Description:
The Frozen Phenomenon presents a broad-ranging, comprehensive introduction to Disney's 2013 film Frozen and reconsiders this film's enormous influence on mainstream animation and contemporary popular culture.
The record-breaking release of Frozen in 2013 marked a shift in the American animation industry and the Walt Disney Company as a whole. The film has been elevated as a catalyst for the third "golden age" for Walt Disney Animation Studios, restoring the company's brand identity and ushering it into a new phase. It has also been praised for its pedagogical promise of change and reform of the Disney princess franchise, marking the start of an era characterised by strong, independent female leads that evolve around "richer, more complex stories" (Harris, 2016). From a business perspective, Frozen has set new standards for branding and merchandising of the film's universe, music and popular characters. Following the 10th anniversary of the film's premiere, Frozen remains one of the most loved, recognisable, and marketed Disney films to date.Brief description: Maja Rudloff is an external lecturer in the Department of Communication and Arts at Roskilde University, Denmark. She is particularly interested in visual, discursive and political dimensions of gender representation in the media. Her publications include "(Post)feminist paradoxes: the sensibilities of gender representation in Disney's Frozen" (2016).
Review Quotes:
"Describing Frozen as a 'phenomenon' is far from an overstatement: since its release in 2013, Disney's Oscar-winning hit has grown into an ubiquitous transmedia franchise.
Relying on interdisciplinary and transnational approaches, Maja Rudloff and Helen Haswell's enlightening book reveals the complex, at times contradictory, forces at play behind Frozen's production, characters and reception. Contributors bring fresh insights on the study of Disney's representation of gender and identity and explore new areas of inquiry, from costume design and hairstyling in computer animation to the development of promotional media content on digital and streaming platforms. A key reading for students, scholars and every animation enthusiast who just cannot let Frozen go." --Eve Benhamou, Senior Lecturer, Bordeaux-Montaigne University, France "Although the Walt Disney Company has attracted an exhaustive array of scholarly interventions over the last 30 years, Maja Rudloff and Helen Haswell's compelling account of Frozen's seismic cultural impact and extended global reach emphatically - and convincingly - pronounces Disney's blockbuster film as a milestone in the recent history of American animation. From mapping Frozen's technical innovations in computer graphics and feminist cultural politics to questions of industry, musicality, disability and ecology, The Frozen Phenomenon provides an impressive range of scholarly voices that traces the origins, influences and afterlives of a film fully deserving of its status as an animation landmark." --Christopher Holliday, Senior Lecturer in Liberal Arts and Visual Cultures Education, King's College London, UK