Frozen "In Summer"

We took the kids to see the Disney movie "Frozen" this weekend.

We're only on December 2nd, and I have already seen "Elmo's Christmas Countdown" three times, and "The Grinch" twice.

The switch in my brain the kinda turns off the holiday-kiddie-fare has been activated.

That said, "Frozen" was actually very, very good.  Like, I walked out of the theater humming the songs, feeling good about the message, and not having to console any small children because the villain was too f-n scary.

My wife enjoyed it too.  And before we were even to the car she said what I knew she was going to say:

"Oh, we are buying that soundtrack!"

The songs were particularly good in this Disney effort.  On par with Disney's best modern musicals, like "The Little Mermaid" and "Beauty And The Beast."

On the whole, big thumbs up for this film.

If I had any minor critique about the film, it was that the Snowman character seems a little out of place.  The rest of the movie has this mystical-realism style, similar to "Brave."  And the Snowman is straight out of something very cartoon-y, almost like a computer-animated Chuck Jones creation.  It's like he's wandered in from a different film project.

That said, I expect to see more of Olaf the Snowman.  I would not be surprised to find him showing up in his own future shorts and specials.  He is hilarious (voiced by Josh Gad of "Book Of Mormon" fame), and has one of the best songs in the film, where he imagines the wonderful life of a snowman in summer.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Mumford & Sons and Birdy "Learn Me Right"

The Grammys are on Sunday, and, as usual, there are a ton of weird-category nominees that might surprise and interest you.

No surprise that Mumford & Sons is up for a number of Grammys, including Album Of The Year, Best Rock Song, Best Rock Performance and Best Americana Album.

But they snagged a couple other nominations, in places you would not expect.  And if you are not a full-on obsessive Mumford fan, you may not know about these tracks at all.

The band is up for Best Song Written for Visual Media, for a track (featuring vocals by Birdy) that appeared in the excellent Pixar movie "Brave."

And they are up for Best Long Form Music Video, as part of "Big Easy Express," a concert-film/road-trip documentary, also featuring Old Crowe Medicine Show and Edward Sharpe And The Magnetic Zeroes.


Hear the song on Youtube.


See the trailer on Youtube.