Is Frozen the Only Modern Disney Movie that Matters?

[t***@gmail.com]

https://lebeauleblog.com/2016/10/12/is-frozen-the-only-modern-disney-movie-that-matters/

Posted by kevthewriter

I don’t know about you but where I live Frozen, almost 3 years after it came out, is still inescapable. If you go into any store, you’re bound to run into some Frozen merchandise. Not only that but there always seem to be families (and sometimes childless adults) that seem to have some sort of Frozen thing with them (like a backpack or something).

[Your Name]

Post by t***@gmail.com
https://lebeauleblog.com/2016/10/12/is-frozen-the-only-modern-disney-movie-tha
t-matters/
Posted by kevthewriter
I don¹t know about you but where I live Frozen, almost 3 years after it came
out, is still inescapable. If you go into any store, you¹re bound to run into
some Frozen merchandise. Not only that but there always seem to be families
(and sometimes childless adults) that seem to have some sort of Frozen thing
with them (like a backpack or something).

A little like "Harry Potter" and "Twilight", "Frozen" was something
that although aimed mainly at little girls, it has also captured the
imaginations of variously aged females.

Although the original "Frozen" movie may have been three years ago,
there was a short semi-sequel "Frozen Fever" released last year and the
proper "Frozen 2" sequel currently due next year. Plus the various
stage shows: "Frozen on Ice", "Frozen Live", and "Frozen The Broadway
Musical".

[Gordon Freeman]

Post by Your Name

Post by t***@gmail.com
https://lebeauleblog.com/2016/10/12/is-frozen-the-only-modern-disney-m
ovie-tha t-matters/
Posted by kevthewriter
I don¹t know about you but where I live Frozen, almost 3 years after
it came out, is still inescapable. If you go into any store, you¹re
bound to run into some Frozen merchandise. Not only that but there
always seem to be families (and sometimes childless adults) that seem
to have some sort of Frozen thing with them (like a backpack or
something).

A little like "Harry Potter" and "Twilight", "Frozen" was something
that although aimed mainly at little girls, it has also captured the
imaginations of variously aged females.

I think its popularity is due partly to the "misunderstood heroine"
aspect but mostly to the singability of its songs (to the despair of
many parents!) I'm no big fan of musicals so all the songs rather turned
me off, but I did like the Scandinavian ambience which gave the film a
sort of resonance that helped paper over the cracks of the rather clunky
plot. I also liked the plot twist where the "act of true love" turned
out to be sisterly love and not the expected "humble woodcutter"
character, it was the one plot element that wasn't signposted in neon
lights.

The film seems to have given rise to a huge amount of speculative
analysis, for instance websites enthusing over Elsa's perceived
left-handedness v. Anna's right handedness, and suggestions that Elsa is
the long lost sister of Rapunzel (who has a cameo appearance for about 1
second and is also said to be left-handed).

However it seems to me that as with most animations, Disney did not
think about the handedness of the characters: both Elsa and Anna are
seen doing things left or right handed at various moments, pretty much
randomly. I think the urban myth arose because people just assumed that
since real people have definite handedness, cartoon characters will have
too, but in fact that is pretty rare, the only recent cartoon I've seen
where the characters have definite handedness is Super 4 where Twinkle
is consistently shown to be left-handed (except in several borked
publicity shots!) whilst Alex, Ruby, and Gene are always right handed.
(But even in Super 4, all the other characters have no consistent
handedness.)

Similarly I feel sure that the appearance of Rapunxel was just a little
in-joke by Disney animators, I am deeply sceptical about the notion that
a one second cameo is intended to hint that Elsa's parents' fatal voyage
was to visit Rapunzel and that Frozen 2 will be about the shock
revelation that Anna and Elsa are not biological sisters at all and that
Elsa and Rapunzel were twins separated at birth!!

Still all this fan speculation does underline the surprising way people
have taken Frozen to heart, normally you would only expect that depth of
analysis for deeper and more epic stories like Harry Potter etc.

[Your Name]

Post by Gordon Freeman

Post by Your Name

Post by t***@gmail.com
https://lebeauleblog.com/2016/10/12/is-frozen-the-only-modern-disney-m
ovie-tha t-matters/
Posted by kevthewriter
I don¹t know about you but where I live Frozen, almost 3 years after
it came out, is still inescapable. If you go into any store, you¹re
bound to run into some Frozen merchandise. Not only that but there
always seem to be families (and sometimes childless adults) that seem
to have some sort of Frozen thing with them (like a backpack or
something).

