Posts Tagged ‘Frozen’

Frozen Singalong II

Tuesday, January 6th, 2015

The new Frozen-themed attractions in Disney California Adventure have proved to be even more popular than park management anticipated. Said one person who claims to share sandwiches with park management, “It’s cool how hot they are! (Get it? Cool? Hot?)”

The Frozen singalong performance in the former Muppetvision 3D theater is having trouble meeting demand, so the resort will be opening a second Frozen singalong, this time in Disneyland. “Walt Disney’s Frozen Tiki Room” will begin performances in March, after a month-long refurbishment to upgrade and reprogram the TIki Room’s inhabitants. Changes will include replacing many birds with penguins and puffins, adding frostbite to the plants, reworking the totem polls to resemble the film’s Marshmallow character, replacing the tiki gods with animatronic Olafs, and changing the climactic rainstorm into a snowstorm.

The show’s music will also (obviously) be changed. For example, at the start of the show:

Olaf! Olaf! Its showtime!

In the frozen, frozen, frozen, frozen tiki room,
In the frozen, frozen, frozen, frozen tiki room,
All the birds wear coats and snowmen croon,
In the frozen, frozen, frozen, frozen tiki room.

Welcome to a movie-themed overlay, you lucky people, you.
Our home in Arendelle go the chills today,
So we flew south to be with you.

After much shenanigans and banter, guests will be introduced to the ice-carved Birdmobile and asked to sing along with a new tune, “Do You Want To Find Rosita?” It begins:

Hey what happened to Rosita?
I hope that she’s okay.
She isn’t on the Birdmobile
And now I feel
She might have flown away.

She used to sing so pretty
And now she’s gone.
Was it something that I squawked?

Hey what happened to Rosita?
(At least I think her name’s Rosita.)

The traditional singing of “Heigh Ho” as guests leave the attraction is replaced (of course) by Frozen’s signature song, “Let It Go.” The modified tune ends like this:

Let it snow, let it snow,
While you all leave us in a lurch.
Let it snow, let it snow,
I’m frozen to my perch.
We all sing
In the Tiki way.
What else rhymes with “perch?”

I don’t know so get up and go away.

Letting go — again!

Monday, December 29th, 2014

As 2014 draws to a close, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (TAMPAS) has dropped a huge happiness bomb on fans of Disney animation. Said someone who spoke to us under the condition that they be referred to only as Oscar:

In recognition of its massive impact on society, culture, and merchandise sales, the Academy has decided that, even though Walt Disney Pictures released Frozen in 2013, the film will again be eligible to receive the Academy “Oscar” Award for Best Picture, Best Animated Feature, Best Original Song, and Best Costumes for 2014.

This is not in any way intended as an insult to Mr. Peabody & Sherman, VeggieTales: Celery Night Fever, Big Lego 6 (or whatever it was called) or any other animated features that were released in 2014. It is simply an admission that none of those features has been able to displace Frozen at the forefront of our animated enjoyment.

So there you have it! Could Frozen be the first movie to ever with back-to-back Academy Awards? Can we, perhaps, dream of a “threepeat” for 2015? So long as you keep purchasing merchandise and allowing your children to alternate singing “Let It Go” and asking if you want to build something in the snow, anything can happen!

A secret message from Disney?

Saturday, December 6th, 2014

Sometimes coincidences happen, but when a corporation as control-oriented as Disney is involved, true coincidences are few and far between. With that in mind, consider these facts:

  • Disneyland’s 60th anniversary is quickly approaching.
  • Yesterday was Walt Disney’s birthday.
  • Yesterday, Disneyland made a number announcements related to things that are “frozen” coming to the park.

Clearly they are hinting at something, and I’m sure all the true Disneyland fans out there can guess what it is.

Now if you’ll excuse us, we have to go out and corner the market on “Welcome Back Walt!” t-shirts.

Latest Disney news

Tuesday, September 2nd, 2014

Too many Disney news stories today to keep track of! Some highlights for those of you who don’t have time for actual news sources:

  • There’s a new Frozen short film coming! In “Frozen Fever,” Anna catches a cold from building a snowman with her sister and, in a state of fevered delirium, leaves Kristoff for Olaf.
  • A few days ago, Disney fan Brent Dodge set a record by visiting every attraction at every park in Walt Disney World every day for 365 days. Said Dodge, “I’m tired.” Several groups are protesting his record, contending that he cheated by not seeing all shows and parades and deliberately not counting attractions that were closed for refurbishment.
  • Disney has officially announced a trademark lawsuit against mouse-themed music creator Deadmau5 over his use of a logo that looks suspiciously like the famous Disney Mickey Mouse silhouette a fraction of a second after a stick of dynamite exploded in Mickey’s mouth. Deadmau5 responded to Disney’s lengthy legal complaint by cutting it into bits and mixing it with a complaint of his own creation so that it was easier to dance to.

