Topic: Eight "Frozen" Fixes (spoilers)

I don't hate this film, but I did have some big problems with the story. There are two big things and then a few little things, so I'll break it into sections.

Fix One

I thought they made a major mistake with the relationship between Anna and Elsa. Their relationship, as shown on-screen, goes like this:

Elsa has magic ice powers that she can't control. When she's little she accidentally hurts Anna, so their parents have the stone trolls (ugh) erase Elsa's powers from Anna's memory. After that, Anna never sees Elsa again. Oh, sure, the film wants us to assume that they had some contact in the following decade-plus, but it doesn't show it. Elsa stays inside her room and tries to learn how to control her powers, with little success. Anna constantly tries to reach out, and is always rejected. Here's where I started to have problems.

During the ballroom scene after Elsa's coronation, they have a conversation, and they talk as though they're total strangers. Anna is awkward and isn't sure how to address Elsa, but she clearly wants to make a connection. However, that action implies that they don't already have a connection. One of the themes of Frozen is "Family is super important and you should always stick by them and stuff," and that's great, but as a story the film fails to justify Anna's actions after Elsa flees. Their sisterly bond is totally arbitrary. Based on what the film shows us, Anna has no real reason to believe that Elsa is redeemable. She knows nothing about Elsa, because they haven't had any contact in years. A single scene of Elsa doing something kind for Anna (without coming out of hiding) would have gone a long way towards fixing this.

So here's my fix: Don't erase Anna's memory. Honestly, that's what it all comes down to. Cut the trolls entirely and have Anna know about Elsa's powers the entire time.

What does this solve? Well, kind of a lot. Anna's pleas to Elsa to open up to her are much more meaningful if Anna knows why Elsa keeps her distance. She knows that she can be hurt, but she doesn't care. She loves her sister anyway. The film as it stands gives us this, but it's not set up in a completely believable way. In the "Do You Want To Build a Snowman" number, young Anna is confused when Elsa all of a sudden abandons her. So whenever she goes to Elsa's door and asks her to come out, for all she knows Elsa is just being a jerk.

Anna's steadfast belief that Elsa can be a good person is also more meaningful if they have a longer history, so we can't have more than ten years without any interaction between them. Like I mentioned, they really should have had just one scene of Elsa doing something nice for Anna. In a montage like that, we only need the one. Anna is a fundamentally hopeful character, but it's better if the audience knows that her hope is justified.

Apparently, the decision to make Anna and Elsa sisters came fairly late in the game, and that doesn't surprise me at all. Their relationship is supposed to be the core of the film, but it feels so forced.

Fix Two

So, let's talk about Let It Go, and why it doesn't make any sense. I don't hate the song itself, and removed from the context of the film it's a great empowerment anthem. That said, it doesn't fit into the film whatsoever. The filmmakers clearly struggled with understanding who Elsa is, and there's no better example than this song. They animate her in a few different ways, and none of them are consistent with the way she acts in the rest of the film. Her sassy smirks at the end and when she undoes her cape are from a completely different character. Same goes for her gleeful, childlike run to the gorge where she builds the staircase. Neither of those character traits are present in the rest of the film. We see her being afraid and meek, and we see her briefly being aggressive and violent. Was she supposed to be an outright villain at some point? Maybe Let It Go was meant to soften her. I dunno.

At first, her emotional breakdown at the castle unleashes a massive blizzard which covers the entire land in a ton of snow. She runs off to a mountain, and realizes that she has no reason to hide her powers anymore because everyone knows about them now. She takes off her gloves, starts experimenting with what she can do, and builds a massive, intricate ice fortress on the side of the mountain.

So, right off the bat we have some big issues. We're supposed to believe that Elsa can barely control her powers, but that staircase and that castle look stunningly perfect. And she makes both of them without a second thought. When did she learn to do this? It's probably just instinctual. But even so, her creations should be roughshod and kinda crappy at first. Unless she was secretly practicing ice architecture...during the years that she completely failed to control her abilities. (Hey, maybe a quick scene where she makes Anna a mini ice castle for Anna's birthday or something? Would have made a major difference.) Also, I guess these magic powers to control ice and snow also extend to changing the color of her dress and creating a new cape? Not to mention the fact that she can create fully-intelligent sentient beings. The lack of limitations to Elsa's powers is pretty sloppy writing.

