Let the storm rage on

IMDB新收的一篇critic review
http://www.jaysmovieblog.com/2017/11/saturday-cartoons-olafs-frozen.html#OlafsFrozenAdventureReview
Seen 22 November 2017 in AMC Boston Common #18 (first-run, RealD 3D DCP)
Would "Olaf's Frozen Adventure" seem like less of a slog if it appeared where it belonged - on ABC at 8pm on some weekday night in December, maybe leading into the Toy Story special that's been running for a few years? Maybe. It still wouldn't be good, of course, but it would be twenty minutes less for kids to sit still in a theater with 3D glasses on, including something like three musical numbers and the feeling that you've gone through a whole narrative cycle before the one you actually paid for. It's a small meal rather than the creative aperitif that usually plays before a Pixar film.
That said, it's not a bad idea. If you liked Frozen - as I and many others did, including my Elsa-crazed nieces - there's a worthy next chapter at the heart of this short, as Elsa (voiced by Idina Menzel) and Anna (voiced by Kristen Bell) find themselves trying to figure out how to celebrate Christmas as both a royal and conventional family after Elsa being shut away for so long. It's a plot that the audience actually cares about and which doesn't lose track of how a huge part of the movie's appeal is their relationship as sisters. It makes Kristoff (voice of Jonathan Goff) kind of a third wheel, but so what? He could easily fit into the part of the story that keeps things moving, as Olaf (voice of Josh Gad) tries to inventory individual holiday traditions to find one for the ladies.
The thing is, Olaf's a weird comic-relief character who makes for fun out-of-nowhere jokes (including some truly bizarre slapstick), but really doesn't fit in terms of a guy you'd want to hang the plot on; his child-like naivete seems foolish rather than charming in this context. It also shifts what could be a really charming core for the story - that everyone has different holiday traditions that are beautiful in their own ways - into something to snark at rather than celebrate, and that's before considering Kristoff's troll-inspired holiday traditions being played as gross-out gags.
Disney's done worse piggybacking off their animated classics, and despite this thing's almost-certain TV origins, it looks pretty good on the big screen in 3D, if not quite so smooth as something built for that format. This is just filled with enough bad decisions to obscure the good Anna & Elsa stuff that the kids who really want it would actually care about.
2/4

Idina Menzel and Kristen Bell Perform for ABC's Disney Holiday Special 2017
近距离

一家给了好评的杂志
I promised I’d drop a few words about it in my earlier review of Disney-Pixar’s “Coco” so here it is.
One classic program for movie theaters in olden-time days was to put a short production before a feature-length presentation (usually with an intermission in between). Disney, which came into the industry around that period, followed said format back in the day, and made a one-off revival of the practice when they put the Mickey Mouse animated short “The Prince and the Pauper” before main film “The Rescuers Down Under” in 1990.
Pixar resumed the format in 1999 by playing their first ever animation from 1986 (“Luxo Jr.”) before “Toy Story 2” in 1999. Since then they, and Disney Animation Studios later, have been tacking animation shorts before most of their major feature films. Said shorts tend to be about 5 to ten minutes long, which is why moviegoers that went to watch “Coco” were caught off-guard by the length of its pre-main feature presentation, a near-half-hour musical titled “Olaf’s Frozen Adventure.” As the name gives away, it’s yet another snippet with the characters of the 2013 film “Frozen,” in another slice of their lives before the planned 2019 sequel hits cinemas.
That would be nice, were it not for the fact that the 20-plus-minute short is now drawing the ire of moviegoers who went to watch “Coco.” In Mexico, where the Pixar movie had an advance premiere, audiences were so mad at “Olaf’s Frozen Adventure” that cinemas began cutting it out of the program and showing “Coco” alone. When the quirky Dia de Muertos-themed family film finally showed up stateside, the reactions were much the same. Complaints about “Olaf” ranged from its longer-than-usual running time and the incongruity of pairing a short feature starring white characters with a movie about non-Caucasians.
The backlash regarding “Olaf’s Frozen Adventure” is such a shame considering that it actually is quite good in itself separate from “Coco.” The story is about the first Christmas celebration in Arendelle following the iconic events of “Frozen,” where Queen Elsa and Princess Anna oversee their first kingdom-wide Yuletide celebration. Unfortunately, their plans for a grand banquet at the castle are foiled by the Arendellians returning to their homes after the formal ceremony because they have their own Holiday traditions to celebrate with, a fact that pokes at old wounds with Elsa and Anna because, due to their isolation while growing up they never seem to have developed their own traditions to share.
Coming to their rescue however is the lovable animated snowman Olaf, who decides to travel across Arendelle with Sven the reindeer to canvass what the citizens love to do during the holidays, and bring them back to the Royal Sisters. What follows is a showcase of all that is good and nice about this time of year, with even a semi-action-oriented climax. In the end, the “Frozen” short actually hews similar plot points to the Mexican-themed movie that would follow it in the schedule, in that there’s always a tradition to be had with family.
All the major voice talent who made the original “Frozen” the hit it was came back to do it all over again: Idina Menzel (Elsa), Kristin Bell (Anna), Josh Gad as the adorable Olaf and even a small part with Jonathan Groff as Kristoff. There are four main songs in the short compared to the one from the previous “Frozen Fever” that was the opener for 2015’s live-action “Cinderella” and in my opinion these sounded better. The last number is just so incredibly heart-warming, even if none could ever quite reach the memetic status of that one song from the first film.
See, “Olaf’s Frozen Adventure” was originally planned to be shown as a Holiday TV special on ABC, the 20-something running time ostensibly was to allow commercial breaks for a half-hour timeslot. Disney has yet to give an official explanation as to why they decided to stick the special as a short program ahead of “Coco,” though they ought to be aware by now of how audiences have reacted badly to it and in turn, are biased towards labeling it as garbage. If one can just watch it with a cool head, they can see that it really is a wonderful season-special experience. The damage unfortunately, is done.
So Mexico has banished “Olaf’s Frozen Adventure” from their “Coco” screenings, while the UK is instead pairing the special with a re-release of original “Frozen.” But everywhere else, I strongly urge them to reconsider their opinions about Olaf’s musical search for holiday traditions, because it really brings the characters and setting of Arendelle to even more vibrant life, in anticipation for that full sequel. It’s not as bad as its reputation implies.

