If you have children or at the very least spend a good amount of time near children, then there is a very good probability that you have heard the Oscar-winning song "Let It Go" from Walt Disney Animation's Frozen. After all, the film was a ridiculously huge smash hit when it was released last year, and we are still seeing the impact today. But for those of you who are at their boiling point and can't hear that song even one more time, writer/director Jennifer Lee has a message: she's sorry.
Lee recently sat down with The Hollywood Reporter for 2014 Women in Entertainment issue, and the filmmaker revealed that in the year since the release of Frozen, her interactions with mothers and fathers have taken a slight turn. Instead of being greeted with unbridled enthusiasm, now it seems like the parents are being worn down to a certain degree. Talking about how things have changed over since Frozen's release last November, Lee said,
"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.' I've gone from, 'Thank you,' to, 'Sorry!' "
Surely Jennifer Lee isn't apologizing for the incredible success she's had or including "Let It Go" in the feature, but instead the fact that kids have a tendency to listen to the same song over and over again, seemingly without exhaustion. After all, this is cute to watch once:
But imagine watching hundreds of times over the course of a full year. The kids might not get tired of it, but any rational adult will.
While I do have sympathy for the parents out there who have kids with full blown Frozen addictions, the silver lining in this is that the Disney animated film ultimately has some really great messages (very much included in the song "Let It Go") and shows that there is some stuff out there that can help defeat our culture's ever-shortening attention spans. That being said, I'm sure it won't be too long before the next big cultural landmark waltzes around the corner. Let's not forget that Joss Whedon's The Avengers: Age of Ultron is coming out next May, and it has a very real chance to reach the heights of its predecessor (which is still ranked as the third highest grossing film of all time, two spots ahead of Frozen).