Frozen sequel announced

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2014

Disney has officially announced a sequel to Frozen, it’s animated musical about a pair of princesses who have to work together to learn about the true meaning of love, sisterhood, and global box-office records.

We do not have full details at this time, but our unreliable sources have determined that the plot of the film will be something along these lines:

A few years after the events depicted in the first film, Elsa has completely mastered her power over the cold. Her sister Anna, on the other hand, has discovered that she too has magical powers, but her ability to control fire and heat lay dormant until her traumatizing near death.

Anna and Elsa remain close, but decide to divide the kingdom in half, with one half in eternal winter and the other in an endless summer. All of this will be explained in a pair of songs, “The Snow Princess Song” and “The Heat Princess Song.”

Conflict arises when it is learned that Santa Claus has a cold and has decided that he is going to skip Christmas this year because nobody really cares about him. Mrs. Claus and the elves — due to a series of complicated circumstances — can only save Christmas if they can convince Anna to allow Elsa to make it snow for one day in the sunny part of Arendelle (which she’d rather not do).

The situation is resolved through the intervention of Mother Nature (voiced by Dena Dietrich).

Frozen Assets

Monday, January 27th, 2014

Over the last weekend, the total global box office receipts for Frozen passed $800 million, which means that if the movie were a nation its annual GDP would exceed that of 91% of the world’s countries, putting it in 17th place, right above Turkey (and with its eye on Indonesia).

All of this attention has rumors swirling about the possibility of a Frozen attraction appearing at one or more of Disney’s theme parks. According to a portion of commenters on the Official Unofficial LEGOLand Fanblog Discussion Forum’s “Other” subsection, Disney may be planning a reskinning of the Epcot’s Norway Pavilion’s Maelstrom attraction. The overlay would be fairly simple — little more than redecorating a few trolls as princesses and snowmen and installing equipment to freeze all the water — but might cause more problems than it solves. “The little movie shown after the attraction would just be that much more confusingly contextless,” said a person clutching a tiny Norway flag on a stick and looking at it wistfully. “There are already too many people who either walk on out without seeing it or emerge from the theater with a glazed look in their eyes. Also, the country of Norway sponsors the pavilion and we don’t want to upset them — particularly when their military power is almost equal to that of Disney.”

A far more appetizing option (with not apologies for the pun) would be to convert the Akershus (gesundheit) princess breakfast into an exclusively Frozen themed one. This would be another easy change, necessitating only turning down the thermostat a tad more, swapping in two new princesses, and replacing the current smorgasbord with a selection of frozen foods. “I would welcome the change,” said Arial, one of the princesses often found in the current breakfast. “I wouldn’t mind being transferred to another part of one of the parks — preferably one without such an emphasis on eating fish.”

Edison Square: “Ice Ice Lady”

Friday, December 6th, 2013

I know it’s a last-minute notice, but at tonight’s show in Anaheim Edison Square is going to premiere their new song — a tribute to Frozen! Lyrics follow so you can sing along:

“Ice Ice Lady”
(Apologies to Vanilla Ice)

Yo, gloves off
Let’s kick it!

Ice ice baby, ice ice baby
Story starts, something you oughta know, man,
Sister Anna wants to build a snow man.
Sister Ella just keeps her door closed,
With their parents being total no-shows.
Is she coming out? Yo — she won’t say,
Not ’till coronation day.
That’s when they finally let the castle gates open,
But the party doesn’t go like Anna’s hopin’.

Dance, with just one guy at the ball,
A model of a modern major general.
Problem, Ella gets in a major snit,
Blows her cool like a fool an’ she starts freezing shit.
Can’t understand it, why she ran away,
The queen may be a monster, that’s what they say.
The fjord’s frozen over, winter caused it,
Ella and Anna should talk and resolve it.

Ice ice lady
The queen’s an ice ice lady
Covered in ice ice baby
That wasn’t nice nice lady
The queen is.

