For starters: No, I am not obsessed with “Frozen.”
Now a quick disclaimer before my friends line up at my door to refute this with my Spotify activity as evidence. Yes, I am in love with the soundtrack, but the movie itself is slightly weak in contrast to past Disney movies. Even so, the disappointment I have for the ending was not enough to heed me from shrieking upon hearing that the producers released a sing-along version of the movie.
On Jan. 31, juniors Sherrilyn Ling, Eunju Pak, Jonathan Huie and I planned to view the 7:40 p.m. show; this required us leaving at 6:30 p.m. because we anticipated large throngs of “Frozen” fans who would steal all good seats if we didn’t reach earlier.
Our first road bump on the way to Arendelle was Eunju’s resistance to answering her phone when we tried to communicate the time to meet up. Upon arriving at her house to kidnap her, Sherrilyn and I found her snuggled up with her dog in bed, snoozing away.
Sherrilyn and I proceeded to pull her out of bed after 20 minutes of the fiercest opposition I have ever experienced. Once we got her on her feet, we continued on to AMC 14, where Jonathan had been waiting outside in the cold for a good half hour.
At this point, it was 10 minutes before the show time and we found ourselves casually strolling into the theater, screeching something that could have passed as “Frozen” songs in excitement. Little did we know, every seat above the first two rows had already been taken.
But do not fret! All was well! The four seats on the left aisle of the very front row were open and beckoning to us, inviting us to strain our necks for a solid two hours!
We settled into the seats and waited impatiently through trailers we had all seen too many times at this point; and then with the opening of the first song, down came the roof.
I honestly expected us four to be the only ones hysterically yelling along to the lyrics displayed on the screen, but I was very wrong. That theater was filled with what seemed like duplicates of us, the four who call ourselves the “Frozen fanclub.” Even more heartwarming was hearing others sing along to the beat of drums, enthusiastic “doot’s” and “bum’s” from all corners of the theaters.
The highlight of the movie was hearing the roaring stomp of 40 feet slamming against the floor in unison with Elsa during “Let it Go.” Fellow “Frozen” lovers let off ice flurries just as she did, and turning our heads to watch the entire theater act the movie out was more entertaining than anything.
No one in that theater had any experience with singing; this was apparent with the wailing high notes that attempted to match Idina Menzel’s beautiful, Broadway-trained voice. Hearing a chorus of amateur singers embracing their voices to sing along was unbelievably hilarious.
Another worthwhile moment was during Olaf’s number, during which the adorable snowman is unaware of the melting side effects that come with summer. The song holds a small pause after Olaf sings, “Winter’s a good time to stay in and cuddle, but put me in summer and I’ll be a —” in which a boy screamed “PUDDLE” in a moment of absolute silence, rather than the correct lyric, “Happy snowman!”
A slight setback to the movie is its lack of songs in the latter half. At this point, the entirety of the theater nestled into their seats, phones out and impatient.
The rest of the movie is significantly less memorable; however, this does not mean seeing this version of the movie is not worth the money. Aside from the entertainment of following the lyrics on the screen, a small snowflake follows the words to assist. This amused us a lot more than it probably should have.
Honestly, there isn’t anything I can complain about. Despite the latter half being weak, this movie is well worth the money and time. And hey, if you have any problems with it, then let it go.
