My Experience with Frozen

I came into Frozen with a cold heart(I'm a blogger!).

I find myself in this weird world where Disney is not making any hand animated features, and Pixar is endlessly putting out horrible sequels to my least liked Pixar movies.  I don't like this world.  The thing is... the Disney Studio's recent CGI movies are trumping Pixar.  Wreck-it-Ralph overcame my skepticism early with its first trail.  It has a hand up when it comes to me because its based on video games, and thankfully it was created by people who actually loved video games(of all eras).  Wreck-it-Ralph was amazing in all categories.  Frozen, I wanted to hate Frozen.

Frozen had no excuse to me as to why it was CGI and not hand animated.  It was a Disney princess tale, not a movie about computer created characters.  I disliked Tangled, which I thought would have been better animated by hand.   I started picking Frozen apart early, starting with the fact that it was in development hell for years.  Then I saw the advertisements.  It was so "formula" based it solidified my want to hate it.  The snowman thing looked horrible, sounded horrible, and seemed unneeded.  It was like it was an afterthought, but hey, they chose to use it as a huge advertising focus.  Then there was the whole "dumb guy, smart princess" thing that was funny when it was first done, but now probably 1/2 of Disney movies use this dynamic... oh and 100% of today's sitcoms.  It also looked so damn much like Tangled.

Then I watched it.  I said to myself "you know what, even if its a crap story, and annoying characters, I will be in a theater, and I'm virtually guaranteed to see some amazing landscapes.  Early on I really liked that the two Princesses were not enemies.  This was a movie made for sisters to watch together.  It is a dynamic not explored in Disney before.  Then they also had some hard political intrigue.  I'm not talking "oh no the guy from the other nation doesn't like things", I mean they had economic manipulation and diplomatic position shifting.  Another bonus for me.  The stupid animated snowman never redeemed himself.  I took the opportunity of his song sequence to go take a piss.

I think it turned around for me during the amazing landscape sequence I was waiting for, because the song was amazing.  The song sequence "Let it Go" is easily the highlight of the entire movie for me.  I got the incredible visuals I was expecting, and a pretty good song I was not.  Disney has not had a super strong song in a feature for many years, especially not one that people would go out and buy a soundtrack for.  I just wish the rest of the songs were catchy like in the early 90's movies, but these days 1 good one is good enough.

Good enough for an Oscar.  Idina did an amazing job on the Oscars right before they announced that Frozen had won for best original song.  Even during the Oscar performance, I was like "this is a very powerful song".  I can even overlook the incessant need for people to put a "let's talk in the song like Pink" part at the very end.  Its the very end, I can get over it.  Then the pair that came up to accept the Oscar were like the most bubbly and funny pair I'd seen at the Oscars all night.  They also looked like normal, every day people among a sea of plastic and paint.  I was very happy for them.

I'd own Frozen.  A rare sentiment for a Disney/Pixar movie in the past decade.

The Relationship of Miyazaki and Disney

Many people of my generation would point to John Lasseter being the great "Walt Disney" of our times, and its understandable to do so.  To his credit though, John Lasseter has repeatedly pointed to his own personal hero to claim that mantle:  Hayao Miyazaki.  

Miyazaki is an animator and illustrator from Japan that has taken the Japanese, and now American audience, to fantastic places for over 40 years.  His films are national treasures in Japan, to the point that factories shut down when they are released because so many would schedule their days off during them.  Miyazaki is the head of Studio Ghibli, which do other movies aside from his own, which are each wonderful in their own ways as well.  It is an extensive catalogue.

This catalog was to be bought by Disney in the late 90's.  Many thought that this would mean we would get great versions of them brought to our shores.  In video games, the Japanese games were at their height.  On television the Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon craze was in their zeniths as well.  That fact such a large company bought the rights to Ghibli distribution should have been a cause for celebration.  Unfortunately the lead of the studio saw Ghibli as a competitor.  They were afraid these wonderful movies would detract from whatever half assed direct to DVD sequel they were pumping out that week with horrible quality animation, and shoddy voice acting.  The catalog was bought for one reason: to bury it so that western audiences would never see it.

This is where John Lasseter came in.  Disney was feeling the pinch of their horrible decisions around the turn of the millenium.  Their biggest hits were done by Pixar, a studio that was not yet part of Disney.  John Lasseter wrote into the contract that he would in charge of Studio Ghibli's western distribution, and since Disney needed Pixar, they consented.

Many times since, we have been getting good quality transfers of Ghibli films, and Oscars have either gone to Lasseter's Pixar stuff or Miyazaki's Ghibli movies.  While Lasseter does not make the movies himself, you can see why and how Miyazaki has influenced the kinds of things Pixar green lights.  From Up to Wall-E, you get that warmth and quirky charm.  While the earlier stuff is niche still, and largely unknown, the stuff released since Lasseter got in charge of it, are known and loved by critics and movie audiences a like.

Ghibli movies are spectacles.  You are guaranteed to be transported to a place you never imagined.  To places that are not yet stereotypical here in America, and treated to stories that are heart warming, quirky, and less about princesses in castles rescued by the quarterback. 

This is the end to my post about Miyazaki and his relationship with Disney, but it surely will not be my last post about Ghibili.  I have watched almost all his movies, and the movies of Ghibli not done by him, several times each.  I should do reviews and try and get others to watch them as well.