Now that the summer is slumpin’,
All the snow falls down and the icecicles jumpin’.
Out in the wild Ella’s made a castle,
From solid ice, it’s a major hassle.
Hiding there because she needs no man,
Although she made a sun-loving snow man.
By now Ella’s teamed up with an ice man,
Kristoff who talks for his pal reindeer, Sven.
Race on his sled through the snow,
‘Cause the wolves will get them if they’re too slow.
They get to El’s place, she ices their face,
Did they stop? No – they’re on the case.
Anna got an ice pop on her heart,
She needs some major love or the thing just won’t start
And she’ll drop dead.
Yo – so they hoofed it all the way back to Arendelle.
The whole place was still all frozen over,
Ella needed a kiss from her lover.
Hans is the guy who’s running the town,
Says he loves Anna but he just wants the crown.
He is glad just to let her die,
If it weren’t frozen up he’d go to Hell and fry.
Anna had to leave him cold,
And find true love like a story of old.
Kristoff came running flat-out fast,
Worked up like a prince from the past.
Hans has a sword ’cause he’s still not dead,
Messing with Ella so he can cut off her head.
Anna’s on the scene, her fiancé’s mean,
She stopped his sword ’cause that’s what sister love means.
If ice was a problem, Yo, she solved it
Too bad her heart left her body froze solid.

Ice ice lady
Anna’s an ice ice lady
Body of ice ice baby
That isn’t nice nice lady
So frozen.

Chill out, I’m not a gothical poet,
Everything turns out fine just in case you didn’t know it.
Their town, that had turned into an ice tomb,
Got sunnied up and avoided its doom.
‘Cause the spell was broke by Anna’s deed,
Proving that sister love is all that you need.
You don’t need a prince, this is a hell of a concept
They found a cure without a true love’s kiss.
Kristoff turned out fine, he got a new sleigh,
Olaf gets his own cloud so he won’t melt but he looks dumb;
And Hans doesn’t die ’cause there’s nothing to fall from.
Ella’s composed and the townfolk love her,
Because they know their queen is one cool mother.
The end of the story, Yo – that does it.
I wonder if H.C.A.’d even know it.

Ice ice city
Town turned to ice ice baby
By the nice ice ice lady
You now that nice ice snowman
Chill Olaf

Yo, man, let’s skate out of here. Word to Grandma in Narnia.

Liefacts: Frozen

Wednesday, December 4th, 2013
  • The movie is based on the Hans Christian Andersen tale “The Snow Queen.” It sticks pretty closely to the original story, aside from the characters, plot, and lack of religious overtones.
  • This is the first Disney animated feature to include three princesses as main characters — Anna, Ella (who becomes queen), and the secret surprise princess seen briefly after the credits.
  • With the release of Frozen, Disney is one step closer to having an animated feature to represent each of the countries in Epcot’s World Showcase. The Emperor’s New Groove, Mulan, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Pocahontas, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, The Great Mouse Detective, and Brother Bear cover all but Japan, and that will be taken care of when Big Hero 6 is released next year. After that, the company will concentrate on making features themed to the various areas of Future World.
  • The film had a short production schedule, so instead of going to Norway to study the environment, animators were sealed in a commercial meat locker over a weekend.
  • A live reindeer was brought into the animation studio to help with the development of Sven’s dialogue.
  • Over the years, Disney has tried many times to bring an adaptation of “The Snow Queen” to the screen, but the movie kept being derailed during the character-design process. A breakthrough came when John Lasseter suggested that if they stopped making character maquettes out of ice, they might not keep melting away before more progress could be made.
  • The title was cut from The Snow Queen to Frozen because the film was running too long.
  • Frozen is Disney’s first computer-animated feature since last year’s Wreck-It Ralph.

“Let Fireworks Go”

Sunday, December 1st, 2013

Disney’s Frozen — the first Disney animated feature to double-down on the princess concept — opened over the Thanksgiving weekend. In just five days, the film grossed more than $93 million, which, according to experts who have degrees and everything, is more than any other Disney animated film grossed this weekend.

Disney is particularly pleased with these numbers because of Frozen’s relatively low cost. “Frozen had a relatively low cost,” said an official-looking person in a blazer, “in part because one of the main secondary characters doesn’t talk (so we didn’t have to hire a voice actor), and in part because ice is so cheap to animate. You don’t have to hire many colorists in a film that’s all white.”

Disney also saved money on the soundtrack. According to the same disreputable source, “We were able to save a ton of money on song writing by just re-using existing music. For example, the main song in the film, “Let It Go,” is just Katy Perry’s “Firework” with some word changes. And before you ask, it’s not stealing — it’s recycling.”

If you’re a music historian, Disney music fan, or compulsive audiophiliac, here’s a sample for comparison: