The newest Disney 3D animated “Frozen” heated up the holiday box office with more than $93 million in North American grosses alone since opening on Wednesday, while audiences for “Hunger Games” showed enough appetite to keep the film in the top spot over the three-day weekend with $74.5 mil., including IMAX showings, and nearly $300 mil. to date.
While “Frozen” delivers one of the most visually beautiful 3D animated movies with picturesque images of snow-covered wooded hills and ice castles, it is the innovative cartoon short that precedes the feature film that delivers the most eye-catching and conversation-worthy images and use of technology.
“Get a Horse” is not only refreshingly original but also a loving and amazing homage to the original black-and-white Mickey Mouse cartoons of the 1920s and 1930s, complete with original characters such as Peg Leg Pete, Horace Horsecollar, and Clarabelle Cow and even the voice of Walt Disney himself as the iconic rodent.
All that would have been enough to please the most ardent fans of classic Disney animation, but Lauren MacMullen’s short takes a huge and risky leap that pays off tremendously when the characters intermittently break out of the screen and land in color and in 3D on the proscenium of a movie house of the silent film era.
At first it’s just Mickey who stumbles onto the stage but soon all the characters are circling in and out of the film into full color with the 3D effect very prominent.
Kudos to Walt Disney Animation Studios for being ambitious enough, brave enough, and talented enough to pull this off so well.
Unfortunately, the slight humor and lackluster songs in “Frozen'” leave audiences a little cold. Despite breathless reviews comparing this to “The Lion King,” even recent Disney films, especially “Tangled” and even films such as “Wreck it Ralph” and “Bolt” offered far more laughs and entertainment.
— By Scott Hettrick