Before this recent 12-day trip I took to various Japanese cities, which I'm not planning on making my only visit there, I was aware of everybody's borderline obsession with Disney's latest animated flick, but while I was aware, I had never actually caught the entirety of the movie - only parts, & the soundtrack, & followed record after record that once belonged to 1 movie/soundtrack or another, only to see all of those records fall within days, all due to the exact same phenomenon each time - that's right, people - I'm referring to the late November 2013 release of Disney's Frozen, which, despite almost entirely taking place in a bleak, yet still spectacular, winter wonderland, is still being aired & mentioned now, over 6 months later! That is almost just as much because of the business side of that film/soundtrack/etc. as it is about the actual story & everything else... If something that broke so many records in such a short time was being ignored, then I'm sure everybody would be complaining about the lack of attention instead of the overload of articles on its success!
Where did this overall run start for Disney, you might be asking? Perhaps you think it started in the late 1980s, as all the animated films that would enjoy all types of sales successes on VHS about a decade later premiered 1 after the other in theaters - this was after the company's main successes were mostly ideas handled by a bunch of transplants from other production companies, working not under Disney, but under Touchstone Pictures! Those early 1990s animated feature films seemed to start what the company has continued with all of those types of films ever since - generally under 2 hours, with a few main mostly original songs, & generally ended up all over other Disney-owned-&-operated outlets after the fact!
speaking of 1990s Disney (with advance apologies to everybody in the city of Anaheim):
Despite EPCOT down @ Disney World in Florida starting off the "new millennium" with the critically acclaimed "IllumiNations" show, 2nd only to the annual Times Square N.Y.C. bash that December, the animation division wasn't having nearly as much success as it did just a few short years earlier, instead letting its 90s "partner in crime", Pixar, take its commercial success 1st, & then watched it take its marketing prominence, as seemingly everything back through the decade of the 2000s was marketed not simply as "Disney", but as "Disney-Pixar" - If that isn't a sign that something should give & force a company such as Disney to find a "breakaway" (to use a hockey term) success to escape Pixar once & for all, then I don't know what is! In fact, if it wasn't for the 3 years (2004, 5, & 6) in which the joint Disney-Pixar contract expired ('04), the 2 companies played "hardball" with each other & the general public, mostly over production issues ('05) & when Disney finally purchased Pixar ('06), dare I say we might not have heard from them for the entire rest of the decade, assuming Disney would even have continued its late 2000s-2010s split from Pixar without such events occurring to begin with!
That 2006 purchase brought 2 of Pixar's most well-known names over to Disney - company president Edwin Catmull & C.C.O. (chief creative officer) John Lasseter, & immediately, they encouraged Disney C.E.O. Michael Eisner & the animation division to, essentially, return to its what were widely considered both its old (approx. 1950s) & Disney-Pixar (1990s) roots - original animation instead of live-action, with the following films, released in the following order:
2009's The Princess & The Frog - essentially, a remake of another remake; in this case, a film adaptation of a novel of an old fairy tale!
2010's Tangled - another big-screen fairy tale adaptation!
2011's Winnie The Pooh - in trying to remake 1 of its own classics, apparently, Disney missed the fact that most people had already forgotten all the 90s remakes & sequels just in that series, as this got both rejected by audiences, & panned by critics, which you never want to hear or see if you're actively trying to win over more than 1 different crowd @ once!
2012's Wreck-It Ralph - mainly the result of Disney trusting "outsiders" with 1 of its projects; so much so, in fact, that FOX director/writer Rich Moore directed, & Nintendo, of all companies, made a few "cameo" requests for some of its most famous/infamous characters to appear, not of all of which were ultimately fulfilled by Disney, mostly due to licensing fees!
early 2013's Planes - sorry for being so blunt here, but honestly, I think Disney could've easily done last year without this aberration wasting space in its lineup; what - were the 2 Cars films suddenly "no good", or did Disney have some "unfinished business" to settle with Pixar, or what?
So, judging by all that history, exactly how many records has Frozen already managed to break, through just its 1st 6 months? Well, in an era full of movie studios looking to constantly "1-up" each other, the movie reached the following positions:
over $400 million of revenue just within North America, which easily accounts for almost 1/2 of the film's worldwide box office revenue;
the #1 all-time computer/general animation film: $1,267,828,424 revenue, & still counting, with its continued run in select theaters;
the #5 all-time film of any type: out of the other 4 films up there, only 1997's Titanic, which has reached over $2.1 billion, is not part of a franchise, & that's assuming Disney even tries its luck on a sequel here, which I just don't see happening in the foreseeable future (although that doesn't mean the company isn't already trying to move on :(... more on that later, however!)
last year's #1 overall film, & that was with only about a month left in the year; if Disney was trying to avoid the same "late-year curse" that seems to plague just about every other industry, well, this flick certainly avoided that trap, & then some!
