Frozen, Disney's Next Animated Movie

[Sunshine]

There are plenty of abandoned concepts for animated Disney features. One particular movie that always seemed to have a snowball's chance in hell (if you'll excuse the pun) is The Snow Queen. That movie was restarted--and subsequently discarded--several times. The last time it was abandoned was but a few years ago, and if I recall correctly, Alan Menken had composed, or started to compose, a few songs for that movie.

A few weeks ago, word got out that Disney was developing a movie called Frozen. Though many had hoped that the title belonged to an adaptation of The Snow Queen, there was still that small chance that the title referred to a different movie, such as Untitled Pixar Movie About Dinosaurs.

Rest assured, my friends. Frozen is Disney's The Snow Queen. Unfortunately, it's unknown whether or not the film will be traditionally animated. I sure hope so!

And, yes, it seems that 'verbs as fairy tale movie titles' is all the rave.

If you would like a detailed synopsis of The Snow Queen, you may find one online. Keep in mind that Frozen will likely be pretty different.

Whether this movie will be 2D or not, I'm excited! I've dreamed about Disney's The Snow Queen for years. I guess this really does mean that Discworld has gone bye-bye.

Wreck-It Ralph crashes onto the big screen this November. Frozen will chill theaters November 27, 2013, taking over Pixar's Dinosaur's release date.

I will post more information in the coming months.

Source: www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=32752

[Justice, The Cloaked Cavalier]

I am all about animation, so this is big news to me, even if the title is awful. If only it could be hand-drawn!!

[San]

Yeah, all I can think of when I see that title is Schwarzenegger's terrible one-liners in Batman & Robin.

That said, I really hope this is traditionally animated. A story like this has great potential to look absolutely gorgeous, visually, in the hand-drawn medium - I hope they're willing to stop relying on computers for once and tackle the task. Then again, I'm sure I'll like it all the same if it's CG.

[The Star Pup]

Let's see how Frozen will turn out.

[Savage]

So they're finally doing Snow Queen, huh? Snow joke? *is stoned*

Seriously, with the big fuss pple made over Tangled's title, I'm looking forward to a similar debacle with this film's. Though I do wonder why they just don't call it The Snow Queen, because Frozen is pretty goofy-sounding, and you know that at least some of the Disney company folks must have heard pple complaining about how goofy Tangled sounded.

[Sunshine]

Jan 7, 2012 10:05:35 GMT -8 Justice, The Cloaked Cavalier said:

I am all about animation, so this is big news to me, even if the title is awful.

Jan 7, 2012 10:10:35 GMT -8 San said:

Yeah, all I can think of when I see that title is Schwarzenegger's terrible one-liners in Batman & Robin.

Jan 7, 2012 20:13:14 GMT -8 Savage said:

Seriously, with the big fuss pple made over Tangled's title, I'm looking forward to a similar debacle with this film's. Though I do wonder why they just don't call it The Snow Queen, because Frozen is pretty goofy-sounding, and you know that at least some of the Disney company folks must have heard pple complaining about how goofy Tangled sounded.

So, the general consensus is that we like the title Frozen!

All right. Time for me to chip in my two cents and tell you all my thoughts on this whole "dumb verb as a title" affair. Let me shoot straight: The Princess and the Frog was a big, big financial disappointment. It had a budget around $105 million, and it only made $267,045,057 worldwide. While that is some profit, that wasn't nearly as much dough as Disney wanted. Or even expected.

I don't actually have any credible proof for what I'm about to say, and Disney has publicly denied this, but I just know they named Rapunzel's movie Tangled to do away with the princess motif from the title. As stupid and dumb as the name Tangled is, it seemed to have worked, because that movie made a much, much better profit than PatF. Don't get me wrong, Tangled's budget was also much higher, but that's beside the point. Whenever you strike big in business, you want to repeat that success. Disney, I would assert, thought, "Well, Tangled worked. Could Frozen work? Let's see if lightning strikes twice!"

Please keep in mind, I am not taking Disney's side, or saying everyone is wrong. And I'm not saying that Frozen is a good title; it's dopey. But it does make sense from a financial standpoint. I think the world is now a bit too jaded and cynical to flock to watch a movie with Princess in the title.

And that's just my $0.02. I might be wrong, but that's my theory.

Of course, The Snow Queen is quite a different story from Rapunzel, so there is that big difference...

