Merry Christmas, and a quick post!

Hey everyone!!  I AM ALIVE!!!
Whew.  The church youth play was last night.  Everyone did an amazingly great job!!!!! (:  I must admit, though, I am already missing having to plan for play practices... =D 
But it's done for another year, regardless!

I want to do a Christmas-y photoshoot with my Disney dolls, but I'm not too sure how, and I don't have very Christmas-y outfits (I need to make or buy some clothes xD).  But then again...I may be able to get some AG doll pics.  I don't take photos of them too often..hmm...
And I also will plan to do a review for the Deluxe 2-disc Frozen soundtrack that I got sometime this month.  Lemme tell ya, it is AMAZING.  I'm actually listening to one of the songs from it right now =P 

In other news, I heard that Frozen will be released on DVD & Blu-Ray March 18th, 2014...?  Don't take this with a grain of salt, but I saw it on Walmart's preorder page for the DVD.  I'm hoping it is that date, though!!   I can't wait to see it again =}

And I hope everyone has a wonderful, blessed Merry Christmas, and don't forget to keep in mind the meaning why we celebrate this particular day!! :) 

Finally, I'd like to thank everyone for hanging in there with me, guys...over 2500 views and nine followers?  You guys are amazing...thank you so much!!! I felt so bad because I just didn't have the time to post this month, hardly at ALL..!

Annd....I think that's about it.  Anyone have plans for Christmas?  Did anyone else participate in a church Christmas program? 

I'm Still Alive....

Hey guys...sorry I haven't gotten any posts up for almost a week.
I have seriously been soo busy between school exams, the youth group play at church, 4-H, and getting ready for Christmas, that I haven't had much time to write any good posts...sorry =[  I was thinking that things would start to calm down next week, but then I realized that next week is the LAST WEEK before the Christmas play for church...so can you say PLAY PRACTICE??  A lot of it...!  Soo...
I'm hoping I'll get some posts up before Christmas, but no promises.  Sorry, guys! =[ I just really need to prioritize all the things I'm doing right now..so I'll talk to ya when I talk to you all .. hopefully soon! 

**SPOILERS** **SPOILERS** Frozen Movie Review **SPOILERS **SPOILERS**

Hey everyone! 
This is the movie review for Disney's 53rd animated movie, Frozen.  I will warn you right now (if you hadn't noticed via the title.. =P) that there WILL be spoilers in this review.  A lot of spoilers.  Like, basically the entire movie described in one blog post.  Just sayin'.  

Okay.  so if you've read past the warning sentence above, sit down with a cup of tea, coffee, or hot cocoa, put your feet up, and get ready to read a LONG post.  ;) 

 

 

(Image from the Disney Frozen page.) 

 

 

CHARACTERS: 

Anna - Anna is, as some people call her, "adorkable".  She's the goofiest, most realistic princess you'll probably find.  She's clumsy, she speaks before she thinks on occassion, and she's naive.  Like a lot of people, she is desperate for love...especially since she's been shut out from her sister's world. 

As a little girl, her and her sister, Elsa, were very close; "they used to be best buddies".  After an accident whilst playing, where Elsa strikes Anna in the head with her powers, (hence the lock of white hair), Elsa and Anna are forced to stay in the castle, and stay away from each other.  Anna tries and tries to get Elsa to come out and play during the "Do You Wanna Build a Snowman" sequence, but Elsa, fearful of hurting her sister, never does.  At the end of the song, their parents (the king and queen of Arendelle) end up with their boat getting capsized.  Anna goes to the funeral by herself; Elsa stays in her room, bereft. 

These pictures basically describe her personality.  :D

                                                      (Pictures from Pinterest). 

 

 

Elsa -- Elsa, of course, is the snow queen. She has the power to make ice and snow, especially due to emotion. She is very emotional, but she has trained herself to be reserved, cool, and indifferent on most things. However, when Anna asks her to bless her and Hans' marriage, at the end of "Love is an Open Door", she ends up getting in a fight with Anna, and consequently, her powers are revealed to EVERYONE at the coronation party. She flees to the North Mountain, makes her own palace out of ice, lets down her hair, and makes herself a new dress out of ice. As she's 'letting go' during the "Let it Go" scene, she ends up plunging the entire kingdom of Arendelle into an eternal winter...unbeknowst by her.

