Frozen: Elated, Gassy, Or Somewhere In That Zone

In the new year, Frozen, which was released on November 27, 2013, and has made record breaking sales.  According to Los Angeles Times, its opening weekend grossed 67 million dollars, and Forbes stating that in the new year, it has "domesitally become Disney's biggest-grossing non-Pixar animated feature outside of the Lion King."  In it's 6th week, it still reached number 2 in the box office, making over 28 million dollars.  As of this past weekend, Frozen has officially grossed over 248 million dollars.  The Frozen soundtrack is topping charts as well, making it to the top 10 of the Billboard Charts, when only 9 other animated features have ever done that (6 of which were Disney).

My question is what is it about Frozen that is making it break records?  Is it the storyline?  That plot twist that has everyone in the theater gasping, unbelieving that Disney would make a villian out of a prince?  Is it the relaxed princesses?  Is it the the broadway followers, appreciating the beautiful voice of Idina Menzel?  

Frozen is said to be based on the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale of the Snow Queen.  Hans Christian Anderson's tale is one of  two children that struggle in the world.  The young boy ran away and met a Snow Queen who offered him a place to live and a home, but the longer he stayed with her, his heart began to freeze.  Eventually, his best friend started to miss him, and after finding him, was able to thaw his frozen heart with her love.  The only part of this classic fairytale that had stayed in the movie were the actual Snow Queen and the frozen heart thawed by love.

The main theme of the movie was that fear and love were opposing factors.  Elsa, the queen of Arendelle, was so afraid of how her subjects would react to her powers she hid them from everyone, including her sister.  It was this fear that made her unable to control her powers.  On the opposite side of the spectrum is her younger sister, Anna.  Anna grew up lonely since her sister hid everything from her, but still had an undying devotion to her sister.  It was this love for her sister that eventually taught Elsa the most important lesson in trying to control her powers, that love melts even a frozen heart.

What made this movie so different from other classic Disney movies is the fact that though there were two people who eventually fell in love, it was not this love that was the strongest, but the love and bond between sisters.  This is an amazing theme when you think of other princesses like Ariel, who left her entire family for a boy at the age of 16.

The only thing that truly was unsettling about this movie was what made it so relatable.  Rather than follow the story of the elegant Snow Queen, we follow the story of her headstrong and unclassy sister.  A movie that Frozen is often compared to is Tangled.  I was able to ignore Rapunzel's modern speech and quirks due to the fact that she was raised in a tower, unaware of her royal lineage.  Anna, however, was not.  She grew up raised in a castle and raised as a princess of Arendelle.  There was no reason for her to use constant slang and filler words such as "totally" (which we repeated 3 times in one song).

My disappointment falls in the fact that Disney felt the need to remove all etiquette from a princess in order to make her relatable.  This princess, with lyrics such as feeling "elated or gassy," seemed to fall short of any princess I think of being raised in a castle.  Young girls look to Disney princesses as role models, and I feel like Anna, while she is good to look to as far as love for her family, falls short of class.  This makes me worry for our children.  It seems like we are no longer concerned with manners and etiquette.  Instead our hit soundtrack has lyrics discussing "ballrooms with no balls," "finishing each other's sandwiches," and "tinkling in the woods."

Overall, Frozen was a very entertaining movie, and the music was enjoyable.  But when you are watching this movie, just think if that is the way you would raise your own children.  The oldest, so afraid of what she can do that she runs away from her responsibility.  And the youngest, naive to the world, that she is ready to throw herself at the first boy who shows interest.

Man of Steel: The Powerful Movie with all the Kryptonite Built In

The Man of Steel (2013)

Before reading any further, I caution you.  This review contains many spoilers, and I wish for all who watch any movie, good or bad, to make that decision on their own.  Every movie should be watched for the sheer purpose of information and entertainment, thus should be enjoyed with an open mind.  The same could be said for reading reviews :-)  Always have an open mind...

