Frozen: A Commentary in Seven Posts (Five)

Elsa

Yes, she gets her very own post. Why? Because she deserves it and there is enough to say about her that I can devote an entire day's blogging time to her character.

To start of, I want to be perfectly clear that I'm a fan of Elsa. I think she's a complex character and her "development" in the film is probably the most interesting. I like her along the same lines that I like "Wreck-it-Ralph" and Wreck-it-Ralph. I saw the movie "Wreck-it-Ralph" at least four, and possibly five (I can't actually recall to be sure) in the theaters. Ralph is one of my favorite Disney characters of all time. If "Frozen" were centered directly on Elsa's character, I would probably see it five times in the theaters. If there were a t-shirt that said "Team Elsa" on it, I would probably try to convince a friend to buy it for me for my birthday. That's how much I'm a fan of this character.

Granted, by the end of this post you might be convince that I like the concept of Elsa more than the reality (there's not a better word for that, even though she is a work of fiction), but maybe a character's potential is just as much reason to be a fan as their portrayal; Elsa is definitely a character full of potential.

I'm going to work from negative towards positive, so if you want to be upset about her character read on, but if you want to just be happy about her, skip a few paragraphs.

Thing I don't like number 1: During her awesome and epic power song they make a physical transformation in the character that I don't care for. They make the oh, so common cliche of equating power in a woman with sexiness. Power=Sexy is not an absolute.

If you watch that video at the mark of 3:13 or so you will notice that her costume and hair is different and she has a swagger in her hips that is surely detrimental to her spine, her knees, her ankles and her everything. I don't care for the exposed shoulders or the slit up the dress either. I actually think those exposures are evidence of her betrayal of her true character as a guarded individual.

Speaking of her true character (I'm a segue master!), the song "Let it Go," while epic on the scale of classic Disney, and wonderfully performed strikes be wrong in two ways. First, I love the performance of it, but I don't think that the Elsa's narrative earned that song. She went from running scared of herself  and her powers to supposedly embracing those same powers and swearing to a life of blissful seclusion (because seclusion away from people is likely to make her so much less lonely than her previous seclusion near people…) without actually experiencing any character event. She also managed to hike across a frozen wasteland and climb up that mountain in about a tenth the time other characters took, but I suppose that is a different story. My second big issue with the song is the fact that it isn't true. About twenty minutes after she sings it she is just as scared as she ever was, and uses her powers to their worst effect. Building and icy palace hasn't made her queen of anything. The next time she sees a person all her fear comes back worse than ever. She didn't actually let anything go.

This next negative is something that I have somewhat touched on thus far. Her character doesn't get to be center stage for most of the film, and doesn't get time to develop properly. I can understand Disney's choice to shy away from the villain-not-a-villain thing for this one; That was the plot of their movie the previous year. But does anyone really think that Anna is the more interesting character? Give the screen time to the girl people are rooting for!

This leads to some of the positives. Elsa has human flaws that people relate to and want to see overcome. She's shy. She's repressed. She's nervous. She wants to keep other people safe and is willing to sacrifice to do it. She has a problem with physical contact. These are human flaws. At the same time, when she tries, she can be a bit funny, a bit mischievous, and she has her head on straight when it comes to marrying people you just met. This is a person who needs a friend that understands her fears, and, more importantly, isn't afraid of the same things. What is Elsa most afraid of? Her power to create ice hurting someone. Gee, wouldn't it have been nice if there had been a character in this movie who knew something about ice. Maybe he could have known how dangerous it is and been prepared to deal with that. Maybe he could have had an appreciation for how it can be useful, and even beautiful. Maybe he could have been a character that had dealt with ice successfully their whole life and could never be afraid of it. Maybe he would have been able to recognize an accident, or a quirk of nature and not blamed her for making magic ice. Heck, maybe he could have been featured in an opening sequence, with an awesome song, alongside a dozen other people who understood all those same things and could have said something if they met Elsa. If only such a character existed…and wasn't told to wait outside at the precise moment when his awe and wonder at Elsa's power over ice could have changed the entire movie and provided a more compelling love story…

Well, that theory might have gotten away from me a bit. I also have a theory about a version of the film in which Hans had magic powers involving fire (he wear gloves just like Elsa for most of the film and takes them off dramatically just before extinguishing a candle, and I really hoped he was gonna have fire-powers) and there was going to be a fantastic and grand battle between fire and ice and Elsa would save the kingdom, as is her duty as a queen, and the people would love her and accept her, and she would finally have figured out that her love for the kingdom would help her control her powers and the fear of her powers was why she was having trouble, and , and, well that didn't happen.

