'Let it go': Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel get Hollywood stars

"Frozen" actresses Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel were honored Tuesday with their own stars on Hollywood's Walk of Fame as they reprise their roles as Anna and Elsa in "Frozen 2," the sequel to Disney's animated smash hit out this Friday.

Bell, who came to fame on TV teen detective show "Veronica Mars" and appears in NBC's "The Good Place," unveiled her new star alongside fellow honoree Menzel.

"I am so grateful to be accepting this honor today on these hallowed streets where 'Pretty Woman' sold her body for money -- it's really a dream," joked Bell.

The ceremony took place toward the eastern end of the Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard.

"The Good Place" creator Michael Schur described the location as "the most glamorous location in all of show business -- the semi-abandoned Starline Tours branch office."

The ceremony was attended by Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti and Walt Disney Studios co-chairman Alan Horn.

"As wonderful as this recognition feels in the moment, I know that it's only temporary," said Bell.

She added: "This star will really only know its true value when inevitably, someone is mugged in that very spot, and as they clutch their purse, the assailant screams, 'Let it go!'"

"And the victim will look up and say, 'That's not even her song, you son of a b***h.'"

"Let It Go," the Oscar-winning showstopper of the first "Frozen" movie, was sung by Menzel.

Bell also paid tribute to Menzel, who has an enlarged role in the sequel.

"I'm not going to say it's better than the first because all the music is good," she told AFP. "But I will tell you they did the smartest thing with the second movie because they decided, rightfully so, to double down on Idina."

"'Let It Go' was such a hit, and the geniuses at Disney were like 'What if we just gave her two songs? Wouldn't that be like twice as good?' And guess what -- it is," Bell added.

amz/dw

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Only in Japan: 'Frozen' calendar goes on sale for $838,000

TOKYO - A jeweler in Tokyo's Ginza shopping district on Wednesday put on sale a 100 million yen ($838,466 or P37.5 million) platinum-based calendar for 2015 featuring scenes from the hit Disney movie "Frozen."

The calendar is displayed at the flagship store of Tanaka Kikinzoku Jewelry K.K., a unit of Tanaka Holdings Co. The jeweler, which has sold gold calendars every year since 2006, used platinum this time to recreate the snow world of the animation movie.

The 1.2-meter tall, 87-centimeter wide set including a frame and a pedestal is made from roughly 10 kilograms of pure platinum. On the back of the calendar are printed images of characters from the movie, which is this year's box-office winner in Japan.

Tanaka Kikinzoku will display the calendar in Ginza until Sunday and later put it on display at other outlets nationwide. It will take orders until the end of next March.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

'Frozen' keeps icy grip on top spot of Billboard album sales chart

A pair of animated singing princesses kept the top spot on the weekly Billboard 200 chart of best-selling albums on Wednesday, ahead of Grammy-winning artists, as a new sing-along version of Disney's "Frozen" propelled sales of the soundtrack album.

"Frozen" sold 94,000 copies last week according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan, marking a fourth non-consecutive week at No. 1 on Billboard 200. The film, a tale of two Scandinavian princess sisters forced to save their kingdom from an everlasting winter, also raked in $9.3 million at the box office last weekend with its new sing-along version.

It is the first film soundtrack to spend four weeks at the top of the album chart in a decade, Billboard said. The last album to do the same was the "Bad Boys II" soundtrack in August 2003, spending four consecutive weeks at No. 1.

"Frozen" continued to hold off the official "2014 Grammy Nominees" album, which held steady at No. 2 with sales of 87,000 copies. The Grammy awards on January 26 did boost sales of its performers, as albums from Lorde, Beyonce, Imagine Dragons, Katy Perry and Daft Punk all featured in the top 10 this week.

Perry's single "Dark Horse," which she performed on the Grammy stage with rapper Juicy J, held the top spot on the Digital Songs chart this week, with 373,000 downloads.

Bruno Mars, who won a Grammy and also performed at the Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday, watched by a record-breaking 115.3 million viewers, saw his album "Unorthodox Jukebox" climb from No. 18 to No. 7 this week.

Only two new albums debuted in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 this week. Heavy metal group Of Mice & Men's latest album "Restoring Force" came in at No. 4 while Christian rock band Casting Crowns landed at No. 6 with its latest record "Thrive."

For the week ending February 2, overall album sales notched 4.6 million units, down 12 percent from the comparable week in 2013, Billboard said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Disney gives folk tale cool makeover in 'Frozen'

LOS ANGELES - Disney has given a chilly makeover to a traditional fairy tale in its latest animated release "Frozen," which could be in the running for an Oscar.

The movie is based on Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen" -- 25 years after Disney's last Andersen adaptation, "The Little Mermaid" -- even if it takes substantial liberties with plot and characters.


The studio's 53rd feature-length film, which has had positive reviews ahead of its release for the Thanksgiving holiday in the US, brings to fruition a project which was on Walt Disney's wish list although he never made it.

"Walt Disney was passionate about trying to do a version of this," the film's co-producer Chris Buck told at a press conference to present the film at Disney's Burbank, California studios before its release Wednesday.

Fellow co-producer Jennifer Lee added: "Unfortunately, we dug for some original material but nothing really surfaced .... But we knew that this was special for him.

Although the exact reason Disney himself did not make a film of the 1844 Andersen tale, Lee -- who co-wrote 2012's Oscar-nominated "Wreck-It Ralph" -- said she was not surprised.

"It's a very hard story, it's very symbolic, the snow queen herself is not clearly drawn," she told reporters.

The makers of "Frozen" -- expected to make the animated feature shortlist for next year's Academy Awards in March -- got round the difficulties by making substantial changes.

The two main female roles -- the Snow Queen herself, and Gerda -- have been transformed into sister princesses Elsa and Anna.

Elsa, who transforms everything she touches into ice, flees her kingdom after mistakenly condemning it to an eternal frozen winter. Her sister goes searching for her, aided by rugged mountain man Kristoff and a snowman.

"There are a couple of very powerful elements, like this little girl who has nothing but the power of love and who fights the negativity," said Lee. "Fear is a big thing in our society.

"So the idea of this little Anna, who's an ordinary person who just has this giant heart, trying to go up against the power of fear to fight her way through and save her kingdom and save her sister at the same time, it was so rich."

Elsa is voiced by actress Idina Menzel, who told AFP: "The main thing was to maintain a vulnerability, that no matter how powerful she is, there is a sadness and a loneliness to this character.

"In the beginning, she was written more like a traditional villain and then, when they started working on it, they changed her and made her a much more complicated character and not a villain at all, just someone that was misunderstood," she added.

Visually the wide-screen CinemaScope film is stunning. Animators traveled to Norway to gain knowledge and inspiration to render the snow-shrouded and ice-encrusted landscape.

As if to order, large swathes of the US were gripped by a major winter storm this week, leaving tens of millions of American facing travel chaos as they head off for Thanksgiving family reunions.

Musically it fits into the Disney tradition of showtune songs, with a score by Robert Lopez, who wrote hit musical comedies "The Book of Mormon" and "Avenue Q."

"Frozen" has a 90 percent positive audience rating on the Rotten Tomatoes movie review website, which describes it as "beautifully animated, smartly written, and stocked with singalong songs."

"Frozen" is preceded by a short, "Get a horse!" by Lauren MacMullan, which combines pastiches of black and white Mickey and Minnnie sketches before plunging into 3D virtuosity.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com