On that note, what does it take to consider a movie a good movie?  A large budget?  An intricate storyline?  Good looking actors and actresses?  A good director?  A writer that can take a known storyline and try to make it fit into our reality?  The Man of Steel has all these things, so many consider it an amazing movie. 

Unfortunately, while the movie is very entertaining, I felt that it was lacking in continuity and it was far from meeting my expectations.

Chris Nolan is known for taking a story that is far from the truth, and making the audience believe that it could be real.  A great example is taking the Batman story and turning him into the Dark Knight.  In this Gotham, all of Batman's wondrous toys could be found and explained in our reality. It was probably because of this expectation that I did not buy into the reality that was created for the Man of Steel.

The movie begins in Krypton.  A beautifully dangerous world, where the the Kryptonian race had to develop and adapt to be able to survive in this harsher planet.  Being a fan of super heroes in general, I thoroughly enjoyed learning about Krypton and its last days, as well as a well thought out explanation to how our sun was really able to give Superman his powers.  The controlling nature of the Kryptonians became the cause of their destruction.  Forseeing this fate, Jor-El and his wife Lara created a child that had no pre-determined purpose, but would be able choose his own fate.

The idea of choosing your own fate and discovering your purpose in life is a common theme among storylines.  As humans, we often have our own struggles trying to decide what we are meant to do with our life.  There are many movies and storylines of artificial intelligence on that same quest.  Why would Superman be exempt from this?  It is in this struggle that I find my first flaw.  Kal-El was supposed to be free to choose his own path and fate. Yet Jor-El had an intended fate for our hero, that he would be the bridge between the Kryptonians and the Earth's humans.  He did not get to choose a life among the humans that he wanted because in his very DNA was every life that Krypton hoped to create.  And while it may seem like our hero chose to be human over being Kryptonian, if one were to really think about this choice, it wasn't even made by him, it was made by the poor misunderstood General Zod: the man unable to think for himself for he was born with the purpose of preserving Krypton at any cost.  Zod did not care about the destruction of anything in his path to restore his old home, and because of his blindness, Kal was forced to stop him to save earth.  He did this by destroying Zod's hope for the restoration of Krypton.  This seemed less like a choice, and more of an expectation that not only was put on him by his human family, but even his Kryptonian father.  "You can save her, Kal.  You can save all of them." was a quote from the memory of Jor-El.  Way to make your son feel like he was born with a choice, Jor-El.

Almost all heroes have some sort of love interest.  What is that saying?  "The hero always gets the girl..."  The love between Superman and Lois Lane is legendary.  In all Superman stories, Lois was never one to sit around and wait to be saved.  This movie made no exception.  Not only was Lois brave and clever, she did not rest until she discovered the true identity of our hero.  So right from the beginning, Lois knew who Superman was?  Right down to calling him Clark?  The Superman fan in me fought back a disappointed scream because here was a clever way to add more depth to Lois' story.  But this put our beloved hero's love in danger from our own government when aliens threatened the planet.

According to this movie, if one person holds the answer that could potentially save the world, their response is to kidnap and arrest that person.  Makes sense...But heaven forbid they be clever enough to hide her somewhere that a farm boy from Kansas can't find her.  Kal-El was given 24 hours to turn himself in, so he was able to find Lois in no time at all.  The ease of this definitely did not put my mind at ease.  I would hope that if the fate of the entire planet were at stake, our government would do better to protect it.
After having found her, and offering to turn himself in, Superman's first meeting with other Kryptonians left me frustrated even more.  They seemed to know that they should bring Lois with them  How did they know this?  Is Superman lacking in mind reading powers that the other Kryptonians seem to have?   Not only that, but their ability to go into both Lois and Superman's minds and memories seems a bit more than any mere Kryptonian should have the ability to do. It makes me think that they may as well be related to the Martian Manhunter rather than Superman.

