Frozen - Why I can't "Let it go"

Face it, We all need classic Disney in life

This last winter, as everyone knows was extremely cold and for me, brought on the SAD symptoms big time. Couple that with life being well, life, and you get the ground work. being that I am a fan of "The Nostalgia Critic" , a weekly video cast by one Doug Walker, I found myself watching a spliced version of his special from last year "Disneycember"A number of times whilst doing articles like this one and working on web design and artwork. The specific Disneycember special I watched had to do with the animated Disney films that most of us grew up with or have at he least, heard of.

As fall became winter and things got even colder I heard of an upcoming movie called "Frozen" which Disney had come out with recently and was about to hit the cinema. It was slated for a December release, but both of the old second run theatres had shut down. this was devastating to myself and my wallet, as I am a movie-goer on a budget. Seeing "Frozen" was at the time, something that was unfortunately not going to happen for me. My entire PEER GROUP had not only seen the film, but had also gotten the lead song "let it go" stuck in their heads.

Flashing forward to a video that "The Nostalgia Critic"had filmed despite having the tail end of a cold. Bear in mind (or cat in mind, as it may) that even though I knew the song as a meme and the accompanying pictures of Elsa & co, who at the time looked like ripoffs from the previous CGI film "Tangled" I had no idea why the song was suddenly catching on with the generation of people that i grew up with who seemed to shirk or make fun of anything "fictional" outside of LOTR. People who were older than me by a decade were talking about the movie the way I talk about things that I am into (cue hypocrisy rant here). Anger growing aside, I did my own homework and I did find things I expected to find. I put on the "let it go" Parody by Doug and did my reading on wikipedia.

What I learnt was actually rather interesting . I head figured out that "Frozen" was A. based on another Hans Christian Anderson classic called "The Snow Queen" and B. was actually intended to have been done alot earlier. It was , however, one of the fairy-tails they didn't butcher , mess with or change as bad as they usually do. In the original, the Elsa and Anna Characters were not sisters, but friends. they also had different names. The acquisition of Elsa's "power" had to do with an ice shard being driven through or stabbing her in the heart (thus the "Frozen heart" reference they still kept in). It also, like most of his fairy-tales, had a darker ending.

The Cold Never bothered me anyway

Flashing forward even further to when I got to see the film . it had arrived as a surprise package from my parents one random Friday. I watched the film twice. The set up, conflict, plot and character tropes were all things either reminiscent of or straight out were CLASSIC DISNEY. Though it was done in CGI akin to the film "Tangled" , it had an even more polished feel. it looked like a CGI cartoon combined with a bit of painting.

As a fan of musicals, music in general, and Disney, I have to comment on the musical style . The film was one that was very song-heavy and yet used music to drive the plot (let it go) and for exposition (Do you want to build a snowman?) as well` as the titular song "let it go". The songs were also very catchy, thus I can see why they became everyone's ear-worms for a few months. The orchestrations were also excellent, sounding like the usual that Disney seems to pump out by the likes of Manken and Goldsmith. I have to admit, I ran around the house singing songs from the film several times over again myself.

So this, in summary, is why I can't LET IT GO.Combating all the redirecting and the verbal cues for appropriate adult beheaviour, that film has a timeless story based on a fairy-tale with a good moral in it if one reads it correctly. It has MEMORABLE ear-worms that just won't let you go, and it's just a stunning thing to look at.