In anticipation of the home video release of Frozen, Raff takes a look at the Disney movie that has become a global phenomenon.
If you didn’t manage to see Frozen at the cinema (well, you should have), then you are in luck because on the 31st of March it will be released on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK. It's already available in America where it has been very successful, selling 3.2 million DVD and Blu-ray units in 24 hours.
Frozen made $396 million in the domestic market (USA and Canada) and then $67 million in the foreign market. This means that it was the first movie from Walt Disney Animation to beak $1 billion at the box office. With a production budget of $150 million, Frozen has been more than successful for Disney. It is hard to image that this movie nearly never happened.
Walt Disney Studios first got the idea to adapt Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen when they acquired the movie rights for some of Andersen’s more popular stories, back in 1942. However, they had difficulties adapting The Snow Queen and the idea was quickly shelved. Disney never gave up on it and they tried again in the 90’s and in 2002, 2008 and 2010. All attempts were shelved despite the fact that the studios had an idea and some animators had started work on the drawings.
Due to the success of Enchanted, Disney finally thought that there was a market for such a movie and Frozen was announced in 2012. Producers had completely reimagined the character of Anna and they changed the story by making Elsa, Anna’s sister. The rest as they say, is history and no one could predict that Frozen would go on to become one of Disney’s best selling movies. It's hard to imagine that it nearly ended up on the cutting room floor in 1942.
During production, it was decided that Disney would return to their animation methods of old, by using hand drawn animation, but it was clear that something different was needed to do the story justice. Therefore, the Disney animators put their heads together and came up with Stereoscopic 3D, which is a combination of hand drawn animation and CGI. This new method proved to give the animation seen in Frozen an extra depth.
As soon as Frozen was released, audiences knew that it was something special. It has been labeled, “One of the best animated movies since Disney’s renaissance era.” I think the reason that it has done so well is that it appeals to both adults and their children. The characters are so likeable and the animators have been able to give Sven and Olaf a human element to their personality, without reducing what they actually are – a snowman and a reindeer.
Added to this, the soundtrack is amazing. After I saw the movie, I skipped out of the cinema with the other kids singing ‘In Summer’ (I know, I’m a grown-up!). The songs proved so popular that a sing-a-long version was released into cinemas, and with the release of the DVD and Blu-ray, critics are expecting the soundtrack to be back at number 1 on the Billboard charts.
If you haven’t seen Frozen yet, then make sure you treat yourself next week
