The Event

To the people at Disney marketing... I have one thing to say...

Now that's how you do a trailer!



That all being said, I'm not watching it again for fear of any potentially spoilerific shots. Despite my criticisms of Disney's marketing department, I have to hand it to them... I was in awe during this trailer, because it got a lot of things right and it made the film look exciting. I'd say it's their best (spoiler stuff aside) trailer since Brave's final theatrical trailer; if we exclude spoilery stuff, the best one in a while.

It featured at least one song, and it dominates the last half of the trailer. That was truly great. There was even text saying "The music"!

The trailer also said "Experience the greatest Disney animated event since The Lion King"... Okay, I'm glad they said animated event, because every film of theirs as of late is an animated event, but the whole Lion King thing is all subjective of course. But it's a good way to entice audiences to see it since The Lion King is often named the best Disney animated film by many.

The mix was mostly even, but I'm just happy to see a trailer where the story was the main focus and not the gags. Disney marketing may realize that this routine won't work this time around given how a lot of family-friendly animated comedies just didn't do so well at the box office this year, so it was great to see them differentiate this film from the rest. Now if only this was done for trailers as far back as 2008, when Bolt was coming out. Hopefully they keep it up for their future films, now that the studio is financially successful again and the next slate of films delivers a boatload of promise.

Given their expertise with viral marketing, this trailer shows that Disney's marketing department people do have the ability to cut very good, effective trailers.

So yes... Watch it!

Melted

Well here it is folks, the theatrical trailer for Walt Disney Animation Studios' Frozen...



And to be honest, it's not that bad of a trailer... Okay, it isn't perfect, not even great by any means... But it does its job, audiences will go see it because it essentially looks like "Tangled Mach II". It's the typical animated film trailer: Frenetic, joke-centric and it probably doesn't give you a feel of what the film will ultimately be like. But at least there's some pretty animation to gaze at here, and there are some moments that generate excitement.

This will probably be the only time I'll watch it, but here it is... Enjoy!

"Frozen" Character Reveals (Fake)

Read No Further: These posters have been confirmed to be fake, courtesy of a Walt Disney Animation Studios visual development trainee.

It looks like Disney is finally getting the ball rolling for the marketing of Walt Disney Animation Studios' next release, Frozen... In Argentina. Today, three posters were sighted here.

First off, I like the color scheme they are going for. Given the setting and the title, it's appropriate. We don't get much in terms of the set design, they take a back seat to the rather distracting snowflake designs and such. The designs of the two characters, however, don't inspire much confidence for me... Yet.

Anna, like many have pointed out, is almost a dead ringer for Rapunzel in Tangled. The big eyes and overall design pretty much seal the deal, but that isn't bothering me. The character is appealing enough. I don't like the design of Elsa, the film's villain, the bitter and evil Snow Queen. I was expecting something more menacing and villain-like, she doesn't really look it. The hair is odd too. The character just looks... Off...

But then again, promo artwork for animated films is usually bad. The character poses make them seem what they are not, maybe Elsa will end up looking great in this film. Maybe... Maybe not...

Now I want to get one thing out the way, and hear me out: This film could very well blow me away when it comes out, and I have a great feeling it might. The reason I'm not too fond of the two character designs is because from Meet the Robinsons to Wreck-It Ralph (not counting Winnie the Pooh), each film had its own set of unique character designs. The ones in Bolt are different from Robinsons, and Tangled's are different from Ralph's and so on. Some share similarities, but they all have a distinct look. If Frozen's cast looks like too much like Tangled's, that wouldn't annoy me per se, I would just be wishing that Disney would've tried a different style instead returning to one that they already used. There were times were when Disney used the same set of character designs for their films (the early-to-mid 1950s films come to mind), but since they had different designs for each film in the last six years, I was just hoping for something completely different.

Other than the character designs, I'm just worried that Disney will try to repeat what made Tangled a success with this film. Now don't me wrong, I don't dislike Tangled. As a film, I think it's flawed and not the masterpiece that some claim it is, but I love it despite all its problems. That being said, I don't want Frozen to be just like that. I want it to be different in tone, style and story. Disney Animation destroyed itself by repeating themselves (well that was mostly the fault of executives), I don't want that to happen again.

... And maybe it won't. Tangled isn't a rehash of The Princess of the Frog, and rightfully so. I'm hoping that this will not be a rehash of Tangled. Plus, no modern slang dialogue. Leave that out, guys.