A little like "Harry Potter" and "Twilight", "Frozen" was something
that although aimed mainly at little girls, it has also captured the
imaginations of variously aged females.

I think its popularity is due partly to the "misunderstood heroine"
aspect but mostly to the singability of its songs (to the despair of
many parents!) I'm no big fan of musicals so all the songs rather turned
me off, but I did like the Scandinavian ambience which gave the film a
sort of resonance that helped paper over the cracks of the rather clunky
plot. I also liked the plot twist where the "act of true love" turned
out to be sisterly love and not the expected "humble woodcutter"
character, it was the one plot element that wasn't signposted in neon
lights.
The film seems to have given rise to a huge amount of speculative
analysis, for instance websites enthusing over Elsa's perceived
left-handedness v. Anna's right handedness, and suggestions that Elsa is
the long lost sister of Rapunzel (who has a cameo appearance for about 1
second and is also said to be left-handed).
However it seems to me that as with most animations, Disney did not
think about the handedness of the characters: both Elsa and Anna are
seen doing things left or right handed at various moments, pretty much
randomly. I think the urban myth arose because people just assumed that
since real people have definite handedness, cartoon characters will have
too, but in fact that is pretty rare, the only recent cartoon I've seen
where the characters have definite handedness is Super 4 where Twinkle
is consistently shown to be left-handed (except in several borked
publicity shots!) whilst Alex, Ruby, and Gene are always right handed.
(But even in Super 4, all the other characters have no consistent
handedness.)
Similarly I feel sure that the appearance of Rapunxel was just a little
in-joke by Disney animators, I am deeply sceptical about the notion that
a one second cameo is intended to hint that Elsa's parents' fatal voyage
was to visit Rapunzel and that Frozen 2 will be about the shock
revelation that Anna and Elsa are not biological sisters at all and that
Elsa and Rapunzel were twins separated at birth!!
Still all this fan speculation does underline the surprising way people
have taken Frozen to heart, normally you would only expect that depth of
analysis for deeper and more epic stories like Harry Potter etc.

Disney animated feature films often are considered "epic stories", but
"speculation" doesn't solely belong to "epic stories". Brainless idiots
with nothing better to do "speculate" on all sorts of nonsense ... an
example being morons trying to claim Enid Blyton's Noddy and Big Ears
or Sesame Street's Bert and Ernie are "gay". :-\

In fact this "speculation" idiocy is one of the biggest stupidities of
high school English classes (or what Americans call "English
Literature"). The teacher and exams are always asking idiotic questions
like "What was the author thinking when they wrote XYZ?" I always
wanted to put answers like "I wonder what we having for dinner?" or
"The publisher said he has to have this finished by Friday."

We have no idea what the author / creator was thinking, and likely
wasn't thinking about any "epic story" at all ... it's just a load of
crap dreamt up by morons and academics to fill their time. :-\

[Your Name]

Post by Your Name

Post by Gordon Freeman

Post by Your Name

Post by t***@gmail.com
https://lebeauleblog.com/2016/10/12/is-frozen-the-only-modern-disney-m
ovie-tha t-matters/
Posted by kevthewriter
I don¹t know about you but where I live Frozen, almost 3 years after
it came out, is still inescapable. If you go into any store, you¹re
bound to run into some Frozen merchandise. Not only that but there
always seem to be families (and sometimes childless adults) that seem
to have some sort of Frozen thing with them (like a backpack or
something).

A little like "Harry Potter" and "Twilight", "Frozen" was something
that although aimed mainly at little girls, it has also captured the
imaginations of variously aged females.