Edit: Forgot to mention, Tangled also benefited by really pushing Flynn Rider into the spotlight. The movie pretty much said, "Hey, boys! You don't like being dragged to 'princess' movies? Well, this movie is for boys, too!"

[Rapunzel]

If I'm not mistaken, I actually think Princess and the Frog was the first time Disney's ever done an animated movie with "Princess" in the actual title. (direct to video tenures do NOT count in this equation...IMHO)...perhaps they just should've called it "The Frog Prince"? Eh...dunno.

What was my point with that? I...don't know, really. But anyway...yeah, while I also agree that "Frozen" is a bad title...to be cautiously optimistical? maybe the title will change, maybe it's just a codename for the project. At this way-too-early point in time, who knows? I move to just...adopt a "wait and see" approach about the whole thing. x3

[Sunshine]

Right. What I meant was, Princess and the Frog was blatantly marketed as a princess movie. Tangled was marketed as... uh.... yeeah.

My point stands. Disney views movies advertised solely as princess movies as box office poison ever since PatF.

[Justice, The Cloaked Cavalier]

Let me qualify my earlier statement.

I think Frozen is a stupid title. So is Tangled. But I will gladly accept a good movie with a stupid title. Tangled is an awesome film. And that counts more than the title.

I put up with The Adventures of the Great Mouse Detective, don't I?

For what it's worth, the original title of PATF was The Frog Princess. After all, that's the fairy tale the movie is based on.

I read that black activists were offended by the title. Like, 'Our princess is a frog? That's not glamorous enough.' Hence the change.

Now, certainly it wasn't everybody who was bothered. And I didn't hear about anyone offended by the fact that Tiana does turn into a frog. So...whatever.

Again I say, I really don't care about the title all that much. But I can't help having an opinion about it.

[Dreamchild]

Of course, L! You're totally entitled to have an opinion. I'm sorry if my last two posts seemed rough. Please allow me to rephrase myself, and this time I'll be very concise.

Pretty much everyone in existence thinks Frozen is an awful movie title, just as Tangled is an awful movie title. Everyone in this thread agrees about that, and so do I. All I'm saying is, I understand where Disney is coming from. They want to make as much money as possible, and if Frozen as a title could potentially replicate Tangled's success, then they will go for it.

My opinion is the same as yours, L; it's just that I have a hunch about Disney's logic here. But awful title or not, I am very excited to learn more information about this movie in the coming months. <3

Edit: Speaking of The Adventures of the Great Mouse Detective, there's an excellent account about that title in the documentary Waking Sleeping Beauty. Someone from the UK, please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the UK's title for the film Basil, The Great Mouse Detective? I like the inclusion of Basil in the title, personally.

[Justice, The Cloaked Cavalier]

My post wasn't specifically in answer to yours. I just felt my posish needed clarification in that, no matter how bad the title is, I don't particularly care about titles as such.

The original American title for GMD was Basil of Baker Street. Interesting story:

The film was moving along when Steven Speilberg announced the release of Young Sherlock Holmes. The Disney bigwigs ordered a new, earlier release date for Basil of Baker Street so it could appear close on the heels of YSH. After all, any Speilberg film was a guaranteed hit, no? And Disney would only benefit from the heightened Sherlockian interest the movie caused.

This is why some segments of GMD seem rushed and sloppier than normal.

Then came the release, and YSH flopped. Now Disney wanted to distance themselves from Holmes. They ordered the title change and very nearly had all the dialogue re-recorded by American actors (The filmmakers, God bless 'em, nixed that idea, claiming insufficient time).

Even the poster was changed, turning Basil's deerstalker and Inverness into an ordinary blue suit.

The title change prompted a funny memo in the animation studio, changing the titles of previous films to The Girl in the See-Through Shoes and A Boy, a Bear and a Big Black Cat, to name a few.

[Dreamchild]

As documented in Waking Sleeping Beauty. I recommend that movie to any Disney fan.

[Doctor Delbert Doppler]

Yeah, I heard all about that deal with Princess and The Frog's poor performance possibly being due to it's title, and Disney wanting to try and nab more male viewers by avoiding anything that sounds princess-y. Can't remember if it was here where I heard that or what... It is understandable why the company would do that. But I just hope they change Frozen to something less silly.

I agree with Heffy -- whether it's 2D or CGI, the wintery setting of the story will definitely lend itself to some gorgeous animation.