#3 all-time in the country I just visited, Japan, with ¥24.6 billion, only behind (yet again) 1997's Titanic (¥26.2 billion) & 1997's Spirited Away (which set the all-time record with ¥30.4 billion);
...as well as a bunch of awards, both for the movie itself (the Academy Award/Golden Globe Award/Critics' Choice Award/Annie Award (I honestly had to check what exactly this award is - basically, these awards are exclusively for animation)/etc. for Best Animated Feature, & the BAFTA Award (those darn British critics!) for Best Animated Film, while...
...the soundtrack as a whole matched the success of the movie itself: http://wallstcheatsheet.com/entertainment/why-is-the-frozen-soundtrack-outselling-every-other-album.html/
perhaps the most interesting/poignant point in the article is at the very top: "Nielsen SoundScan has released the data for the top-selling albums of the first half of the year, and predictably, the soundtrack for the Disney animated movie Frozen tops the list, having sold 2.69 million copies during the first six months of 2014, according to Billboard."
https://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-news/how-these-singers-around-the-globe-pushed--frozen--over-the-top-063739448.html
also: http://www.cnbc.com/id/101651430 (transcript of an interview from 5/7/14 between CNBC'S Michael Faber & Disney C.E.O. Rob Iger):
Where did this overall run start for Disney, you might be asking? Perhaps you think it started in the late 1980s, as all the animated films that would enjoy all types of sales successes on VHS about a decade later premiered 1 after the other in theaters - this was after the company's main successes were mostly ideas handled by a bunch of transplants from other production companies, working not under Disney, but under Touchstone Pictures! Those early 1990s animated feature films seemed to start what the company has continued with all of those types of films ever since - generally under 2 hours, with a few main mostly original songs, & generally ended up all over other Disney-owned-&-operated outlets after the fact!
speaking of 1990s Disney (with advance apologies to everybody in the city of Anaheim):
Despite EPCOT down @ Disney World in Florida starting off the "new millennium" with the critically acclaimed "IllumiNations" show, 2nd only to the annual Times Square N.Y.C. bash that December, the animation division wasn't having nearly as much success as it did just a few short years earlier, instead letting its 90s "partner in crime", Pixar, take its commercial success 1st, & then watched it take its marketing prominence, as seemingly everything back through the decade of the 2000s was marketed not simply as "Disney", but as "Disney-Pixar" - If that isn't a sign that something should give & force a company such as Disney to find a "breakaway" (to use a hockey term) success to escape Pixar once & for all, then I don't know what is! In fact, if it wasn't for the 3 years (2004, 5, & 6) in which the joint Disney-Pixar contract expired ('04), the 2 companies played "hardball" with each other & the general public, mostly over production issues ('05) & when Disney finally purchased Pixar ('06), dare I say we might not have heard from them for the entire rest of the decade, assuming Disney would even have continued its late 2000s-2010s split from Pixar without such events occurring to begin with!
That 2006 purchase brought 2 of Pixar's most well-known names over to Disney - company president Edwin Catmull & C.C.O. (chief creative officer) John Lasseter, & immediately, they encouraged Disney C.E.O. Michael Eisner & the animation division to, essentially, return to its what were widely considered both its old (approx. 1950s) & Disney-Pixar (1990s) roots - original animation instead of live-action, with the following films, released in the following order:
2009's The Princess & The Frog - essentially, a remake of another remake; in this case, a film adaptation of a novel of an old fairy tale!
2010's Tangled - another big-screen fairy tale adaptation!
2011's Winnie The Pooh - in trying to remake 1 of its own classics, apparently, Disney missed the fact that most people had already forgotten all the 90s remakes & sequels just in that series, as this got both rejected by audiences, & panned by critics, which you never want to hear or see if you're actively trying to win over more than 1 different crowd @ once!
2012's Wreck-It Ralph - mainly the result of Disney trusting "outsiders" with 1 of its projects; so much so, in fact, that FOX director/writer Rich Moore directed, & Nintendo, of all companies, made a few "cameo" requests for some of its most famous/infamous characters to appear, not of all of which were ultimately fulfilled by Disney, mostly due to licensing fees!
early 2013's Planes - sorry for being so blunt here, but honestly, I think Disney could've easily done last year without this aberration wasting space in its lineup; what - were the 2 Cars films suddenly "no good", or did Disney have some "unfinished business" to settle with Pixar, or what?
