Frozen

Originally Posted By CuriousConstance

"I have an irrational desire to see Frozen surpass DM2 at the box office."

I've had the same desire since I saw Frozen and saw how good it was. DM2 doesn't deserve to call itself the #1 Family Movie of 2013! 30 million doesn't seem like a lot to make up, especially if it made 18M last week. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

 

Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA

Just saw it last night with 19 year old daughter (wife is in rehearsal for 'Shrek: the Musical' at our local community theater) Maybe it's all the hype, but we were both under-whelmed.

Recognize that wife, daughter and I are well-versed in musicals -- we generally like them. We have also spent many years performing in musical theatre and so forth.

We also have a long history with the Disney Animated Features -- overall we like them!

That said, 'Frozen' left us bit cold -- yeah I know. It certainly is a beautiful movie. Character design is very, very good, and the musical numbers were just okay. Not terrible like 'Home on the Range' just sort of 'eh'

I'm delighted that it's getting so much attention and that people are enjoying it.

 

Originally Posted By andyll

>>I have an irrational desire to see Frozen surpass DM2 at the box office.<<

It will easily beat DM2 domestically. It only had a 20% drop last weekend even though Nut Job opened up better then many expected.

Tangled made ~18 million after this point and Frozen has consistently been doing 3 x Tangled numbers.

Continuing its current pace compared to Tangled would put it topping out in the high 380s.

Frozen is only losing 222 theaters this weekend (2750) and the sing along will keep it there and maybe bump it back up to around 3000 that weekend.

DM2 got off to a huge start but Frozen has been closing the gap quickly. Here's a couple of charts showing the comparison between the two:

<a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://forums.boxoffice.com/index.php?/topic/2717-disneys-frozen-passed-the-300m-will-despicable-me-2-go-down-frozen-2/page-213#entry1229733">http://forums.boxoffice.com/in...y1229733</a>

 

Originally Posted By CuriousConstance

Do you kiss your mother with that filthy mouth, Jim?!

 

Originally Posted By CuriousConstance

I asked my kids if they will have an interest in going to the sing a long, if they have that near us, and my 6 year old son said, "No, why do I want to hear all the dumb people in the movie theater (which he pronounces movie Fater) sing? Then I can't hear Elsa's beautiful voice."

He's planning their wedding and what they will name their kids. I'm not kidding.

 

Originally Posted By leemac

<<It will easily beat DM2 domestically. It only had a 20% drop last weekend even though Nut Job opened up better then many expected.>>

Last weekend was an anomaly as it was MLK weekend. Tracking has it down over 50% this week - The Nut Job should do $10-12m.

So I'm not convinced by "easily" - $30m is still a lot to do but I guess you never really know.

Next weekend is going to be a bloodbath if the Super Bowl is still uncertain. Still can't believe it could be any day from Friday to Monday!

 

Originally Posted By leemac

<<the musical numbers were just okay.>>

It does seem that Bobby and Kristen's work tends to polarise folks.

<<wife is in rehearsal for 'Shrek: the Musical' at our local community theater>>

Pass on my condolences - truly awful musical - mess of a book and abysmal music.

 

Originally Posted By utahjosh

Shrek the Musical isn't all bad. I enjoyed a few of the songs, like "What I'd Be" and "I Know It's Today."

 

Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA

<<wife is in rehearsal for 'Shrek: the Musical' at our local community theater>>

<Pass on my condolences - truly awful musical - mess of a book and abysmal music.>

Ha! Not one of my favorites to be sure. That said, she gets to play Mama Shrek, The Fairy Godmother and The Dragon -- so she has that fun 'Dreamgirls' song.

 

Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA

<<the musical numbers were just okay.>>

It does seem that Bobby and Kristen's work tends to polarise folks.>

Yeah. I like 'Avenue Q' and 'Book of Mormon' - in 'Frozen' it was much of the time the lyrics -- in the opening number with all the men 'we cut the ice / we pack the ice / we work real hard" (I'm paraphrasing). But they were a bit on the nose.

Compared to the opening of 'Les Mis' with all the prisoners 'Look down, look down, don't look 'em in the eye' -- a bit more sophisticated. And I'm not a 'Les Mis' foamer by any means.

Daughter pointed out the word 'totally' was used many times in one song. And she loves 'Tangled' so go figure.

Favorite line: 'I don't have a skull. I don't even have bones"

 

Originally Posted By FerretAfros

>>...in 'Frozen' it was much of the time the lyrics...<<

I definitely agree with this assessment. Many of the lyrics were either too obvious (like the opening ice song), or seemed too modern and/or not fitting of a Disney movie. "Love is an Open Door" had a lot of lines that left me scratching my head (gassy, stuff some chocolates in my face). Although I know it's their style, I also wasn't a big fan of the instrumentation on several of the songs; I prefer a more full orchestra, but at least the tunes themselves were pretty great across the board!

 

Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA

Another odd lyric

'A ballroom without balls'

Talk about a 'wait, what?' moment

 

Originally Posted By leemac

<<Ha! Not one of my favorites to be sure. That said, she gets to play Mama Shrek, The Fairy Godmother and The Dragon -- so she has that fun 'Dreamgirls' song.>>

Cool!

Shrek reminded me so much of Beauty and the Beast - just too literal. The musical was all about the dragon and it wasn't a particularly great set piece (might like when the car flies in Chitty - it all just seemed to be building to that moment and it left me flat). Mary flying for the first time in Poppins was far more effective IMHO.

 

Originally Posted By leemac

<<Many of the lyrics were either too obvious (like the opening ice song), or seemed too modern and/or not fitting of a Disney movie.>>

Kirsten's style definitely skews younger - her stuff for Playhouse Disney, Finding Nemo and Pooh are a lot more playful with words than lyricists tend to do - that said I'd take even her worse output than anything by Glen Slater.

 

Originally Posted By leemac

<<'A ballroom without balls'

Talk about a 'wait, what?' moment>>

Mind out of the gutter Jim.

 

Originally Posted By leemac

<<Yeah. I like 'Avenue Q' and 'Book of Mormon' - in 'Frozen' it was much of the time the lyrics -- in the opening number with all the men 'we cut the ice / we pack the ice / we work real hard" (I'm paraphrasing). But they were a bit on the nose.>>

Bobby is more classically trained as a lyricist (Avenue Q was even based on his idea and he is always involved in the book) whereas Kristen tends to lean towards more mainstream influences like pop.

 

Originally Posted By leemac

IMHO it is a fine line between creating songs for characters as opposed to pure musical numbers. I felt each song in Frozen advanced the story and gave us insight into each character's inner thoughts. That is classic musical theater - Ashman and Schwartz stuff.

 

Originally Posted By CuriousConstance

""Love is an Open Door" had a lot of lines that left me scratching my head (gassy, stuff some chocolates in my face)."

Those lyrics were from "For the First Time in Forever."

 

Originally Posted By FerretAfros

Fair enough, but even the name of The First Time in Forever is a very modern term. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it sure didn't feel like a timeless fantasy world when they were singing it

 

Originally Posted By leemac

In Kirsten's defence she had to write lyrics to fit the characters. Jennifer Lee deliberately added all of that teen speak to make it contemporary and that tied Kirsten's hand. She had no choice but to follow. The timelessness of the dialog in the second golden age thanks to the likes of Linda Wolverton and Irene Mecchi is long gone - sad to say.