Frozen Blog Party: Frozen Blu-ray/DVD Combo Review

On Tuesday, I was thrilled to finally get my hands on my own copy of Frozen on Blu-ray and DVD.  My copy was purchased at Walmart for $19.99.  It included two discs:  the Blu-ray disc with special features, and the DVD disc (which I haven't tried yet).

The Blu-ray cover art is nice.  It comes with a cardboard slip cover with iridescent accents.

 A look at the back.

A look at the inside.

When I opened my case, I was very disappointed to see that the tabs that hold the discs in place had broken.  My Blu-ray disc was actually loose in the case.  I've now watched it three times, and two out of the three times, it had a short glitch in the same spot.  The third time, it glitched in a different spot instead.  While it's not the most major glitch I've seen, I've decided I will still exchange it.  I want it to play without any issues, and I don't want it to get any worse.:(

 

 

 The blue tabs that were supposed to help hold the discs in place. :( I hope that in the future, the Disney company might consider investing a little more in their movie cases.  The plastic was very thin and fragile, and I'm thinking this may have contributed to the tabs breaking off.

One thing I thought was interesting was that this movie came with a digital copy code instead of a physical disc.  It's been a while since I've purchased a movie new, so this might not be any big deal to some of you. ;)  I was not able to get my digital copy to show up, but I'm wondering if it's partially because I'm on Firefox instead of Google Chrome right now (I'm still battling computer issues).  This isn't as detrimental to me since I don't have a smart phone or a laptop.  The only place I could watch it would be on my desktop computer, which is very close to my TV.  I might as well just stick to the Blu-ray. ;)

The movie itself was just as stunning as ever.  I loved the menu, which featured moving snowflakes with video clips of the main characters in their centers.  Watching the film itself on my own home TV was really fun.  There were so many details to enjoy.   And of course, the story was still amazing. :)

 This picture lists the special features included.  I have to say, I was really disappointed in the lack of special features.  I think the Disney/Pixar Blu-ray and DVD special features have spoiled me.  I love it when movies come with an entire disc of extras.  As someone interested in writing, acting, drawing, and music, I'm always fascinated by all of the behind-the-scenes information on movies and how they are made.  

Frozen's special features include the "Get a Horse" Mickey Mouse short that was released with Frozen in theaters, several "Let it Go" music videos (which I haven't watched yet because I prefer Idina's version in the movie), some deleted scenes, "The Making of Frozen", and a feature about "the company's 75 year journey to Frozen".  

From the titles, it sounds like there would be some pretty amazing information, right?  Um...not exactly.  Maybe my expectations were a bit too high, but I came away from watching the special features feeling disappointed.

The deleted scenes were fun and interesting, but there were only four of them (I would have loved to see more!).  They did have nice little intros by the directors, explaining why they were cut.  And after watching them, I definitely feel like they made the right choice in leaving them out.  They were good scenes, but the final cut works best.

The "D'Frosted: Disney's Journey from Hans Christian Anderson to Frozen", which was supposed to span a 75 year journey, gave me the impression that it would be this incredible in-depth look at both Walt's era and the current movie.  While the feature was interesting, it was not very long (twenty minutes or so at the most), and almost completely focused on the earlier attempts at the film.  Even with that, the main bulk of the feature was a look at some of the concept art by Marc Davis, and featured some interviews with his wife, Alice Estes Davis, who designed the costumes for "It's a Small World", among other things.  While the information there was interesting and informative, it left me wishing for more, especially about Frozen itself.

The special feature I was most looking forward to was "The Making of Frozen", which was supposed to be a behind-the-scenes look at the movie set to music.  And sadly, this was the special feature I was most disappointed about.  It was great to see Josh Gad, Kristen Bell, and Jonathan Groff (who, as Kristoff, only got one short song in the movie, but has an amazing voice) singing and dancing together, along with members of the cast and crew at Disney Animation.  There was even a short cameo from John Lasseter. :)  Unfortunately, the song was very repetitive and didn't say all that much.  (We've only watched it twice, but I'm already tired of it because of the amount of times my daughters have sung it around the house.  I'd rather they just sing the songs from the movie.)  But the biggest disappointment was that, aside from the visual walk-through of the studio during the song, there was absolutely no information about the making of Frozen.  This was done on purpose (the song has a little "wink-wink" moment at the end that I won't spoil here), but I think I would have been able to appreciate the humor of it more if it had been followed with some actual information, or if the disc had at least had a separate feature that shared some "making of" moments.  I also might have enjoyed it more if it was not called "The Making of Frozen". :}  I was expecting this really cool behind-the-scenes feature staged as a musical, but if it had been called something else, I probably would have gone into it with the idea of just enjoying a fun song.

I seriously doubt that anyone from Disney reads this blog, but if they did, I would beg them to consider adding more special features to their Blu-rays and DVDs.  And while I'm dreaming away, how about some audio commentaries?  I would love to have a cast and crew commentary on Frozen (and on Tangled too, for that matter!). 

I don't regret getting my copy of Frozen, because the film itself is enough of a gem on its own.  Still, it would have made it even more amazing if there had been some in-depth looks at the true "Making of Frozen". :}

Thankfully, in our computer-saturated world, we have other resources for bonus features.  I figured that some of you might have been similarly disappointed, so I thought I would link to a few of my favorite online "bonus features" (since we didn't get many on the Blu-ray). :)  Enjoy! 

Behind the Scenes:
Idina Menzel and Kristen Bell (Elsa and Anna)
Jonathan Groff (Kristoff)
Josh Gad (Olaf)
Santino Fontana (Hans)
Alan Tudyk (the Duke of Wesselton)
Soundtrack
Animation

Interviews:
Idina Menzel 
Idina Menzel #2
Kristen Bell
Jonathan Groff
Josh Gad
Santino Fontana  (this is one of my favorite interviews...Santino is so funny!) ;)
Alan Tudyk
Josh Gad, Kristen Bell, and Idina Menzel (These are partial interviews; you can find the full ones on YouTube as well)

If you're in the mood for still more Frozen fun, you can visit my Frozen Pinterest board HERE.

Hope you guys enjoyed the post and the links.  What are your thoughts on the Blu-ray?