Anyway, Let It Go is such a bizarre addition to the film, because it loudly announces a character change that doesn't actually happen. Elsa doesn't let anything go. She's still the exact same person. She shuts herself away in a castle and is obsessed with making sure that no one gets near her. She lets it go at the very end of the film, that's for sure. She lets go of her fear and anxiety. That's the metaphor the song was going for that the film didn't follow through on.

If she's gonna "Let It Go," she should have done so. Elsa should have been a character who had been keeping all her emotions (and magic powers) bottled up inside her for her entire life, such that when she lets them out she does a total 180. Elsa should have been more openly villainous, and then her redemption would have meant something. And I don't mean that she should have been evil. I just mean that she should have given in to her hedonistic, repressed urges and loved doing it. Her argument then becomes, "Look, I can't control it no matter how hard I try, so there's no point in trying. It's better to let it all out." Remember, Elsa's had close to zero contact with other people her entire life. Make her super misanthropic! And because of that, she doesn't immediately comprehend the damage that she's causing to innocent people. Then her arc becomes about learning the value of balance instead of just learning the value of love. And you can do all of this without making it too emotionally complex for a kid's movie!

Fix Three

Recast Idina Menzel.

I know this is heresy, and she's obviously a fantastic singer. But her performance as Elsa is totally flat. Now, does the script give her much to work with? Not really. But she stays firmly at that level, and she doesn't make the character her own. It's a standout disappointment in an otherwise great cast.

Fix Four

Yeesh, those character models. The character animation in general is weird.

Anna and Elsa are basically Rapunzel. It's all in those big eyes, but even the way they move is reminiscent of her. It really feels like they took a stock character model and stuck new hair and clothes on it. As for the animation itself, it sort of feels like they spent a lot more time on the snow effects than on the characters. I'm not an animator, so I can't articulate it well, but there's something off about it. I dunno. Maybe I'm crazy. But I stand by the design point.

Fix Five

Cut the trolls. There's no purpose to them beyond healing Anna, but since "love thaws" there's not much reason to have them there. I was so confused when they popped up. "Wait, there's fantasy creatures in this too?" If you're reading this and you've seen the film, I bet you forgot all about them until you got to this part. I certainly don't think of them when I think of Frozen. And since I saw the film months after it came out and I didn't know they were in there, I doubt many other people do either. I like Kristoff's eccentricity, though. Just have his family be quirky mountain men. Same deal, but you don't have an out-of-place second magic bean.

Fix Six

"I don't know if I'm elated or gassy/But I'm somewhere in that zone."

You cannot be serious with that lyric.

Fix Seven

Cut the Duke of Weselton. Sorry Alan Tudyk, but this character serves very little purpose. He could have been a great red herring, and I think that was the intent, but they don't play him up enough as a villain to make that really work.

Fix Eight

This one is totally petty, but...is this a musical or what? Because if you imagine a stage version of Frozen with an act-one break, there's only one song in act two. It's like they used all their musical numbers to introduce characters and then just ran out.



That's it. There's a lot about this film that I absolutely love, especially in how it subverts classic Disney tropes. And I think that's the main reason that people have gone so crazy for it. But it's the great things about it that make its flaws seem even worse. It's too bad. Frozen had the potential to be the greatest Disney movie in a very long time. It's not, though, despite its fantastic themes and messages, and that's what really hurts.

Last edited by Doctor Submarine (2014-01-25 03:41:45)

"The Doctor is Submarining through our brains." --Teague

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Re: Eight "Frozen" Fixes (spoilers)

Great post.

I've been fighting my own weird, stupid battles about the tunes in this flick. Haven't even managed to critique the story yet, and now you've done it for me.

Hooray!

Teague Chrystie

I have a tendency to fix your typos.

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Re: Eight "Frozen" Fixes (spoilers)

Teague wrote:

Great post.