I should probably wrap this up. I'm starting to get too far into the potential of her character (vast, untapped potential) and less about her reality. The reality that I do like is this: Elsa has flaws and weaknesses, but also a tremendous self-sacrificing motivation. She could use a supportive friend or two. I'm a little sad that all she ended up with was one sister.

Go Team Elsa!

Frozen: A Commentary in Seven Posts (Four)

The Love Story?

--SPOILER WARNING--

This post is going to have spoilerific discussion of film facts that might be better left to those who have either seen the film, or don’t care if they know how it ends. That’s all I’ll say on the matter. Scroll down under your own advisement and with consideration for my warning.

I put a question mark after the term “love story” on purpose with regards to this movie. Love is certainly an element in “Frozen,” but romantic love is, at the very best, irrelevant to the plot finale. The love story that does matter is more about love between two sisters, and I believe that the development of that relationship was overshadowed by the insignificant story of romance.

Part of the marketing for the film centered on the two potential love interests for the “main character,” Anna. One trailer illustrated this debate, one which Anna was ostensibly obliged to make. The nice guy, Prince Hans, was contrasted with Kristoff, the ice merchant; both of these men were contrasted with the potential scenario in which Anna saves the day without having to rely on a man for support. As mentioned in a previous post, this was part of a pseudo-female-empowerment plan. For this plan to be real, she would have had to actually save the day on her own. In some manner of speaking this is somewhat true, but more on that later.

Hans was proven to be a manipulative villain who intended to leave Anna for dead so that he could rule the kingdom by claiming to have married her and become a de facto king. This leaves Kristoff and no one as the advertised options for Anna’s affection. Ultimately it is made clear that Anna and Kristoff do become a couple, but, unlike the vast majority of Disney films, this love story doesn’t save lives, break a curse, nor even alter a law.

The love that does save the day (breaking one curse, and inspiring the epiphany that ends an eternal winter) comes in the form of Anna’s personal sacrifice to save her sister. To be perfectly honest, I think this demonstration of love as the saving grace of the story is lessened in impact by the fact that Anna still has to end up with a man. Even though she proved that her sacrificial act of love could save herself, she can’t spend any more of her fulfilled without a man.

Although there was an attempt to make Kristoff noble and sacrificing, it was forced and ultimately solved no problems. There is a moment when he rides across snow-covered hills, carrying Anna in his arms, so that she can kiss her “true love.” The moment that rings untrue is when he delivers her to the castle gates, dismounts, and leaves her in the company of servants, with hardly any indication of the severity of the situation. He then leaves the castle, dejected, trusting that her life will be saved, but not caring to make sure. His leaving without completing his mission to save her life seems to be a contrivance to facilitate increased drama ten minutes later into the film when his reindeer convinces him that it is he, Kristoff, who is Anna’s true love. That contrived moment of Kristoff not crossing the threshold into the castle took me out of the film entirely.

Now, all of this falls beside the point that I think the love stories were grossly confused in their conclusions. Kristoff ought to have been in love with the older sister, Elsa, in my opinion. Anna might have done better without a final love interest. But then again, perhaps it would have been best if she ended up with the snowman, Olaf. They seem suited to each other in my eyes. (Also there was a sequence when Olaf demonstrated his love as he risked melting to try and save Anna).

