By Chelsea LoCascio
Production Manager
Let it go, let it go. Can’t hold it back any more. How can anyone “let it go” when everywhere you turn, “Frozen” is promoted like someone has been personally paid by Disney’s advertisement team?
The hit film, which made its premiere last November, has long surpassed the time allotted for kids to be screaming the lyrics and the beloved characters faces to be plastered on every corner.
Just recently, I walked into an Applebee’s expecting a quiet dinner — big mistake. It was “Frozen Night,” and the empty eyes of a cardboard Elsa welcomed me as I entered. I found myself immersed in a cheesy winter wonderland, with the restaurant adorned with ribbons and pictures of the characters. I even had a hard time concentrating as “Let It Go” rang and a toddler cried behind me after dropping her stuffed Olaf.
That was it: “Frozen” went too far. I already hated how much attention the film received, but this was ridiculous. The level of resounding love and affection for “Frozen” never happened for classic Disney films like “The Little Mermaid” or “Aladdin.”
People probably went crazy for those classics, but that was before my time. The difference now, it seems, is that Disney then was a little less concerned about consumerism and more about the quality. Now, all I see are countless “Frozen” shirts, backpacks, posters, make-up and even band-aids with a picture of Elsa’s sassy smirk and blond braided rat-tail attached to the back.
With the movie breaking box-office records as the highest grossing animated film of all time at an estimated $1.17 billion in sales, it is no surprise that the franchise is still going. “Disney on Ice: Frozen” began touring in September, a short called “Frozen Fever” is set to be released on March 13, Epcot is adding a “Frozen” attraction to their theme park and rumors have swirled over a sequel to the film and a possible run on broadway.
Even if you like buying the merchandise and attending the shows, you might agree that those who break into song when they hear the first few notes of “Let It Go” need to be exiled to their own island.
“Frozen” was an OK film, but there was not nearly as much of a reaction to other recent Disney princess movies like “Brave,” where the female lead actually proved to be more than just a pretty princess. People usually say they love “Frozen” for the memorable songs, and the strong female leads, yet other movies have them, too.
The common theme of finding true love is overplayed in “Frozen” as Elsa, who is supposed to be strong, needs to be saved by Anna, a princess who fell in love immediately and then snaps out of the delusion only to fall in love again.
While the craze, sadly, is far from over, I can only hope that “here I stand and here I’ll stay” are merely lyrics and not an omen.