I've been fighting my own weird, stupid battles about the tunes in this flick. Haven't even managed to critique the story yet, and now you've done it for me.

Hooray!

Thanks! It's weird, I totally wasn't planning to go all-out in this post. I guess I had more problems with Frozen than I thought.

"The Doctor is Submarining through our brains." --Teague

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Re: Eight "Frozen" Fixes (spoilers)

I disagree with Fix Three. Given more to work with Idina Menzel can do great stuff, as we know from Wicked. Your Fix Two basically turns Elsa into Elphaba anyway, and Let It Go is essentially the same character beat as Defying Gravity. In fact I'm guessing that's at least part of the reason they cast her.

Otherwise, love it. I think you get to the heart of the problem -- overall the whole thing is really underdeveloped. Lots of great stuff here, but it all feels really vomit-drafty. Especially agree with discarding the trolls, because really wtf.

Olaf has to stay though.

Last edited by Dorkman (2014-01-25 04:52:05)

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Re: Eight "Frozen" Fixes (spoilers)

Dorkman wrote:

Olaf has to stay though.

Damn right he does.

"The Doctor is Submarining through our brains." --Teague

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Re: Eight "Frozen" Fixes (spoilers)

Although I will say when the trolls did their marriage song, I got a flash of an idea that I'd like to see the movie where these well meaning, sweet, but completely insane trolls decide they have to assassinate the prince because their boy has fallen in love with the princess.

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Re: Eight "Frozen" Fixes (spoilers)

Now there's a subversion of a Disney trope! It'd play like a sick exaggeration of the "family is everything" theme that the movie already has going on. "Family is everything, so you'll join ours and we don't care how many people have to die to make that happen."

"The Doctor is Submarining through our brains." --Teague

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Re: Eight "Frozen" Fixes (spoilers)

For what it's worth, here's a bit of opining I did on Facebook a while back.

Regarding the music in Frozen:

Teague wrote:

[The music] kinda bummed me out, to be honest. I really hope that as they move away from Menken, they *do* bring in folks who write musical numbers instead of pop songs. Seriously. I challenge an uninformed third party to distinguish between their big show-stopper and a Katy Perry song.


Someone else wrote:

I have to say, though, I don't find myself having songs from Tangled stuck in my head as much as I do "Let It Go."


Teague wrote:

Yeah, but - and this becomes the snobbery - "Let It Go" is a pop song. And pop songs have exactly one job to do. (That.)

I get a huge pre-bummer seeing pop songs come in and start edging out the Broadway-style numbers, because - god damn it - pop songs have had the whole goddamn radio to themselves for forty years. Let the art kids have SUMthin,' man. Don't take our one reliable source of semi-pop-culture away! All we had left was the odd breakout musical hit and these Disney flicks!

Feh. "Let It Go" is fine, and I don't have any stake in whether or not it's a well-received pop song; I don't think it's *bad* pop song particularly, none of that. It's simply that a pop song is a wholly different (and musically superficial) beast... it's a genre designed to facilitate the most easily remembered-then-hummed-then-purchased music possible, so any creativity is massively stunted.

And if we start getting... man, god help me for being THIS guy... but if we start getting the Disney executives all hooked on the kind of radio-play a song like "Let It Go" can get (and for every movie they make! hooray!), when do you think they're gonna start letting the "Be Our Guest"s back in? Because that's a song you'll never, ever hear on Top 40. They'd have no incentive to ever go back to that genre.

And after all of it, do you know what the difference would be between "Let It Go" and the fiftieth song made in the "Let It Go" paradigm? Not a goddamned thing.

So I worry.

Teague Chrystie

I have a tendency to fix your typos.

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Re: Eight "Frozen" Fixes (spoilers)

Was the troll song not a broadway style song? Or For the First time in Forever?

Let it Go is in the A Whole New World/Beauty and the Beast kind of mould, and both of those did pretty well in the charts.

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Re: Eight "Frozen" Fixes (spoilers)

I'd even say Let It Go was Broadway style. Could totally see that whole sequence killing it as a stage show. Though part of that, again, was Menzel tearing it up more than the song itself being particularly great.

