Jennifer Lee to adapt A Wrinkle in Time

The classic novel, A Wrinkle in Time, has escaped a film adaptation for 50-years but Disney is planning to change that. The mega-giant has hired Frozen director, Jennifer Lee, to adapt the novel for the screen.

A Wrinkle in Time is considered one of the earliest young adult sci-fi novels and it has been read in schools for many years. I remember having to do a book report on it in 5th grade. It follows a young girl who finds out her father was a government scientist. It is assumed that since Lee is writing a screenplay that she will most likely be directing as well, but that isn't confirmed. What is confirmed, for the most part, is this project has fallen under Walt Disney Animation Studios so it will be animated or at least utilize motion-capture CGI.

Wreck-It Ralph sequel in the works

Smack dab in the middle of Frozen madness, word has escaped that Disney is currently developing a sequel to their 2012 animated film Wreck-It Ralph.

Composer Henry Jackman let it slip during an interview for Captain America: The Winter Soldier by stating Disney is indeed working on it, but was quick to zip his lips after that.

“I can’t tell you more, not because I’m being coy, but I believe that it is officially on the cards. I don’t know any more other than a story is indeed being written. I’d be very surprised not to. I’m not blowing my own trumpet. Forget about the music. Just the movie itself I thought was a fantastically imaginative and creative piece of work.”

John C. Reilly brought this great character to life as he stormed through the video game world inside an arcade in an attempt to "game jump" and switch from being a bad guy to becoming a hero. The film grossed $281 million at the worldwide box office and was an overall success for Disney. It also featured the voices of Jack McBrayer, Sarah Silverman, and Jane Lynch.
Even though this has slipped out, Disney has a pretty full schedule ahead of them. Walt Disney Animation currently has an expected Frozen sequel in development as well as Big Hero 6 coming this November and Zootopia coming in 2016. It is possible we could see a sequel to Wreck-It Ralph, but I wouldn't bank on it happening anytime before 2017 or 2018. Not unless they go the Planes route and do short films that could play before the full-length theatrical releases.

Despite how long it may take, I will be the first in line to see a sequel. I loved Wreck-It Ralph and I think it's definitely more deserving of a sequel than Frozen is. I'm still a bit lost on the whole Frozen madness thing. It wasn't even that good. Wreck-It Ralph was a lot better.

Frozen makes box office history

It's no secret that Disney it the jackpot with Frozen, both fan-wise and financially. The Oscar-winning animated feature has now marked another milestone becoming the highest grossing animated film worldwide.

Frozen has surpassed Pixar's Toy Story 3 with a total of $1.07 billion at the box office. That not only puts it in first in the record books, but it puts Walt Disney Animation on top of Pixar for the first time. It also marks the first animated feature released by Walt Disney Animation to reach $1 billion. The runner up, Tangled, only produced $591 million worldwide. The film also managed to become the biggest digital seller of all time and sold 3.2 million Blu-Ray/DVD copies in the first day. That is the best in over a decade.
That doesn't even include how well the soundtrack is doing. The original soundtrack, composed by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, has sold 1.6 million copies with 5 million individual tracks. The video for "Let It Go" has also reached over 160 million views on YouTube, sold over 2.6 million copies, and managed to take home the Oscar for Best Original Song.

It's a no brainer that Disney will bank on this franchise. There is an average of a 2-3 hour wait to meet Anna and Elsa at Disneyland and there are rumors of both a sequel and a Frozen ride in the Disney parks. With this movie continuing to make money, I don't think we will see the end of Frozen for quite sometime. They will push it until it reaches direct-to-DVD status.

Frozen - Review

Anna, a young princess, finds herself in a race against the seasons as she ventures out from her kingdom to find her newly crowned Queen sister, Elsa, after her ice powers unintentionally freeze the kingdom in an eternal winter in Frozen.