福布斯杂志影评人Scott MendelsonVerified

I totally understand why some parents were rather unhappy upon bringing their young kids to see Coco this weekend to discover a 21-minute Frozen featurette between the previews and the feature attraction. When you consider the average trailer reel runs around 20 minutes, that means folks will be sitting in the theater for a good 40 minutes, about two episodes of The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, before the movie even starts. If you're a parent with kids under 5, then Olaf's Frozen Adventure may mean the difference between your kids making to the end of Pixar's 100-minute musical adventure and checking out and wanting to leave toward the beginning of the third act.
As someone with many adventures taking my first child to theaters at a very young age (she wouldn't nap on the weekends and my wife needed the rest) and essentially holding my breath the entire running time, yeah, the idea of an underpublicized 21-minute pre-movie feature would be a bit upsetting. And while Walt Disney did announce way back in June that Olaf's Frozen Adventure was going to be attached to prints of Pixar's Coco, they didn't make a huge deal out of it and didn't screen the animated short for press during the Coco press screenings. For many parents this weekend, it was a surprise.
And yes, the animated short is very much something that was intended to air on ABC (and presumably the likes of Disney XD and Freeform and the like) over the holidays. As a pre-theater offering for a kid-targeted feature, it is unconscionably long. But as its own stand-alone thing, it is... fine?
You've probably seen a lot of handwringing over the last few days about how Olaf's Frozen Adventure is an abomination, how it ruined Christmas or mars the Frozen and Disney brand. And, for the record, if Disney tossed the Frozen short before Coco in the hopes that it might lure folks otherwise disinclined to see a Hispanic folktale into the theaters, well, good. Coco is a near-masterpiece and a powerful vessel for both onscreen representation and empathy for audiences who look like its heroes and those who don't. I'm of the mind that if putting Brad Pitt on a 12 Years A Slave poster gets white folks to see 12 Years A Slave in theaters, then at worst it's a necessary evil and at best it's a subversive good.
As its own thing, Olaf's Frozen Adventure is a perfectly harmless, occasionally charming, lovingly animated little treat for Frozen fans. It's not Frozen 2, but in the four years since Frozen we've only had a five-minute Frozen Fever short (before Cinderella in March of 2015) and now this extended short 2.5 years later. In two years, we'll all be dissecting Frozen 2, so you can't say that Disney has milked the cash cow all that much. In the time between (or just after) the two Frozen features, we will have had five Star Wars movies and four Spider-Man movies (counting Civil War).
So, what is this mini Frozen movie about? First, it's not a theatrical feature, so that it focuses on Olaf over Elsa and Anna is perfectly appropriate. This isn't Cars 2 being about Mater or On Stranger Tides turning Jack Sparrow into a would-be romantic leading man/action hero. This is an offshoot of the franchise, so again, it's no crime that a supporting character takes the spotlight for 20 minutes. But even while the film becomes Olaf's story, especially in the draggy middle act (yes, this thing is long enough to have three acts), there is plenty of screentime/singing/bonding for the queen and the princess of Arendelle.
The would-be TV special does its intended job, which is to entertain folks who want more of the Frozen world. There are a few songs, all of which are gloriously performed by the original voice cast (everyone from the movie came back to play), the animation is more than good enough and I laughed out loud at least twice. Best of all, the story gently/subtly picks at the scabs of the original film's tragic backstory, offering hope that the sequel will really deal with the harsh traumas and understandable resentments brought about by Elsa's fear-driven choices.
As far as holiday specials go, it's not as good as the 2010 Kung Fu Panda Holiday special which indirectly set up the core emotional conflict for Kung Fu Panda 2, but it's fine enough. Had this aired over Thanksgiving weekend or mid-December on television as intended, it would have likely been received as a charming diversion. But due to its length as a pre-theatrical bonus for a kid-targeted feature, the relatively stealth nature of its release and the not-great optics of trying to lure white folks to Coco via a Frozen short, it got clobbered this weekend.
Nonetheless, Olaf's Frozen Adventure was arguably the right product at the wrong time. As we've learned with Inhumans, sometimes you really can't throw TV onto a movie theater and expect everything to mesh. Having said that, I'd give your left arm to see CW's Crisis On Earth X as one 165-minute movie on an IMAX or Dolby Vision screen...

