay. It's the way I talk, if you know me outside these little marks on your computer or phone, and it's the way I verbally tell stories. (I took a Classics degree. I'll go on and on about Oral Tradition in another blog. And yes. Take a moment and giggle at the innuendo, I know you planned to anyway. I'll wait here.) 

Done giggling? Lovely. 

I have a lot of memories from high school. Some good, some bad, some we shall never speak of. One in particular that still makes me laugh to this day was from my senior year. I was in the midst of applying to universities and had given my English teacher Mrs. Hicks one of the various reference forms that she had been kind enough to agree to fill out. (I'm reading that sentence and imagining her cringing at the structure, but I'm going to just leave it there because otherwise I'm going to lose my train of thought.) It was after school, and I went to her class room to pick up the forms from her. She was nearly done, but needed a few minutes more. I wasn't in a hurry, so I waited in her classroom while she took the form and went down the hall. 

After about twenty minutes she came back with the form. The form had a question that asked the reference to describe the applicant in something like three single words. Something ridiculous. As I recall, she told me that she had gone down the hall to visit one of the other English teachers who knew me well and they had discussed for the twenty minutes whether "quirky" was a positive descriptor or negative. They both agreed that in context it was positive, but she left it off the reference because in a strict sense (read: the dictionary) it wasn't as positive as maybe would have been prudent. 

Quirky. To this day, I'm still very okay with that descriptor. You're likely going to hear a number of references to the English Department at my high school. They understood me. 

And for the record, the latter English Teacher who pulled off the assist? She has a blog too, and frankly she's way better at this nonsense than I am. You can find her over at The Conscientious Reader. I mean come on, that just sounds like some sort of awesome professional blogger madness. Stephanie is a hoot. I lent her my copy of John Green's An Abundance of Katherines when I was in...maybe junior year? She finished it sometime while I was in college, but by then I'd just gone ahead and bought another copy. It's only fair though, I'm still working my way through the copy of Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Island that she gifted me some time ago.

(Marginally off topic, but the New York State requirements to get certified to be an English teacher are mind boggling. Gave myself a headache just trying to sort through them.)

You see why it takes me so long to get a review up? I have to sift through all the other crap rummaging around in my head to get to anything about the actual movie. 

I'm going to attempt to get back on the schedule. Somehow. It may or may not work. Either way, I am going to actively attempt to keep up with this blog. 

Expect my thoughts on Disney's Frozen soon. And I mean that this time. 

Cheers, 

KH