Film version of Wicked targets a 2016 release

Into the Woods producer, Marc Platt, was recently asked about his involvement with a film adaptation of the Broadway smash, Wicked. Platt didn't really give too many details other than the film is currently in the works and that the target release is sometime in 2016.

Wicked is most commonly known as the "untold story of the witches of Oz." The Wicked Witch of the West was known as Elphaba, a student who dreamed of working alongside The Wizard. The musical debuted on Broadway back in 2003 and is still in circulation around the country (it's even going to be in Denver this spring). The original Broadway run served as another stepping stone for Idina Menzel as she played Elphaba alongside Kristin Chenoweth who played her sister, Glinda. Wicked has also won Tony Awards for Best Costume Design and Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical (Idina Menzel).

Universal has been sitting on a film adaptation of this musical for quite sometime and it seems that the studios have been testing the market for these types of films. Les Miserables, starring Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway, was a very big success as it gained both Oscar nominations and wins. Into the Woods has been fairly successful so far and has gained Golden Globe nominations. We have also seen success for films like Pitch Perfect, The Muppets, Rock of Ages, and Annie.
Many have speculated whether Menzel and Chenoweth would be approached to reprise the roles of Elphaba and Glinda, but there have been whispers that they are too old for the roles at this point.

If they don't move quickly a 2016 release is very unlikely, but I would bet that we will see Wicked at least by 2017.

Disney moving forward with Enchanted 2

It's been seven years since we were introduced to the world of Enchanted and now Disney is finally moving forward with a sequel. The film starred Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden, Idina Menzel, and Susan Sarandon.

A sequel was talked about after the film's successful release but the project fizzled shortly after. Now with the overwhelming success of Frozen the company is now revisiting the sequel with new writers, J. David Stern and David N. Weiss. The writing team previously wrote The Rugrats Movie, Shrek 2, and both Smurfs movies. The Proposal director, Anne Fletcher, is attached to direct. \

I personally loved Enchanted. It is absolutely hilarious and I am happy to see it resurface. I always felt like Disney shafted the film despite the fact that it did so well.

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.

Idina Menzel to perform at Oscar ceremony

The Oscars are less than a month away at this point and many were speculating on exactly who would perform the Oscar nominated song, "Let It Go," from Frozen. Would it be Idina Menzel who voiced the character of Elsa or would it be Demi Lovato who released the radio version of the song?

The news was released today that Idina Menzel will be performing the Best Original Song nominee during the ceremony and not Demi Lovato. In addition to Menzel performing, we will also see "Happy" from Despicable Me 2 performed by Pharrell Williams during the ceremony. "Let It Go" is the clear frontrunner as it is part of the longest standing #1 soundtrack since 2003 and prompted Disney to re-release Frozen in sing-a-long formats.

I wasn't a huge fan of Frozen, but I will admit that "Let It Go" is a great song. I think it's right for them to choose Menzel to perform, as well. If you haven't heard "Let It Go" just yet I would give it a try.

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.