So, judging by all that history, exactly how many records has Frozen already managed to break, through just its 1st 6 months? Well, in an era full of movie studios looking to constantly "1-up" each other, the movie reached the following positions:
over $400 million of revenue just within North America, which easily accounts for almost 1/2 of the film's worldwide box office revenue;
the #1 all-time computer/general animation film: $1,267,828,424 revenue, & still counting, with its continued run in select theaters;
the #5 all-time film of any type: out of the other 4 films up there, only 1997's Titanic, which has reached over $2.1 billion, is not part of a franchise, & that's assuming Disney even tries its luck on a sequel here, which I just don't see happening in the foreseeable future (although that doesn't mean the company isn't already trying to move on :(... more on that later, however!)
last year's #1 overall film, & that was with only about a month left in the year; if Disney was trying to avoid the same "late-year curse" that seems to plague just about every other industry, well, this flick certainly avoided that trap, & then some!
#3 all-time in the country I just visited, Japan, with ¥24.6 billion, only behind (yet again) 1997's Titanic (¥26.2 billion) & 1997's Spirited Away (which set the all-time record with ¥30.4 billion);
...as well as a bunch of awards, both for the movie itself (the Academy Award/Golden Globe Award/Critics' Choice Award/Annie Award (I honestly had to check what exactly this award is - basically, these awards are exclusively for animation)/etc. for Best Animated Feature, & the BAFTA Award (those darn British critics!) for Best Animated Film, while...
...the soundtrack as a whole matched the success of the movie itself: http://wallstcheatsheet.com/entertainment/why-is-the-frozen-soundtrack-outselling-every-other-album.html/
perhaps the most interesting/poignant point in the article is at the very top: "Nielsen SoundScan has released the data for the top-selling albums of the first half of the year, and predictably, the soundtrack for the Disney animated movie Frozen tops the list, having sold 2.69 million copies during the first six months of 2014, according to Billboard."
at the very end of the article: "Meanwhile, Frozen is still sitting at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 during its 32nd week on the charts."
The localization process was obviously much more difficult than usual, with producers apparently searching for upwards of 200 different actors/actresses/singers in over 40 different languages, making this 1 of the most wide-ranging "talent searches" ever!
https://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-news/how-these-singers-around-the-globe-pushed--frozen--over-the-top-063739448.html
"Over the weekend, Disney's "Frozen" became the highest-grossing animated film of all time, topping $1 billion worldwide and inspiring a #CongratulationsFrozen hashtag on Twitter.
One reason for the film's runaway success? That infectious Oscar-winning song that says it's okay to be yourself — in fact, let it go and belt it out from a snow-covered mountain top while you're at it. It's a message that has proven deeply resonant around the globe.
The fact that the House of Mouse tailored its snowy movie for several non-English speaking audiences, dubbing it in 41 languages total, didn't hurt a thing. Indeed, fervent audiences in Japan were who pushed "Frozen" into the billion-dollar club this weekend, making it the No. 1 movie there three weekends in a row (and counting).
This new in-studio version of "Let It Go" in 25 languages (seen here first on Yahoo Movies), offers a peek into the arduous process of dubbing the film and its songs into 41 tongues, and shows many of the singers who stepped up to the plate to do their dead-on "Adele Dazeem." (A previous version of the video, which doesn't show the real-life "Let It Go" singers, went viral in late January.)
Translating "Frozen" into so many different languages is exceptionally challenging, says Rick Dempsey, a senior exec at Disney's Character Voices International unit. "It's a difficult juggling act to get the right intent of the lyrics and also have it match rhythmically to the music," he told Yahoo in a recent email exchange. "And then you have to go back and adjust for lip sync! [It]… requires a lot of patience and precision."
Casting the right singers and actors then becomes another challenge. "Idina's voice (or Kristen's voice for Anna) becomes our blueprint. We try to match it as close as possible," said the Disney exec.
Two hundred singers tested for 41 slots, and not all vocalists were fit to act the part for which they were singing. "Sometimes we find a great vocal match with a singer, and a great acting match with a different actress," said Dempsey. "There are close to 15 versions out there that have two different talents performing the role."
The casting process was particularly complex because native speakers were required. "It's the only way to really ensure that the film feels 'local,'" Dempsey said.
With all the painstaking work that went into the making of "Frozen," translating included, at least we now know it was worthwhile."
From the 2nd article, on the dangers of "puns": "The Lopezes took a far more scrupulous approach to making Frozen's appeal global. "We were trying to make the story work wherever audiences were," says Lopez. "Disney basically said, don't write a song where the whole song depends on one pun. A song about 'being in someone else's shoes' was cut — will people get that idea in other cultures? Whenever we drifted too far into punland, we would steer into clearer waters. We had a song called 'Lose Control,' with a pun on 'troll.' But the pun was running away from the song. It makes sense in English, but who knows in other languages?"
