Frozen (2013)

After a nice dinner with one of my good friends, we decided to stay in and watch a movie.  The spontaneous choice landed on Frozen.  We’re both massive Disney animation fans so why not, right? Plus, I’m pretty behind already with this.  Everyone else seems to have seen it.  I’m feeling a bit left out…

Director: Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee

Cast: Idina Menzel, Kristen Bell, Jonathan Groff, Josh Gad, Santino Fontana, Alan Tudyk, Ciaran Hinds

Princess Elsa (Idina Menzel) and Anna (Kristen Bell) have been shut off from the rest of the world for most of their childhood lives.  Elsa is about to become of age to take over the throne and all her life, her parents have tried to teach her to conceal her magical powers.  However, a little run-in with Anna causes her to lose grip of her powers and she ends up freezing over Arendelle and causing the inhabitants to be scared of her.  Elsa escapes to hide in the mountains while she doesn’t realize the lasting effect of what she has done.  Anna goes to pursue her and gets a little help from a young ice vendor Kristoff.

Based on the Hans Christian Anderson story The Snow Queen, Disney turns Frozen into a very charming, cute and enjoyable musical piece. I’m huge on musicals and this one had so little dialogue and so many lovely songs to carry the story that I fell in love instantly. I don’t argue that Let It Go is a powerful song because Idina Menzel is an amazing singer and she does a fine job as Elsa.  However, there were many other songs that were so much more fun.  I mean how do you get “Do You Want To Build A Snowman?” our of your head? Its been in my head on and off and I’m so glad that winter is over.

As with many Disney movies, we have our princess.  In this case, we have the more frequently on screen Princess Anna.  She is the more laid back and naive sister.  She longs to have company after years and years of solitude.  It just makes sense that she falls for the charming Prince Hans.  He’s gentlemanly and sweet and just perfect.  Aren’t we always looking for our Prince Charming? Hans was actually one of the only questions that I’ve made about Disney movies ever. Its a bit of a **spoiler** so skip to the next paragraph where the asterisks come back to signal it, ok? I know that Elsa and Anna have no one so when Elsa runs off and Anna goes to get her, does it really make sense to trust it to Hans, a dude you just met like a few hours ago? I like the guy but I mean, she does have a lot of money and a throne so I just found it kind of weird that there was no hesitation. Anyways, I can see why she did it also because who else would she ask, right? Not “Weaseltown” for sure 😉

**We’re back on! Now that I’ve had my little ramble. Whats an animation without talking about the actual art? Frozen was beautiful. Do I need to elaborate? The characters are done nice. The background with snow and scenery, even before the snow, Arendelle looked beautiful.  The colors were used perfectly.  It was just so pretty to look at.

Aside from Elsa, Anna and Hans, we have some pretty fun characters.  Our silly character was Olaf.  Sure, he’s fun to see but nothing quite beats how much I love the reindeer, Sven.  He’s just the best ever.  He has all these dorky moments and paired up with Olaf or his wordless moments with Kristoff always brought a nice little giggle out of me.  Kristoff himself had an awesome voice work matched with a great character that matched really well with Princess Anna.  The bickering was thoroughly entertaining and helped me connect with them.  Of course, it goes without saying that I love the trolls and that song they sang is the other song thats stuck in my head.

Sometimes, a movie is just done really well and I love it when that happens with animations, especially Disney ones. Frozen is one of those.  There really isn’t anything to criticize except one illogical moment that I can oversee because this is a princess movie.  In a nutshell, Frozen is a beautiful animation with witty dialogue, fun and funny moments wrapped in catchy tunes and a lovely story that makes you fall in love with the characters.  I am thoroughly impressed, Disney! Awesome job! 🙂

On a side note, before I let you all go and tell me what you thought about the movie, I’d like to direct you to my new segment on my newer blog called Out of This World Travels set for every Tuesday.  This past one was the first and it was to Arendelle. Check it out HERE! Maybe you’d like to join me in some fun travels over there 🙂

Have you seen Frozen? What did you think about it? What song was your favorite?

Steve’s Music Mix: Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda

I looked forward to doing this week’s Steve’s Music Mix.

If you haven’t been current, Steve at Steve Says has a weekly music mix segment where we use the power of our MP3 players/Ipods and its shuffle mode to determine answers for 3 questions that he asks.

Here are the rules (copied from him):

Each week I will post 3 new questions so…

(1) Go to the music player of your choice and put it on shuffle
(2) Say the questions aloud and press play
(3) Use the song title as your answers
(4) NO CHEATING

Title your post “Steve’s Music Mix – …” and link back to this week’s page.

Post your response in the comment section of that week’s page.

You can check out his post and see other creative answers HERE!

Lets check out what my MP3 whipped up for his questions:

What should I do…?

–> Defying Gravity – Wicked soundtrack (Idina Menzel & Kristen Chenoworth)

Hmm…Defy gravity.  I like that.  Not literally but going against the norm or whatnot.  Maybe it is time to chase some dreams 😉

What I shouldn’t do…?

–> El Tango de Roxanne – Moulin Rouge Soundtrack (Ewan McGregor)

Definitely! I agree! I’m not much of a dancer even if I wished I actually had taken lessons.  So no tango and in the context of the song, I will not be selling my body to no one.

What I will do…?

–> Shadow – Sam Tsui

Become a shadow? Be haunted by someone’s shadow/my past? That second part happens occasionally already but right now is not really the time for it.  Maybe its just reminding me to put my past behind me and focus on the present.

There you go! I have to say, my MP3 was feeling quite depressed this week. Its giving me a ton of slow paced songs and partially musically.

Head over to Steve’s site and give this a shot! Lets see what your music has to say about what you should, shouldn’t and will do 😉 Have some fun! 🙂

Daily Prompt: Wicked

Today’s daily prompt is: Pick a random word and do Google image search on it. Check out the eleventh picture it brings up. Write about whatever that image brings to mind.

I just watched “The Wizard of Oz” last night for the first time.  I know, I know, you can close your opened mouth.  Everyone that I saw that to seems to have that reaction.  I saw Wicked Broadway in August when it was on tour in Montreal.  It was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.  I’m serious.  It was fun, the songs were fantastic and now I understand the link and twist of the Broadway from the movie/original story.

Of course seeing the movie afterwards, I had to slightly analyze and compare the two to see what happens and how the story before Dorothy got into Oz.  There are certain parts that we doesn’t really connect but still, this Broadway musical is the top of the line.   Part of me would like to see it with the Original Cast with Idina Menzel  and Kristen Chenoworth.

I have the soundtrack and till now, I’m still listening to it and singing along when I’m not walking in the street.  You know, that would be somewhat weird.  Although I do smile and chuckle to myself when I walk in the streets listening to podcasts.

Back to Wicked, so for those that haven’t seen the broadway, its the “Untold Story of the Witches of Oz”.  We get to see how Glinda (the Good Witch) started school and made friends with Elpheba (the Wicked Witch of the West).  Its a story about love and friendship, to do things against the flow, you know, defying gravity.  If it does stop at your city, you really should see it.  I loved it and I wouldn’t hesitate to see it a second or third time if it came back to town.  I saw it with my best friend and we both enjoyed it a lot.

Have any of you ever seen it before? What did you think? Any other Broadway musicals that you’d recommend?  I have my eyes open for anyone new ones right now.  We have Mary Poppins and Billy Elliot scheduled to tour in the next few months.  Hopefully I’ll get a chance to catch it.