Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney back to Classic Shorts Showcase. And today, we come to the last short that is a part of the Walt Disney Animation Studios Short Films Collection.
As we look at Frozen Fever and if you'll notice the box art, Anna, Elsa, & Olaf take up the majority of cover art while the other shorts are just in boxes behind the Frozen characters. I got into a bit of an argument with someone about this as I was saying that it seemed like Disney was trying to market this as a Frozen DVD and not give the other shorts, their due. He didn't agree but this was around the time that Disney was really riding the Frozen high. Granted, Frozen is still popular as ever and the opening of Frozen: Live at the Hyperion and Frozen Ever After prove that.
So, Frozen still has some legs to stand on and we saw that a year after the movie came out with the release of the Cinderella remake, we were given a brand new Frozen short in Frozen Fever. And you could technically consider this a re-review as when DisneyOtoko and I talked about this in our Cinderella crossover. And how did I feel about Frozen Fever then? I hated it... a lot. Quite a lot. However opinions can change and that's the case today. Watching Frozen Fever again on Netflix was my third time watching it as Disney Channel also showed it a couple months ago. I think it was the same weekend, they premiered Frozen on Disney Channel and each time that I've watched it since that crossover, it's grown on me. I no longer hate it and find it enjoyable but even still in terms of the shorts that we've reviewed that are featured in this collection, it's probably the weakest and you can feel that it was done to cash in on Frozen's popularity.
The Plot
Admittedly, this short barely has a plot to it and the plot that it does have is rather paper thin. Matter of fact, don't go into this expecting too much in terms of plot as it's more a musical number than a short. The song is admittedly okay but we will come to that at a later date. What is the plot that this short has? It's Anna's birthday and Elsa wants to make it the best one that she's had as she never got to spend any birthdays with her big sister but Elsa has a cold. And as the day goes on, the cold gets worse and every time, Elsa sneezes, these little minion ripoffs called Snowgies come out and by the end, there are hundreds if not thousands of these things roaming around Arendelle. And at the end of the short, they move into the ice palace with Marshmallow.
It's a sweet little short as we see how far Elsa is willing to go for her little sister and it does pay off as we see that Anna loves everything that her sister did for her. And we also see how much Anna cares for her big sister and this has perhaps one of my favorite Anna lines.
Anna: Best birthday present ever
Elsa: Which one?Anna: You letting me take care of you
There really isn't much more that I can say about this short as it's really paper thin but it's still enjoyable. Just temper your expectations and don't go in expecting Frozen 2. Like I did, when I first saw this. It's cute and fun but a bit light on plot.
Characters
Anna & Elsa voiced by Kristen Bell & Idina Menzel
The strength of this short is the relationship between these two sisters as you see what great lengths they are willing to go to be there for one another. When I reviewed the Christmas story, All I want For Christmas featuring these two and a similar story as Elsa wanted to give her little sis, a perfect Christmas, I complained that the story seemed to neglect Ana and not show us how much she care for Elsa.
Thankfully, this short does not fall into that trap and we get to see both how far Elsa is willing to push herself to make sure everything is perfect for Anna to the point of ignoring her health. When it comes to Elsa, everything take a backseat in regards to Anna as she is trying to make up on all the lost time from when they were kids. And with Anna, you see the younger sibling that cares for their older sibling and everything that they are doing for them but sometimes younger siblings do know better and that you don't need to go all out to be to please younger siblings. Something that I can relate to. All we want is for our older siblings to be there for us and show us that they care about us. We don't need them to plan extravagant events to please us. Just shows us that you care about us and sometimes that means knowing when you have to let go of responsibilities and let the younger sibling help you out.
Song
Making Today A Perfect Day
This song is okay if forgettable. And it does pretty much cover all the events in the short. As I said this short is pretty much a musical number and this song takes up all the runtime of the short . It's probably my least favorite song to come from the world of Frozen. I've seen people say that this feels like a song that was cut from a movie. And while I can see that, I've listened to the cut songs as I have the Deluxe soundtrack on my IPod and it comes with the songs that were cut from the movie and those are a tad better.
My Final Thoughts
Since DisneyOtoko & I looked at this short as a part of Cinderella (2015) crossover, my opinion has softened. I don't think it's as bad as I did when I first saw it but I think part of my issue at the time is that I was riding such a Frozen high as I really love this movie and perhaps expected to love it because it was related to Frozen, which has become one of my alltime favorite Disney movies. Truth be told, I was more excited for this than the Cinderella remake and when it didn't live up to my expectations I was severely disappointed. But having sometime away from it and seeing it without the Frozen hype surrounding it, my opinion is now that it's not a bad short. It's not perfect and it's still probably one of the weaker things that I've seen that uses Elsa and Anna. Though that doesn't stop Disney making merchandise based on it.
But Frozen is profitable, so I can't fault Disney for that too much . Looking at this short with a fresh pair of eyes and not being by blinded by the Frozen hype, I don't think the short is that bad but I do still think that out of all the shorts that I've reviewed from the Walt Disney Animation Studios, it is the weakest. But that does not make it bad. Taken on it's own, this is a cute little short. Peace!
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