I think its popularity is due partly to the "misunderstood heroine"
aspect but mostly to the singability of its songs (to the despair of
many parents!) I'm no big fan of musicals so all the songs rather turned
me off, but I did like the Scandinavian ambience which gave the film a
sort of resonance that helped paper over the cracks of the rather clunky
plot. I also liked the plot twist where the "act of true love" turned
out to be sisterly love and not the expected "humble woodcutter"
character, it was the one plot element that wasn't signposted in neon
lights.
The film seems to have given rise to a huge amount of speculative
analysis, for instance websites enthusing over Elsa's perceived
left-handedness v. Anna's right handedness, and suggestions that Elsa is
the long lost sister of Rapunzel (who has a cameo appearance for about 1
second and is also said to be left-handed).
However it seems to me that as with most animations, Disney did not
think about the handedness of the characters: both Elsa and Anna are
seen doing things left or right handed at various moments, pretty much
randomly. I think the urban myth arose because people just assumed that
since real people have definite handedness, cartoon characters will have
too, but in fact that is pretty rare, the only recent cartoon I've seen
where the characters have definite handedness is Super 4 where Twinkle
is consistently shown to be left-handed (except in several borked
publicity shots!) whilst Alex, Ruby, and Gene are always right handed.
(But even in Super 4, all the other characters have no consistent
handedness.)
Similarly I feel sure that the appearance of Rapunxel was just a little
in-joke by Disney animators, I am deeply sceptical about the notion that
a one second cameo is intended to hint that Elsa's parents' fatal voyage
was to visit Rapunzel and that Frozen 2 will be about the shock
revelation that Anna and Elsa are not biological sisters at all and that
Elsa and Rapunzel were twins separated at birth!!
Still all this fan speculation does underline the surprising way people
have taken Frozen to heart, normally you would only expect that depth of
analysis for deeper and more epic stories like Harry Potter etc.

Disney animated feature films often are considered "epic stories", but
"speculation" doesn't solely belong to "epic stories". Brainless idiots
with nothing better to do "speculate" on all sorts of nonsense ... an
example being morons trying to claim Enid Blyton's Noddy and Big Ears
or Sesame Street's Bert and Ernie are "gay". :-\
In fact this "speculation" idiocy is one of the biggest stupidities of
high school English classes (or what Americans call "English
Literature"). The teacher and exams are always asking idiotic questions
like "What was the author thinking when they wrote XYZ?" I always
wanted to put answers like "I wonder what we having for dinner?" or
"The publisher said he has to have this finished by Friday."
We have no idea what the author / creator was thinking, and likely
wasn't thinking about any "epic story" at all ... it's just a load of
crap dreamt up by morons and academics to fill their time. :-\

According to some fool on the radio this afternoon, Disney's new movie
"Moana" will be an even bigger hit / more popular than "Frozen" ... of
course that's really only wishful thinking because it has a
Pacific-theme and all the locals here are over-excited about having
Maori / Pacific Island people in a Disney movie, despite the fact that
many of them also complained that one of the characters is fat and a
naughty stereotype. :-\

[Gordon Freeman]

Post by Your Name
In fact this "speculation" idiocy is one of the biggest stupidities of
high school English classes (or what Americans call "English
Literature"). The teacher and exams are always asking idiotic questions
like "What was the author thinking when they wrote XYZ?" I always
wanted to put answers like "I wonder what we having for dinner?" or
"The publisher said he has to have this finished by Friday."

I used to hate that about English Lit. classes too, that teachers were more
interested in psycho-analysing the authors than studying the story
structure and writing style. As a result I left school still none the wiser
about how to write a decent story myself, I could never figure out how to
structure my ideas into a cohesive narrative, it was only by reading
tutorials online that I started to get anywhere with creative writing.

[Paul S. Person]

On Wed, 16 Nov 2016 02:06:36 -0000 (UTC), Gordon Freeman

Post by Gordon Freeman

Post by Your Name
In fact this "speculation" idiocy is one of the biggest stupidities of
high school English classes (or what Americans call "English
Literature"). The teacher and exams are always asking idiotic questions
like "What was the author thinking when they wrote XYZ?" I always
wanted to put answers like "I wonder what we having for dinner?" or
"The publisher said he has to have this finished by Friday."

I used to hate that about English Lit. classes too, that teachers were more
interested in psycho-analysing the authors than studying the story
structure and writing style. As a result I left school still none the wiser
about how to write a decent story myself, I could never figure out how to
structure my ideas into a cohesive narrative, it was only by reading
tutorials online that I started to get anywhere with creative writing.

