Why the "Frozen" Trailer Means Nothing

I'm about as big a Disney fan as you can get. My first year of college, I brought my entire Disney VHS collection for my viewing pleasure. I've read books analyzing Disney's current business model, articles exposing Disney as an evil corporation (which I don't agree with), and biographies on Walt himself. Whether you, like Disney or hate Disney, I feel like they've earned some respect at the very least. 

In recent years, I've become especially intrigued by Disney Animation Studios. After Disney's decision to dissolve their hand-drawn animation studios, and then subsequent re-instate them under the tutelage of John Lasseter and Bob Iger, Disney has produced some good  movies. The Princess and the Frog was at least commendable, and a solid return for the studio. They followed up with "Tangled", a computer generated film which was critically acclaimed and became the 19th highest grossing animated film. That was followed by another computer generated film, "Wreck it Ralph", which was indisputably enjoyable. These three films, perhaps specifically "Wreck it Ralph" and "Tangled", were solid additions to the classic Disney canon, and a great shift from the films that come out during the bulk of the first decade of the 21st century. 

I think Disney is headed in the right direction with their animation, especially given the apparent decrease in Pixar quality (even though Brave and Monsters University had their own merits) (Also, Cars 2 should be destroyed). That's why I've been so excited for full trailer for Disney's new animated film, "Frozen". The trailer was released on Thursday, and to be totally fair, I was underwhelmed. 

The trailer although mildly engaging, seemed juvenile at times, relying largely on comedic relief from the Olaf character, the snowman. Following the "Wreck it Ralph" trailer, which is spectacular, this trailer seemed very two dimensional, and somewhat devoid of any emotional depth, save the blatant emotional hand-holding when Olaf says, "Some people are worth melting for". 

To be fair though, I remember having a similar feeling when the "Tangled" trailer was released. That seemed to ignore a large amount of the depth and charm that the movie had, exchanged for cheap laughs. 

These reductive tendencies in Disney trailers is perhaps a ploy to engage their main demographic, children. Most of the things that a person like myself would find exciting about the movie may go over the heads of their target demographic. The trailer, perhaps, is not indicative of the true movie quality. 

The point is, even though this trailer was "eh" at very best, I'm still excited for the film, given the recent success of Disney Animation. 

Paperman

No I'm not talking about the 2009 movie Paper Man starring Ryan Reynolds. I'm talking about the short animated movie that is shown before the animated film Wreck-It Ralph. The other week I had a blog post about Wreck-It Ralph so for this week I want to talk a bit about the short movie that went before it.

Paper Man is a seven minute film about a man and a woman, two strangers, who bump into each other at the train station on their way to work. They have a very brief encounter and then before the man knows it, she's gone. What happens next is a very simple story that is told in a not so conventional way. The filmmakers did an absolutely amazing job creating a beautifully told story in such a simple way.

The movie has no dialogue and it is completely action driven. Director John Karhs did a really great job at creating a piece that tell so much with so little. The two characters are instantly likable and you really want things to work out for them in the end.

The biggest emotional draw for this movie however; is the music. The music in this short is possibly the best I've ever heard in anything. It's a five minute piece by Christophe Beck and it's what makes this short so emotional. Every note hits at exactly the right moment to make you emotionally engaged in the short.

In all honestly I would recommend seeing Wreck-It Ralph just to see this short alone, although Wreck-It Ralph also a really great movie. You definitely won't regret it.

Wreck It Ralph

I just saw the best animated I have seen in awhile.  The movie was set in an Arcade and it was a bout a bad guy named Ralph who only wanted to be good.  The cool thing about this Arcade was when ever the Arcade closed all the characters could go visit the the other games by going to game central station.

Wreck It Ralph makes many references to other games as you can see in the picture above.  Wreck it Ralph is at a Bad Anon meeting in Pac Man's game and when he leaves he takes a cherry.  When ralph stumbles into a different game looking for a medal to make him a good guy, he runs into Vanellope.

Vanellope is the adorable child you see above, who is voiced by Sarah Silverman.  Vanellope is a glitch in a game and finds Ralph's medal and uses it to pay to get into a race that she is normally not allowed in because she is a glitch.  So Ralph taking on the hero role tries to help Vanellope race and win and of course if she wins he gets his medal back.

The four main characters are all great and you root for all of them.  They are all voiced by known celebrities and John C. Reilly voices Ralph.  They do a great job of bringing you into the world and making you never want to leave.  Wreck it Ralph is a very fun movie that you will not regret seeing.

Wreck-It Ralph

Recently I saw Wreck-It Ralph, the new Disney movie that's an homage to gamers everywhere. Because I absolutely love video games, this movie was on my must see list pretty much the instant I heard of its existence and I'm here to say that it didn't disappoint.

The movie is about Ralph, a bad guy from the video game Fix-It Felix, which is basically Donkey Kong with different characters. He's tired of being a bad guy and he's tired of being treated with no respect by everyone around him, so one day he decides to leave his game so he can be a hero in another one. The movie is about what happens because of his actions.

The movie is a whole lot of fun, it's even more fun if you're a gamer because there are so many references to video games throughout the movie (obviously) but it's still enjoyable even if you aren't. John C. Reilly does a fantastic job as Ralph. He's funny, sympathetic and it really sounds like he's having a lot of fun in his part. I should also give recognition to Sarah Silverman who does an equally amazing job as Vanellope, who is a rambunctious kid from another video game that Ralph stumbles in to. These two together make for some great and funny moments throughout the movie.