Several days ago, my princesses and I went to see the latest in a very long line of Disney princess movies. Frozen, based on Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, The Snow Queen. Given Disney's penchant for modifying fairy tales (i.e. The Little Mermaid does not become sea foam!), I am presuming that this tale may look nothing like the original story.
Liberal artistic license aside, the movie is cute...and just what you'd expect from Disney. There are sweet songs, pretty princesses, handsome men, a love story (sorry, if I'm spoiling anything for you...she wrote sarcastically!) and a few animated animals...or normally inanimate objects...that provide ample comic relief. My sarcasm is not meant to deride Disney or the movie. They have a formula that works and they obviously like to stick with it.
Broadway voices galore abound throughout the film and Idina Menzel has the only show-stopping song of the movie. Why Disney thought they needed Demi Lavoto to cover the song on the soundtrack is beyond me. I would guess it was contracted and recorded before Lavoto's fall from Disney-graces. Menzel is voice enough and turns in a fabulous acting and singing vocal performance as Elsa.
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We all enjoyed the movie and Abbey observed that if it's Disney and it's a princess movie, she is just going to love it, no matter what. As I said, Disney has a "formula" that works...but my one teensy-weensy critical observation is this: They go to great pains in the first song to set the presumably "Icelandic" or Nordic feel to the movie. (Think Gregorian chant or Russian folk song with deep male vocals and you've got it) But then the rest of the music, to my ears, brought in nothing more of the culture or time period. In fact, some of the music was far too "pop" and at times seemed out of place for the story they were telling.
In movies like The Princess and the Frog, set in New Orleans, Disney aptly provided a score of Cajun and jazz music. If there is no "themed" music, Disney has tended to fall back on a score consisting of Broadway musical-type songs (like Menzel's previously mentioned "Let it Go"). All of this to say, I could have done without the pop music and would have preferred they stick with one theme for the duration of the film. Oddly enough, I mentioned this to a friend and she quickly pulled up a Facebook post from Jon Acuff which indicates he evidently didn't care for the Nordic style of music. Many people commented and concurred. I won't get into a discussion of the merit of why most people should broaden their musical taste here. I would simply come off sounding pompous and arrogant...which are traits I struggle with anyway. Suffice it to say, at least Disney gave us a sampling of what the authentic culture would sound like, yet they are well aware of the limit to which they can carry this with their typical audience.
This all comes back to what I will reiterate one more time and perfectly summarizes this entire review: Disney has a formula that works...and they are not afraid to stick with it.
While I am still in love with the soundtrack all these months later, I have to agree that teasing us with Vuelie and Heimr Àrnadalr was just cruel when contrasted sharply with Broadway Disney. There are only a couple genres of music that I refuse to listen too, and "ethnic Nordic" and Broadway are NOT on that list.
ReplyDeleteAgain, I love the soundtrack, but agree that with a theme, the entire film could have had more umph.