Frozen II (2019)

Funny you should mention that because there's a sign outside the Cinemark XD auditorium at my local theater saying that it is a THX certified cinema.

 

For anyone who cares: this weekend will be the last for Frozen II in premium screens. (IMAX, Cinemark XD, etc.) Jumanji has them for a week beginning next Thursday afternoon, and then of course Star Wars has them beginning on the evening of December 19. Frozen II will be around for a long time to come in standard auditoriums, but I'm going to go one more time this weekend on the largest screen available.

I think the movie is absolutely tremendous. It gives us more of everyone that we love from the original while expanding the world and deepening the characters by challenging them significantly in new ways. I love that the filmmakers took a creative risk with this film rather than just resting on their laurels and creating a carbon copy of the first film. I think this one is better, but it's not better in a vacuum; it's better because it builds upon what came before, and it wouldn't be able to be this effective if this were the first story in the series. In terms of the complexity of the storytelling, the emotions that the characters are going through, and visually the ambition and scope of the larger world and more complex visual environment, it's a big step up from the first film. It is easily one of my favorite movies this year.

I can't wait to see it again this weekend.

In other news, the Deluxe Edition soundtrack is now available for MP3 purchase. Originally, as was the subject of discussion between @Jason_V and myself a couple of weeks ago, it appeared to be exclusive to streaming services. But now you can buy it...only on MP3. There does not appear to be a CD release of it. It's possible that they could do one later, although the last 2-disc deluxe soundtrack for a new film that Disney released to CD was for Beauty and the Beast in 2017. Mary Poppins Returns, Aladdin and The Lion King could easily have gotten multi-disc sets and didn't. Meanwhile, the digital release of Avengers Endgame is 38 minutes longer than the CD release; not even being the #1 film of all time could gt that soundtrack a complete release. And Disney is also keeping the instrumental score for Black Panther exclusive to digital, even though it won the Oscar. So my confidence is not significant enough that Disney will do a CD version of the deluxe set to wait for it.

Even though I already bought the CD with the songs on it and am annoyed at the double dipping, I couldn't help myself and just downloaded the deluxe edition, mainly to get Christophe Beck's score for the film. There are also early recordings of songs that were cut from the film or greatly refashioned into the ones that made it in.

I really have to compliment Christophe Beck's beautiful job he did with this score. I knew that from watching the movie, but hearing it on its own via the soundtrack just reinforced that. It's a thrilling score and the film would not be nearly as good without it. I really hope he gets an Oscar nomination for this. I fear that because Let It Go won Best Song last time, and Into the Unknown is likely to win that award for the Frozen franchise again, some voters might feel that that is "enough," especially because Frozen music is so widely associated with the songs. But those are written by Kristin Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, and unlike Alan Menken, they do not compose the underscore as well. Therefore, awarding them is not the same as awarding Christophe Beck for his contribution, and his is equally significant and wonderful as theirs. So it would be really nice if he got recognized. I suspect both Alan Silvestri (Endgame) and John Williams (Rise of Skywalker) will provide formidable competition in the score category this year, so Beck might not be able to win for this. But if he can't, he should at least be nominated.

 

Sidebar:

Oh, I absolutely think Silvestri will be nominated. Although it seems crazy to me to say this, Silvestri has never won an Oscar and is way overdue for one. He did awesome, sweeping work on Endgame and -- unlike in some other categories where being film #22 in a long-running series may be a disadvantage for it in terms of connecting with the Academy members who don't follow the MCU -- you don't have to understand what's going on in Endgame in order to appreciate that the music is good. Plus, Black Panther won Best Score this past March, so the Academy has demonstrated their willingness to honor Marvel in this category. Plus, Score would be a nice place to honor the film even if certain members of the Academy are more reluctant to vote for it in above-the-line categories. That being said, if I were a betting man I would think that the allure of giving John Williams one more Oscar for completing a 42-year series of iconic scores with The Rise of Skywalker is too tempting to pass up. So I think that award is all his.

But I hope that Silvestri and Christophe Beck are both nominated alongside him.

Now, to bring this thread back more specifically to Frozen II, I saw it again today for the second time before it cedes the premium auditoriums to Jumanji next week. I again loved it and this viewing reinforced its status as one of my favorite movies of the year. I loved how richly it expanded the canvas of the Frozen universe and deepened the characters and their relationships. However, I was a bit surprised that for a Saturday afternoon showing of the #1 movie in the world, I was the only person in the whole auditorium. Of course, my theater still has it on four screens simultaneously, so it's possible that other people simply chose a different showtime and didn't pay the premium format upcharge. But I still thought it was rather odd to be literally the only person in the room. This has happened to me a few times before, but usually it's when I'm seeing something that has been out for several weeks (like when I saw Slumdog Millionaire for the sixth time on its final day of play at my theater a couple weeks after the Blu-ray had already been released, or for late weeknight showings of very small arthouse titles, like The Diary of a Teenage Girl.) But this has never happened to me for a major release when it's still the #1 movie in the world. This did not affect my enjoyment of the movie at all, but it would have probably been even more fun with a responsive crowd.

 

Okay, then what movie do you think is going to win Best Score?