You wouldn’t guess from the trailer that Disney’s Frozen is about two princesses or that the soundtrack has enough catchy tunes to qualify it as a musical. But as Justin Chang notes in Variety, a movie that marketed princesses and musicals would lose a valuable segment: guys. Hence a trailer and commercials featuring Olaf the animated snowman.
“The thinking (if that’s the word) behind these decisions is clear enough,” writes Chang, “and it’s been a matter of fairly public knowledge since the disappointing B.O. performance of a 2009 film that Disney had the grave misfortune to title ‘The Princess and the Frog.’ After all, why call attention to princesses—a niche commodity at best these days—when you can more successfully market your product to all four quadrants? Why run the risk of alienating viewers with singing, dancing and other archaic showbiz practices when you can seduce them instead with catchy one-liners and breezy slapstick?” It’s a short but worthwhile read.
And at the very least, people don’t seem to be getting it confused with that other Frozen movie.