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| (c.) 2013 Walt Disney Animation Studios |
Don’t get me wrong, I loved
Disney’s 2013 winter hit, adore the soundtrack (2 disc deluxe edition for me),
and grab what merchandise I can (when I can justify it or the price). There are many good things to be said about
this Oscar winning best animated feature film, whether it be the breaking of
the romance-focused “true love” stereotype Disney Princess movies are famous
for to showcasing how Walt Disney Animation Studios isn’t dead.
However many of us Frozen fans were disappointed with the
"icy thin" bonus features the Blu-Ray contained.
With less than an hour’s worth of extras on the Blu-Ray edition, it
makes me wonder, was there anything included on the DVD edition? (Edit: Just looked it up and the DVD contained only
the Mickey Mouse short and some music videos.) Considering that this is from one of, if not
the biggest animation film company in America and the most highly acclaimed animated
film from Disney in recently history, this is simply, absolutely pathetic!
Granted, the 1080p film
quality and sound are amazing. But
honestly, were they just too nervous of revealing company secrets or technology
to have a legitimate behind-the-scenes documentary or an audio commentary? I’ve noticed a lot of the Blu-Rays of recent Disney
animated films were a bit … lacking in bonus features. While Tangled is one of my favorites, the
best bonus feature we had was a “making of” featurette (and again, no audio
commentary). Frankly, I’m glad I waited
to buy it second-hand.
It seems only “special
anniversary edition” Blu-Rays, such as the over 50 years old titles Alice in Wonderland or Dumbo have substantial bonus features,
featurettes, and documentaries. Since
animation is a competitive field, I can understand why the “hush hush” –however,
my other most recent Blu-Ray purchase, How
to Train Your Dragon, contained hours worth of bonus features and behind
the scenes featurettes. Granted,
DreamWorks Animation's more recent The
Croods (also released in 2013) barely featured substantial extras either. So this could just be a trend for home
releases in general and not a Disney money-making scheme to release “special
editions” and “anniversary editions” of already released films.
As someone with a creative undergraduate degree, even though I don’t have an
animation background, I love seeing how these types of films are made, reading “the
art of” and “behind the scenes” movie books.
Therefore, I’m am very excited to forget “The Making of Frozen” the horrible
joke (#NotFunnyDisney) music video tease given on the Blu-Ray and am ready
to watch “The Story of Frozen: Making a Disney Animated Classic” set to air tomorrow on ABC (8:00pm-9:00pm, ET). The official blog of
Disney, Disney Insider promises interviews with voice actresses Kristen Bell
and Idina Menzel along with ...
“…the directors, songwriters,
producer and artists and chief creative officer John Lasseter — the team who dreamed
of making a cherished Hans Christian Andersen story into a big screen animated
musical.”
Though not mentioned by name,
this presumably would include directors Chris Buck (Tarzan; Surf’s Up) and
Jennifer Lee (Wreck-It-Ralph) and producer
Peter Del Vecho (The Princess and the
Frog; Winnie the Pooh).
Though the hour long special is also to
promote Big Hero 6 and the upcoming season
of Once Upon a Time, if they do offer
us a true, substantial “Making of Frozen” featurette, I’m entirely ready to set
up my DVR and tell my bitterly cold feelings on the Frozen Blu-Ray to just “let it go.”
So, Frozen fan or not, will you be watching this special tomorrow? What do you think about bonus features (or the lack of) on a Blu-Ray or DVD? Happy Labor Day everyone!
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