IMDB新收的一篇CRITIC REVIEW

Anna and Elsa ring the bell to mark the beginning of Arendelle’s yuletide season, their first since the gates have reopened, but then the crowds disperse, leaving the Frozen ladies to contemplate their lack of holiday traditions. Moved, their good buddy and everyone’s favourite snowman, Olaf, goes off in search of other people’s customs in order to find the right ones to adopt.
Originally Disney planned for this to be a televised episode but as production continued they felt it was too “cinematic” and deserved to be on the big screen, which is how it wound up in front of Pixar’s Coco. It’s only the second time that a non-Pixar short is in front of a Pixar film (the first time, for Toy Story, was the Roger Rabbit short, Roller Coaster Rabbit) but like any blended family, the Disney-Pixar merger has now been solidified, and when better to spend time together than the holidays? In fact, the two do seem to be appropriate companions since they’re both about appreciating different cultures. However, audiences in Mexico were less than thrilled with the “short” (it’s 21 minutes!); impatient to get to the movie that pays homage to their country, they rebelled until theaters dumped the short altogether.
Like Frozen Fever that came before it, the ladies seem to be confronted yet again with emotional loose ends, as it were, which means this short serves as a bridge to the inevitable sequel. And Olaf is evolving too. A kid favourite, the child-like snowman with a sense of wonder has always entertained, but in this short, he’s becoming more thoughtful and self-aware. He’s not just a side-kick anymore. And at 21 minutes, this short has time for 4 new original songs; That Time of Year is a particular stand out, and I was tickled by the mental comparison between Olaf (voiced by Josh Gad) knocking on villager’s doors, and Gad doing door to door with the ding-dong song Hello from Book of Mormon.
Olaf’s Frozen Adventure is fun in a giddy kind of way and fans of Frozen will be glad to revisit their old friends – though I do wonder if the fans aren’t sort of ageing out of the Princess phase by now. But Elsa and Anna still have a long way to go before their healing’s complete, so there are plenty more ways for Olaf to save them, and he’s always going to be enchanting as heck while he does it.

Tune in to ABC tomorrow at 9pm ET to see Idina Menzel and Kristen Bell perform the new song “When We’re Together” from #OlafsFrozenAdventure on “The Wonderful World of Disney: Magical Holiday Celebration”

Moana推特
I had so much fun performing at #RockCenterXMAS!! 🙌🏼🎄Thanks for tuning in!!! ❤️😘 Happy Holidays!!!

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