Disney Defrosts, Thaws Out "The Snow Queen"

Remember a year ago when many people were upset when the media blitzed that Disney was foregoing fairy tale films for the foreseeable future--I discussed it some in my Thoughts on Tangled post. Yes, only a year later and we have Princess Sofia announced and even bigger news, Snow Queen is being defrosted.

Now, I have a long history with Snow Queen and have mentioned it before. Back in 2000 when my husband worked for ABC Online, he rode the train to Burbank and became friends with a few of the Disney animators. A few dinners and conversations later, I had some backdoor insights and peeks at Snow Queen which were fascinating. To sum up: It was nothing like the fairy tale, at all. There was a Snow Queen. That's it. If the plot had been described to me without any preface I wouldn't have ever placed it as the HCA tale.

Then Disney needed to layoff employees to make its year end numbers--which included those animators and my husband--and Snow Queen was tabled yet again. ABC was in the state that NBC is in today and Disney itself wasn't doing much better. VSPs (voluntary severance packages) were the topic of conversations, not The Snow Queen. I've lost count how many times the project has been tabled. And, fortunately, my husband was kept on a few extra months to finish some major projects so we walked away with the package and a new job the following Monday, a blessing since we had moved across the country for the job, far away from family and a much lower cost of living standard. Our rent then was hundreds more than our mortgage now that we live back in Nashville.

But now, with headlines about defrosting, thawing, etc. the media is announcing that the film has been resurrected yet again. Just one article is here but a news search will produce more. There's not much beyond the title and confusion over whether it will be handdrawn or CGI but the consensus is that it will be 3D. I still don't understand Hollywood's misconception that 3D sells seats and DVDs. They might consider offering women viewers some strong female roles and some non-gross romance. (See Movie crowds dip to 16-year low as apathy lingers By DAVID GERMAIN.)

Now the movie will be one word-titled "Frozen." Yes, those onscreen TV guides have oversimplified our lives. And we wouldn't want to disenfranchise male viewers with a girlie title either.

I enjoyed Tangled. I'm not a Disney fan, but I am not a big detractor either. Honestly, more of my own distaste comes from those days dealing with Disney in Burbank when my husband was employed there and I worked down the street at a branch of the Burbank Library. But that's neither here nor there for this post.

As always, I am happy about any big media project that brings more focus on fairy tales, and, let's face it, Disney is hard to surpass for visibility. So let's hope "Frozen" finally gets defrosted, cooked and served at our tables!