  

(From the Oh My Disney blog)

 

(From Pinterest)

 

 

Kristoff -- Kristoff is the rough and tumble mountain man. He's 'socially impaired', blond, and smelly. His reindeer buddy, Sven, and he, grew up together, and were orphans until they were adopted by these cool trolls that are in the movie. He's an ice harvester, and usually talks for Sven. He's funny, sarcastic, and Anna basically has to bribe him to help her go to the North Mountain to confront Elsa. They end up falling in love, of course. 

(all from Pinterest).

Olaf -- A lot of people thought that Olaf would be annoying, but he's actually really funny and cute! =D He's the snowman that Elsa built. He can walk, and talk, and he tends to freak people out because of this. There's not much to cover here, just that he's funny. 

(Picture from Pinterest; looks to be a promotional poster.) 

 

 

 Hans -- The youngest of 13 boys, this prince from the Southern Isles is the villain of this film. He may act all warm, sweet, nice, and let's not forget that he's handsome, but he's the only one with a cold heart in this movie. His plot was to marry Anna, stage a little 'accident' for Elsa, and then he could be king of Arendelle, since there was 12 older brothers in line for the Southern Isles' throne. He's actually a very good villain, because if you didn't know he's the villain, you would NEVER know --until he reveals his plans, of course.  

(Promotional picture from Disney)

(Picture from Pinterest). 

 

There are other minor characters, but I won't go over them...those are the six main characters in the movie (Kristoff, Sven, Anna, Elsa, Olaf, and Hans). 
Oh -- I forgot to add...the actors and actresses voicing everyone!
Josh Gad voices Olaf
Jonathan Groff voices Kristoff
Kristen Bell voices Anna
Idina Menzel voices Elsa
Santino Fontana voices Hans

 

BASIC PLOT OF "FROZEN"

When Anna and Elsa's parents get killed in the accident, Elsa is to be coronated queen of Arendelle, once she turns 21.  On coronation day, Anna runs into Sitron (Hans' horse) -- literally RUNS INTO him-- and she and Hans immediately hit it off.  By the end of the day, Hans proposes to her.  When they run back to get Elsa to bless the marriage, they're surprised by Elsa's swift refusal; going on to tell Anna that she can't marry a man she just met that day.  Anna and Elsa have an argument, and then Anna grabs Elsa's hand, trying to plead with her.  She pulls off her glove by accident, and Elsa releases some of her power by accident --in front of the ENTIRE CORONATION PARTY.  Horrified, she runs away.  Everything behind her freezes.  She ends up freezing the entire kingdom of Arendelle....unbeknowst to her.  Elsa flees up to the North Moutain, creates an ice palace and dress for herself, and is finally free to do as she pleases. 
Anna immediately goes after her sister to make things right and to stop the eternal winter.  She ends up at Oaken's Trading Post (Oaken's a hoot!!) and meets Kristoff.  She bascially bribes him into taking her up to the North Mountain, but he doesn't agree to it willingly, necessarily. ;)  On the way to the North Mountain, they meet Olaf.   
When they get to Elsa's ice palace, Anna confronts her, and despite Elsa's warning to leave, she keeps pestering at her...and Elsa's so upset, she ends up making a blizzard inside her courtroom.  She finally get so worked up that the entire snowstorm sucks back up inside of her, and she releases it in an icy blast...accidentally striking Anna in the heart. 
Kristoff takes Anna to the trolls, (specifically Grand Pabbie--he has healing powers), and they find out that only an act of true love can heal a frozen heart.  He races Anna back to Hans, thinking that he is her true love, and then leaves her with him....even though it's killing him to leave her.   

