blogs_blog_1374

I feel like I missed out on this movie. I saw it today and it just... didn't resonate with me. Objectively I think that it's more solidly written than the average Disney film and with better lyrical music than what we saw in the last two musicals... but subjectively I just couldn't care. :/

 

What am I missing. D:

I think you're right -- subjectively, I don't think it's going to be everyone's favorite. Objectively speaking, however, it is at the level that Disney was during the Disney Renaissance. That being said, it's not The Lion King -- it's closer to a Hercules, Aladdin, Tarzan, The Rescuers Down Under, Pocahontas, or a Mulan. Bear in mind, Pocahontas was objectively good, but like you and Frozen, I simply don't get much out of it.

 

Now Frozen certainly has five or six songs that people are going to remember, although I did think that a couple of others were gratuitous. My sister loved the movie but she actually brought it up before I did when she thought that they sort of had songs every once and a while just for the sake of having songs, and I think that she's right, to some extent. I also noticed that the songs were padded more towards the beginning, and I wish they could have more evenly spaced them out. That means that we would have had very different songs and a differently paced film, though, and I'm not sure what that would have looked like. Not to mention the film isn't broke, so I won't fix it.

 

I also notice that there's a problem with how the main song I didn't quite think fit in was the last one sung, which if you had taken out of the movie, then it truly would have been a movie where all the songs are in the first half. I'd say that there are three acts to this film, and four of the songs are in the first half alone. Two are in the second act, plus a miniature song thrown in for good measure and a reprise. There's exactly one song in the third act. That means that there are technically nine songs in the soundtrack, two of which are only half-songs. So it means that there are about eight songs, and half of those are in the first act. You see the problem here? Again, the film isn't broke and doesn't need fixing, but I can see how perhaps this is unfair to the individual songs, which could have used more distance from the other songs in order to stand out more and each really stand out on its own, which is why movies like The Lion King ended up with a soundtrack where every single one of the songs is a smash hit and instantly recognizable. The Lion King had five songs, by the way, "Circle of Life", "I Just Can't Wait to be King", "Be Prepared", "Hakuna Matata", and "Can You Feel the Love Tonight". I notice that not one of those songs is in the third act of the movie, unless you think Timon's improvised song about eating pigs should be on that list, so basically I don't think that songs necessarily have to be evently spaced throughout all the film, but there still needs to be space between them, and there gets to be a point where a song has too many. Frozen didn't cross that by miles, but its toe was right on the line. Most people won't complain, but it depends on how high your standards are. If you want every song to be a classic, then perhaps so. Still, I would consider six of the songs as destined to be remembered and sung (I'm including "The First Time In Forever" and its reprise as one song). That's still more memorable material than The Lion King and, assuming that you would consider every single song in it a hole-in-one, equal with Beauty and the Beast. if some of the extraneous songs had been taken out (okay, I'll cough it out and say that they're "Love Is An Open Door" and "Fixer Upper", which didn't take anything away from the film but didn't add anything to it, either), then literally every single song would have fit in perfectly.

 

When working with musicals, I do tend to judge by a different standard. As always, story and characters are important, but there's the added element of the music, which is critically important in how the film succeeds in setting out what it's meant to do. If I consider the songs catchy and something I want to sing later, then the musical succeeded. One could almost say that the music is as important as everything else combined. I'd say that it really depends.

 

The places where I would take out the songs, I would have filled with a highlight from the instrumental soundtrack, probably with something sounding similar to the opening piece, "Vuelie", or "Heimr Arnadalr", which would have contributed a lot to the cultural atmosphere of the film. I think that would have especially worked for the misplaced song in the third act.

 

In any case, I definitely set out to like this film, since 53 is my favorite number and I just wanted this to be special for me, which it was. I like the idea of the ice queen, and I like the idea behind the film in general.

 

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You definitely hit on a major point that I think (maybe?) caused some of my disinterest: spacing between the songs. I definitely agree that it was too front-loaded with them, although our opinions differ in which ones we think are extraneous. In my opinion we could have easily done without "In Summer" and "Fixer Upper." The former, while cute, went on too long for what it was and the latter was a complete and utter momentum killer. Did you listen to the "Life's Too Short (reprise)" from the outtakes CD? That's the third act song we needed instead, or at least something like it. Considering how completely gift-wrapped that moment was for a song I'm surprised we didn't get one in the final version.

 

"Love is an Open Door", while definitely not a great Disney song, I think was important to establish Anna as a reckless character who lives in the moment. So while I can certainly see why someone would think it extraneous it worked for me. I suppose if you really didn't want a lyrical song there then a short montage could have worked instead (think 'Kingdom Dance' scene from Tangled).

 

And also, yeah, a stronger cultural atmosphere would have been nice. I thought "Vuelie" was a pretty cool piece (or, I did after I learned what it was) but it seemed so random. It really should have been incorporated more into the score instead of just used as bookends.

 

But I'm definitely planning on seeing this again, maybe in a week or two. Now that I've had time to think about the music and the characters there might be more for me to appreciate. I just want to give it another try because I usually really enjoy Disney's animated films.