With these posters making their debut, does this mean that we'll be getting a teaser soon? I sure hope so.

~

What do you think of these posters? Do you like them? Do you think they are underwhelming? Sound off!

Frozen: Pre-Trailer Speculation

Unfortunately, this cool logo isn't official...

Walt Disney Animation Studios has truly been getting better. Little by little, they are shattering the whole "Disney hasn't made a good animated movie since the Renaissance" belief with critically acclaimed films and Tangled, which was their biggest hit at the box office in years. Next in line is Wreck-It Ralph (opening on November 2nd), which is poised to be an even bigger hit with its video game setting, positive trailer reception and the surprisingly strong marketing. After that comes Frozen, the next fairy tale adaptation in the Disney canon...

Loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen, we know little about this film, so I decided to do a “pre-trailer” analysis. Since we haven’t seen anything in finished animation or anything else beyond some concept art (the art unveiled the other day was confirmed to be outdated, as evidenced by the Walt Disney “Feature Animation” logo on some of the stills), I’ll just throw out some thoughts, theories and a few other things. This film is scheduled to come out on November 27, 2013, so we don't know when we'll get the first trailer. Perhaps it'll show up before Wreck-It Ralph this fall, or maybe next spring. Who knows...

First off, this film is being directed by Chris Buck. What else did he do? Well, he co-directed a little film called Tarzan with Kevin Lima. I’m sure you’ve heard of it. It was one of Disney’s biggest post-Lion King hits, and a critical success to boot. Years later, he directed Sony Pictures Animation’s Surf's Up, which was a very good film but not a commercial success for various reasons. You probably might not have heard of it, or you don’t remember it. Anyways, Buck will be the director and that’s something to get excited about.

A few weeks ago, Disney unveiled a new plot synopsis...

“When Anna is cursed by her estranged sister, the cold-hearted Snow Queen, Anna’s only hope of reversing the curse is to survive a perilous but thrilling journey across an icy and unforgivable landscape. Joined by a rugged, thrill-seeking outdoorsman, his one-antlered reindeer and a hapless snowman, Anna must race against time, conquer the elements, and battle an army of menacing snowmen if she ever hopes to melt her frozen heart.”

So far, it sounds pretty good. Like Tangled, the writers have basically taken a few elements from the original fairy tale and surrounded it with their own original ideas. It’s definitely a much more loose adaptation than anything, one that will probably have purists yelling something like “Bowdlerization!” Tangled was able to tell a great story on its own. The ideas they added were great, and made for a solid story even if it wasn't anything like the original fairy tale.

Frozen is taking the Tangled route. There's nothing wrong with this, as long as the story isn't strikingly similar to that film. It sounds promising, but there’s a few little things that have me a bit concerned. One  thing that doesn’t thrill me that much at the moment is the idea of a "hapless snowman" being the sidekick. I won’t jump the gun, because this character can be hilarious or maybe he won’t be a comic relief device at all. I'm also guessing that he is a good snowman as opposed to the aforementioned "menacing" ones.

I’m not against sidekicks in Disney films. They certainly deserve a place in a narrative, as long as they add to the story and provide comic relief that’s actually funny. Bolt, The Princess and the Frog and Tangled had great side characters. No doubt, the writers know what they’re doing at this point. The side characters in the films made during the Disney Renaissance and some of the films released afterwards (The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Tarzan and Brother Bear come to mind) were usually annoying or belted out juvenile humor during the wrong moments. That all being said, the hapless snowman character might be a hoot. Or he may be annoying, who knows. I won’t be skeptical. The Eisner era ended a while ago, and none of the last five Disney animated features had irritating side characters or anything that stained the films.

The two leads should be interesting characters. Though Anna may be similar to Ariel or Belle, she should still have a distinct personality. The mountain man, Kristoff, already reminds me of Flynn Rider, which also worries me a bit. If Anna and Kristoff are too much like Rapunzel and Eugene/Flynn, I won’t be happy. If it's that way, then the writers will be trying to repeat what made Tangled work. Doing that is a bad idea, of course, because resorting to rehashing familiar ideas was what lead to the studio’s downfall. Walt always tried new things, and the studio is currently doing so, so a rehash of Tangled won't be good enough. As for Kristoff’s reindeer, I have a feeling he won’t speak or even provide any comic relief for that matter. The Snow Queen herself? I’m hoping she’s a very good, complex villain. Her coldness already reminds me of the queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, so I’m sensing a possible sibling rivalry sort of conflict. Perhaps she curses Anna because, like Snow White, Anna is much fairer. Or maybe she didn’t get the care that Anna got when the two were young. I’m hoping for another fantastic villain with a true motive.

Like other great Disney films, the film should have of course have heart. The emotional content in the recent films has been very satisfying, and right up there with Pixar's films. I expect Frozen to be a heartfelt film, with a great love story and great character development. That's pretty much a given now, since Disney has been favoring that over crassness or cheap attempts at being relevant. Will pull the heartstrings? Will it make audiences cry? Maybe, maybe not. Perhaps it'll be emotional on a different level.

I initially balked at the title, and yes, it certainly is Disney marketing trying to disassociate the film with anything young boys see as “girly”. At the same time, Frozen is a suitable title because the film really isn’t The Snow Queen, just an original story that happens to have the Snow Queen in it. Tangled on the other hand was a bad title, as that film was still (at heart) Rapunzel despite being a loose adaptation. I’m currently split on the title change, but at least Frozen sounds interesting. Tangled sounded bad then, and it still sounds bad. It made the film sound like a mindless comedy, it just didn't sound right.

So there’s a few things that already have me conjuring up theories. Out of all the things that Disney has told us so far, the thing I'm wondering about the most is what the "snowmen" will be like.

First of all, what will these snowmen look like? Certainly not like this...

Or this...

I believe that the snowmen that Anna will face on the journey will be more akin to the Frost Giants from Thor. I mean, it would be hard to take things seriously if your villainous snowmen looked like your typical snowmen gone bad. What kind of powers will they have? Will they look like humanoid creatures? Or strange beasts? The artists will probably have something interesting in store for us, so that’s certainly something to think about.

The earlier plot synopsis also mentioned “Everest-like extremes”. The synopsis also mentioned mythical creatures, so there are definitely a lot of things to look forward to in this film already. Visually, it should look fantastic. If the designs of these creatures are nothing short of original and creative, then it will show that Disney can do epic fantasy stories. Animation is the perfect medium for it, as several animated fantasy films have proven so. Disney has the opportunity to really give audiences what live action can't give them. Now what about art direction? Well, with mountains and forests, and probably a village or two in-between, this will probably be loaded with eye candy.

Older, oudated concept artwork, hence the Walt Disney
"Feature Animation" logo...

Now I can spend tons of articles jabbering about what everything might look like, but I do believe the overall style will be right in line with the look of Tangled. Tangled was a very good-looking film, and it certainly shows that Disney is really gung-ho about the painterly look they've been experimenting with. While it didn't really look entirely like a traditionally animated film (in my eyes, it was still a purely CG film), it still had some striking hand-drawn elements here and there. Frozen should take this style to new levels, though John Kahrs' short film Paperman should already indicate where this new approach to computer animation is heading. Of course, rumors are going around stating that Ron Clements and John Musker’s next film might resemble Paperman and finally blend hand-drawn animation and computer animation for a feature film. How things will look in Frozen, we don’t know, but I expect something new and exciting. Something that shows how advanced the new look of Disney computer animation will be.

In addition to potentially groundbreaking animation, visuals and a very good story, Frozen just needs to have a good screenplay. The Disney animated features haven’t been strong in the screenplay department for a good many years, but again, that was fault of executives and too much reliance on what focus groups were saying. Bolt and The Princess and the Frog boasted better writing than most of the Renaissance films, but still had some minor bugs and glitches. They certainly weren’t as great as the scripts for Pixar’s films, but they were top notch nonetheless. Ones that told the story right, and didn't ever take the audience for granted.

Tangled, on the other hand, had a rather inconsistent script. I know I’m in the minority on this one, but I wasn’t pleased with how Tangled’s dialogue was a tad bit modern (“Best... Day... Ever!”). Rapunzel and Flynn acted like it was 2010, not the middle ages. I know it appealed to audiences more so than something serious, but because of this, I can’t call Tangled’s script anything special. Fortunately, it wasn’t insulting. Modern slang in animated films set in the past tends to ruin things (think the annoying sidekicks in the Renaissance films), but in Tangled, it wasn’t as distracting. Perhaps it’s because the film never talks down to the audience like the Renaissance films often did, and neither did Bolt and The Princess and the Frog. The film didn’t water itself down, or lighten the load. Same with the other two films.

I just don’t want Frozen to have that kind of script. That doesn’t mean it has to be grim, super serious and brooding. This isn’t The Dark Knight. I don’t want that either, as Bolt and The Princess and the Frog weren’t anything like that. I just want something that’s not modernized, something that’s just timeless. Something that balances comic relief, drama and the occasional dark moments with style. No modern slang, no teenybopper talk, none of that. I just want a plain good script, like a Pixar film or the original Walt films (technically, those films were storyboarded). With what is supposed to happen in this story, I just can’t see a Tangled-esque script working. At least Tangled wasn’t heavy with action for the most part, and whenever there was drama, there was hardly any slang. Most of Tangled’s action scenes were fast-paced and fun, but the action in Frozen sounds like it’ll be much more intense and perhaps a bit of the violent side. The film is probably going to get a PG rating, since Tangled somehow got it. (Again, don’t question the MPAA’s logic)

Frozen will be produced by Peter del Vecho, who also produced Treasure Planet, The Princess and the Frog and Winnie the Pooh. John Lasseter, of course, will be executive producer. We have no word on who the screenwriters will be, and judging by how Disney picked the writers for Wreck-It Ralph, they may just surprise us. The cast? All we know is that Kristen Bell and Idiza Menzel will provide the voices of Anna and the Snow Queen, respectively. Both have a theater background, so right off the bat, we know this is going to be another musical. The songs will be written by none other than Robert and Kristen-Anderson Lopez. Robert worked on The Book of Mormon and Avenue Q, while Kristen provided music for Winnie the Pooh (along with her husband) and Finding Nemo - The Musical.

For those of you who are upset that someone like Alan Menken isn’t doing the songs, don’t be. Alan Menken can’t just do every Disney musical, and to be honest, Tangled only had one great song (the beautiful "I See The Light") while the rest were either good ("Mother Knows Best", "When Will My Life Begin") or just passable ("I’ve Got a Dream"). Not to say Menken isn’t good, he’s fantastic, everyone knows that. But he doesn’t have to provide the songs for every Disney film, so why not give the job to someone else for a change? After all, Alan Menken didn't write any of the songs for The Lion King, and Disney had fantastic songs in their films long before he came into the picture. Also, Randy Newman, in my opinion, did a fine job with The Princess and the Frog. Let’s give Mr. and Mrs. Lopez a chance.

Speaking of music, what kind of songs will this film have? For what sounds like a rather big, action-packed adventure, they’ll need suitable songs. I already expect a big love ballad (what is a Disney romance film without one?), but how about a different style of songwriting? Instead of following the Renaissance routine (Introduction song - big showstopper song - villain song - silly song and big love song), they should try something different and separate this from those Disney films. Why give what they have given audiences for so long? Why not branch out? The Walt Disney films? Some of them didn’t even have musical numbers, but rather songs that were sung offscreen. Some films even had a few, so they didn’t have to have one at every turn. Most importantly, they didn’t go the Broadway route all the time. The Renaissance films cut and paste the same routine, though they tried breaking free from that with films like Tarzan and The Emperor's New Groove. Personally, I want something totally different. That said, I look forward to getting a glimpse of what the music will be like. Knowing Disney’s super-paranoid ways, they’ll probably hide the fact that this will be a musical in the marketing (“Musicals? That’s like, so laaaaaaame!”) much like they did with Tangled.

In conclusion, I'm expecting another great film from Walt Disney Animation Studios. I'm only a bit skeptical about some things, mainly with the plot and such. I'm just hoping that the writers aren't going to attempt to recreate Tangled. I want something bold, new and risky. Risky like the first five Walt films. From what we know, Frozen does sound a lot more action-oriented than most of the Disney fairy tale adaptations, and I'm very much looking forward to seeing how all of this will be pulled off. A Disney fairy tale with mythical beasts, "conquering of the elements", "Everest-like extremes", armies of evil snowmen, and lots of action? This could finally put an end to the whole "animation is for children" mindset. Hey, I can dream, can I?

So much potential, we can only imagine. Like Wreck-It Ralph and all the other upcoming projects, this is one to get really excited about...