I went into Frozen with an open mind because I generally like animated movies. Despite being 25-years old, I do enjoy a children's movies for the most part. I thought the previews looked fun and the hype over it gave me a lot of hope. However, I walked out of the theater with a pretty "meh" attitude and few laughs under my belt.
I don't know if it was just me, but I didn't find Frozen to be anything too spectacular. It wasn't nearly as good as previous Walt Disney Animation films such as Tangled and Wreck-It Ralph. It didn't even come close to Wreck-It Ralph and the previews are trying to put it on the same level as The Lion King. The animation itself was gorgeous, but the story was lacking for me. I thought the beginning was very rushed and rather confusing at first. They don't really explain what Elsa's "frozen" powers are and the events with Anna were pretty unrealistic. I feel like after having a closed kingdom for 10 years you wouldn't let your princess run freely around the kingdom without people even asking where she was or what she was doing while the soon to be crowned Queen remains locked in her bedroom. It was very weird. The story itself wasn't even emotionally moving. It was one of the only Disney movies that has not moved me to feel something. Hell, I cried during Wreck-It Ralph.
Like I said, the animation was great. The ice effects and the snow were very beautifully rendered and I would put the animation on the level of the previous films from Disney. I think the events of the movie took away from it, though. There was too much music and break into song moments. They didn't flow too well together and seemed to pop up out of nowhere at times with no real lead in.
As far as characters go, I thought a majority of the characters were enjoyable. Elsa was extremely underdeveloped, though. Anna was more of a main character with Elsa as a supporting character and I felt it should be the other way around due to the fact that Elsa was the one with the powers. The funniest character was the reindeer, Sven. Hands down the most annoying character was Olaf, the snowman. He had his funny moments but as a whole he was rather annoying and had jokes that I think were a bit ahead of the intended audience. There was a joke about being impaled and the only people chuckling were the adults. That seems to be typical of kids movies these days.
I also found the blatant similarities between Frozen and Tangled to be a bit distracting. The reindeer was very similar to the horse in Tangled, Anna and Elsa both looked a lot like Rapunzel, and Prince Hans was similar in looks and personality to Flynn Rider. Also the princess being the hero was like, yeah it's been done. I kept thinking of Tangled the whole time. 

Basically, Frozen was just alright for me. I probably could have, and should have, waited for DVD so I could just rent it. I enjoyed the last half a lot more than the first and it had too much singing. It's unfortunate this movie wasn't just a little bit longer. I think an extra 10-15min could have made a big difference. It wasn't a total loss but it wasn't as good as I was expecting it to be.

Wreck-It Ralph - Review

Wreck-It Ralph follows Ralph, the bad guy in a 30-year old arcade game who strives to be accepted and to finally be classified as a "good guy." As Ralph jumps between different arcade games he encounters unlikely allies, challenges, and new friends who help him find who he wants to be.


I was excited for Wreck-It Ralph since I first saw a trailer back in May or June. I thought the concept looked awesome and, being quite the nerdy type, I thought it would definitely be right up my alley. I must say that I was not wrong. This was a great movie. The story was great, the animation was fantastic, and it was really funny. It had aspects that were for both adults and children and it even could lure non-gamers and give them something to enjoy.

I liked how each game's generation showed. Fix-It Felix Jr., the game where Ralph is the "wreck-it guy," was a lot older and one of the first arcade games around. The characters were jumpy and more old fashioned. As you were taking through the rest of the arcade you see how the newer games have smoother transitions and graphics and are better overall. That was an awesome touch. I also liked how the abandoned games and characters like Q*bert are technically abandoned in the real gaming world. That was an old Atari game that seemed to die along with the system and didn't quite keep up with newer games or classic games, like Pac-Man, that have stood the test of time.
I also loved how the arcade was set up. The Game Central Station was basically the main surge protector with all of the consoles plugged into it. The characters move between games via power cords after the arcade is closed. It gave a similar feel that Toy Story gave; when you aren't using your toys then what are they doing? This time it was the question of, when you aren't playing your video games what are they doing?

I also must mention the awesome references to video games. We had references to Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario Bros., Frogger, Pac-Man, Street Fighter, Doom, Tomb Raider, and last but not least... Metal Gear Solid. When Ralph was looking through the lost and found bin and the classic " ! " popped up with the sound I just started clapping. I loved it! That was definitely for the big kids, like myself, who went to see this movie.


But gamer geek aside, I thought Wreck-It Ralph had a fantastic message for not just the children but for everyone. You might have a label pinned on you and even though it could be true that doesn't mean you have to let it destroy who you are and make you unhappy. It was a great story about Ralph accepting who he is as a labeled "bad guy" but also realizing that doesn't mean he is incapable of doing good and making friends. I thought it was fantastic. The clip in the trailers pretty much says it all, "just because you're bad guy doesn't mean you're 'bad guy'."

I definitely recommend this one. Take the kids with you or even see it with other adults. My boyfriend and I saw it together and had a blast. It's just a lot of fun.


I also want to give a shout about the opening short film called Paperman. It is a black and white silent animated short by Walt Disney Animation. It basically tells the story of a man and woman who cross paths at a train station. He encounters her in an adjacent building downtown and tries to get her attention by making paper airplanes but it doesn't work. The airplanes then get minds of their own and lead the two together again where they finally speak to each other. It was very cute and for having no dialogue it did a great job of telling the story. My kind of short, for sure.