Why Do We Love ‘Frozen’ So Much?
Let’s talk about Frozen. The recent Disney release, which is still in theaters, has received rave reviews since its opening in November of last year and has made more than $980 million in box offices worldwide. While animated movies are usually geared towards kids, even adults can’t stop talking about it. As someone who actually hasn’t seen it yet, I wondered what all the hype was about. So I set out on a mission to see why people love Frozen so much.
My curiosity first began this Christmas season when I asked my little cousin about one of her favorite toys from Santa, a plush talking snowman. I felt so out of the loop not knowing that this wasn’t just any snowman, but Olaf, the comedic hero of Frozen. Duh. Those kinds of moments make me feel old. I find the only way to combat the panic-inducing feeling is to embrace the unknown and do what the kids are doing… you know, as long as it’s not something completely reckless, like bath salts.
There has been nothing but praise for Frozen since its release. It received an Oscar nominations in the Best Original Song category for ‘Let It Go’ and was nominated for Best Animated Feature. First off, that song is SO. GOOD. It was really my starting point into understanding the Frozen hype and from my “research” (aka listening to it more times than I’d like to admit on Spotify), it’s definitely a gateway to #obsession. Based on my personal experience, you start with listening to the Demi Lovato and Idina Menzel versions. You intend to listen to each once, but soon enough, you don’t care how many of your Facebook friends are going to see the number of listens posted to your news feed and then it gets worse. You remember YouTube, as if you could really forget, and all of a sudden you’re traveling down a wormhole of covers by a children’s choir, by sisters, this guy and this lady in her house. Then you start listening to a cover in Spanish because ‘Libre Soy’ still sounds just good as ‘Let it Go’. And even though you should probably stop, you round it off with one more and it pays off because you find the best version of the song yet.
Or something along those lines.
Sorry if that felt like a departure from the point of this post, but sometimes you have to figure out if you like the music from a movie first, and I think I successfully figured out that people do. Including me, but I still didn’t go see it. Mostly because a movie that, from light reading, seemed to be entirely about an eternal kingdom of ice wasn’t completely appealing to someone like me, who’s from Chicago and has experienced the Polar Vortex a total of three times now. I felt like I was already living the plot of Frozen without the added Disney whimsy and with more wondering how long it would take for me to feel my face after being outside for 10 minutes. So I put it off.
It’s now been months since Frozen opened and people are STILL talking about it. I heard of a woman who took her kids to see it 15 times. 15 TIMES!!! That was really hard for me to relate to, mostly just financially speaking, but I figured I’d read some reviews to try and further figure out why people are so into the movie.
Here are some of the highlights :
Very serious description of a Disney movie!
Simple yet compelling.
Seems too good to be true?
You know, regardless of whether I had seen this movie or not, the world continued to see it and I think it’s clear that Disney finally got it right. They’ve got a great plot, which is based on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen, and have incorporated fabulous music to accompany a visually stunning film. I couldn’t continue to ignore it. So, I timed it perfectly. Just as I was finishing writing this post AND starting to get a horrible cold, Disney goes ahead and gives me a gift: the Disney Movies Anywhere app. So I watched Frozen. What did I think? I really can’t even explain, but I loved it SNOW very much.
If you still haven’t seen it, I would love for you to share your thoughts and feelings… If not, watch it before the Oscars® this Sunday!
