Disney Movie Challenge: Frozen (2013)

 

 Disney Movie Challenge

Frozen (2013)

WHAT IS THE DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE: With Disney+ making available almost all of their films from the vault I thought it was a good time to watch all the theatrically released feature length Disney Studio Animated films. That’s a lot of qualifications so what does it all mean? It must be a film developed and released under the Walt Disney Animation Studios (so no PIXAR or Tim Burton stop motion films). Must have been released in theaters (no direct to video releases). And feature length (no shorts that played prior to the features). Currently there are 59 films. Starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 going to Raya and the Last Dragon in 2021. 

I don’t think there’s been a bigger animated movie than Frozen in the last 10 years. You can not overstate the phenomenon that it was. It was everywhere and even became a major talking point on Fox News for it’s supposed Liberal propaganda. There’s been so much written about it (the Wikipedia article has to be the longest for any Disney movie I’ve researched) that I’m not sure if I have anything new to contribute to the conversation. But that’s part of the challenge. 

If you haven’t heard, Frozen is about two sisters, Anna and Elsa. They are both princesses in the fictional kingdom of Arendelle. Elsa has a magical gift that allows her to create ice and snow on demand. After she accidentally shoots Anna in the head with a frost beam their parents take them to see the trolls. The leader of the trolls uses magic to make Anna forget what happened and instructs the parents to conceal Elsa’s powers. Elsa goes into a forced isolation and no one is allowed into the castle. After their parents die (it’s a Disney movie so of course they die) Elsa is set to become Queen and a big celebration is held. When Anna says she wants to marry a guy she just met Elsa says no and they get in an argument. It’s then that Elsa reveals her powers. She runs away but not before dooming Arendelle to eternal winter. Anna sets out to find her sister and make things right. On her journey she teams up with Kristof, his Reindeer friend Sven, and a Snowman named Olaf. 

The movie originally went into development as the “Snow Queen” with Elsa as the villain. The story bounced around in development for a long time.  It was when it was decided that Elsa and Anna were going to be sisters the story got changed around and started to gain momentum. But it was the song “Let it Go” written by married couples Kristin Anderson-Lopez  and Robert Lopez that really changed the course of the movie. “Let it Go” is a power ballad written for Elsa and when the Producers heard it they decided that they couldn’t have the villain sing the best song in the movie. So they changed the story to make Elsa more sympathetic. This change left a hole of a villain that was later filled by Prince Hans who Anna wanted to marry in the beginning of the film.  

Originally planned as a traditionally hand drawn movie and one of the reasons John Lasseter brought back Chris Buck who left Disney when they stopped making hand drawn animation.  But after Buck came back it was decided that some of the visuals were too complicated to do with traditional animation and the movie was done with computer animation.  One of the things I love about Disney is their willingness to push the envelope. When the technology wasn’t there to create realistic snow and footprints they created new technology.  Art director Michael Giaimo also focused a lot on clothing. Something that wasn’t a big focus on other Disney animated films.  Giaimo saw the film as a costume film and wanted authentic looking fabrics.  Since computer animated films allow costumes to be drawn separately from characters for the first time a Disney Animated Film had a “Costume designer”. This job went to Jean Gillmore who was a character designer normally.  They used real world examples to help build the very detailed costumes they were looking for.  The results of all of this was an amazing looking film.  Everything just popped off the screen.  

Undeniably one of best things about the film is the music.  Kristin Anderson-Lopez  and Robert Lopez wrote a total of 25 songs during the production of the film, only 8 of those songs made it into the finished film.  As mentioned earlier their songs ultimately drove the story of the film.  While “Let it Go” is the most popular song, songs like “For the First Time in Forever”, “Do You Want to Build a Snowman” and “In Summer” are all super catchy and fun songs.  The first 30 minutes of the film is almost entirely told by music and almost feels like it’s going to be a full opera.  The music recalls the early movies of the Disney Renaissance and there is a good reason for that.  Whenever the Lopez’s were stuck on a song they looked to Howard Ashman’s work on The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin for inspiration.  The one song that I feel doesn’t work at all is “Fixer Upper”.  Maybe that's because I really dislike the trolls (more on that later), but the film has some of the best songs of any Disney film.  

The story itself is mixed.  First let me just say I love the twist at the end that it’s not "true love’s kiss" that saves the day and the story of Elsa’s rejection of society and redemption to good as both are different from other Disney movies. Most of my issues lie with two aspects of the story.  First is the villain of the film and that twist, the second (as mentioned earlier) are the Trolls and the parents.

When it was decided that Elsa wasn’t going to be a villain Disney decided they needed a different villain.  At some point they decided that Prince Hans was going to be the villain. I am not sure how much of Prince Hans was written before they decided that, but it feels like it was a very late change.  There is nothing in the beginning of the film that even hints he might be evil. His turn to a villain comes out of left field and seems that the writers felt they needed a villain and just changed his character.  I love twist endings but you can’t just change a character mid movie like that.  It also seems like he had a half assed plan to marry the younger sister of the Queen and then kill them both. It's almost like when Elsa turned evil he just lucked out.  I think the film would have been better if they just left out his villainous turn and just focused on the sisters which is the heart of the story anyway.  

Now let's get to the parents and the trolls.  This is the biggest thing that irks me about this film.  When they discover that Elsa has dangerous magic powers they just lock her in her room, isolate her from everyone, and tell her to “conceal it, don't feel it".  Why would the troll king even suggest that?  That’s like the worst advice ever.  Instead of trying to teach her how to use her powers he tells them to just lock her away.  For someone that is supposed to be old and wise he seems pretty dumb.  Which brings us back to the parents.  Why would they even listen to him?  Did they not realize that what they were doing was hurting their daughter?  I know they try to make the trolls lovable creatures but to me they are the real villains in the film.  When Kristof brings Anna to the trolls for help all they do is try to get them married.  They don’t even care.  And when they decide that only true love’s kiss will cure the spell the Troll King doesn’t even correct them and say it could be any true love.  It’s obvious they are the worst.   

Overall: It’s a film I feel is overrated.  I always thought people loved the great music and made them nostalgic for the Disney Renaissance era.  While the animation and music are great it’s the story choices that really bug me.  

Random Facts

The scene where Elsa builds the ice castle was so complex it required 30 hours to render each frame, with 4,000 computers rendering one frame at a time.

Jennifer Lee was brought on to be a screenwriter but was so instrumental to the film she was given a co-director credit also.  She became the first female director of a Walt Disney Animation Studios feature film and the first female director of a feature film that earned more than $1 billion world wide at the box office.  

Originally Olaf was going to be Elsa’s evil minion.  

The movie was Disney’s first non-Pixar animated film to win Best Animated Feature at the Oscars.  The only PIxar movie released that year, Monsters University, wasn’t even nominated for an Oscar.  

The movie is based on "The Snow Queen" by Hans Christian Andersen. There is a nod to this with the names of the characters, Hans, Kristof, Anna, Sven.