Frozen

So, I'm a big fan of Disney movies. Always have been, probably always will be. Seriously, pretty art and music? Sign me up. It's right up my alley.

I'm also a big fan of Idina Menzel because she has one hell of a set of pipes. I love hearing her do big show-stopping numbers and I love hearing her do duets with sweet sounding sopranos (because, yes, of course I love Wicked).

Obviously, then, I've been really looking forward to Frozen. It's a Disney movie that has Idina Menzel voicing a main character (who is being billed as a sort-of villain---even better!). Add to that the fact that Kristen Bell is voicing the sweet sounding soprano protagonist and, well, yeah, it was pretty much inevitable that I was going to see this movie in theaters. Multiple times.

Frozen did not disappoint---unlike Tangled, which as the most recent movie produced under the Disney-as-Disney (rather than Pixar---although Brave is a also a notably comparable movie) we-must-have-a-princess-and-her-love-interest formula (AKA the most recent addition to the Disney Animated Canon), is the movie I found myself constantly comparing this one to.

For me, Frozen beats Tangled in pretty much every way. Tangled felt very conscious of its Disney background and how it had to buck the criticisms that get leveled against Disney and the way it portrays girls and love. Frozen too, felt conscious of those things in a way that Mulan, for instance, a movie that was very Disney but also defied a lot of what is traditionally Disney, did not, but unlike Tangled it didn't feel weighed down by all that. It didn't feel like it was fighting being cliched Disney so hard that it forgot to make a workable (or truly interesting) story.

Fair warning, there are some slight spoilers in the upcoming paragraphs. I honestly don't think an of them are things that will really ruin the movie for people---nothing I hadn't already guessed before it happened, even if I hadn't guessed the details, but I'm sure some people would consider them spoilers.

Take for instance the love stories in each story. I didn't buy the love story in Tangled and in the end I felt that as hard as it tried to go against that whole Disney means love-at-first-sight-and-marriage-five-minutes-later thing, in the end it basically just went with that anyway: Rapunzel and Flynn snark at each other in a way that's suppose to be belligerent sexual tension (which I normally love) but just really had no spark and then get over it when they sit in a boat and watch a lantern festival together (and start being nice to each other). So, basically, they fell in love because the scenery was nice and it was a relatively instant thing---they go from not liking each other (for no really good reason) to suddenly being very into each other (just because of some pretty lights). No, it wasn't love at first sight but it wasn't exactly really falling for someone because you've spent time with them and gotten to know them (you know, what real, non-Disney love actually is). Frozen, on the other hand, while still trying to buck that Disney love-at-first sight tradition and point out how silly it is, doesn't resort to it when they need their love story to work. Instead of a moment where a romantic scene makes them fall in love, Anna (Kristen Bell's character and the protagonist of the film) and her love interest simply come to realize they have strong feelings for one another after spending time together on this adventure. It feels much better (and less like the love is there simply because the plot has decided it needs to be there) and beyond that the movie doesn't hinge on it so strongly as Tangled does.

Villains are handled much better as well. For one, Elsa (Idina Menzel's snow queen character), isn't really a villain. She has some of the plot role of a villain at times (and is, in fact, a queen---which is usually bad news in the Disney universe) but she's not an out-and-out villain. She's handled much more dynamically than that and she's not a one dimensional character. Instead, she's more like a more secondary protagonist---the story follows her less than Anna, but it's definitely her story and her messy emotions are very important. Tangled, on the other hand, had a villain who felt like a lost opportunity---in the end Mother Gothel really was just evil. I found that disappointing, because I thought that it would have been much more interesting, in the end, to have had Mother Gothel turn out to be a real person, with real emotions instead of just her own vanity and therefore have turned out to actually care about Rapunzel (much like how Regina on Once Upon a Time has been treated like a real character because of her son Henry). It could have been very poignant (because the story still would have needed to get rid of her) and was instead very disappointing. Frozen had no such lost opportunities. While it's true that the villains of the film really are just villains, that's fine. They feel like they should be more out and out villains and they manage to be fun that way (indeed, there is some wonderful outright deviousness). There's no hint that there could be something to deepen their characters that is then abandoned or ignored in favor of keeping them as a conventional villain. Besides that we do get Elsa, who is treated very dynamically. Where Tangled missed an opportunity, Frozen decided it wanted to create one by having what would normally have been the big villain be a sympathetic character (making it a bit like Wreck-It Ralph).

