Danielle's Corner: Why Frozen did what Brave tried but Failed to do

I have a feeling my attitude during the Frozen Part 1 podcast made it seem as if I loved the movie.  Not true.  I actually agreed with Eric on more points than one and feel the movie seriously lacked in artistic originality.  That isn't to say I didn't enjoy the movie.  I saw it in theaters and bought in on DVD after all and I do enjoy the story for what it is and what it was going for.  Overall, the movie has many weaknesses and while we are releasing another Frozen discussion podcast in the next week or so, there are a two things I want to address outside of the podcast.  These two things are why the movie was a success and why the movie was a failure.  I am in the middle about how I feel about this movie and so I figured it would be perfect to address both sides of the argument.  This blog post will be about why Frozen was a success in my eyes.
When I entered the movie theater, my mind was focused on many things.  First off, I'm not a huge fan of Rapunzel from Tangled.  One of the worst scenes in Disney movie history in my opinion is during Tangled when Rapunzel goes back and forth deciding whether she is having the best day ever or whether she should return to her tower.  The exposition is so cliche and so obviously geared towards children that I wonder if Disney just got lazy.  The whole purpose of Disney movies, according to Walt Disney himself, was to reach the child in all of us...not make a children's film.  As I sat down to watch Frozen, I hoped that none of the main female characters would be a Rapunzel (meaning overtly silly).  Anna is definitely a partial clone of Rapunzel but I found her a lot more tolerable which put this movie in high regards for me by the end.
The other movie that is permanently stuck in my brain is Pixar's Brave.  I saw Brave in the theater as well and took notes on it for a film class.  I believe it to be one of the worst Pixar movies and I find it to be an overly obvious attempt at Disney/Pixar to please critics of the usual Disney Princess.  I am a huge defender of the Disney Princesses and it annoys me to no end when people criticize their characters for being bad role models when I believe they are very good role models.  Merida was seemingly the company's way of fighting back and while I commend them for it, I also wish they would stick to their roots and not make a movie so blatantly obvious about it's political message.  Disney shouldn't have to feel bad about the films they have put out but treasure their characters and make films that are genuinely good stories, not to please their critics.  As the movie started, I hoped it wouldn't be another Brave.

And finally, I was praying that Disney would finally release a genuinely good film.  We all know Pixar is almost always on their A game but Disney has struggled.  The last really great film they released, in my opinion, was Princess and the Frog which didn't do so hot at the box office.  Wreck-It-Ralph is also a great film though there are a few things that hold it back for me that I won't address in this post.  When Disney released their catastrophically awful traditional hand-drawn animated film Home on the Range, they hardly made any money at the box office and came to the conclusion that hand-drawn animation was boring and they needed to go into the same direction as every other animation company - CGI.  There are two huge problems with this.  The first is, did it ever occur to Disney that their film may not have done well because of poor marketing?  Or more importantly, because it was a terrible excuse for a film??  And another thing, since when does Disney conform?  The whole purpose of Disney is their unique ability to create fantastic animated movies that are not only stylistically beautiful but rich in story and music (and more often than not, slapstick comedy).  I don't want Disney to try to be like DreamWorks.  I want Disney to be DISNEY!  CGI annoys the hell out of me.  For some films, it works.  Pixar films never have bothered me because CGI is their bread and butter.  Shrek is one of my all time favorite movies...and yes, I know that is DreamWorks.  While change is good, and certainly Walt believed in new technology and moving forward, I don't think Disney should shy away from traditional hand-drawn animation.  It is crucial they stick with it.  CGI all looks the same to me.  The characters in Frozen all seem to look like recycled Tangled characters.  My fear was that this would be yet another Disney let down; they would tease us with CGI but the product would be lackluster and unoriginal.
Frozen defied every one of my preconceived ideas that I have listed.  It created a strong female character who wasn't an obvious Merida but not an obviously ditz Rapunzel and the animation was actually rather good.  I still don't like CGI and find the characters to look better in traditional animation but that aside, I genuinely enjoyed the animation.  In other words, the film surprised me...something Disney has not done in a long while and for that I give the movie a thumbs up.
Watching the movie a second time to discuss on the podcast was a real treat.  There were some scenes that I thought were so well done.  The three that stood out to me were as follows...
Anna and Elsa's interaction scene as children.  Even the scenes shortly after watching Elsa trying to control her powers.  The two of them bonding and having fun in the snow combined with the gorgeous score and fantastic cinematography just made an overall solid scene.  The next scene I loved is when Anna asks Elsa for her consent to marry Hans.  Disney does such a good job in this scene of showing and not telling.  We see Anna who is desperate for love and a connection with another person that she has never gotten with her sister and finally she is becoming confrontational about it.  She is sick of being shut out.  And then there is Elsa, who is just simply afraid of the world knowing what she can do.  When Anna takes Elsa's glove, you can see the pain and history in both of their eyes and in their dialogue, especially when Elsa says "Then leave" to Anna.  The scene is a great character moment for both sisters.  The final scene that stood out to me was Anna and Kristoff's first full length conversation on the sled in the woods before the wolves attack.  I'm not quite sure what did it for me with this scene.  The dialogue was very consistent I guess.  The two went back and forth at each other, balancing out the tension and it was just an overall great scene.
Another thing I loved, which we talked about during our Part 1 episode, is the use of film hints throughout the movie.  For example, while I think Hans was a very poor villain, it is cool to see how the filmmakers hinted at him being a bad guy using stylistic choices rather than choices to hint at his true colors using body language or something.  They leave his face open and in full view a lot during the beginning of the film, showing us he is good but as the film goes on his face becomes more and more shaded, showing his true colors.  Another thing is the gloves he wears.  In film, gloves can symbolize that someone is hiding their true identity.  You will also notice that Elsa wears gloves.  She removes them during her show stopping Let it Go when she decides to take charge of who she is.  Hans only removes his gloves when he tells Anna his true plan and then puts them back on when he leaves her.  It is very clever storytelling.
My all time favorite shots in the film were of Anna jumping in front of the painting of a woman on a swing and Elsa running up the ice stairs she was creating.  So beautiful!
But ultimately what this movie did that "Outdid Brave" as I said in the podcast, is that it took the typical Disney heroine and didn't change her to make a good story that is empowering to girls.  Yes, both films are empowering but from an adult perspective and a creative perspective, Frozen blew Brave out of the water!
Can't say much more cause I don't want to spoil Part 2 of our Frozen discussion!  Hope you will tune in!

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