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Re: Eight "Frozen" Fixes (spoilers)

After spending this week trying to articulate to my friends why I am not in love with Frozen, I have to say thanks, Doc, for laying it all out so nicely.

I knew there were story problems, but I didn't take the time to really analyze the story. Mostly because I was being a music snob, which inhibited my critical thinking.
So...the following is musical snobbery.
- I have to agree with Teague about the music. (Between Newman and Menken, it's hard to settle for just pop music.) In fact, the music was the first thing I noticed. Because this didn't need to be a musical.
- Let It Go is a fantastic performance of a generic pop song. It's also the only time Idina gets to shine. (And believe me, Broadway style songs can still be generic pop songs.)
- Why is Jonathan Groff in this musical (if we're calling it a musical) if he gets to sing for all of 51 seconds?
- The lyrics are better in French. I know this is extremely unfair. Too bad. They are.
- The songs try too hard to be hummable. Like Sondheim, I am not a fan of the "hummable" factor. Because if you try to be hummable, you too often end up generic.
The music is not bad. It's not. I would argue the songs need to advance the story more, but the story had it's own problems.

Compared to The Princess and the Frog and Tangled, which I think are both excellent, Frozen doesn't feel like part of a new Disney Renaissance. It's cool that it's not doing the fairytale love story, that it's subverting tropes, but...it didn't live up to it's potential. Like Dorkman said, it needed another couple drafts.

You gotta admit, though - this was a pretty movie. I want Elsa's ice castle.

alicia ♆
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Re: Eight "Frozen" Fixes (spoilers)

Every time I see a new username post I'm like "IS THIS THE ONE ARE WE GONNA HAVE A FIGHT" but then they're always cool and thoughtful.

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Re: Eight "Frozen" Fixes (spoilers)

Why, thank you, Dorkman  cool
Although, if you're hell-bent on having a fight, I'm sure we could have one about Olaf.

alicia ♆
twitter | instagram | website

Re: Eight "Frozen" Fixes (spoilers)

LatinAlice wrote:

Why, thank you, Dorkman  cool
Although, if you're hell-bent on having a fight, I'm sure we could have one about Olaf.

I was prepared to hate him, but he's miles better than Timon and Pumbaa or the gargoyles in Hunchback.

Doctor Submarine wrote:

I don't know if I'm elated or gassy/But I'm somewhere in that zone.

THANK YOU. I have to fast-forward that every time I listen to it on my iPod. It's a problem with all of the songs, really. The lyrics are just so flat and banal.

Last edited by Abbie (2014-01-25 16:59:38)

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Re: Eight "Frozen" Fixes (spoilers)

I rewrote this as a blog post, and I added another point that I really think ties everything together.

So, this was sold from the beginning as a film about two sisters and the unique bond they share. That’s not an area that movies explore a lot in general, let alone movies for kids, so it’s a great initiative. However, since Frozen can’t get a solid grip on Elsa or her relationship with Anna, the majority of the movie is just The Adorkable Hour starring Anna and Kristoff. This goes back to the idea that their “sisterly bond” is totally arbitrary. The film just wants you accept it, and it assumes that you do. So we get an adventure between two cute but awkward people who won’t admit their feelings for each other, and you’re meant to just keep in mind that there’s a bigger throughline happening. To an extent, this is all building up to the big twist with Prince Hans, which is phenomenal. But Frozen sells you a bill of goods when it comes to the sisterhood stuff.

So how do you fix this? Well, the nature of the story demands that Elsa and Anna be separated, so it’s admittedly tough to have their relationship be the focus. Their meeting in Elsa’s ice castle has to happen a lot sooner, and it has to have much larger consequences for both characters. Anna’s relentless optimism should be shattered when Elsa hurts her with her powers. In the film we get, Anna has no emotional reaction, and the “frozen heart” stuff exists only to add some drama to the climax and to set up one of those great trope subversions. This is at the halfway point of the film, so it’s a great opportunity for Anna and Elsa to completely switch roles. For Elsa, this is the moment when she realizes that she’s gone too far, when she understands that giving in to her repressed desires is even worse than keeping them trapped inside, and when she decides that her sister was right all along. But for Anna, this is the moment when she realizes that she was wrong about Elsa, and that maybe her big sister doesn’t care about her as much as she cares about her big sister. Anna can’t be saintly and patient enough not to be annoyed to some extent with Elsa’s behavior throughout their lives, but up until this point that had been overpowered by her love. When Elsa seems to deliberately hurt her, all that goes away, and her repressed feelings of anger and resentment come to the surface. If you want, you could even say that this is because her heart’s been frozen. That’s obviously the metaphor, but since there’s magic it’s okay to make it literal.