The romance between Else and Kristoff was my hope while watching the film the first time, and has persisted since. This is in part derived from my notion that Else should have been the main character, or at least significantly more featured, and in part from the connection between Kristoff and ice that is more significant than any connection I noted between him and Anna. Kristoff’s affinity for ice, and appreciating the beauty of it would have complimented Elsa’s powers. Had Disney gone for a focus on Else and a love story along the lines of their previous films, I’m sure Kristoff would have been the one to show appreciation for Elsa’s powers and changed her ways. He could have seen and described the beauty and the danger (along the lines of the first song, featuring the ice cutters and a young Kristoff) of what she could do. He also would have been the only character to show no fear for what she could do. In short, I think Disney’s effort to give sense of girl-power and love-other-than-romantic shot them in the foot and prevented them from telling a love story to rival their best ones. Now, that love story might have mirrored “Beauty and the Beast” too closely for some people’s tastes, but that is a classic film and one of Disney’s best. And they could do worse than parallel that story more than 20 years later.

Frozen: A Commentary in Seven Posts (Three)

Critical Reception:

In some ways this is the easy one. I can just post some reviews for the film and talk about them. The bulk of the work is on you, dear reader. You have to go to all that trouble of opening the links in new tabs and glancing through them. I hope you can handle it.

This is also a chance to vent a bit. (SPOILER WARNING) This here article (SPOILER OVER) is just not a classy move on a news website. The title is a spoiler! Bad form! I don't know if the blame lies with the author or the site managers, but it really cheesed me off, as this was the first article I saw about the film after its release. So, my experience was colored a bit by having the "big reveal" announced two weeks before I even saw the film.

Here's some other reviews I grabbed:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2013/11/26/frozen-review/2941351/

http://www.vulture.com/2013/11/movie-review-frozen.html

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/frozen-2013

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/01/how-parents-can-turn-em-frozens-em-big-twist-into-a-teachable-moment/283055/

Admittedly, the last one isn't so much a review as a musing about the film, but I like it and I think there are some good points worth sharing.

Based on my past experience (at least one example of which is on this blog), the big surprise here is from USA Today. I don't care for Claudia's reviews, nor her writing style. She tends to try hard to make adjectival puns in reference to the content of the film, and it usually seems strained. I also find her overall (excessive, overwrought?) use of adjectives to be assaulting. I've never seen her give four out of four. She's usually very harsh on films which, at the very least, aren't so bad. Her reviews for "Thor: The Dark World" and "Pacific Rim" especially got hit hard. It's like she didn't know what she was going in for. All of that is background for me to say that I don't trust her, and that makes a four out of four star rating more than mite bit suspicious in my eyes.

I should be clear that I have a very positive view of the film. I really did enjoy it. I laughed. I smiled. I might have been a little moist in the eye a few times. Maybe it's a little bit of my internal contrarian, or perhaps just my training to analyze combined with my person tendency to think about things way more then they really should ever be thought about, but I can't bring myself to give it a review above 3 stars (maybe 3.5 if someone gave me a personal argument) our of four in my book. I think that's pretty darn good. (To borrow the rating system from a podcast I enjoy, this would still be "Best Movie Ever.")

A more complex and complete discussion of my true opinion, and the reasons behind it, will come on Sunday. I can warn you, it is going to sound really harsh, but mostly because it will be the time for me to "let it go" as far as my hits against the film.

Frozen: A Commentary in Seven Posts (Two)

On Advertising:

The big caveat for this post is the fact that it is entirely subjective and based on my perceptions of the general media, and also the reactions of other people. Keep that in mind, but feel free to correct me if I'm an idiot about these claims or theories.

"Frozen" seems to have been a quiet arrival. Based on my research the pattern for its release is the same as "Wreck-it-Ralph." Both films were released in November, (oddly enough, both films involve a character who is wrongfully viewed as "evil") both films had a trailer released in June, and other around September. One big difference is the fact that "Frozen"'s first trailer was basically just a gag and didn't actually give any sense of what the movie was about, nor that it would actually feature human characters. This means that most people probably didn't know much, if anything, about "Frozen"until just two months before it was released.

Now, this is just a theory, but I have a notion that people's expectations about a film have a certain kind of dependence on the amount of time they have to process those expectations. If a person has more time to consider the film, they have time to talk themselves out of it. A person's anticipation for a film can greatly diminish if they have a long time to consider it, and know what is coming.

