Frozen

Originally Posted By leemac

<<Although not a musical section (obviously), they also put the entire 8-10 minute opening of Dinosaur in front of Toy Story 2's release in 1999. Just like the Circle of Life opening from Lion King. So yes, they did things like that more than once or twice.>>

Boy did I have high hopes for Dinosaur after that opening sequence. Beautiful visuals with Newton-Howard's soaring score (still a favourite of mine). Sadly the story and characterisations were poor.

I worked in the Disney Store during the run-up to TLK in '94 - even listening to Circle of Life every thirty minutes didn't bother me. It still gets me every time whether in the movie or the parks.

 

Originally Posted By leemac

<<I was also surprised by this. >>

Welcome to the millennials - they consume media in every conceivable channel and you need to supply content to satisfy that. Putting musical sequences online won't deter someone from checking out the whole thing. Studios have always been too protective over their content - you need to provide scenes as free content in order to attract movie-goers.

 

Originally Posted By leemac

<<And yet they did everything in their power to make it look like Frozen (and Tangled too, for that matter) wasn't a musical. Because, you know, musicals aren't popular and nobody wants to see one... Disney's marketing people are seriously the worst>>

Musicals don't interest boys, remember?

 

Originally Posted By leemac

<<"Zero to Hero" from Hercules>>

That was a major misstep - it did nothing to convey the story, mood or look of the feature. Circle of Life and Colors of the Wind did a great job of conveying the message about the movie. I've always enjoyed Hercules but the marketing did little to attract a wider audience. They should have followed the Aladdin rulebook in that regard.

 

Originally Posted By leemac

<<But what is Disney to do? With Princess and the Frog, they marketed the thing as a throwback to the princess musical movies from 20 years ago, with teasers that went straight into a Disney princess singing. And all of the later trailers stressed that it was a great big musical. And it barely made 100 million.>>

What is Disney to do? Make a decent movie. PATF is a movie made by committee - it just didn't work for me in just about every aspect. Not Randy's finest musical work either.

 

Originally Posted By FerretAfros

>> Beautiful visuals with Newton-Howard's soaring score (still a favourite of mine)<<

I agree about the score. I really enjoyed his work on both Dinosaur and Atlantis, and really consider the music to be big redeeming factors for both films (though Atlantis has several other good factors too). It's a shame they're both tied to films that just didn't turn out as well as their premise

>>Musicals don't interest boys, remember? <<

Silly me, I had forgotten how completely disinterested I was while watching pretty much every animated film Disney ever made. Thank goodness the marketers know what's going on!

 

Originally Posted By Mickeymouseclub

Disney has just released their official HD Animation release of Let It Go in 25 languages on You Tube...
Frozen Snowballs into a World-wide Avalanche that can't be stopped!!!

 

Originally Posted By Mickeymouseclub

I took my 5 year old granddaughter to see it over the weekend We originally saw it Thanksgiving Day together so she kept reminding me that she had already seen it. (So what this is my 4th time)... Afterwards I noticed she was singing Let it Go all weekend long and kept telling me to just let it go and that her kindergarten friends play Elsa and Anna during recess....

I was just in the Disney Store at our local mall and the recent remodel includes a touch screen giving me the choice to select the music and video on the store wide screen...Guess what all the shoppers were choosing to watch !

 

Originally Posted By mele

<<At this point, anybody who complains about the marketing of Frozen is being ninth-circle-of-silly. The success of a marketing campaign is measured by the success of that which is being marketed. BY DEFINITION, the marketing of Frozen was flawless, whether you or I liked it or not.>>

Considering that quite a lot of people have stated that the trailer made them NOT want to see the movie (not that they were bored but were actively turned off by the trailer), it still deserves discussion. Yes, the people responsible for the campaign will probably get credit for the success of the film but if the standard refrain is "the marketing was horrible", then it at least merits some discussion on a Disney-themed message board.

I'm surprised at how many people in my own circle have mentioned how much they hated the trailer so much that they had no intention of seeing the film. Once they heard the great word of mouth, they saw the film and adored it. So, yeah, who ever did the marketing lucked out this time.

 

Originally Posted By Mickeymouseclub

I think the exact opposite is true. I think the marketing was brilliant in the aftermath. I admit to being very outspoken that I would never like Olaf never ever!!
Now I realize that I have learned a very valuable lesson about First Impressions. Something I have been lectured about all my life but Disney finally got the true meaning into my brain.
I dare not criticize Avatarland....or the 7 Dwarfs MineTrain anymore!
Anyway thank you Disney for making this a learning lesson for all age groups.

