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Finally Disney is doing an adaptation of my favorite fairy tale Hans Christian Anderson's The Snow Queen. About bloody time, one gets tired of the Snow White, Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella retreads after a bit. Another one I'd like to see is the Brother's Grimm's tale Snow White and Rose Red. But no one has done it that I can think of.

Weirdly the trailer for the Disney version of Snow White entitled "Frozen" is different for the Japan and US Markets. The US Market - it's a silly kid piece with a snow man and a reindeer, while Japan's is more an anime version with the actual characters and film footage.

Also the story is very different than the original.

The original version is about two childhood friends, Kai and Gerda. An evil troll has created a mirror that only shows the bad in people. A splinter of the mirror gets into Kai's eye, which turns him cruel, unhappy, and aggressive. One winter, he hitches his sled to the Snow Queen and takes off with her. The people in the village believe he's drowned. But Gerda realizes he went with the Snow Queen and journeys to find him and save him from her clutches. Along the way she is captured by robbers, but a robber girl saves her and frees her along with her reindeer companions. Eventually Gerda finds Kai, and her love melts the ice encased around him by the Snow Queen and removes the mirror chip from his eye.

The Disney version ...has Anna journeying to free her sister, Elsa, who has become the Snow Queen from a curse - along with their country that is encased in an eternal winter because of the curse. Anna teams up with a mountain man, Kristoff, to help her save her sister.
Disney seems to think this is more feminist than the prior version...but I don't quite see it. Apparently the idea of having a guy as a damsel is more than they can handle?

Man of Steel Movie Review...

Just got back from dinner and a movie with MD...saw Man of Steele finally, and yes it is as bad as everyone said it was. Worst movie I've seen in a while, which is saying something. Granted I went in with fairly low expectations...but it really was that bad.

While the idea of telling the story in flashbacks, and starting with Superman's tale from the perspective of Krypton and having Krypton be the main focus was innovative...it was also a bit dull and emotionally detaching. I didn't care about anyone in the story. Too much emphasis on the fight sequences and sci-fi special effects and not enough on the relationships and dialogue.

There were major characters in this story - that I had no idea who they were or what their names were. Nor did I care. There's a whole sequence with Perry White and a coworker saving another coworker that made little sense and didn't resonate, because we were never told who these people were and spent no time with them. It was as if the scenes that established these characters and who they were - were left on the cutting room floor. Instead we got more drawn-out action sequences and long drawn out special effects bits of what Krypton was like.

It also, lacked humor. (Well unless you count the scene in which Superman's Dad for no explicable reason saves a German Shepard from a tornado...while telling his son, who he knows is Superman to seek shelter...but I'm guessing that wasn't intentional. Or the burping polar bear.) No one cracked a smile until the very end. It took itself far too seriously...the kiss of death for a superhero flick. Even the Dark Knight flicks had touches of humor.

They just didn't build up the story well. Or edit it. Felt thrown together.

Instead of the action sequences propelling the plot forward, the plot and characters existed to set up the action sequences. It was all about the cool and extremely long and loud fight sequences. Which were ultimately boring, because they were a) often difficult to follow due to the special effects and b) it was hard to care - not helped by the fact that both characters fighting didn't seem to care who they hurt or destroyed in their wake - although Superman did pause once or twice to help people.

The mythology was interesting but more or less the same as the previous movies, with a few tweaks here and there.

MD and I both left the movie with headaches. It was a long movie...started at 6:30, and we got out at 9.

Hmm...apparently the only good blockbuster flick this summer was Iron Man 3.