The Tudyk Trilogy: Frozen (part 1)
Aug. 19th, 2015 10:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spiderbraidsIt took a good 70 years for Disney to figure out how to make a movie out of Hans Christian Andersen's Snow Queen, and it probably shouldn't be surprising that their solution was to essentially throw out most of the original story and make it a musical about two sister princesses... And maybe it was the relative novelty of seeing a sisterly relationship in a Disney movie (heck, even the popularly cited example was more about a girl and her pet alien :-)). Maybe it was the great tunes. Maybe it was turning certain aspects of the "traditional" fairy tale upside down. Or maybe it was just the weather... ;-)
(Tumblr)
Either way, Frozen was a major phenomenon that racked up $400m (!) in the US, and ultimately raced to $1.2b worldwide, thanks to the hikikomori of Japan helping to chip in a good chunk of its $250m gross there (!!), and it also finally won Disney its first Oscar(s) for a non-Pixar cartoon since Tarzan (coincidentally, directed by one of this film's co-directors). It attracted many people that otherwise would never have set foot in a cinema on their own to see what the fuss was all about (I was one of those people :-)) and I imagine that it'll inspire some young people to work for Disney, as Ariel did some 25 years before... But really, what WAS the fuss all about? Let's get to it, shall we?
Imagine yourself in the cinema, wearing your 3D glasses (hopefully), and Pegleg Pete's just mooned the audience :-) (You probably don't have to, but whatever ;-)) In lieu of the usual "When You Wish Upon a Star" and "Steamboat Willie" music accompanying the opening logos, we get a beautiful choral tune, which continues over beautiful imagery of snowflakes floating around (and looking especially stunning in 3D :-)) Ultimately, one particular snowflake fills the screen, before receding back to reveal the title. Admit it, just watching that opening title... probably gave you the chills ;-)
YAAAAAAAAAAA...
The title fades out to a rather fuzzy image, which clarifies itself when a person walks over it and sticks in a saw in a 3D friendly manner :-) We see a bunch of sawblades cutting through ice, ultimately revealing a bunch of lake ice cutters, which were an actual thing way back when :-)
The cutters sing themselves a song about cutting ice (or IS IT about cutting ice?) By now, quite a bit of virtual ink has been spent on how Frozen Heart is really foreshadowing for many of the film's events and themes, so let's just focus on the cute little kid and his reindeer Sven tagging along with the cutters :-) Watch their cute little struggle to pick up a giant ice cube from the lake and load it on to their sled, aren't they just adorable? :-)
So anyways, the ice cutters board their sleds and leave, with the little boy and his reindeer following, as we pan up to the night sky, which of course has an aurora borealis in it :-) We pan down to a castle, where a young girl with platinum blonde hair is sleeping when she is awakened by her red-headed little sister, and aren't they also adorable? We quickly learn their names: The platinum blonde is Elsa, and the red-head is Anna (pronounced as to rhyme with Rihanna). Anna wants to play with Elsa but Elsa tells her to go back to sleep. Anna: "I just can't. The sky's awake, so I'm awake, so we have to play." Elsa: "Go play by yourself" Luckily, Anna knows just how to coax Elsa into playing with her: "Do you wanna build a snowman?" :-D
So they run downstairs into the main hall, and Elsa uses her magic powers to make it snow in the hall. They frolic in the snow, making snow angels, sledding, even (incoming plot point!) building a snowman, who Elsa christens Olaf: "My name is Olaf, and I like warm hugs! :-)" It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt, so they say... and in this case, that someone is Anna: Elsa is making bigger and bigger snow hills for Anna to jump between, until Elsa loses her footing and falls over. Anna jumps off the last hill, and as she's scrambling to get up Elsa accidentally fires her magic at Anna's head... OUCH!
As Elsa rushes over to her sister's side, she notices a streak of hair in the area she was hit turning white (shades of Tangled much? ;-)), and she cries out to her parents. As she's waiting for them, merely sitting on the floor is enough for Elsa to ice it all up (as well as some of the walls), and we see Olaf fall apart as well. Symbolism? What symbolism? :-)
The parents come in, and the mother looks a whole lot like they just recycled a model from Tangled... At least they didn't do the same with dad :-) Writer/co-director Jennifer "Wreck-It Ralph" Lee manages to get one line in as mom about Anna being cold as ice, but otherwise it's all dad (Maurice LaMarche) from here on out...