As those two are coming back to Arendelle, Hans and some other guys are going to capture Elsa.  She ends up getting knocked out, and taken prisoner, back to a dungeon in Arendelle.  Despite her special shackles, her powers break them and breaks a hole in a wall, so she escapes. 

Meanwhile, Hans takes Anna to a private room, where he starts to kiss her, to heal her frozen heart.  But after he leans close to kiss her, he freezes, gives her a smirk, and says, "Oh, Anna...if only someone loved you." (or something to the similar effect).  As he closes the blinds, puts out the fire in the fireplace, and makes the room as cold as possible, he explains his plans of becoming king of Arendelle.  And then he leaves her to die, while he goes to kill Elsa.  Before he leaves to kill her, though, he tells some other dukes that Anna was beyond saving, and died in his arms right after they said their wedding vows...so they believe him and appoint him the King of Arendelle.
When he finds out that Elsa's no longer in the dungeon, he goes to search for her. 
As all this is happening, Sven, who knows something's wrong, convinces Kristoff to go back for Anna.  As THIS is happening, (You really have to pay attention to the movie... xD) Olaf finds Anna, unlocks the door with his nose, and he builds a fire, while they have a chat about true love. 
Olaf's the one who notices Kristoff racing across the frozen fjord to rescue Anna. 

He helps her up (as she's slowly freezing to death -- her hair's white and she's shaky) and they run to the fjord. 

They get to the fjord, and Elsa is already out on the fjord.  She's so scared that she starts up another major blizzard, but Hans still finds her. He tells her that her sister is dead, and when she falls to her knees, horrified, he (taking his sweet time) prepares to kill her. 
As this is happening, Kristoff and Anna are calling back and forth, trying to find each other. 
Anna is slowly freezing - her fingers start to freeze.  The blizzard, when Elsa falls to her knees, stops.  It freezes.  Snowflakes are suspended in the air with her grief.  Kristoff sees Anna, and he starts running for her. 

But then she sees Elsa, and tries to run to her, to save her.  Just as she freezes completely, she lunges between Elsa and Hans.  His sword shatters upon impact of her frozen hand. 

Elsa jumps up, and immediately grabs her sister's frozen body into a hug, sobbing and crying over her.  Kristoff and Olaf just stand off to the side. 
As Elsa's crying over her sister, her tears thaw Anna...who had done an act of true love for her sister.
Elsa figures out that love can stop and control her powers, and so then she unfreezes Arendelle, and it turns back into summer.  

And then at the end, it's really cute.  Anna buys Kristoff a new sleigh, which replaces the one that kind of fell off a cliff and exploded... :D  And Elsa, who finally has learned to control her powers, starts using them for good things -- such as creating an ice-skating rink for the community of Arendelle.  They never close the gates again. 

 

Annnnd that's the movie, in short. 

 

I give it a 9.5 out of 10...I absolutely LOVE it, the visuals are STUNNING, and I absolutely love every single thing about it.  The 1/2 a point I docked is because I was really hoping for a Kristoff/Anna duet (c'mon..who else thinks they'd sound AMAZING together?? :D) and at the end, they could've made Anna's frozen face a little less...weird looking, and the ice was a bright blue - it could've been a lot more natural.  Also, Kristoff just kind of stands there like "oh well" when she dies.  He's so sweet and concerned about her the whole movie, after he starts liking her, and then when she does die...he looks practically indifferent...which is strange.   But anyway...that's  just about it!  I highly, HIGHLY reccomend seeing it!  I can't wait for it to come out on DVD, supposedly over Easter.  (: It's a VERY funny movie!

SONGS --

This YouTube user, "Rose Red", has just about all the songs, including instrumentals, from the deluxe soundtrack up.  To look at them, click HERE.  

The songs are all absolutely BEAUTIFUL.  I love them all so much! 

 

 

 

RAPUNZEL & EUGENE CAMEO IN FROZEN!!!