As a follow-up to the Lopezes' reference to some song/lyric cuts: http://www.buzzfeed.com/hnew92/6-bonus-songs-from-frozen-that-you-need-to-hear-9qja (The 6 songs here would've presumably been squeezed into slots in between some of the tunes that ended up making the final cut, since they all seem to have similar tones to everything that ended up in the "finished product"!)
For further reference, here are the North American/British-U.K./Australia-New Zealand English-language, Latin American Spanish-language, & European Spanish-language localized soundtrack titles:
in order: 
Título original (original (English) title) 
Hispanoamérica (Latin America)/
España (Spain):
Título original (original (English) title) Hispanoamérica (Latin America)/ España (Spain):
Frozen Heart(ENG)/Helado corazón(L.A.)/Corazón de hielo(ESP)
Do You Wanna Build a Snowman?(ENG)/¿Y si hacemos un muñeco?(L.A.)/Hazme un muñeco de nieve(ESP)
For the First Time in Forever(ENG)/Finalmente y como nunca(L.A.)/Por primera vez en años(ESP)
Love Is an Open Door(ENG)/La puerta es el amor(L.A.)/La puerta hacia el amor(ESP)
Let It Go(ENG)/Libre soy(L.A.)/¡Suéltalo!(ESP) (ganadora del Oscar/Oscar winner
Reindeer(s) Are Better Than People(ENG)/Renos, mejor que humanos(L.A.)Renos, mejor que personas(ESP)
In Summer(ENG)/Verano(L.A.)/En verano(ESP)
For the First Time in Forever (Reprise)(ENG)/Finalmente y como nunca (Reprise)(L.A.)/Por primera vez en años (Reprise)(ESP)
Fixer Upper(ENG)/Reparaciones(L.A.)/Sólo tiene que mejorar un poco (ESP)
Let it Go (single de Demi Lovato)(ENG)/Libre soy (single de Martina Stoessel) (L.A. & ESP)
RE: that soundtrack: I can't even begin to mention just how often I heard the Japanese localizations throughout Japan - If there's any other country that could possibly be even more obsessed than we are, it's definitely Japan, & its population...
RE: that soundtrack: I can't even begin to mention just how often I heard the Japanese localizations throughout Japan - If there's any other country that could possibly be even more obsessed than we are, it's definitely Japan, & its population...
also: http://www.cnbc.com/id/101651430 (transcript of an interview from 5/7/14 between CNBC'S Michael Faber & Disney C.E.O. Rob Iger):
Faber, asking about any possible sequels: "When are we going to see the sequel?"
Iger, interestingly enough, actually initially rejected that notion: "We've said about sequels here that we want a great story 1st, then we'll decide to make a sequel. If w just mandate a sequel in the marketplace, & force storytelling that may not be up to the standards of the 1st film, that won't do the franchise any good, so when our creative team is ready, when they have a good story, I'm sure we'll be ready to make a sequel. But, it's something I think I'd like to -- we'd like it to be more "organic" from a creative perspective rather than something forced, because we're interested in the bottom line."
there's also something from the N.Y. Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/20/business/media/frozen-will-be-a-disney-on-ice-show-too-riding-a-blockbusters-wave.html?_r=0
For those of you, who like me, are located within the Garden State, here's when the show will be "setting up shop" around here:
Prudential Center - Newark: Wed., 11/19 - 7 P.M.; Thu., 11/20 - 10:30 A.M. (!) & 7 P.M.; Fri., 11/21 - 7 P.M.; Sat., 11/22 - 11 A.M. (which is more reasonable on a Saturday morning than a weekday morning, from every standpoint), 3 P.M., & 7 P.M.; Sun., 11/23 - 1 & 5 P.M.
Izod Center (I can't even begin to tell you people outside the Garden State how much I still despise that name change...), East Rutherford/Meadowlands: Tue., 11/25 - 7 P.M.; Wed., 11/26 (Thanksgiving Eve) - 11 A.M. (which is still more reasonable than the scheduled 10:30 A.M. start time in Newark the previous Thursday!) & 7 P.M.; Thu., 11/27 (Thanksgiving Day morning, before all the NFL action starts) - 11 A.M.; Fri., 11/28 - 11 A.M. (which may or may not become completely unmanageable with all the mall traffic nearby), 3 P.M., & 7 P.M.; Sat., 11/29 & Sun., 11/30 - same 3 start times each day as Fri., 11/28
Everybody else remember this: Orlando, as the home of Disney World, you've got 1st dibs on that show, so don't **** it up for the rest of us, & everybody else check your local listings to check when the show will be landing in your local area!
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