So anyways, King Dad thinks the situation is getting out of hand, and decides to consult a book in their library (and an accompanying map), revealing a picture of some creature doing... something to someone lying on a rock bed. The royal family head out of town, using Elsa's magic to sled their way to their destination. In a convenient coincidence, kid and reindeer just happen to be in the area as the royal family whizzes by, and he's puzzled by the ice, and follows it to a valley filled with suspiciously round rocks that roll up to the royals... to reveal trolls. The benign kind, mind you :-) Oh, and one of them decides she's going to keep the kid and his reindeer. Ooh...
Back to the plot at hand. One really old rolling stone comes up. Not Keith Richards (oh, you knew it was coming ;-)) but Grand Pabbie, who immediately asks if Elsa was born with the powers or cursed with them. It's the former, BTW. He also notes it was lucky that Anna was hit in the head rather than the heart: "The heart is not so easily changed, but the head can be persuaded." Ooh, foreshadowing :-) Pabbie recommends removing all memories of magic just to be safe, but promises to keep the fun, and he does this by altering Anna's memories of fun in the snow to take place outside, with appropriate winterwear. Wait, doesn't messing with people's memories sound a bit familiar?
(Disney Screencaps)
Pabbie has some advice: "Listen to me, Elsa, your power will only grow. There is beauty in your magic.... But also great danger. Fear will be your enemy." This advice is accompanied with some pretty cool visuals. The king decides to close the windows and doors, reduce staff, limit Elsa's contact with the others and keep her powers hidden from everyone, including Anna. So yeah, because Pabbie tinkered with her memories, Anna has no clue why her big sister is moving to a different room... leading to a montage, set to the 2nd most memorable song in the film, Do You Wanna Build a Snowman?
Anna sees that it's snowing and heads over to Elsa's room and knocks on the door to ask... Well, guess :-) We're shown her playing dolls as she sings, "We used to be best buddies, and now we’re not. I wish you would tell me why." Back at the door, Elsa flat out rejects Anna, so she leaves dejected. Awww...
Meanwhile, Elsa accidentally ices up the windowsill, so dad decides to give her some gloves, foreshadowing the lyrics to some later songs: "Conceal it. Don’t feel it. Don’t let it show."
We jump ahead in time, and Anna now has her braids, and she's still eager to build a snowman with Elsa. We see her playing on a bike designed for two rather than one (crashing into a knight outfit :-)), and she's gotten so lonely she's "started talking to the pictures on the walls... Hang in there Joan :-)" She imitates the sound of a clock... as we cut to Elsa's room, where Elsa is scared at her powers getting stronger and she doesn't want her parents to touch her. Ooh...
Another timeskip still, and Anna now looks more or less like she does in the rest of the film, as she walks past Elsa's room and doesn't bother with asking. Instead, she just goes over to her parents, who are going to leave on a two-week trip. The film doesn't bother with explaining what it's for, giving Jennifer some Lee-way ;-) to come up with her own ideas, and the Once Upon a Time writers some plot bunnies for its S4 storyline. Elsa is careful not to touch them as they leave, settling for just curtsying at them.
And you know where this is going, right? The rough seas and heavy storm gang up on their boat, leaving the kingdom in mourning. After the memorial service, and a nifty match fade to Anna walking down the palace halls, Anna knocks the door of Elsa's room...
"Please I know you’re in there
People are asking where you’ve been
They say have courage
And I’m trying to
I’m right out here for you.
Please let me in.
We only have each other.
It’s just you and me.
What are we gonna do?...
Do you wanna build a snowman?..."
On the other side of the door, we see a grieving Elsa sitting in her room, completely frosted up by her magic, with snowflakes floating in the air. Pretty poignant stuff, with the bonus of looking good in 3D...
