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Things I Like (TIL) #7: Frozen

What is this? I’ve liked many things throughout the years. While some have fallen out of my attention, others remain firmly cemented in my memories and feelings. So, I’ve decided to start a mini-series where each week (hopefully), I pick something random that I like or have liked and discuss it, why I like it, and its impact on me. These things can be varied, and range from more trivial matters such as my favourite animal, to books, games, and movies I’ve liked, to topics that have shaped who I am as a person. The posts, accordingly, will vary in length. See my rating system here.



Welcome back to another entry of TIL. I went to see the new Aladdin live action remake last week with my family, and the Frozen 2 teaser was one of the pre-show trailers, which prompted me to come back and enjoy the songs from the prequel again.

Frozen came out in 2013, and is probably my favourite Disney movie from the modern (i.e. not-classical) era. I admit to being pretty obsessed with it in high school at the time (I think I’ve watched it at least 10 times total, likely more), and although that fanaticism has faded I still enjoy it quite a lot. On it’s own merit, it’s the highest-grossing animated film of all time, successfully fending off Incredibles 2 from last year, and has won multiple industry awards.

There’s 3 main reasons I like it so much. From least to most significance, it’s Disney’s departure from the traditional “princess story” model, the graphics, and the music.

Breaking the Mold

I really appreciated the departure from the traditional “there’s a princess and a boy and they end up together in the end” model, which Disney used as recently as the previous movie, Tangled, in 2010. The focus on the familial bond between the two protagonists really set the story aside as a special one. Of the two main male characters, one is the antagonist and the other, although ending up with a princess in the end, has a fairly minor role in the grand scheme of the movie.

Graphics

This movie looks good. Really good, especially for the time. The snow is powdery and realistic, and the whole Let It Go sequence is just Disney flexing their graphics capabilities in the ice castle (each frame is fully raytraced and took hours to render, by the way). I liked the direction they went with the art style and costumes as well.

Music

If you couldn’t tell from previous posts, I value music above almost anything else in any art product, and it’s no different here. I’ll just make a short list of my favorite tracks from the movie.

  1. For the First Time in Forever (Reprise)
  • Is it sacrilegious to rank the reprise in front of the main song? Not sure, but this is my favorite moment in the movie. Especially when Elsa and Anna begin singing the chorus again and ice starts to form in the chamber (1:30). The composers and performers really outdid themselves with regards to the masterful contrast between Elsa’s and Anna’s musical lines. Dual contrasting lines in music are always free points but the actors execute it so well too. I love it.
  1. For the First Time in Forever
  • Here’s the actual song this time. My previous comments about dual lines still apply, though I love how it portrays Anna’s bubbly and excited personality.
  1. Do You Want To Build a Snowman
  • This song starts out cute but actually gets quite depressing, lol. Anna’s final verse is really emotional, especially when the camera pans across the doorway to show Elsa on the other side.
  1. Let It Go
  • I guess it’s obligatory to include this one, but I really don’t like it as much as the ones I’ve listed previously. It’s really well performed and Disney went all out on the animation, but that’s about it for me personally.

See y’all in the next one!

TIL Rating: 3.5. I was quite heavily involved in the subreddit back in 2014-2015, and I’m looking forward to rejoining the community for the upcoming new movie. I’m so excited!