Anyways, after conveniently bringing Lois onto the ship, one that Superman has never before seen, since his only previous experience with Kryptonian ships were his own spaceship that brought him to earth and the droid ship that contained the consciousness of his father, he knew that Lois would be able to use the Key Code that held his father's consciousness?  That is far fetched, even for Superman.  But, if he were given the benefit of the doubt, that this key could save Lois, then I will move on.

Moving on to the "world."  I love how there are three places in the entire world: some cold place like Antarctica, Metropolis, and Kansas.  Because if you are to fall from outer space, these are the only places you will land.  After having saved the planet from being turned into another Krypton with sever atmospheric conditions, Superman and Lois are about to share a passionate kiss, in Metropolis.  But no!  Zog remains alive and seemingly battles Superman around the world, only for that battle to conveniently end within running distance of where Superman had left Lois, as she was able to witness and comfort him as he chose to destroy the last of his kind.  That is so convenient since it was just the support our super hero needed!

Overall, the movie was well paced and did not drag on as much as a two and half hour movie could potentially drag on...However, there were moments where even my love of Superman could keep entertained.  At General Zod's return, all I wanted was for the movie to finally conclude.  But that may have just been because I was drinking a large soda during the movie...

I do recommend others to see this movie, for it does hold a lot of surprises and does do justice for continuing Superman's story (as well as beginning his story).  However, I do not see this movie as falling into one of the "great" categories of my list.

Brave: Best Animated Feature and Symbol of Low Morals in Our Current Culture

Having always been a huge Disney Fan, I have always thought highly, but critiqued well the movies that have meant so much to me and my family.  As for Disney Pixar, I have the utmost faith that I will enjoy any movie they create.  I became a believer when Finding Nemo first came out.  I did not believe a movie about a lost fish would be any good. Little did I know I would be bawling my eyes out in the first 15 minutes.  From that moment on, there was no Disney Pixar film out that wouldn't touch my heart strings and cause me to tear up or cry.

Brave was no exception.  The strong mother/daughter relationship reminded me of my own complicated relationship with my own mother.  When two females are used to having their voices heard, they often battle to have the final word.  Besides this relationship, the cinematography and animation of the movie was beautifully done.  It captured the heart of a wild Scotland, with great uses of light and dark to add to the mystery of the lacking storyline.

For those of you that do not know the Story, it features a young Scottish princess, Merida.  The time has come for her to get married to keep the unity of the clans of the area.  She does not wish to be forced to wed, so in defiance to her mother, decides to fight for her own hand in an archery tournament.  After finding out that regardless of winning, she still must marry, she searches for a way to change her fate.  **SPOILER ALERT**  After being given something she assumes will change her mom's mind, she soon discovers changing her fate means changing her mother completely.  Rather than own up to her mistake, she then blames the witch that helped her "change her mother to change her fate" and the two embark on a journey to discover a cure.  Not until the very end of the movie, does Merida finally apologize.  After the entire ordeal, Merida's mother no longer required her to get married.

I feel like this storyline wasn't much of a storyline at all.  There was no actual learning development for Merida, so she retains her stubborn attitude and never really does insist on putting the betterment of her kingdom above her own personal choices.  This is not to say that she wouldn't, for her mother changes the rules before Merida actually chooses a suitor.

What angered me the most about this feature winning Best Animated feature in the Academy Awards is the values it sets for our younger generation.  Rather than learn something about yourself, this princess teaches children if she complains or creates enough trouble, she will get her way.  Unfortunately this seems to be the way of today's society, so it is no wonder that a movie like this was encouraged.  With ideas such as "the customer is always right" when those of us who work in customer service know that often the customer really just have skewed paradigms being a major component in this cultural technique, of course Brave would win.  People who complain in life often get free things, free nights in a hotel if it doesn't meet their expectation, backdoor entrance to special events because they weren't told about the event in the past, or even free food because they are "critics" on sites such as Yelp.

Here is my hope that the only reason Brave won was its beautiful cinematography and amazing historical references to Scottish lore...and that it won't give people the idea that complaining and being a brat gets you your way...