Frozen also had better music than Tangled. I have more than one of Frozen's songs on my current iPod playlist and liked basically all of them. The only song from Tangled that I really cared for was Mother Knows Best. In many ways this is a shock, because Tangled had music by Alan Menken, who is basically the Disney music god/guru, having done the music for Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, etc. That said, it's true, the music in Frozen is better. It's a bit predictable, sure---before I even saw the movie, I knew Idina Menzel was going to have an awesome, big, heartfelt, show-stopping number---but it was good. In fact, the only really disappointing thing about Frozen's music is that we don't get enough Kirsten Bell/Idina Menzel duets---which is damn shame because what they do have very powerfully evokes Wicked. Still, the point here is that the movie, which is definitely a musical (because, yes, Disney movies should be musicals), feels very much like a musical with very Broadway-esque song placement and scoring---which is no surprise, given that the score writers also wrote the music for Avenue Q and The Book of Mormon.

Moving away from the comparison a bit, I will also say that Frozen obviously benefits from animators who watched the actors who voices their characters and really tried to put those actors into the characters. Anna definitely reminds me of Kristen Bell. The brightness of her expressions are very reminiscent (although meant to be less funny) of Kristen Bell's portrayal of Mary Lane in Reefer Madness: the Movie Musical. Elsa also sometimes definitely seems to wear some of Idina Menzel's expressions, particularly during Let It Go. Beyond that, the animation is just overall gorgeous. The snow looks great, the architecture is beautiful and, damn, the clothes!! The movie has wonderful, wonderful clothes (which, along with its strong female "villain," reminds me in a nice way of Once Upon a Time, which also benefits from some super awesome clothes). This movie is very different from the old, classically animated Disney movies, but I definitely feel like it fits with even the best of them (a title which, in my opinion, goes to Sleeping Beauty).

Even the snow man, who, based on the previews, really could have turned out to be the Jar Jar Binks of this movie, was fine. Sure, I didn't love him by the end, but he worked in context, had a few funny moments, and best of all was actually a rather minor presence in the movie. The trailers focus so much on him that you think he's going to be dragging his "funny" antics throughout the whole file but a good third of the movie has passed before he even truly makes an appearance and once he does, he stays minor, with the focus strongly on Anna, Elsa and Kristoff (the young man that you know throughout the movie that Anna will end up falling for, even though the movie tries to tease that maybe she won't).

The movie, of course, was not perfect. The big story twist was a mite predictable (although perhaps not in its scale) but at the same time oddly sudden, feeling like it came a bit out of nowhere even if it does have enough fridge logic to it to not ruin the movie. Maybe upon multiple viewings you'll see a hint (or hints) of what's to come, but honestly it's a case where you know that making the story they've been devoting time to telling work will require it, but it's really not hinted at in the movie itself (at least not strongly enough to make it make complete sense) until it just suddenly happens. It's not Tangled's falling in love because of pretty lanterns scene or anything as hamfisted as that---hell, it even has some panache (kind of an "oh, snap" moment, if you will)---but I think it could be fairly called a lazy piece of storytelling.

Also, what the hell was up with them not using Idina Menzel for the single version of Let It Go? Who is this Demi Lovato person and who thought she was a better idea that a legit Broadway star with the ability to belt like an all star? No, the single version isn't bad (it has a nice poppy composition), but it would have been ten times better with Idina Menzel (because most things are---can you tell I'm a fan?).

Overall, though, I think this is a great movie. Not the best, perhaps, but right up there with some of the better ones and definitely a sign that even in a world where traditional Disney has been (rightly, in some cases) criticized, their movies can still be truly wonderfully magical. I highly suggest seeing it if you haven't already. Hell, I've already pre-ordered the Blu-Ray (and no, there's not a release date yet).

Once Upon a Time in Wonderland

So, as people may or may not know, I'm a huge fan of Once Upon a Time. Huge. It just hits all the right buttons for me: it's a fantasy TV show, it leans heavily on its characters to be what's good about the show and it evokes my Disney-laden childhood (not unintentionally, of course, and not unsurprisingly given that it's a fairy tale show aired on Disney-owned ABC). Also, the villains are awesome. Rumpelstiltskin is a delightfully magnificent bastard with a wonderful sense of dramatic flair. Regina Mills (the Evil Queen)---well, she's just so evil (and she revels in it!). And yet still sympathetic. And kind of great looking (I have serious girl-crush on the Evil Queen. And a normal one too).

