DVDizzy Forum

PatrickvD wrote:

SWillie! wrote: I agree, I like Arendelle. Tangled's kingdom is unofficially Corona. From what I understand, that's what the filmmakers referred to it as during production, but I guess they weren't allowed to use it in the film, possibly because of the beer connotation. http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Corona

I'm pretty sure the beer brand Corona does not own the actual word, which is Latin for 'crown', referring to the atmosphere of the sun. Which in turn refers to Rapunzel's magical sun drop powers and her rightful crown.

SWillie! wrote:Right, I know - I didn't mean that it had anything to do with rights to the word, but because of connotations that are made. Corona beer is a strong enough brand that the word is immediately identified as the beer, and so from what I've heard Disney didn't want that correlation.

SWillie! wrote:[Right, I know - I didn't mean that it had anything to do with rights to the word, but because of connotations that are made. Corona beer is a strong enough brand that the word is immediately identified as the beer, and so from what I've heard Disney didn't want that correlation.

SWillie! wrote:

Disney's Divinity wrote:Arendelle? I kind of like that name. I don't think the kingdom in Tangled had a name, did it?

I agree, I like Arendelle. Tangled's kingdom is unofficially Corona. From what I understand, that's what the filmmakers referred to it as during production, but I guess they weren't allowed to use it in the film, possibly because of the beer connotation. http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Corona

With the release of "Frozen" in November, Jennifer Lee, who shares credit with Chris Buck, will be the first woman to direct a feature at the studio. "We're trying to build back that Disney name," Lasseter said by phone. "Success breeds autonomy. The more we can be successful, the more they'll keep letting us do what we want to do."

"Frozen" came from a director's pitch; Buck, who directed "Tarzan" at Disney in 1999, first proposed the notion of adapting the Hans Christian Andersen tale "The Snow Queen" to Lasseter in 2008. "One of the things that was very important to me was to bring back the sincere fairy tale," Lasseter said. "I didn't understand why the previous leaders felt like the modern audience wasn't interested in the sincere fairy tale anymore."

In April 2012, Buck enlisted Lee, who had joined Disney as a writer on "Wreck-It Ralph," to help shape the project. During story meetings on "Wreck-It Ralph," Lee had distinguished herself as someone with a particularly rare mix of qualities — an assertive perspective as a writer but an ability to listen as well. "We were all impressed by her voice in the story room," Lasseter said. "It's very important to have this real open, creative room for each movie, where the story team and directors and writers and everybody can discuss and be honest with each other. Her voice in this room was so strong on structure, character development, but very open too. We wanted that strong female voice."

Traditionally, the studio hadn't employed formal writers but let the story instead be shaped by animators — but contemporary movies have more complex storylines, with multiple plotlines and characters. "When you're writing in live action, you have more ownership," Lee said at the studio as she and Buck were in the final weeks of making story changes to "Frozen" last month. "In animation, you have to let the best idea win. You're constantly killing your darlings. What I like about doing a fairy tale today is, audiences want something big and meaty. It's not as simple as some of the classics like 'Cinderella.' It's not focusing on princess stories as much as family stories. It's one ordinary girl's struggle to help save the world, with her sister as the main obstacle."

When filmmakers are in the last year of production, they meet with Lasseter weekly — a change from the more insulated chief executives of earlier eras. "We used to have what we called the gates, or gatekeepers," said Buck, who left Disney in 2004 before returning in 2008. "There were all these executives who we had to show our work to before we got to the boss. Now you go straight to John, he gives you his gut reaction and you move on."

[Jennifer] Lee now works in icicle-festooned rooms behind the enormous Mickey Mouse sorcerer's hat that's outside Disney Animation in Burbank, where the Frozen team gets "notes from up to 150 people — 150!" as they shape Disney's next big thing. "Every day," Lee says, "it still feels like, 'Am I good enough? What am I doing here? Why are they letting me do this?' "

[...] Producer Peter Del Vecho asked Lee to write, then co-direct, Frozen. "I worked with Chris Buck for about a week to see if I thought I could do Frozen," Lee says. She "fell in love" with the tale of a snow queen. [...] She calls industry disinterest in female directors "part of Hollywood I don't understand" but greatly admires Disney's commitment to complex female characters and creativity. When she heard the studio was bringing in a live reindeer to inspire Frozen's animators, she smiled, "Can you believe it?"

Matt Sullivan wrote:I haven't really updated this blog in a while. The reason I haven't posted is because I have been slaving away at the studio on Frozen! We had a crew screening yesterday and it is really exciting to see this film coming together the way it is. [...] It is really refreshing to see such incredible broadway talent like Idina putting such a solid vocal performance into these characters! Look for the trailer soon!

Robert Iger wrote:We feel good about the slate ahead from all sectors of the company. Disney Animation has an excellent Christmas film in Frozen.

Steve Hulett wrote:I saw a dandy scene from Frozen yesterday. Picture looks good, even though everybody has pedals to the metal.

Steve Hulett wrote:Another staffer upstairs said: "We're doing more pictures now, more stuff is in development. Big Hero 6 is going to overlap with Frozen. Management wants to do one picture a year now. They're not going to be laying a lot of people off, because they're going to need them."

PatrickvD wrote:This is becoming a bit of a theme in the postmodern princess films. Tangled, The Princess and the Frog and Brave all open with a young princess. They need to be careful not to turn it into too much of a formula.

Disney's Divinity wrote:I think they're doing it for merchandising purposes, just in case they might want to make dolls of the princesses as babies/young children.

Sotiris wrote:

PatrickvD wrote:This is becoming a bit of a theme in the postmodern princess films. Tangled, The Princess and the Frog and Brave all open with a young princess. They need to be careful not to turn it into too much of a formula.

I agree although I think in the case of Frozen, it's probably going to have a more important role than the usual cuteness factor. They must want to establish a strong bond between the two sisters from a young age and set the foundation for their future relationship.

PatrickvD wrote:True. And to me only Brave's opening scene, while very good, was kind of pointless. There was no reason to start the story off with young Merida other than cuteness. The Mordu story had been thrown into the background anyway. In the case of Tiana and Rapunzel it was much more important to the story to open with them as young girls.

PatrickvD wrote:This is becoming a bit of a theme in the postmodern princess films. Tangled, The Princess and the Frog and Brave all open with a young princess. They need to be careful not to turn it into too much of a formula.

Sotiris wrote:It looks like that Mark Henn is drawing over the CG characters on Frozen like Glen Keane did on Tangled.