ANIMATION – Disney’s Frozen, Review

I finally got around to writing my thoughts on the movie Frozen (affiliate link).  Yes, I know I’m late to the party. Princess movies just aren’t  a priority for me.  I’m not the target audience.

Watched the movie a few times this weekend with my eight year old daughter. We have big arguments about animated movies and shows all the time.  It’s fun.

After watching the movie, I have to say that I enjoyed it.  I even liked Olaf, who I didn’t think I would like.

So I decided to just brake down my thoughts on the movie into two list of Pros and Cons.  I’ll start with the Cons since I want to finish on a positive note.

Just remember that these are just my personal taste in movies and has nothing to do with the quality of the film making.

I really did enjoy the movie. So, here we go…

The Cons

Male Supporting Characters Are Forgettable

Most  Disney Princess movie have VERY forgettable male supporting characters/love interests. And if they aren’t forgettable, they are portrayed as idiots.  I think the exception to the rule is Beauty and the Beast, and perhaps Prince Phillip in Sleeping Beauty (but only because he fought a dragon).   I would have said, Aladdin, but that’s not a princess movie. And Jasmine is a very interesting supporting female character anyway.

Generally, there’s nothing really all that interesting about them.  They’re just there to be the love interest.

Male villains are usually much more interesting and memorable.

Frozen is no exception.  The male supporting character (s) was/where really dull.  The male villain, was interesting though.

The Princess’ Designs

I hate to say it but the design of both Princess’ reminded me of Rapunzel.  They could have ALL been sisters.

Compare their designs to Merida from Brave, who had a very unique look to her.

I’m being picky here, because this is a Disney movie It’s not that they weren’t appealing characters but Disney has some of the best artists working for them.  They could have done something a little more unique.

It’s a Musical

Yeah, the songs are nice. I liked them, but I’d rather not watch an animated musical anymore.

I know I’m in the minority here.  This is just my personal opinion.  It bugs me when characters just spontaneously brake into Disney music videos. Especially when it interrupts the flow of the story and doesn’t further the plot.

This occurs one too many times in Frozen.

The Pros

Plays Against Formula

My biggest gripe again most Disney princess movies is the “Disney formula,”  their stories tend to fall into.  Frozen plays against this formula beautifully.  It leads you to believe you’re going to get the same story as always, only to veer off it just enough to make it completely new and unexpected.

I think there’s a reason why this movie has gotten so many great reviews and it’s really this.  It only goes to show how tired everyone was of the same old movie and getting something just a little different really made this movie great.

Great Film For Girls/Young Women

This movie is a great female friendly movie.  It’s a nice family movie too, but it’s more geared for females than any other audience.

The women are strong, independent, smart, fun, funny, attractive and driven.  They’re great role models.

Also, there’s that “freedom” scene.  You know what I mean, the “I’m and independent woman, let it go song”  It reminds me of my sister.

It’s the highlight of the movie and I’m sure, within the context of the movie, it resonates, with a lot of young women.

Great Message About Love (Agape)

It’s go a great message about Love.  Not necessarily about romantic love, and not even about filial love, but about, what Catholics commonly referrer to as Charity or Agape.

In other words, self-less love.

It’s a great lesson.  It’s spelled out very well and very clearly.  In fact, ti’s almost annoying because there are a few moments of selfless love in the movie that don’t seem to do that “trick” that would fix the problem or isn’t acknowledged.

They don’t make sense to me but, I guess it would have been less climatic is they did the trick so…I guess it’s okay?

Final Thoughts

Overall the movie was great.  I really enjoyed it.  It’s one of the better animated Disney movies to come out in a while.

It’s worth watching if you haven’t already.  Although, I doubt that anyone wanting to see this hasn’t already.

What do you think? Agree disagree? Leave a comment below.

ANIMATION- The Four Best and Worst Things About Anime

I love anime. I really do, but it’s not perfect.  There are some awesome things about it and some not so awesome things. That is what this post is all about.

I grew up on watching anime..  Some of the first cartoons I remember watching were Heidi, Gatchaman, and Mazinger Z.

Those shows have influenced my taste in cartoons to this day.  But that doesn’t mean that anime is perfect.

There are some things that REALLY annoy me about watching anime.  But the best things about it keep me coming back for more again and again.

I came up with four things I like and dislike about anime and wrote them down here. I started with the worst so that I can leave you with the positive stuff at the end.

One thing that some American animation elitists will find missing from my “worst” list is the idea that the animation in anime is bad.  I won’t go there because I disagree.

The animation in anime is stylistically different by choice and I like it that way.  It’s not better or worst than American animation, just different.  To think otherwise is to be a snobby animation elitist.

Okay, now that that’s off my chest, let’s get started…

THE WORST

Whinny Protagonists

This is by far one of the most annoying conventions in anime, the whinny protagonist.  It’s not in EVERY anime but it’s in enough so that it drives me crazy.

We are meant to follow this guy (it’s usually a male protagonist) through his adventure and identify with him, but how can we? All he does is whine about his circumstances all the time.

The worst is when most of an episode is taken up by the protagonist not taking story furthering action because he’s whining. Effectively stopping the show or movie.

I don’t mind if, the character starts off being scared and as the show or movie goes on, he slowly becomes more self confident. But when he stays whinny from the start of the show till the end, that’s a huge turn off.