One more time jump, to three years later... must have been a pretty quiet interregnum... We pan down on a shot of the palace, before cutting to an almost minute-long unbroken shot of the main town preparing for some sort of festivities leading up to the palace, in which:
1. We find out the name of the town, Arendelle.
2. We find out that it's a coronation.
3. We find out that they're opening the long-locked palace gates. For a whole day :-)
4. We see that the little kid and his reindeer Sven are all grown up, and he now makes voices as if to imitate Sven talking as he's feeding him a carrot.
5. Some old guy, voiced by dear Alan Tudyk and flanked by two really tall guys, is wondering about their mysterious trading partner: "Open those gates so I may unlock your secrets and exploit your riches. ...Did I just say that out loud?" :-D
6. Some of the visitors from afar are expecting the princesses to look gorgeous, which leads to...
Anna drooling and waking up with a severe case of pillowhead :-D It looks a lot like a really bad hair sim error :-D So anyways, one of the servants is telling Anna to wake up, and she's really drowsy. She's told about her sister's coronation ("My sister's... corneration?" :-D) and then perks up when she sees her dress for the occasion :-)
Jumpcut to Anna bursting out of her room in that dress, with her hair tied up with ribbons. This being a Disney princess musical, of course she's going to sing :-) For the First Time in Forever is of course the "I Want" song and Kristen "Veronica Mars" Bell holds her own quite well in the singing department, as Anna energetically runs around various parts of the palace as it's being prepared for the celebration, pulling an arm off a knight outfit, singing about salad plates and other stuff :-D She looks out the window to see the arriving ships, and decides to get a better view on the window cleaner's seat, which looks a lot like a swing, and sure enough, she swings on it :-) In the garden, Anna is playing with a bunch of baby ducks (Send them to the moon :-)) singing: "Don't know if I'm elated or gassy, but I'm somewhere in that zone... 'Cause for the first time in forever, I won't be alone."
Anna: "I can’t wait to meet everyone.... (gasps) What if I meet THE one?" This leads into a sequence where Anna wraps herself in a curtain and imagines herself at the after-party, meeting with the man of her dreams... and stuffing some chocolate in her face :-D then accidentally throwing a bust on top of a cake :-D
Remember those paintings on the walls she started talking to when she was younger? Well, as a fully grown teenager, Anna jumps around the gallery, posing with the paintings or even imitating the poses in them, and in a nice Easter egg for the Disney nuts, one of those paintings is based on the painting that inspired Tangled's look...
But enough about that, time for the real reason this film got huge :-) By now, thanks in part to her song, and in part to John Travolta's facepalm-worthy mispronunciation ;-) everyone and their mom knows that the Wicked-ly talented Idina Menzel provides the voice for Elsa from this point onward. She won a Tony for originating the role of Elphaba, the witch in Wicked, a role many have compared to Elsa. That alone would have been enough for the Broadway/Disney fandom to get excited about her casting, but there's more to that...
To understand why, let's go back to 2007... While Disney's animation studio was still trying to right the ship under then-new head John Lasseter, the live-action side made a (mostly) live-action musical tribute to their princess movies. Enchanted is probably most remembered as the film that kickstarted Amy Adams' career, but remember that subplot where she kinda accidentally wrecks McDreamy's plan to have his longtime GF take his daughter to school by coming out of the shower with him? Well, guess who played the offended (and ultimately jilted) GF?
No matter what people thought of the film overall, most people (at least, in the Broadway/Disney fandom) can probably agree that Enchanted does hit at least one bum note (pun rather intended :-)): Casting a talented Broadway superstar in a musical, and shunting her into a minor (and more importantly, non-singing) supporting role. On top of that, Idina was originally intended at some point to have a duet with James Marsden's prince (well, at least that's what I've heard...) Meaning HISHE's Frozen vid should have had Cyclops in it. HISHE-ception ;-) (I know he got Ratnered, but still...)
Could have been worse, though...