Another element that becomes part of this is the social media. I don't think there were a great many people sharing the first trailer for "Frozen." It's fun, but it's not super-interesting. Even if people did see it, it's a bit forgettable. There's not real information for the film.

The second trailer has more content, and it also started the campaign about female empowerment. (I know better than to really get into that topic here, but you can't really talk about "Frozen" without it.) That angle on the promotions probably gave an extra edge to the film's appeal.

This might not be an exhaustive analysis (I'm still new at this), but I hope it is worth thinking about. People like a new approach to things. "Frozen" provided that in the content, the angle, and the pace of the advertising, and this may become the norm if Disney can replicate it properly.

Frozen: A Commentary in Seven Posts (One)

Overview:

I'm testing out a new format for blogging. This is going to be a long form experiment. Each day this week I hope to be publishing a post about the film "Frozen." If this works, it is possible that I can use this method for other cultural artifacts. The layout for the week will be:

Monday: Overview
Tuesday: Advertising
Wednesday: Critical Reception
Thursday: The Love Story?
Friday: Elsa
Saturday: Character Developments
Sunday: Not as Good as Everyone Says?

Be sure to check back every day ;)

Allow me to briefly explain a bit about what is to come.

I have a theory about the advertising method that proclaimed the release of the film. It was almost as if they didn't want people to know about the film too soon. Many people were not aware (to my knowledge) of its coming out until just a few months ahead of time. This is unusual for a big picture from a big studio. Often there might have been a solid trailer released well in advance, as well as a general awareness in the populace. I think that this was either by design, or, at the very least, beneficial for the films financial success.

There's all kinds of responses that people have had. Almost exclusively positive. I'll just take a look at what people have had to say about the film.

Thursday will involve a discussion of the love story(s) in the film and how relevant they are to the overall plot.

I intend to devote an entire day to Elsa. I thoroughly believe that she should have been the main character, and as a character she is the most complex. While Disney animation probably doesn't want to make a habit of the bad guys not being the bad guys ("Wreck-it-Ralph"), I think they would have done well to focus on Elsa for this film. (Anna just isn't that interesting.)

The other characters will be dealt with on Saturday.

Sunday is time for the big question. Is it as good as the people are saying? If so, why? If not, why?

I need to wrap this up tonight, and hopefully I'll be better about getting these posted earlier in the day.

Star Trek: TNG

I'm a bit behind on this, so this Thursday is going to be something of a quick one.

Star Trek: The Next Generation is maybe not the biggest pop culture item that has had an impact on my life, but it's definitely worth mentioning. I like the show. It's clever. It's got good characters. Most of the stars are going to be at Salt Lake Comic Con this year. And my brother Alex was the one who originally introduced the show to me.

Alex and I used to share a room when I was like 6. He was 11 or something. I guess we must have shared the room for a long time, but my memory gets fuzzy that far back…Anyway, he was into stuff like some of the Star Treks that were happening back in the 90s (TNG, DS9, maybe a little Voyager). Thanks to him, I had some vague exposure to those shows and got a bit attached to some of the characters and episodes. (The black sludge/tar monster from season 1 is still freaky)

I've been watching the series on Netflix lately, and it is solid stuff. It makes me excited for the fact that I should be able to get a few autographs at SLCC.

Maybe I'll produce a better post on this later. I'm still getting into the blogging groove.

The Redwall Books

First post about the works that have influenced my life. A hard choice to make. (also, it's a bit late in the day, but I'm trying…)

I decided to dig a bit into my childhood for a good starting point. When I was still in elementary school (for the life of me I couldn't tell you what grade, but fifth-grade or earlier for sure) I started reading books in the Redwall series.

Originally I came across a cartoon on PBS that featured some of the narratives from the Redwall books. My mom recognized the series for what it was, and informed me that my brother, John, had a collection of some of the books. I borrowed a few and started reading, and thus began my first experience as a fan/geek.