(Pictures from Pinterest...originally from a Portuguese YouTube video/trailer that I can no longer find! xD)

During "For the First Time in Forever", when the song reaches the "Tell the guards to open up...the gates!///The gates!!! For the first time in forever, I'm getting what I'm dreaming of..." part, when the gates are open and Anna's running out of them...keep a VERY close eye on the bottom-left screen.  Rapunzel and Eugene from Tangled do a VERY quick, (like, blink and you miss them) cameo!!!  It's PERFECT.  :D 

 

 

So yeah...that's about it!  I was gonna do this big, huge, four-part review and basically explain every single little thing about the movie, but I figured that nobody would want to read that much and you want to be at least a little surprised at the movie, right?? :D 

Did you enjoy the review?  Have you seen Frozen yet/do you plan on seeing it?  Any questions? 
(:

 

 

Frozen, eBay ads, and Randomness =D

I saw Frozen on Saturday!  It was AMAZING.  And now ties for first place with Tangled, as my favorite movie.  As a lot of you may know, it takes a LOT to tie with Tangled, with me... =D  Does anyone want a very spoiler-y review?  If you do, drop a comment and I'll be beyond happy to post one.  Of course, if I DO do a spoiler review, I will make sure to warn those who don't want the movie spoiled.  =D 
I also ordered the deluxe Frozen soundtrack off of Amazon on Black Friday...and the next day, it was sold out.  So when I get the soundtrack, I'll do a review.  I have the mp3 version (Amazon lets you download it for free if you buy the hard copy of the soundtrack so I've been listening to it whilst I wait for the CD =D) but I want to include pictures of the case and insert, etc.  :D 
Has anyone seen it?  Does anyone have the soundtrack? 

Also, if anyone wants links to the full clips + audio of Let it Go and For the First Time in Forever, let me know.  I found both on YouTube and have both pinned on my Pinterest account and I'll be happy to comment the links to ya.  :D

On another note, there are more ads up on eBay -- the Liv doll, still; a Baby Face DeeDee, and a Teen Trends Courtney doll...all of which you can view by clicking HERE.

I'm not sure how much I'll be able to post this week.  It's been CRAZY, so far!  Between play practices for my church's youth group Christmas play, various other things, and the fact that Christmas is just three weeks away...I've been really busy.  This week, especially! 
I'm hoping I can get that custom Anna doll post up for you guys sometime soon, though. 

I think that's all I've got for now... But yeah -- if anyone wants to have a Frozen review, let me know.  I'll be beyond happy to type one up! 

Frozen photoshoot part 2

Hey everyone!  Here's the last part of the Frozen photoshoot I've been trying to get up since last Sunday... sorry for the wait xD

For this one, I played around a bit...blurred the background with GIMP.  The original is below. 

"Heh-hah!  Just like a pillow!"

"That's no blizzard..that's my sister!"

 

..'That was a bit more of a drop than what I expected...'

Snow angels.. =D

A tale of two sisters...I like how this turned out.

But this one is probably my all time favorite, out of all of them.  I just wish the swingset wasn't in there...oh well.  =D

 

Frozen Hans & Kristoff doll review

Hey everyone!
Sorry it's taken me THIS LONG to get the review up.  Ugh! 
Anyway.  These gentlemen came to me from JC Penney's, actually. 
From what I understand, JC Penney's has recently started selling Disney merchandise in certain stores (still not in my local one, but they're online as well) as an attempt to keep from going under. 
They have most, if not all, of the princesses.  They have some slight clothing variations, and they're all the old-style Barbie bodies (straight, unbendable arms with the bendy legs).  Their face molds are the same, though.
Hans and Kristoff, though, have jointed arms, exactly like the Disney Store Flynn I have. 
I got them during a "By 2 or more for $10 each" deal, and they're actually selling right now for $7.99 each today, because of Black Friday..so here's the link to their Disney page -- if anyone wants to go nuts ;) Click HERE. 
They normally sell for $12 each, though; which is about $4.50 less than the current price for the Frozen dolls on the Disney Store website; $2.50 for the other classics.

Here are the two lads from Arendelle (and the Southern Isles... :P)
The packaging looks similar to the Disney Store's packaging.  The only difference I could tell, from the insert on the inside, is that one corner is shaded more pink. 