(Disney Screencaps)
So yeah, it was a really big deal for the fandom to finally have Idina sing in a Disney musical. And to say she does a great job is kind of an understatement :-) Anyways, Elsa's in her room, wearing her dress for the occasion, and looking at a portrait of her late great dad's coronation, anxious about her own. She recites her personal mantra: "Don't let them in... Don't let them see... Be the good girl you always have to be" as she takes off her gloves and grabs a candlestick and an ornament, to rehearse taking the scepter and orb, and they both get covered in spiky ice in a hurry.
We intercut between the excited Anna running towards the gates, and the anxious Elsa putting her gloves back on and coming out of the room, as Elsa orders the gates open, and Anna walks out of the palace... And if you look carefully, you can see Rapunzel off of Tangled walking by :-) We continue intercutting between Anna making her way across the bridge to the main town, and Elsa anxiously watching the populace fill the courtyard, while singing their respective lyric lines of course ;-) Anna runs around through the village square with not even so much as a bodyguard in sight, something Cinema Sins was quick to point out, and the song ends with an abrupt oomph! as Anna runs smack dab into a horse :-D
She ends up running into a small boat, which slides to the edge of the nearby dock, where the horse stops it from tipping over into the drink. Anna: "Hey!" Handsome guy riding the horse asks if Anna is okay, and yeah, they hit it off quickly. As he gets into the boat, he introduces himself as Prince Hans from the Southern Isles, and when he realizes he ran into Princess Anna of Arendelle, he quickly curtseys in respect, leading to an awkward moment when the boat tips slightly, sending him tumbling into Anna. Anna: "This is awkward. Not you’re awkward, but just because we’re-- I’m awkward, you’re gorgeous. Wait, what?" :-D
Incidentally, Hans is voiced by another Broadway vet, Santino Fontana, who was also playing a different prince on Broadway at the time :-)
Hans: "I’d like to formally apologize for hitting the Princess of Arendelle with my horse...and for every moment after."
Anna: "No. No-no. It’s fine. I’m not THAT Princess. I mean, if you’d hit my sister Elsa, that would be-- yeash!" :-D
Anna: "But, lucky you, it’s-it’s just me."
Hans: "Just you?"
It's love at first sight, or so Anna thinks, and this will be important later, but for now, Anna hears the chapel bells and runs off to attend the coronation. Meanwhile, Hans' horse lets go of the boat and drops it into the water :-D Hans emerges from the water and smirks :-)
Coming up: A whirlwind romance... and THAT SONG :-)
(Tumblr)
Either way, Frozen was a major phenomenon that racked up $400m (!) in the US, and ultimately raced to $1.2b worldwide, thanks to the hikikomori of Japan helping to chip in a good chunk of its $250m gross there (!!), and it also finally won Disney its first Oscar(s) for a non-Pixar cartoon since Tarzan (coincidentally, directed by one of this film's co-directors). It attracted many people that otherwise would never have set foot in a cinema on their own to see what the fuss was all about (I was one of those people :-)) and I imagine that it'll inspire some young people to work for Disney, as Ariel did some 25 years before... But really, what WAS the fuss all about? Let's get to it, shall we?
Imagine yourself in the cinema, wearing your 3D glasses (hopefully), and Pegleg Pete's just mooned the audience :-) (You probably don't have to, but whatever ;-)) In lieu of the usual "When You Wish Upon a Star" and "Steamboat Willie" music accompanying the opening logos, we get a beautiful choral tune, which continues over beautiful imagery of snowflakes floating around (and looking especially stunning in 3D :-)) Ultimately, one particular snowflake fills the screen, before receding back to reveal the title. Admit it, just watching that opening title... probably gave you the chills ;-)
YAAAAAAAAAAA...
The title fades out to a rather fuzzy image, which clarifies itself when a person walks over it and sticks in a saw in a 3D friendly manner :-) We see a bunch of sawblades cutting through ice, ultimately revealing a bunch of lake ice cutters, which were an actual thing way back when :-)
The cutters sing themselves a song about cutting ice (or IS IT about cutting ice?) By now, quite a bit of virtual ink has been spent on how Frozen Heart is really foreshadowing for many of the film's events and themes, so let's just focus on the cute little kid and his reindeer Sven tagging along with the cutters :-) Watch their cute little struggle to pick up a giant ice cube from the lake and load it on to their sled, aren't they just adorable? :-)
So anyways, the ice cutters board their sleds and leave, with the little boy and his reindeer following, as we pan up to the night sky, which of course has an aurora borealis in it :-) We pan down to a castle, where a young girl with platinum blonde hair is sleeping when she is awakened by her red-headed little sister, and aren't they also adorable? We quickly learn their names: The platinum blonde is Elsa, and the red-head is Anna (pronounced as to rhyme with Rihanna). Anna wants to play with Elsa but Elsa tells her to go back to sleep. Anna: "I just can't. The sky's awake, so I'm awake, so we have to play." Elsa: "Go play by yourself" Luckily, Anna knows just how to coax Elsa into playing with her: "Do you wanna build a snowman?" :-D
So they run downstairs into the main hall, and Elsa uses her magic powers to make it snow in the hall. They frolic in the snow, making snow angels, sledding, even (incoming plot point!) building a snowman, who Elsa christens Olaf: "My name is Olaf, and I like warm hugs! :-)" It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt, so they say... and in this case, that someone is Anna: Elsa is making bigger and bigger snow hills for Anna to jump between, until Elsa loses her footing and falls over. Anna jumps off the last hill, and as she's scrambling to get up Elsa accidentally fires her magic at Anna's head... OUCH!
As Elsa rushes over to her sister's side, she notices a streak of hair in the area she was hit turning white (shades of Tangled much? ;-)), and she cries out to her parents. As she's waiting for them, merely sitting on the floor is enough for Elsa to ice it all up (as well as some of the walls), and we see Olaf fall apart as well. Symbolism? What symbolism? :-)
The parents come in, and the mother looks a whole lot like they just recycled a model from Tangled... At least they didn't do the same with dad :-) Writer/co-director Jennifer "Wreck-It Ralph" Lee manages to get one line in as mom about Anna being cold as ice, but otherwise it's all dad (Maurice LaMarche) from here on out...
So anyways, King Dad thinks the situation is getting out of hand, and decides to consult a book in their library (and an accompanying map), revealing a picture of some creature doing... something to someone lying on a rock bed. The royal family head out of town, using Elsa's magic to sled their way to their destination. In a convenient coincidence, kid and reindeer just happen to be in the area as the royal family whizzes by, and he's puzzled by the ice, and follows it to a valley filled with suspiciously round rocks that roll up to the royals... to reveal trolls. The benign kind, mind you :-) Oh, and one of them decides she's going to keep the kid and his reindeer. Ooh...
Back to the plot at hand. One really old rolling stone comes up. Not Keith Richards (oh, you knew it was coming ;-)) but Grand Pabbie, who immediately asks if Elsa was born with the powers or cursed with them. It's the former, BTW. He also notes it was lucky that Anna was hit in the head rather than the heart: "The heart is not so easily changed, but the head can be persuaded." Ooh, foreshadowing :-) Pabbie recommends removing all memories of magic just to be safe, but promises to keep the fun, and he does this by altering Anna's memories of fun in the snow to take place outside, with appropriate winterwear. Wait, doesn't messing with people's memories sound a bit familiar?
(Disney Screencaps)
Pabbie has some advice: "Listen to me, Elsa, your power will only grow. There is beauty in your magic.... But also great danger. Fear will be your enemy." This advice is accompanied with some pretty cool visuals. The king decides to close the windows and doors, reduce staff, limit Elsa's contact with the others and keep her powers hidden from everyone, including Anna. So yeah, because Pabbie tinkered with her memories, Anna has no clue why her big sister is moving to a different room... leading to a montage, set to the 2nd most memorable song in the film, Do You Wanna Build a Snowman?
Anna sees that it's snowing and heads over to Elsa's room and knocks on the door to ask... Well, guess :-) We're shown her playing dolls as she sings, "We used to be best buddies, and now we’re not. I wish you would tell me why." Back at the door, Elsa flat out rejects Anna, so she leaves dejected. Awww...
