It was a very rainy Sunday afternoon. The Wife, The Daughter and I were supposed to travel from Albany to near Binghamton for a family dinner, but the forecast for locations in between were dodgy, with snow and ice likely. Instead, we went out to lunch, and then to Colonie Center Mall to see the newish Disney animated film Frozen.
Some bullet points:
*THIS FILM IS GORGEOUS. One would not think you could do so much with animated snow and ice, but the visuals are quite remarkable.
*The twist in what you think is going to happen is the great part of the plot, so I will say no more about that.
*I predict there will be a Broadway version of Frozen by 2018, plotted after the DVD comes out later this year. You have duets with Ms. Wicked herself, Idina Menzel, as the snow queen Elsa, with Kristen Bell as her sister Anna. You have the handsome prince. You have the comic relief of Olaf the snowman (voiced by Josh Gad), much less prevalent in the movie than in the commercials, BTW. And you have mostly great songs.
Some think it’s a little dark for little kids, and it may be. The Daughter was fine with it, though The Wife worried.
Opening before Frozen was the new Mickey Mouse short, Get a Horse! It looks initially like MM from the late 1920s. It even features the voice of the late Walt Disney himself as the lead rodent. “Mickey, Minnie, Horace Horsecollar, and Clarabelle Cow go on a musical wagon ride until Peg-Leg Pete tries to run them off the road.” What happens next is really fun. VERY creative six minutes.
I think much of the criticism of both these projects is that it’s Disney. Frozen is not like the HC Andersen source material; no, of course it’s not. Get A Horse! will take a slot in the Oscar nominated shorts list that should go to a more struggling artist; yes, Disney has a LOT more assets, but it’s a good piece.
Looks cute..Alex and I plan on seeing it sometime soon
The Investigator and I took 5-year-old Peanut to see it and we all LOVED it. No, it doesn’t follow the Hans Christian Anderson Snow Queen story, but I never expected it would. What I like about it is that Anna is not your typical Disney victim-princess. She’s bold, independent and very much her own woman. Quite a contrast to the ones who pine for their prince and happily ever after endings. And visually it was stunning.
Both the short and the movie were wonderful. My only regret is that I didn’t have a younger child to see it with – although I heard the constant comments from the little girl behind me LOL!