In any event, the point of all this is that I was really looking forward to the premiere of Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. It was based on a series I love (but which, admittedly, did wander a bit in its second series while it looked for a major plot arc to fill the hole left by the amazing first season finale) and the ads for it looked epic and amazing and seemed to suggest a theme of awesome-girl-doggedly-tries-to-find-tragically-lost-love that I found very appealing (mind you, when you use Two Steps from Hell as the soundtrack for your commercials, it's hard for them not to look epic and awesome).

Did the premiere of the new show disappoint? Well, actually, yes, but that's not going to stop me from watching the new show. Basically, it just wasn't completely awesome. It was passable with some elements that suggest it could mature into a really enjoyable show, and I'm willing to give it that chance. I still think this show could be really good, it showed some spark, but it's just not the immediately engaging, suck-you-in-immediately series premiere that the original Once Upon a Time had.

The best parts of the show were Jafar and Alice. Jafar was a complete badass with an awesome wardrobe and I definitely think it will be fun watching whatever the hell his evil plan is come to fruition. He seems clever and calculating and expect good things from him. Basically, he definitely seems like the sort of villain I've come to expect from Once Upon a Time, which is a show I watch mostly for the villains.

Alice, on the other hand, was something of a nice surprise. I liked her and thought she was kind of a fun protagonist. This is in stark contrast to Emma from Once Upon a Time, who was never really a dislikable character (unlike another character portrayed by Jennifer Morrison, Allison Cameron) but was just never that interesting. She just sort of sat there being disbelieving. Alice, on the other hand, is the person who is disbelieved and she's pretty much just an action hero, coming off as quite the badass. Despite the fact that Emma does seem to have some decent fighting chops, she just never came off as a badass---which is really kind of too bad.

The worst part of the show, though, was the other villain, the Red Queen, who much like Alice evokes comparisons to her Once Upon a Time counterpart, Regina. Unfortunately, where Alice fared well via the comparison, the Red Queen suffered. Badly.

Part of the problem is just that the acting for the Red Queen kind of suck. Seriously, she just sort of struts around going "I have cheekbones!" and is incredibly, incredibly wooden. The real kicker, though, really is just that the obvious comparison for the Red Queen is against Regina and where Regina is a raging badass of badassness, the Red Queen is really just kind of weak tea. For instance, when Jafar is threatening her and she replies by giving a "But this is my town! We play by my rules!" speech, it just comes off as stupid, because she doesn't back it up or even seem at all affronted that Jafar just tried to strangle her to death. Really? Really? Regina would have responded to that by plucking his heart out of his chest and making him dance around like a marionette on a string. Regina gets played sometimes (pretty much every character on Once Upon a Time does, because it is something of a show of gamesmanship) but she sure as hell doesn't take threats lying down. Like I said, the Red Queen is just kind of weak tea. At this point, I'm kind of hoping that Jafar kills her like a bitch.

Other than that, though, the pilot suffered from a bit of mediocrity. The Knave of Hearts, for instance, was a bit predictable and doesn't really come off so much as a character at this point as much as a cardboard cutout. He'll probably get developed later into an interesting character---even in the pilot, there are plenty of hints of his potential to be a really interesting character--but in the pilot, he's really just not there yet.

Unfortunately, though, the romance also suffers from mediocrity at this point, probably because they presented us with the major highlights of the relationship without any of the build-up that would really make those moments meaningful to us and they also just filmed them too early in the production of the series. The actors haven't really had the time to get their chemistry totally worked out and the scenes suffer from a bit of weak scripting too---it seems like the writers hadn't really figured out the relationship in any way more than "it's tragic love" and they just started writing the scenes from that point without really having worked out who these characters were and how they related to each other on a deeper level than just "love." Again, this isn't something that can't be saved but I have to admit that having this romantic relationship come off as being so without depth really did hurt the show in its premiere. Much of the premise revolves around Alice trying to get Cyrus back, so they really need to sell us on that relationship in order to give the plot some umph. They probably should have waited to film those scenes until the show was less new and, if I may be so bold, they probably could have dealt with keeping the Two Steps from Hell soundtrack for some of those scenes too. Nothing says love like Heart of Courage.

So, yes, I was disappointed by Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. It didn't blow me away the way I had hoped it would. But, I'll keep watching and I have a great hope that it can get better. It definitely seems like a show that at least has a shot at being really good once it finds its groove.