Let It Go

[poliphilo]

"Is this a programme for children?" my mother asked.

"It's Christmas Day," I said, "Everything is for children."

We watched Frozen together. Well, I watched it and she dozed. You've got to love it. If my grand daughters are going to grow up surrounded by corporate product then this is the sort of product I'd like the corporations to be turning out. Mostly it's mainstream Disney, but with a couple of twists that subvert the time-honoured narrative- and, of course, the heart of it is the song. That's what will last. That's what we take away with us.

Comments

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

The only telly i watched was Doctor Who.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I seem to be finished with Who.

[matrixmann]

Nice unintentional metaphor to nail it.
Sometimes one thinks these days the only thing TV can do is sounding like being intended for children. It talks to you like children, it's kitschy, bright and loud and nothing really seems to matter. All tries to sell itself to you as entertainment, even the news work by quotas and also you can't even believe them too much anymore because they worked by some fucked-up principle. They're rather a factory for breeding and spreading hysteria, fear and artificial needs that are going to be satisfied by products of big enterprises and law changes. In the end? An insult to every conscious and thinking mind.
And when you look only for entertainment, you find a lot of childish stuff on TV, even in that stuff they want to sell you as "aimed for a more mature audience". Yeah, hell what - all like Two And A Half Men! (*sarcasm*)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I watch very little TV. It annoys me too much. If it wasn't for my mother we wouldn't own a set.

[matrixmann]

Good attitude.

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

Well...I think Two and a Half Men was meant for...men. It's the kind of bathroomy sex driven alcohol fueled stuff that seems aimed towards men. Not all men, of course. But I agree with you. There is little of substance on television.

[matrixmann]

I think it's rather intended for the average stupid masses. In the first place: The average stupid American because it's an American TV series.

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

I think this is a good point and probably correct except - I do not know ONE female who liked this program. But then, I am not your average stupid American nor do I have any average stupid American friends.

[matrixmann]

Well, liking maybe is a bit too much of the expectation. The shit's in the program and steals away the time for something else that could be aired instead. Plus, if you do some semi-promotion for it by what its actors do privately or what is scandalously displayed in the series - bang, you got your shit that's in everyone's brain even though he doesn't want to have it there. And something else instead isn't there which could be more useful for the intellect.

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

There is a Disney Store in the local AWful Evil Mall and I was there one day looking around. Constant sound track is, of course, old Disney songs. One little girl was watching and listening as I sang my way through about 10 minutes before she said to her mother - Mommy, That old lady knows ALL the words to all the songs.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I expect I know most of the songs too.

Disney is so big. I think it's the bigness I resent. It means that so much of what our children consume has a uniform texture and sweetness.

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

when I sang with Community Chorus, we did a Disney program. We had the sheet music and all that stuff and we all LOVED it because we were mostly familiar with the music and knew the audience would feel that way too. And then, the Disney folks threatened to sue us. Something about live performance and charging admission and ...well, intellectual property stuff.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That sort of thing makes me grind my teeth. These big corporations are so greedy.

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

"Frozen" is quite good - and one of the Disney franchises that I feel most comfortable letting young girls buy into. Also, I rather like how it has made blue a "girly" colour so it's not all pink!

And the song is good - or was... I'm of the generation where many of my friends are completely disgusted with the song because it's been a hit with their kids for YEARS now! Played in kindergartens, play groups and homes. Again and again... Personally I hear it once or twice a year and gladly belt along in English or Danish, but if I heard it daily I guess I'd love it rather less...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

"Quite good" is right. It's not a great movie- it's too corporate- but for Disney it's a milestone...

My kids grew up without a great deal of Disney in their live- but that was 30 years ago and it's harder now to keep the tide of cutesiness at bay.

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

As a kid I watched the Disney Christmas show - and that was about it.

By a strange accident I ended up with my ex-husband's Disney kids' books after the divorce; I didn't even know they made that sort of books until we found them in my mother-in-law's attic! They weren't too bad, though, so I donated them to a charity that distributes Christmas donations and in the end I only had to take them to a house 1½ miles from here to deliver them to a single mother of 3... No wonder she could use 32 kid's books!!!

(Also, the "Let It Go" scene is quite beautifully made...)