And here’s the really cool part. You have Kristoff console Anna and try to convince her that “family is super-important no matter what or whatever,” but Anna rejects him and goes back to the castle alone. Now she’s shut herself off, just like Elsa. It’s not until her “true love” completely betrays her that she realizes what “true love” actually means. At which point Elsa returns, and the climax plays out as it already does. Now we have a far more thematically resonant and coherent story, and it’s actually focused on a sisterly relationship.

"The Doctor is Submarining through our brains." --Teague

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Re: Eight "Frozen" Fixes (spoilers)

As a first-time poster I would first like to take this a bit off topic by posting a fantastic male cover of the 'let it go' song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kohD5z5mE0E

I would agree with the original poster that there could have been some changes to enhance some parts, and the changes proposed would sure add a bit more internal and external consistency to the plot and the characters.

I found most of the songs to be far to superficial and like the original poster pointed out about 'let it go', sometimes entirely inconsequential. Only the 'Do You Want to Build a Snowman?'-song has actual impact and serves to compress the narrative while connecting you to the main character.

But I do also appreciate the subverted expectations and avoiding some of the obvious tropes, although I almost feel the last one was (intentionally) a little too much on the nose

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Re: Eight "Frozen" Fixes (spoilers)

"Inconsequential" is a great way to describe the music. A lot of the songs seem to be there just because it's a Disney movie and there are supposed to be songs. The song that the trolls sing is a good example. It's also, weirdly, the last song in the film.

"The Doctor is Submarining through our brains." --Teague

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Re: Eight "Frozen" Fixes (spoilers)

Doctor Submarine wrote:

"Inconsequential" is a great way to describe the music. A lot of the songs seem to be there just because it's a Disney movie and there are supposed to be songs. The song that the trolls sing is a good example. It's also, weirdly, the last song in the film.

What's even worse about the troll song is that it destroys the pacing. Anna is DYING, and they choose to take five minutes to do a song-and-dance number about relationships.

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Re: Eight "Frozen" Fixes (spoilers)

Before I address the original post, I want to say that my responses mostly stem from these bullet points:

  • I find it odd that so many critics jumped on comparing this to "The Lion King." That was not my first thought at all. In fact, my immediate thought is that this film shares a lot with 2007's "Enchanted." Both films are something of a subversion of the Disney formula, acknowledging its faults and working to flip that fixed narrative on its head. "Frozen" obviously takes things a lot farther than "Enchanted," and with more of a loving nod than an air of parody. But up until the beginning of the final act, this film goes to a LOT of effort to make you think you're watching any other Disney movie.

  • The other film I'm reminded of is "Brave," in that changes were obviously made near the end of production; but while "Brave" shows it with a notably patchwork design (I still like the film, despite this), "Frozen" seems to smooth out the creases a bit better, moving at a brisk, exciting pace, keeping all of its characters at least relevant and being considerably less confused in what it's trying to communicate.

  • This film is a loose adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen and, while it takes many liberties with the source material, it tries to reference it as much as it's able to. So where elements are at their shakiest are often when they're meant to be references to the source material.

With those in mind . . .

Fix One
I'd say the more ideal fix here, as suggested in a later post, would be for Anna to have a negative reaction upon her true memories somehow being accessed (be it Elsa admitting it, the trolls fixing her memories, etc.), which is only amplified by Elsa freezing her heart. This would make her sacrifice for Elsa all the more meaningful (although I still feel it carries plenty of weight with how the film builds the climax). But I like Anna's naivety and unquestioning trust in regards to her sister because it better explains her hasty relationship with Hans.

