I mean, we're griping about that where I am too. We aren't weird or anything. But for us there's a silver lining, since I live in a tourism town that depends on winter for it's entire economy (or at least I think that's how it works).
Anyway, that vaguely relates to Disney's new movie, Frozen.
My friend Maddie had been flipping out about this movie for the past week, after she'd seen it with her church youth group. She wanted to see it again and I hadn't seen it for the first time yet, so we went to go see it on Saturday.
Opening Clip....thingy:
So you know how Disney always makes a short film at the beginning of each of their animation movies? Lately, they've been these amazing works of art that sort of just leave you in awe. Remember Paperman? That short at the end of Wreck-It-Ralph? Ya, that won an OSCAR. An OSCAR FOR PETE'S SAKE. And what about that umbrella short from the beginning of Monster's University? That clip made me ship TWO UMBRELLAS. ONLY DISNEY CAN MAKE YOU SHIP UMBRELLAS.
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But there's a twist.
You see, dear readers.
Disney broke the fourth wall.
Pete pushes Micky OUT OF THE SCREEN.
It's a lot like Epic Mickey, now that I think about it.
It's no Paperman, but it's very creative.
Plot:
Brace yourself for spoilers from this point on. Or you could just see the movie before you read it. That'd work too.
Okay, so the story centers around two sisters, Elsa and Anna. They're princesses (naturally) of the kingdom of Arendelle. Elsa is apparently a special snowflake (heh), because she has ice powers for some reason that never got explained. One night, when they're really little, Elsa and Anna are playing around with Elsa's powers, and Elsa accidentally hits Anna in the head with an ice blast. Anna's brain is frozen or something, and their parents take her to be healed by trolls.
Actually, apparently trolls are a big part of scandinavian folklore, which I guess is why they're in the movie.
Anyway, Anna's healed by the troll, and then Elsa is warned that if she hits anyone in the heart with her powers, they will be frozen and turned to ice. He also warns her about how the people of Arendelle might not accept her powers if they get out of control. This results in the king and queen deciding to hide Elsa in the castle, and they also get the trolls to take away Anna's memories of Elsa's powers.
Because of Elsa's isolation, Anna is forced to stay in the castle too (for some reason). She and Elsa grow apart over the years, which totally stinks cus that means they were both pretty much alone for their entire childhoods.
Then the king and queen die.
Because they have to.
It's a Disney movie people.
How did you NOT see that coming?
When Elsa turns 18, she becomes queen of Arendelle, which is sort of a problem because her powers have been growing and she doesn't think she can control them.
Meanwhile, Anna meets Prince Hans, who's in town for the coronation, and they fall in love and get engaged almost immediately.
Elsa thinks this is a totally batshit idea and refuses to let it happen (you go Elsa).This results in a fight, where Elsa accidentally uses her powers, thus exposing her secret. As predicted, the town goes crazy, and Elsa has to run away. She swears to stay up in the mountains and no longer endanger her people. She builds an ice castle and makes a Snow Queen dress and it's a really awesome scene. However, she doesn't know that she accidentally set off eternal winter down in Arendelle, and the people are freezing to death.
Meanwhile Anna goes after her, enlisting the help of an ice-guy named Kristoff and his reindeer Sven. They meet a magical little snowman named Olaf that Elsa built who helps them get to Elsa's castle. Anna fails to convince Elsa to come back and stop winter, and accidentally gets hit with ice in the heart. Her and Kristoff leave Elsa and go to the trolls (who adopted Kristoff when he was little) so they can fix her heart. Unfortunatly, since it's the heart, the ice can only be removed by an act of true love.
Also meanwhile, Prince Hans has gone after Anna, and ends up at Elsa's castle. She attacks some soldiers in self defense, and almost gets crushed by an ice chandelier as a result of the fight. She's knocked unconcious, and is taken back to Arendelle by Hans and imprisoned.
Anna and Kristoff ride back to Arendelle so that Hans can kiss Anna in an act of true love. It's VERY urgent since she's freezing from the inside. She gets in the castle, Hans is in the room, everything seems like it's gonna work.
And then.
Hans is evil.
BAM! PLOT TWIST!
He's 13th in line for his own throne, so to have any chance of becoming king, he would have to marry into the throne. He leaves Anna to die, saying they were married already, and goes off to kill Elsa.
Elsa gets out of her cell, realizing what's happening, and starts to run away. Of course, then she learns that Anna is 'dead' and breaks down, leaving a gap for Hans to come and kill her.
Meanwhile, Anna is looking for Kristoff, as Olaf has just informed her that she is an idiot for not seeing that he's totally into her. She's nearly frozen, and then they find each other and there's a massive expanse of ice between them and Kristoff is running towards her with lips puckered....
and then she sees that Elsa is about to be killed by Hans,
And throws herself between them
and freezes.
But guess what?
It was an act of true love.
Of SISTERLY love.
She unfreezes, and the winter starts to melt.
Elsa realizes that love melts ice, and stops the winter.
And everyone lives happily ever after.
Except for Hans.
Who gets punched in the face.
Reaction to plot:
This might just because I'm older now, but it seems like this movie was written less.....carefully, than the other movies. I mean yes, it's still an excellent story with wonderful dialogue and this one blip I'm about to adress is very minor to what I'm sure will be or was your viewing experience.
But I guessed the plot twist.
Which isn't a good thing, for me at least.
When Hans was preposing, that's when I figured out something was fishy. Now this might just be because I'm getting better at plot devices, but normally I can't do that with a Disney movie. The fact that I was able to be pulled out of the story and think about this potential plot twist sorta bugs me.
But that's just me.
Songs:
As I am writing this, I am listening to Idnia Menzel sing "Let it Go", and it is beautiful.
The problem is that I might've been listening to it on loop since yesterday.
Which could mean that I have a problem. *sigh*
As usual, Disney has delivered with happy songs, heart-wrenching songs, and love songs. I enjoyed all of them......except for the love songs.
Anna sang one with Prince Hans, which seemed really unfitting for the situation, and was just sort of annoying. Then the trolls sang one about how Kristoff and Anna should get together, but it was all about how they needed to change for them to be together, which though meant well, I didn't really appreciate.
Characters:
Anna was a little annoying for my taste, but I still really liked her. She had really awesome qualities like independence, optimism, and honestly was just as awkward as everyone I know. Actually, the only part I didn't like about her was her neediness with Hans. Also she was just really adorable the whole time so that was good.
Elsa was what you think a queen would normally be like. Calm, cool, collected. Grace and poise and all that whoo-ha. But what I liked was her depth as a character. Underneath the cool exterior, there was a storm of emotions. Fear that she would hurt her people. Sadness about being locked away. Happiness, and hatred about her powers. I just really really liked her.
Kristoff was lovable and adorable, and sweet, and funny, and oh-em-gee I want him to be real so I can go skiing with him or something.
I'm sort of conflicted about Olaf. I know that he's the comic relief, and that his entire purpose is to be silly, but he was just so STUPID. It was aggravating And he didn't really have any redeeming qualities either. He just blurted out random stuff that didn't really flow with the story at all.
Hans was a dick. That's all there really is to say on the matter.
Animation:
Oh my globity goodness the animation is great in Disney movies. My friends hate going to animation movies with me, because I'm always poking them and freaking out about the detail of that character's hair or how that one thing is moving in the breeze. I don't really know why this fascinates me so much, but it does, and I cannot help it.
So, that's that I guess.
Sorry that there aren't any pictures, but I just didn't want to take the time to put in any.
Trust me, my next post will have a LOT.
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