Well, I finally watched Frozen,
it’s taken a while. But having two very young boys and a husband who doesn’t
particularly go for the Disney musicals made it pretty far down on the list of
movies to watch. Matt was away and I needed a break, so I decided to rent it
and see what all the fuss is about. And, I have to say it was good. I enjoyed
it. Heaps funny, great songs. Wasn’t Elsa amazing belting out, ‘Let it go’? Though,
I have to say, my favourite song was Olaf’s, ‘Ode to summer’ (which is not the
actual song title, I don’t know what it is). And the movie had a nice feel
good ending and fantastic animation.
I wasn’t too taken with the story though and I thought something
could have been worked on a bit more to make it stronger. Some of the minor
characters (Sven) took over from the main ones (Elsa) and there were definitely
unresolved plot points.
I read a blog post recently about those little details in
writing that can be overlooked and not tied up. Like the character who picks up
their ice-coffee and then gets carried away with an animated, hands waving
about conversation but no mention of putting the cup down first. Or the picture
book I read recently, where the characters were outside and then on the next
page there’s an inside scene and we’re not sure how everyone got indoors. Matt
was reading one of my stories and pointed out that my main character was busting
for the loo in one scene but I never resolved that issue. She got caught up in
a conversation and then walked back out the door again without seeing to her
pressing need. So I added a sentence. Little details.
I don’t want to bag out Frozen
or anything, because I did enjoy watching it and I even let my five year-old
watch it. His main concern was; “Why did Elsa have special powers?” And this
was one of the things I had a problem with; there was no explanation for this
particular major part of the whole
story, except that she was born with it. Why? Don’t know, it’s a bit of a
mystery. Maybe Disney put it into the too hard basket but I think it could have
been fleshed out a bit.
My three-year old only wanted to know, what was up with the
scary ice-monster?
My questions are; why was there no resolution to the fact
that Kristoff had seen Ana being cured when she was a little girl? That was a
pretty major introductory scene for all of the main characters. They could
have put in a little scene where there was light bulb moment, at least, but
nothing.
And then how could the king and queen allow their daughters
to live in such isolation from each other and everyone else? What parent could ever sentence their
daughters to such misunderstanding and confusion as well as fear?
And then poor Hans, the guy gets put in charge of the castle
in a rather unconventional way. Why does Ana give control of her entire kingdom
to a stranger? Where are her trusted advisors? The Prime minister perhaps?
Hmmmm
Anyway, back to Hans, there is no lead into the fact that
he’s a villain. Except for a throw away line about him have twelve older
brother’s there is not hint of anything sinister in him. He’s doing a great job
of protecting the kingdom, giving food and clothes to all the citizens who are
freezing. He risks his life to go save Ana and bring in Elsa, in a very valiant
way, I have to say and then all of a sudden, he’s like this mean, nasty guy
who’s trying to kill people. Sorry, not convinced on that that one.
All this is to say that I don't usually take Disney movies so seriously :) And I’m not sure I’d be able to do much
better but I'll certainly take a whack at it. I know that re-reading my stories and having other people read my
stories always makes me realise the little details that I’ve passed and need to
work on more. But it’s nice to know that I’m starting to learn more about story
writing.