Meanwhile, Elsa accidentally ices up the windowsill, so dad decides to give her some gloves, foreshadowing the lyrics to some later songs: "Conceal it. Don’t feel it. Don’t let it show."
We jump ahead in time, and Anna now has her braids, and she's still eager to build a snowman with Elsa. We see her playing on a bike designed for two rather than one (crashing into a knight outfit :-)), and she's gotten so lonely she's "started talking to the pictures on the walls... Hang in there Joan :-)" She imitates the sound of a clock... as we cut to Elsa's room, where Elsa is scared at her powers getting stronger and she doesn't want her parents to touch her. Ooh...
Another timeskip still, and Anna now looks more or less like she does in the rest of the film, as she walks past Elsa's room and doesn't bother with asking. Instead, she just goes over to her parents, who are going to leave on a two-week trip. The film doesn't bother with explaining what it's for, giving Jennifer some Lee-way ;-) to come up with her own ideas, and the Once Upon a Time writers some plot bunnies for its S4 storyline. Elsa is careful not to touch them as they leave, settling for just curtsying at them.
And you know where this is going, right? The rough seas and heavy storm gang up on their boat, leaving the kingdom in mourning. After the memorial service, and a nifty match fade to Anna walking down the palace halls, Anna knocks the door of Elsa's room...
"Please I know you’re in there
People are asking where you’ve been
They say have courage
And I’m trying to
I’m right out here for you.
Please let me in.
We only have each other.
It’s just you and me.
What are we gonna do?...
Do you wanna build a snowman?..."
On the other side of the door, we see a grieving Elsa sitting in her room, completely frosted up by her magic, with snowflakes floating in the air. Pretty poignant stuff, with the bonus of looking good in 3D...
One more time jump, to three years later... must have been a pretty quiet interregnum... We pan down on a shot of the palace, before cutting to an almost minute-long unbroken shot of the main town preparing for some sort of festivities leading up to the palace, in which:
1. We find out the name of the town, Arendelle.
2. We find out that it's a coronation.
3. We find out that they're opening the long-locked palace gates. For a whole day :-)
4. We see that the little kid and his reindeer Sven are all grown up, and he now makes voices as if to imitate Sven talking as he's feeding him a carrot.
5. Some old guy, voiced by dear Alan Tudyk and flanked by two really tall guys, is wondering about their mysterious trading partner: "Open those gates so I may unlock your secrets and exploit your riches. ...Did I just say that out loud?" :-D
6. Some of the visitors from afar are expecting the princesses to look gorgeous, which leads to...
Anna drooling and waking up with a severe case of pillowhead :-D It looks a lot like a really bad hair sim error :-D So anyways, one of the servants is telling Anna to wake up, and she's really drowsy. She's told about her sister's coronation ("My sister's... corneration?" :-D) and then perks up when she sees her dress for the occasion :-)
Jumpcut to Anna bursting out of her room in that dress, with her hair tied up with ribbons. This being a Disney princess musical, of course she's going to sing :-) For the First Time in Forever is of course the "I Want" song and Kristen "Veronica Mars" Bell holds her own quite well in the singing department, as Anna energetically runs around various parts of the palace as it's being prepared for the celebration, pulling an arm off a knight outfit, singing about salad plates and other stuff :-D She looks out the window to see the arriving ships, and decides to get a better view on the window cleaner's seat, which looks a lot like a swing, and sure enough, she swings on it :-) In the garden, Anna is playing with a bunch of baby ducks (Send them to the moon :-)) singing: "Don't know if I'm elated or gassy, but I'm somewhere in that zone... 'Cause for the first time in forever, I won't be alone."
Anna: "I can’t wait to meet everyone.... (gasps) What if I meet THE one?" This leads into a sequence where Anna wraps herself in a curtain and imagines herself at the after-party, meeting with the man of her dreams... and stuffing some chocolate in her face :-D then accidentally throwing a bust on top of a cake :-D
Remember those paintings on the walls she started talking to when she was younger? Well, as a fully grown teenager, Anna jumps around the gallery, posing with the paintings or even imitating the poses in them, and in a nice Easter egg for the Disney nuts, one of those paintings is based on the painting that inspired Tangled's look...