You don't understand.
High School English classes aren't about learning how to write.
And they aren't about learning how to (understand what you) read.
They're about spelling, grammar, penmanship (well, maybe not any
more), and character formation.
And, if you are especially unlucky (as I was for one truly awful
semester), indoctrination in Secular Humanism, including large doses
of atheist propagands, and admiration (nay, worship) of the teacher,
who preened herself before us like a big bird.
I had an English teacher (a different one, not an ideologue) ask me
how I like the finely-textured story-telling in /Prode and Prejudice/.
Boy, was /he/ unhappy when I reported that I read it, but didn't have
any idea from start to finish what it was about! So there are good
arguments /against/ trying to discuss the fine points of how to write
in High School.

[Paul S. Person]

On Mon, 14 Nov 2016 20:45:39 -0000 (UTC), Gordon Freeman

Post by Gordon Freeman
I think its popularity is due partly to the "misunderstood heroine"
aspect but mostly to the singability of its songs (to the despair of
many parents!) I'm no big fan of musicals so all the songs rather turned
me off, but I did like the Scandinavian ambience which gave the film a
sort of resonance that helped paper over the cracks of the rather clunky
plot. I also liked the plot twist where the "act of true love" turned
out to be sisterly love and not the expected "humble woodcutter"
character, it was the one plot element that wasn't signposted in neon
lights.

That "twist" is what ultimately caused me to by it on DVD. Well, that
and the likelihood that its perceived "ordinariness" was so
discouraging only because the film had been so hyped before I saw it
that I expected better.

When I saw it again, IIRC, it seemed to me that that climactic scene
shared something with the scene in /Pocahontas/ where everything goes
wrong and the hero is captured: for that one scene /only/ we follow
two or three separate parts of the story, all bound together by music.
In both cases, to me, this gives these scenes a depth lacking in the
rest of the film.

I can't help thinking that, if they could do that for an entire movie
(or at least a substantial number of scenes) instead of just one
scene, they would really have something!

[Ted Nolan <tednolan>]

Post by Paul S. Person
On Mon, 14 Nov 2016 20:45:39 -0000 (UTC), Gordon Freeman

Post by Gordon Freeman
I think its popularity is due partly to the "misunderstood heroine"
aspect but mostly to the singability of its songs (to the despair of
many parents!) I'm no big fan of musicals so all the songs rather turned
me off, but I did like the Scandinavian ambience which gave the film a
sort of resonance that helped paper over the cracks of the rather clunky
plot. I also liked the plot twist where the "act of true love" turned
out to be sisterly love and not the expected "humble woodcutter"
character, it was the one plot element that wasn't signposted in neon
lights.

Must have been something in the air .. "Maleficent" had kind of the
same thing going on.

[Gordon Freeman]

Post by Paul S. Person
When I saw it again, IIRC, it seemed to me that that climactic scene
shared something with the scene in /Pocahontas/ where everything goes
wrong and the hero is captured: for that one scene /only/ we follow
two or three separate parts of the story, all bound together by music.
In both cases, to me, this gives these scenes a depth lacking in the
rest of the film.
I can't help thinking that, if they could do that for an entire movie
(or at least a substantial number of scenes) instead of just one
scene, they would really have something!

Yes, a lot of it felt rather contrived, e.g. how Anna not only had to lose
her memories of the incident with Elsa, but wasn't allowed to learn anew
about her abilities, or the reason for her locking herself away, for no
logical reason other than there'd have been no story if she'd known what
was going on! Or at least, someone would have had to engage their brain in
the script writing department.

Similarly the "shock revelation" that 'prince charming' was not her soul
mate after all, well I think we all knew that from the moment she met the
'humble woodcutter' so I don't know who they thought they were fooling! The
convenient deaths of the parents too, OK so it was basically just a fairy
tale but the whole plot felt a bit colour-by-numbers.

Yet amongst the clunkiness there were several great individual scenes, not
just the one where Anna turns to ice, but also the opening scene where we
see the men from below the ice, I thought that was brilliantly conceived.
If they could have sustained that creative vision the film would have
looked amazing.

One of the things about that opening scene was that it almost makes the ice
itself into a character: the way it mediates what we see, it's almost as if
we're looking at those men from the ice's POV, and then their struggle with
the chunks of ice is like a wrestling match, almost like the ice is alive
as it twists and slips about. Yet later when Elsa is making things from
ice, that feeling of the ice having a soul is strangely lacking, even when
she makes something that comes alive! This is where you need a director
like Miyazaki I think.