"Frozen" Director Jennifer Lee Apologizes to Parents for "Let It Go"

NBC Los Angeles ^ | 12-16-14 | Francesca Bacardi

[smokingfrog]

No one wants to let go of "Let It Go" more than parents, and "Frozen" director Jennifer Lee has become brutally aware of that fact.

The Oscar-winning director is now apologizing for the phenomenon that swept (and continues to sweep) the nation because adults are fed up with the animated film.

"A year ago, I'd meet people who, when they found out who I was, they'd say, 'Oh, we love the songs! We sing them all the time.' Now they're like, 'Yep, we're still listening to those songs,'" Lee tells The Hollywood Reporter. "I've gone from, 'Thank you,' to, 'Sorry!'"

But Lee, 43, definitely has the last laugh, as "Frozen" has become the highest-grossing animated film of all time, earning $1.27 billion worldwide. And not only did it earn the Oscar for Best Animated Film, it also nabbed another gold trophy for the now-infamous hit "Let It Go."

Parents won't be catching a break anytime soon, though, because Lee is directing "Frozen Fever," an animated short that will appear before Disney's live-action flick, "Cinderella." Chris Buck will team up with Lee to direct the mini-installment that will also feature a new original song written by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez.

[lee martell]

I may be one of the last ten people in America who has never heard that song. I’ve heard of it and about it, but I’ve never been curious enough to youtube it up. Someday i will, when I have too much time on my hands, and need to just ‘Let It Go!” One good thing is there is some relatively new family entertainment out there. I suppose there is enough in Frozen to interest both boys and girls, although girls seems to be Disneys’ primary market these days. Yeah, I’m sure the songwriter is ‘apologizing’ all the way to the bank and then some.

[napscoordinator]

Was that before or after going to the bank. lol.

[Michael.SF.]

I was hoping it was a message to the Treyvon-Michael Brown-Mr. Loosey’s crowd.

[RginTN]

my 6 year old niece made me and her grandma watch Frozen. Got her the Elsa doll for her birthday. Now she wants an American Girl doll. Those are over $50...at least the Frozen dolls are cheaper.

[smokingfrog]

I think it’s a pretty good song, actually.

[South40]

I may be one of the last ten people in America who has never heard that song.

I must be one of the ten. I had to ask Mrs. 40 what "Frozen" was.

[mlo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXGNuJ6wIes

[lee martell]

Thanks. I’ll listen to it, someday.

[Thorliveshere]

It’ll pass. Why is she apologizing... young girls love it. Why take this away from them? Would we rather have them sing Miley Cyrus songs and twerk?

[latina4dubya]

i am one of the ten... i have not seen the movie nor have i heard the song... my great-niece Zayda is in love with everything FROZEN... on her last birthday, her 4th, every gift she received had to do with FROZEN...

[Dagnabitt]

The song is also well known for when on the Academy Awards, (a drugged-out?) John Travolta butchered the name of the singer, Idina Menzel, somehow managing to call her “Adele Dazeem”.

[Bratch]

Why Frozen's "Let It Go" is more than a Disney hit – it's an adolescent aperitif

---

[...]

Critics are often accused of overthinking mainstream hits, but the songs that outstrip all expectations (Disney didn’t anticipate that Menzel’s original would eclipse Demi Lovato’s tamer pop version) always demand a closer look. One test of a truly great song is an ability to listen to it dozens of times without screaming. I’m not a musicologist (although this guy is), but anyone can understand why Let It Go is a bravura piece of musical storytelling: the nervous minor chords of the first verse, jumping to an emphatic major key with the line “Well now they know!”; the frantic, pulse-quickening syncopation of the bridge; the explosive leap of the chorus, mirrored in the animation’s rapid ascent; and the final imperious shrug of “The cold never bothered me anyway.” It’s uncommonly fast for a power ballad, too – 137 beats per minute – which is why it’s been recommended as a workout song and remixed, badly, into a club banger.

Let It Go is so undeniable that it changes the direction of the movie. When Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez were commissioned to write "Elsa’s Badass Song", the Snow Queen was a more conventional villain, but the song’s emotional power forced a rethink. “The minute we heard the song the first time, I knew that I had to rewrite the whole movie,” said director Jennifer Lee. That’s pretty potent songwriting.

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Disney's Frozen "Let It Go" Sequence Performed by Idina Menzel

[KarlInOhio]

My Frozen knowledge comes from watching the "Who Wants to Build a Meth Lab" Breaking Bad parody.

[Fiji Hill]

I may be one of the last ten people in America who has never heard that song.

I heard it when I saw the movie, but it was so unmemorable that I forgot about it until I read this thread. Don't bother to youtube it up. This one doesn't have quite the same title, but it's better.

Let Her Go--The Minor Chords

[Secret Agent Man]

Is it really the highest earning film of all time?

Did they adjust the dollars back to have an honest comparison of prior films’ earnings?

[bluejean]

“i am one of the ten”

I confess I’m number five..and this is my first FA meeting.

[Political Junkie Too]

They're saying higest grossing animated film.

-PJ

[latina4dubya]

what is an FA meeting?

[cloudmountain]

I may be one of the last ten people in America who has never heard that song. I’ve heard of it and about it, but I’ve never been curious enough to youtube it up. Someday i will, when I have too much time on my hands, and need to just ‘Let It Go!” One good thing is there is some relatively new family entertainment out there. I suppose there is enough in Frozen to interest both boys and girls, although girls seems to be Disneys’ primary market these days. Yeah, I’m sure the songwriter is ‘apologizing’ all the way to the bank and then some.

I never heard it either.

I don't want to EVER hear it either.