But enough about that, time for the real reason this film got huge :-) By now, thanks in part to her song, and in part to John Travolta's facepalm-worthy mispronunciation ;-) everyone and their mom knows that the Wicked-ly talented Idina Menzel provides the voice for Elsa from this point onward. She won a Tony for originating the role of Elphaba, the witch in Wicked, a role many have compared to Elsa. That alone would have been enough for the Broadway/Disney fandom to get excited about her casting, but there's more to that...
To understand why, let's go back to 2007... While Disney's animation studio was still trying to right the ship under then-new head John Lasseter, the live-action side made a (mostly) live-action musical tribute to their princess movies. Enchanted is probably most remembered as the film that kickstarted Amy Adams' career, but remember that subplot where she kinda accidentally wrecks McDreamy's plan to have his longtime GF take his daughter to school by coming out of the shower with him? Well, guess who played the offended (and ultimately jilted) GF?
No matter what people thought of the film overall, most people (at least, in the Broadway/Disney fandom) can probably agree that Enchanted does hit at least one bum note (pun rather intended :-)): Casting a talented Broadway superstar in a musical, and shunting her into a minor (and more importantly, non-singing) supporting role. On top of that, Idina was originally intended at some point to have a duet with James Marsden's prince (well, at least that's what I've heard...) Meaning HISHE's Frozen vid should have had Cyclops in it. HISHE-ception ;-) (I know he got Ratnered, but still...)
Could have been worse, though...
(Disney Screencaps)
So yeah, it was a really big deal for the fandom to finally have Idina sing in a Disney musical. And to say she does a great job is kind of an understatement :-) Anyways, Elsa's in her room, wearing her dress for the occasion, and looking at a portrait of her late great dad's coronation, anxious about her own. She recites her personal mantra: "Don't let them in... Don't let them see... Be the good girl you always have to be" as she takes off her gloves and grabs a candlestick and an ornament, to rehearse taking the scepter and orb, and they both get covered in spiky ice in a hurry.
We intercut between the excited Anna running towards the gates, and the anxious Elsa putting her gloves back on and coming out of the room, as Elsa orders the gates open, and Anna walks out of the palace... And if you look carefully, you can see Rapunzel off of Tangled walking by :-) We continue intercutting between Anna making her way across the bridge to the main town, and Elsa anxiously watching the populace fill the courtyard, while singing their respective lyric lines of course ;-) Anna runs around through the village square with not even so much as a bodyguard in sight, something Cinema Sins was quick to point out, and the song ends with an abrupt oomph! as Anna runs smack dab into a horse :-D
She ends up running into a small boat, which slides to the edge of the nearby dock, where the horse stops it from tipping over into the drink. Anna: "Hey!" Handsome guy riding the horse asks if Anna is okay, and yeah, they hit it off quickly. As he gets into the boat, he introduces himself as Prince Hans from the Southern Isles, and when he realizes he ran into Princess Anna of Arendelle, he quickly curtseys in respect, leading to an awkward moment when the boat tips slightly, sending him tumbling into Anna. Anna: "This is awkward. Not you’re awkward, but just because we’re-- I’m awkward, you’re gorgeous. Wait, what?" :-D
Incidentally, Hans is voiced by another Broadway vet, Santino Fontana, who was also playing a different prince on Broadway at the time :-)
Hans: "I’d like to formally apologize for hitting the Princess of Arendelle with my horse...and for every moment after."
Anna: "No. No-no. It’s fine. I’m not THAT Princess. I mean, if you’d hit my sister Elsa, that would be-- yeash!" :-D
Anna: "But, lucky you, it’s-it’s just me."
Hans: "Just you?"
It's love at first sight, or so Anna thinks, and this will be important later, but for now, Anna hears the chapel bells and runs off to attend the coronation. Meanwhile, Hans' horse lets go of the boat and drops it into the water :-D Hans emerges from the water and smirks :-)
Coming up: A whirlwind romance... and THAT SONG :-)