In an early draft, Elsa and Anna have a (very decidedly anti-princess) bond that's much more prominent throughout the film, but Anna becomes jealous of Elsa due to their parents doting on Elsa out of concern. Anna develops an inferiority complex that causes her to lash out when she confronts Elsa in her ice castle. Listening to the songs that were developed for this version, I can see why this was scrapped. The characters just weren't likeable or worth rooting for. So, because of the way that developed, I can see why we got the Elsa and Anna we did.

Fix Two

You're right on the mark with the intention of the song. The problem Disney faced with "Frozen" is that Elsa in the source material is the villain, and a poorly developed one at that; she's essentially a Slender Man-like entity, and this lack of character proved challenging even to Walt Disney himself when he attempted to adapt the story. She was changed to something of an anti-hero to better suit the story and "Let It Go" is a result of that. In fact, "Let It Go" inspired a lot of changes in Elsa's character when it was proposed for the film.

Up to that point, Elsa was a more extreme anti-hero, akin to what your fix-up suggests she should have been (and, clearly, this was not to the liking of the production team); the alternate ending of the scene where Anna and Kristoff are chased out of Elsa's castle by Marshmallow has Elsa taking things further by conjuring a giant snowflake which she channels into herself in order to unleash a blizzard, ensuring her sister keeps away (I'm assuming this was cut due to the blizzard being saved for the finale). In another draft, she created a snowman army (which Olaf was intended to be a reject of) that attacked Arandelle when they became sentient beyond Elsa's control. I am also fairly sure there had to be a draft where Elsa purposefully put Arandelle into the eternal winter. I think, really, that last concept is all that needed to change to make her transformation more layered; putting Arandelle into winter on purpose would have been a perfect depiction of Elsa misplacing her anger and misusing her powers out of fear. Of course, this requires alterations to Anna's naive view of Elsa (she certainly wouldn't say "She would never hurt me" after that), although as you suggested, there are ways to alter her development without changing that naivety.

As to Elsa not really "letting go" of her fear and anxiety during the song; isn't that the idea? Elsa is, at this point, mistaken in thinking that letting go means letting her powers run loose as she sees fit. She has yet to understand what letting go truly is, or how to do it, which is what she's setup to learn in the film. The song is empowering, but kind of in the way that "Defying Gravity" is in "Wicked" (it is, after all, essentially the same song); the character has power now, which could be positive, but is at risk for being unbridled with it (which Elsa later shows when she nearly kills the two guards attacking her, doing so with notable dramatics).

And regarding the issues with Elsa's powers, nearly every thing she is capable of are references to the Snow Queen's abilities in the original story. The text mentions her being able to do nearly everything the movie shows her doing at some point (yes, even the clothes . . . including the skates); in fact, I'd say that this is the element of the story adapted with the most fidelity. Really, the only one that bothers me is that she can create life, and only because the script makes a point of noting this as a rather big deal (with a notable reaction of shock from Elsa upon the realization) only to drop it later (it only ends up foreshadowing her creation of Marshmallow).

Fix Three

This is heresy. I can't agree with this, especially considering (as Dorkman pointed out) that Elsa is essentially Elphaba from "Wicked." It's pretty choice casting, and I thought Menzel's performance was very clear; she played Elsa as refined, nervous and muted. And the physicality in her voice acting shines through where Elsa is best animated (my favorite moment being her first chat with Anna as adults; a lot of Idina shines through in this scene). It would've been great to give her more material (as Elsa is just as interesting, if not more so, than Anna), but I never thought she left Elsa totally flat.

Fix Four

I only really thought the most egregious example of a character going off model was where you mentioned, in "Let It Go" when Elsa is animated somewhat inconsistently. Otherwise, I had no complaints; I was initially displeased at the character models when pictures were first released (noting, as you did, their similarity to character models in "Tangled"), and if it hadn't been for the snow needing to feel tangible, this would have been perfectly good as a traditionally animated film. But really, I found myself pleasantly surprised by the character animation and how much I could see the actors' personalities shining through them.