The series, written by Brian Jacques, began with the novel Redwall in the 80s. Jacques kept writing until he died, only a few years ago. In total there are more than 20 books in the Redwall series. I haven't read all of them, but I can confidently say that have read most of them. I don't have any reason not to have finished reading them, but at some point I became less enchanted in reading new stories about anthropomorphized animals (mainly rodents) in a quasi-medieval world. I love the ones that I have read, and I always will, but I haven't made myself finish the series. Maybe I will someday. Maybe I'll finish by reading them to my kids at some point.

This description probably doesn't do justice to the impact that this series had on my younger self. I'll probably revisit specific books in greater detail as I develop my patterns for this blog and as my writer's voice becomes better at longer stretches of activity.

The Family Newsletter

Every year my family produces a newsletter. My parents send it to…people. I don't actually know who is on that particular mailing list, but I've had a responsibility to provide a personal update or entry of some kind for most of my life. Seeing as it has already been produced, I'm gonna let my previous work work for me. This is the text of the entry I submitted for 2013:

"This year I have been especially contemplative of the concept of firsts, events that have occurred for the first time. I spent my first full year living in an apartment away from home under my own (primarily) financial support. I completed my first full year of work at BYU Radio (which you can listen to at byuradio.org). I also came across two particular firsts that were not my own, but gave me a tremendous sense of transcendence. The first confirmed recording of the voice of Alexander Graham Bell was identified by the Smithsonian. Listening to it gives me chills. (Try it for yourself) I also came across an image which is widely believed to be the first photographic portrait ever taken (which was, incidentally, a self-portrait, and the OED word of the year is "selfie"). With all that in mind, I wish all readers of this a great many firsts in the coming year."

I also included a copy of the picture:

There is something very fascinating to me about this picture. This was the first time (probably) that a person saw a scientifically true image of himself. There's none of the reversal and inversion that comes from looking in a mirror, and this image isn't controlled by what an artist saw and chose to depict. This is science and nature at work together.

Robert Cornelius, the man pictured, was a silversmith of some repute who got involved in the early days of photography. This would have been back when it had a lot to do with chemical processes and silver nitrate (hence the involvement of a man skilled at working with silver) and exposure and stuff that I don't really understand. To my knowledge, which may very well be faulty, the procedure was the treat the silver with a chemical mixture and exposure to light would cause some kind of reaction that would result in an image. Chemical interactions and light combined to show this man his own image in a what that he, nor anyone else, had ever seen before. What a fantastic experience that must have been!

I think he also looks like a pretty cool dude. Collar popped a little. Side-burns. Hair just messy enough to make him look like the kind of guy who was more interested in learning something from this photography stuff than how he might appear in the image. Altogether, not too shabby, Mr. Cornelius. Not too shabby, at all...

Thursdays

My sister, Kate, has made it a personal tradition to post consistently and predictably on Thursdays (for evidence, you can use the link to the right). However, her traditional post is focused on pictures of "pretty-boys" that she has her eye on. Needless to say (I hope), this pattern is not going to be duplicated for me, but a variation on it may be appropriated.

Routine is something that can be helpful in life. It is that routine that I hope to establish with posting on Thursdays. While I may not be able to keep thinks continuously moving forward on most weekdays, as my education is currently taking my life priority, but I hope that Thursdays can become and anchor point.

The goal is going to be to post about some of the works (fiction, literature, art, etc.) that have had a tremendous impact on my life. Some of these will be from many years ago, while others will be more contemporary. In the long run, I don't know where this will take me, but I expect I won't have a shortage of fodder for my thoughts. In the short run I intend to broach such topics as Chuck, Fullmetal Alchemist, The Thrilling Adventure Hour, Batman: The Animated Series; In the long run I expect I will be able to deal with older influences like The Brave Little Toaster, The Raven, The Tyger, Scamper The Penguin, and others.

I look forward to publishing the first installment a week from now.

Drive Safely

I saw this video earlier today. It had a fair amount of impact.

What would people say if you had just a moment before the consequences of a mistake were completed?

New Year

Just putting this up to get it out of the way:

This is the first blog post of 2014. Now I don't have to worry about doing another first of the year post for a while.

Hopefully I will be able to arrange my schedule (mostly just in my head) in such a way that I can post more regularly. Who knows, maybe it will actually work this time.

So, here's to a new year of potentially grand thoughts published on the internet!