The worst I’ve ever seen was in  the show Neon Genesis Evangelion. The character Shinji was a whinny baby from the first episode to the last and never changed.

So annoying.

Lack of Style Variety

Anime lacks style variety.  There I said it.  It has a certain look and it doesn’t veer from it much.

Yes, there is variety of styles within the anime style but that all it is, variations within a SINGLE style  In general anime tends to look the same.  It’s very rare when you see a Japanese cartoon and don’t realize it’s a Japanese cartoon.

There are exceptions but not very many.

I LIKE the style. It’s very appealing to me.  Don’t get me wrong.  But it’s only the one SINGLE style done in slightly different ways.

Pretensions and Preachy

Sometimes anime creators decide to preach their world view via their cartoons.  And they do so in such a heavy handed way that it not only comes off as preachy but also very pretentious.

Now, almost every story has some sort of message.  I’m not against that.  But if it comes across as self righteous preaching, that’s when it gets annoying.  Especially when they stop the story to do so.

And it’s even worse when the world view comes across like something an adolescent hormonal kid came up with and it’s just downright ridiculous.

Even if it’s an interesting world view though. Even when the world view is worth thinking about, when it stops the story so that the characters can preach to the audience about it, it just comes across as pretensions mumbo jumbo.

Let me get out of the story what I want to get out of the story but don’t try forcing it down my throat. It’s annoying.

Sexism and Misogyny

Panty shots, girls with gigantic bouncy boobs bigger than their heads, submissive women, tentacle rape or just plain rape and other abuse of women.  Anime can be very sexist when it comes to objectifying women, and it’s often very misogynist.

I understand that a lot of it is meant to entice male viewer to watch. I get it, but it doesn’t make it right.

“Oh but women in anime are very strong and pro woman.” Really? Then why is she wearing a bikini in every episode? “It’s because women should be proud of their femininity.” Oh, so it’s not because you want to see them wearing as little as possible? *sarcasm*

One of these outfits is not like the others.

Case in point, Major Kusangi, a character in one of my favorite anime series Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Major Kusanagi is by far one of the strongest, self assured, badass female leads in an anime I’ve ever seen.  She’s awesome, but she’s pretty much wearing underwear in every episode.

All the men are wearing normal clothes.  They’re in suits.  Which makes Major Kusanagi look even more ridiculous.  They give an excuse in the show for her outfits but, it’s lame.  It’s just an excuse to have her wear revealing clothes. It’s sexist.

It’s so bad, that it’s tough to recommend some good anime because of the embarrassing sexist portrayal of women in them.

And, let’s face it, some of  this stuff really screws up the way some guys view women.

THE BEST

So if  anime has so many annoying things like what I wrote above, why even watch it?  Because it’s not ALL universally like that.  Besides, the best in anime makes up for that bad stuff.

Good stuff like…

Variety of Genres

No other animation culture has the variety of genres that anime has.  Not American animation, nor European animation.

Japanese animation has, pretty much every genre under the sun.  There’s something for everyone.  For kids, for grown ups, for teens, for adult males and adult females.

It’s my go to for animation because it actually caters to my tastes.

I love mecha stories, anime has them. I love space operas, anime has them. I love cyberpunk, anime has those too.  Action adventure, Samurai stories, historical fiction, game cartoons, fantasy, cartoon about drawing comics…, you name, they have it.

So awesome.  I love it.

Definitely, hands down, one of the best things about anime.

Great Action

Anime action is tough to beat.  It’s tough to do action in animation without being influence at some level by Japanese cartoons.

They’re visceral and dynamic.  Often epic in scope.

Anime is often coming up with better and better way to show action in animation.

There are even shows that are ONLY about people fighting just because the action itself is so fun and dynamic.

I love this about anime.

Great Draftsmanship

Nothing beats a hand drawn action scene of two anime mechas fighting. For an example of what I’m talking about, watch Gundam 00, SO AWESOME!

The draftsmanship involved in drawing something like that is unbelievable.  It’s even better when the drawings of the people are just as well drawn.

Anime has a way of making other animated cartoons look like lazy art.  I’m sometimes amazed at how well drawn the art in these cartoons are.  Especially since they also move. Some more then others but they move none the less.

Yes, there’s some short cuts being taken but the end result is no less beautiful.

It’s eye candy and just inspiring.  I love it, and I love it so much that I strive to draw just as well in my work.

Positive Messages

One of the thing I’ve appreciated more and more as I watch anime is the positive messages being conveyed through many of the protagonists.

It’s often a message of being confident, and having a sense of self worth.  Sometimes it’s a message about friendship, and how we all need the love of others.

There’s also plenty of messages about self sacrifice and putting others ahead of oneself.

I love seeing that.  I think the confidence and self worth messages in anime are by the far the most unique of all. This is mostly done in characters who are the antithesis of the whinny protagonist.

The confident protagonists who doesn’t let anyone get them down.  The character who has goals and is willing (sometimes joyfully) to power through the hardships that will get them to that goal.  Those characters are worth emulating.

The optimism and the drive.  The fearlessness is something I think we should all learn from.

Great positive stuff.

Sound off

I know I’ve made some people very mad at me. Especially because of what I wrote in the first part of this post.  Let me know what you think.

Just be polite or I’ll erase your post.

I love anime.  These are the things I love about it and the things I don’t.  If  you agree with me, I’d love to hear from you as well.

Until next time!

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