Dispatches from the Popcorn Stadium: Frozen

Once upon a time, there was an animated film released by the venerable Walt Disney Animation Studio. The name of this film was Frozen, and it was indeed one of the finest films of that year, and one of the finest the studio had released in many years. It featured beautiful animation, plenty of humor and heart, and songs that few in the realm could resist singing along with.



Most wonderfully, it had female characters who weren't either passive objects waiting to rescued, or irredeemable beings that were pure evil. Unlike many of their earlier films, the conflict at the heart of the story was not built around a pursuit of that perfect prince, but rather the relationship of two sisters, Princess/Queen Elsa and Princess Anna. There was a prince, but Princess Anna's relationship with him, as well as the other main male human character, is secondary to the heart of the story. There was also a talking snowman, and a loyal reindeer that was like an overgrown dog with antlers, both of whom were primarily around for the comedy.

Despite the fact the movie had plenty of things for people of all ages and genders to like, the Sludge Trolls in the studio's marketing department kept bellowing their foul chant, over and over, as they put together the early marketing plan for the film.

Cut the songs, and cut the women

Boys just want to see talking snowmen

Forget about the core relationship here

Boys just want to see  funny reindeer

Forget Katniss and forget Cameron's Titanic

Boys are the only way to stop investor panic 

So cut the songs and cut the women

Boys just want to see talking snowmen

Because of the slightly humorous, but massively misleading, trailer summoned by the terrible rhyme of the Sludge Trolls, many a poor blogger chose to write off this film. To these bloggers, especially the laziest in the kingdom*, this short teaser showing a snowman fighting a reindeer over a carrot made the film look like a knockoff of another studios franchise also set in ice and snow. Had this most lethargic blogger not caught wind of the positive buzz surrounding the film, plus an admittedly better commercial which did feature some of the music and actually showed the main characters in a situation other than giving us aggressive looks while covered in snow. As such, on a whim, the blogger caught a screening at the local theater the night before the film's actual release**. He did not regret it in the slightest, and lived happily ever after, or at least for a few hours after the movie ended.

Verdict: Strongly Recommend.

Note: I'm not adding additional notes as a regular part of this feature. This is a one time thing brought on because I wanted to share some of these thoughts, but putting it into the fairy tale construct above would have been straining an already thin gimmick.

Additional Notes:

• Kristen Bell is Princess Anna. They found the absolute perfect actor to voice the character. The other main character voices*** were also well chosen, but Bell stands out.
• Speaking of voice actors, I'm a fan of every Disney animated film having Maurice LeMarche and Alan Tudyk do voices, even if there parts are fairly small.
• In lesser films, characters like Olaf the Snowman would drive me nuts. But he works for me in this film. The film needed a purely humorous character to balance out some of the pain and hurt that constitutes a large part of the central relationship between Elsa and Anna.  
• I loved the music in the film, particularly the songs. My personal favorite is "Let it Go", which also coincides with a great scene of animation. However, they all are pretty great. 
• Because of this film's soundtrack, I now own a song performed by Demi Lovato. That's not something I anticipated happening as recently as eight days ago.
• The colors and design of the film were wonderful, although I admit that I absolutely love the winter and all of the colors (or lack of colors, on those gray and brown days) the season brings. If you aren't quite as big of a fan of blues, purples, and reds as I am, you may be less impressed.
• I'm waiting to see how badly Disney's merchandising folks screw up Anna and Elsa. Hopefully they'll find a way to use them as "Disney Princesses" that won't erase their essential character. For example, I'd love to see an Anna doll with the epic bedhead she was sporting in the film. 
• For you fans of Arrested Development: When watching the film, keep an eye out for two possible references to the show. One is kind of subtle, and quite possibly is a coincidence. The other is significantly less subtle.
• There really isn't a Disney film that is quite like this. It has some of the epic grandeur of previous classics like The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast, but also has some of the more down to earth elements that are more reminiscent of Lilo and Stitch, or the underrated Emperor's New Groove 
• Like all recent Disney and Pixar animated films, this one has a short animated film attached to it. I'm not going to give a thing away about it, you'll just have to see it for yourself. Suffice it to say it takes the 2D/3D mix of Pixar's Day and Night and Disney's Paperman to a different, but no less entertaining, place.

*Who-hoo! Shout out to myself!
**For many films, the local theater has "Old Person Midnight" showings, meaning they have one or two showings the night before at 7-8 and 10.
***Mostly voiced by Broadway ringers such as Josh Gad and Idina Menzel