Of Swords and Parasols

So, I went to see Frozen with family today and liked it. Before I say anything about it, though, let me rant a bit:

Before the movie started, we had to sit through FORTY MINUTES of previews and commercials. Well, about 30 minutes of previews and commercials, and then 10 minutes of a short Mickey Mouse movie that was very "tee hee extreme cartoon violence is so funny." One of the first commercials was some phone commercial that started with a naked man waking up in a morgue. You see pretty much everything but the money shot. Given that this was a children's movie on Saturday morning and so almost everyone in the audience was either a child or an adult accompanying a child, there was a collective gasp and you could hear kids complaining because their parents had instinctively covered their eyes.

Anyway, FORTY MINUTES. I literally could have watched almost half the movie in the timeframe that I was waiting for it to start. (Kids in the audience were also more vocal, eventually moaning and going "Not again!" every time they realized something other than the movie was starting.

Anyway, the movie.

It has even less to do with the fairy tale than trailers and descriptions would imply, which is something of an accomplishment. It was actually to the point where I wonder if they came up with the plot independently, then added a few elements of a decently well known fairy tale so that they could tie it in to their fairy tale princess movies.

That said, it actually is, IMO, a good plot and movie on its own. Despite what the trailers would have you believe, it's very very much about the sisters, Anna and Elsa, and their relationship, and doesn't think the audience is going to find a female lead on a quest to be shocking or unusual. And unlike, say, Brave, there was never a point where I thought the writers felt they needed to apologize for having female leads and making the men secondary. (Listen, I like Brave, but it was like every few minutes they went "Wait, people's attention might start to wander. TIME FOR A SCENE OF MEN DOING MEN STUFF." The few scenes here that didn't have Anna and/or Elsa in them had the characters in the scene talking about one or both of them.

The art direction and special effects are also stunning, and the characters look considerably less derivative of other Disney movies than the trailer and stills would imply. Also, this is one of the few animated movies I've seen where the animators realize that people who freckle tend to get freckles anywhere on their body that's exposed to the sun, not just a few spots on their faces. Well, without the freckles being used to make the character be less attractive, or emphasize their cartoonishness, at least.

The movie also does a good job of subverting "true love means romantic love" and poking at previous Disney movies tendencies towards insta-true love, though it's somewhat heavy handed about both.

There's been some discussion of appropriative elements in the movie, and while I haven't really had a chance to look into them, but it's Disney, so I have no doubt that it's warranted.


( spoilers )

 1.  Barbara Mertz, AKA Elizabeth Peters, AKA Barbara Michaels, has passed away at the age of 85.  She published 38 books under the name of Elizabeth Peters, 29 books under the name of Barbara Michaels, and 3 non-fiction books on Egyptology under her real name.  While I haven't read many of her Barbara Michaels books and none of her non-fiction (I intend to change both, but keep getting distracted) and the attitudes of when the earlier Peters books  were written tend to be obvious in the most cringeworthy way at times, her mysteries were a big part of my life in terms to fictional consumption and expectations for female leads in mysteries in my late teens, and Amelia Peabody is and always will be one of my favorite literary characters.  

2.  Male comic creators are being douches about women in comics (and POC, because representation is just tokenism*, but this article focuses on their comments about women).  News at 11.  I read a longer article yesterday about Mark Millar's dismissing the use of rape in fiction as being problematic by claiming it's just a good way to show villainy, but the comments were pretty much defending rape culture and shaming the objection to the casual use of rape in fiction, and I just never want to see the panels used for examples again.

3.  Related, it is explained how Jerry Conway is Very Very Wrong On The Internet (and at life) by claiming that Joan of Arc is the only female knight in history.  I do wish she'd also taken Eastern history and literature into account, though, because there's a whole lot more there.

4.  I'm finishing up a rewatch of The 10th Kingdom, and 13 years later, it's as delightful as ever, despite the fact that the trolls get even more annoying every time I watch it.  The opening credits are also still pretty impressive, despite how far CGI has come.

5.  I've tracked down a 1986 Finnish adaptation of The Snow Queen and a 1966 Russian one (both movies.)  Has anyone seen these?



*And it pains me so much that a panelist at WisCon said this in response to an audience member rattling off a list of shows with major female characters-mostly lead characters-between the ages of 35-50~, in response to claims that they didn't exist.