 

Originally Posted By Dabob2

I'd have to agree with that. The trailer left me cold (see what I did there?!) and I wasn't going to see it in the theatre either. There was a time when I'd see ANY WDAS or Pixar film in the theatre but not so with Cars 2 or Brave or PATF or Tangled (even though I heard all but Cars2 had at least something to recommend them). In fact, I was downright getting OUT of the habit of seeing them first-run.

But the word of mouth made me go to Frozen. It was word of mouth and ONLY word of mouth.

 

Originally Posted By Dabob2

331 for 329.

 

Originally Posted By TheRedhead

"Considering that quite a lot of people have stated that the trailer made them NOT want to see the movie (not that they were bored but were actively turned off by the trailer), it still deserves discussion"

Yes, quite a lot of people here said that after seeing Frozen's trailer. And Tangled's trailer. And just about every Pixar trailer.

I smell a trend - people on a Disney website who are most likely going to see the movie anyway saying that the trailer left them cold. The trailer was not meant to woo us. Because we are already wooed.

I'm not a fan of the marketing. The Olaf trailer felt too much like Ice Age. But it's the job of the marketers to get people in the seats that opening weekend. And they did. In spades. I just have to remind myself that sometimes I am not their target.

 

Originally Posted By leemac

<<But it's the job of the marketers to get people in the seats that opening weekend. And they did. In spades. I just have to remind myself that sometimes I am not their target.>>

It is always difficult to quantify the impact of marketing campaigns. I still think that the marketing was third in terms of priority ahead of:

1) Stellar reviews
2) Lack of family competition

Frozen has had absolutely no competition since it was released - nine weeks with only two family-friendly releases - Walking with Dinosaurs (minimal marketing and dire reviews) and The Nut Job (when Frozen was already 8 weeks in).

 

Originally Posted By RoadTrip

As I said previously, I never use a trailer to determine whether or not I will see a movie. By their nature they are too short and limited to give you a good idea of what the movie is really like. Especially when it comes to animation.

<<And they did. In spades. I just have to remind myself that sometimes I am not their target.>>

THIS!!

I always remember that animation trailers are often geared to kids, knowing that if they can get the kids begging to see the film they will drag their parents along with them to see it.

 

Originally Posted By TheRedhead

"1) Stellar reviews"

But family films don't live or die by reviews. Frozen had a huge first Friday. Were kids clamoring to go that day because of reviews or because of the insidiousness of the Disney Channel campaigns? And they were insidious.

"2) Lack of family competition"

I agree that it's long-term success was a combo of its overall goodness and the void of other family films. But I think it's also worth pointing out that Frozen was about the 10th animated film of the year. And yet people weren't burnt out by the idea of seeing Yet Another 3-D Cartoon.

I know I may be giving marketears too much credit, but I've started to think that the trailers are terrible because America likes to see things that are terrible. It seems to be working.

 

Originally Posted By mele

No, I've talked to people (and I, myself felt this way) that I actively was against seeing the movie. During the preview, I looked at my husband and rolled my eyes in annoyance. And the people I've spoken to felt the same way, not BORED or indifferent but outright annoyed and making mental notes to absolutely NOT see this movie. That's quite a difference.

My 20 year old niece told me over Xmas that she thought the snowman was annoying and that she and her friends had talked about that fact and that there was no way they wanted to go. 20 year old college students are not the target audience and the ads turned them away. (BTW, we convinced her to go and she loved it.)

I've just seen so many different comments online and from coworkers/family/friends about how actively annoyed they were by the trailer and that there was no way they wanted to sit through a movie like that.

 

Originally Posted By andyll

The avalanche continues...

‘Frozen’ Sing-Along Edition Debuts in Theaters January 31

<a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.stitchkingdom.com/disney-frozen-sing-along-68692/">http://www.stitchkingdom.com/d...g-68692/</a>

 

Originally Posted By mele

I will also say that Frozen's trailer is different from the other movies in that it featured a scene that wasn't in the movie and only showed two very minor characters. It did give a false impression (that was awful to a lot of people) of what the movie was.

It's just frustrating and it doesn't make me think that I need to give more movies a shot (as if the promoters were going for some sort of 'don't judge a book by it's cover BS)...it makes me less likely to care at all. And making me LESS likely than I already am is really something.

 

Originally Posted By TheRedhead

"I looked at my husband and rolled my eyes in annoyance."

But you still saw it right?

I had the same reaction, right down to the in-theater spousal eye roll. And I too heard of smilar eye rolling from people who don't post on Disney sites.

But my only point is that clearly this was NOT the reaction MOST people had, considering it had a huge opening weekend. If it had a small opening and then had an amazing turnaround and went on to make a jillion dollars I would argue that it overcame a poor marketing campaign. But it opened huge before people knew they'd like it. That's what successful marketing is.