Fix Five

The trolls are, once again, a reference to the original story; interestingly enough, in Andersen's version, they are a literal representation of the devil, creating a magic mirror that amplifies ugliness, which shatters into millions of pieces and gets in people's eyes and hearts (which was adapted into Elsa's ability to freeze heads and hearts). I agree that they are sort of a bizarre story element here, although their presence of magic somewhat explains why Elsa's family doesn't ever ask why she has powers or where they came from (apparently this alternate reality of Norway is content to live alongside magic, although is certainly wary of it). Otherwise, if we go with the idea that this is meant to be an "Enchanted"-like element, the trolls are meant to serve as a traditional "wise character" that, in this instance, end up misleading the audience (their number almost exactly parallels Mama Odie's song in "The Princess and the Frog," meant to trick you into thinking that Anna does, in fact, need to kiss someone). But I agree, they're an awkward fit. I myself thought it would've made sense for Elsa's parents to have the trolls train her in her magic. There's also quite the plot hole when they never mention having treated Anna before.

Fix Six

I somewhat agree with this, although I've grown to have a begrudging affection for the lyric, as it fits with the way they built Anna; like Rapunzel, she's essentially a modern-day teenager dropped into a fairy tale setting. I do think it's funny, though, when people claim the songs from both princesses have timeless qualities; the way the two phrase things (e.g. "It's, like, 7:15" and "I know it is totally crazy") are not exactly timeless ways of speaking . . . they'll date those songs pretty fast, actually. But screw it, I'm singing them daily, so I can't really criticize.

Fix Seven

I'd reverse this and say up the Duke's part. As you said, he's meant to be a red herring. More. More, I say! Although perhaps less . . . Alan Tudyk-y? He was a bit too funny to be taken as a serious red herring (although his casting in itself was a red herring, one which I initially fell for). Make him more sinister and you've got yourself an honest-to-goodness shocker when it's revealed that Hans is the mastermind.

Fix Eight

A lot of stage musicals tend to speed towards a climax by act two, favoring dialogue over songs. Although a song from the entire cast during the blizzard sequence would've been pretty awesome, I must admit. And there definitely should've been a vocal reprise, with altered lyrics, of "Do You Want to Build a Snowman" to cement Anna and Elsa's renewed relationship.


Despite all of these "problems," I can't help but have an overwhelming affection for "Frozen," to the point that I'm willing to excuse its flaws. It's one of those movies where, when people critically pan it for its faults, I kind of shrug and go, "Eh, they don't really bother me." Which, for me, is a testament to the movie, as there are not a lot of films that make me do that. For me, "Frozen" has so many good things going for it that its flaws are kind of overshadowed by its successes. And considering I hated "Wreck-It Ralph," that really is saying something; I'm just sitting here eagerly awaiting Jennifer Lee's next move. The ball is in her court.

Last edited by Lupinpatronus (2014-02-18 10:00:46)

"Cuarón is the reason. Cuarón is the why."

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Re: Eight "Frozen" Fixes (spoilers)

I also just have to add that, personally, I cannot begrudge a song (especially a Disney song) that inspires so much impressive creativity being produced at such an insane rate, like this:

But I never claimed to be a great expert on music anyway. I just like what I like.

Last edited by Lupinpatronus (2014-02-22 03:14:24)

"Cuarón is the reason. Cuarón is the why."

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Re: Eight "Frozen" Fixes (spoilers)

Great job on making this list of fixes. Not everyone will agree with all of it. But, it gives us all something to think about.

For me, the movie didn't work. I couldn't put my finger on it at the time. Later, I noticed that only 2 songs ('Let it Go' and "Do You Want to Build a Snowman') stuck with me at all and half of the lyrics of 'snowman' drive me crazy. I completely agree about the lack of 'timeless' grammar. The entire 'first time in forever' song made me want to turn the movie off. I'm sure I'm in the minority but I hate songs that are full of pointless 'stream of consciousness' or 'narration of what just happened' lyrics. It reminds me of the Family Guy Randy Newman parody [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWpIMFEe2ds].

You are quite right that nothing is 'let go' after the song. So, the song is wasted.

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"Feel free to flame me. I don't like Legends of Korra or Gravity, either."