The backs are different, though. 

Hans was super easy to get out of his box....at first. 

I also noticed Hans' arm was bent at an unnateral angle. 
That HURTS to look at!! 
I was soo scared to take him out of the box, for fear that his arm would fall off.  xD

His coattails were connected to the box by thread.  Seriously?? 

Anyway.  Here he is, freed from his prison. 
Is it just me, or does he look suspicious in this picture?
By the way...sorry about the background mess.  I used the kitchen table to take pics at first... xD 

Kristoff's box. 

Tape.  Tape EVERYWHERE.  I don't wanna talk about it.  =P

Hans

Close up of his face.  Not sure if you can see them or not, but he as a kind of unnatural sprinkling of freckles around on his face.  I don't recall seeing freckles on Frozen's promotional posters for the actual animated character, but oh well!  He has a neat, brownish-greenish eyecolor.  And the detailing on his hair is AMAZING.  Oh my goodness!  The pictures do not do the detailing justice!!
Another funny thing I noticed is his face detailing.  This side, he looks serious, suspicious, and judgemental. 

But on this side, he's a dapper, pleasant lad. 

So, which one is it, Hans?  Judgemental or pleasant? 

The only difference I could tell about his outfit vs. legit Disney Store Hans' outfit is that he didn't have the gold thingy on  his shoulder. 
His clothes seem to be of decent quality, though.  His coat is seperate from the rest; but from what I could tell, the rest is one piece (except the boots). 
I didn't remove anything, though....For some reason, both of his arms will bend backwards as well as forward, and the sleeves are so tight that I was thinking maybe they were keeping the arms together or something...so I just left well enough alone :P

His boots...they're awesome!  =D

Hans with my custom Anna (yes.  I still need to make her post...)

Hans with the Disney Store Anna

I was a little concerned with having Hans AND Flynn, because they looked kind of similar. 

No worries!  They're plenty different. 

Profile comparison...this is what I was most concerned with -- is that their face molds would be too similar. 
Nope!  Maybe they just got Hans' nose wrong... =P

Kristoff. 
The only thing I noticed that was different from the legit Disney Store's Kristoff is that he doesn't have faux fur lining his vest thingy. 
It looks like his clothes are separate; his shirt/vest is seperate from his pants, in other words.  I'm not sure.  I didn't bother taking off the clothes, because I knew I'd have to remove his gloves, and they look like they'd be a nightmare to get back on! 

His gloves are cool...they're held securely on his hands by this cute little string. 

His boots are AWESOME as well.  They're pained so it looks like they have a dusting of snow on them!  And the tips turn up, almost like the elf shoes you'll see in the old Christmas movies.  :)

Kristoff has a slightly warmer facial expression; but he looks a little shy.  I'm not a huge fan of his side-glancing eyes; it's super hard to photograph him!  Ah well. 
OH!  And he has freckles, too.  They're much more natural than Hans', and they.  Are.  Adorable.  :D

Profile view...they definitely nailed it on this one!  And also, his hair has amazing detail.  I hope that Disney keeps doing this for the princes!!

Kristoff with Disney Store Anna.

Kristoff with Elsa...

Hans with Elsa. 

I'm not a huge fan of either of the guys paired up with Elsa, in my opinion...I don't know why, though!

But Hans and the 2012 Classic Wedding Rapunzel?  Ooh...I love them together!  No idea why, again, but aren't they sweet together? 

Hans and the 2010 Rapunzel aren't the greatest together, though..

 I still prefer Eugene with 2010 Rapunzel. 

*Ahem*...guys....ya might wanna watch your backs.  Hans has his suspicious face on.  =}

 

 

Overall, I was pleased with the JC Penney's Disney dolls.  I'd give them a 4.5 out of 5; and the half of a point is probably simply because the princess dolls don't have the arm articulation...that's just about it! 

What do you guys think?  Anyone have JC Penney's dolls? 
I'll be posting the Frozen photoshoot part 2  tomorrow, if not later today... so stay tuned! (: