The following was submitted by community member Herr D. Lets all thank him for his efforts in the comments below!
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Music Video Review Of "Let It Go" From Disney DVD "Frozen" Special Features by Herr D
Artist, Language, Rating 1-5 starfish.
Stoessel Spanish: 5
Stoessel Italian: 5
Milan Malaysian: 4.5
Lovato American: 3.5
So, I'll start off by saying that I'm not a professional singer, I'm not a true polyglot, and the only academic credentials I have for this are a minor in Theater Arts from a Big East school. That being said, I've sung professionally twenty times, I'm a moderately-well-informed comparative linguist, and most people who don't like my opinions at least find them interesting.
I hadn't had the pleasure of hearing Malaysian sung before, but Milan made those syllables flow despite the constant consonants consistently jumping out. Obviously some skill there. I'd have been tongue-tied even if I knew the language, and I've done auctioneer speed with American English. The most interesting singing was by her. The emotive gestures were right up there too. Visual treat.
Stoessel, with the Romance languages, in the studio, with obvious skill. What's that phrase? She killed it! The translation she had and the grammatical requirements she faced meant she had to sing double-time during some of it. Sunni D, my technical consultant, says those were over language tense requirements. I hadn't known that you can't mix tenses in LYRICS in the middle of sentences. Stoessel's emoting visually as well as vocally were equal to Milan's. I have to rate the performance parts between the three songs by the two singers as equal.
Lovato was all there vocally, though I don't like 'belting' as much as most people I know. Where she fell down was visually. Some of that was influenced by the other professionals who made the video, no doubt, but I didn't see her put her life into how she moved.
I don't know who made the decisions, but Lovato looked like they didn't bother with an art director or to plan out what they were doing in advance. The video didn't even successfully showcase Lovato. What editing was needed was executed well.
Milan's video was beautifully shot and edited. Some fine work. The selection and dicing in of movie shots was executed well, too, resulting in a feast for the eyes. The reason Stoessel's videos top it is the production style itself. Not so beautiful, it mixes the properly showy emoting and a subtle story in the video itself with true finesse. The level of editing skill and the scenes shot showed me a commitment to the final product by the whole 'cast' and crew that I didn't see in the Lovato video at all.
This group of videos clearly demonstrates the value of having the right team behind every great performer.
On a side note especially for comic book enthusiasts, the other bonus feature is a great example of cartoons breaking the fourth wall in early cartoon history.
