The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Wednesday, March 18, 2015 — 5A

‘Frozen on Ice’ is 
faithful to film

Movie adaptation 
exceeds writer’s 

expectations

By CHRISTIAN KENNEDY

Daily Arts Writer

“Why are you going home 

this weekend?”

“I’m going to ‘Frozen on 

Ice,’ ” I said, 
straight-faced. 
I don’t mess 
around 
when 

it comes to the 
“awesomely 
cool” 
new 

age 
classic 

(the 
tickets 

were free, so 
that didn’t hurt either). But no 
matter the ticket price, it was 
certainly a spectacle worth 
seeing.

Before the show at The 

Palace, a cast of classic Disney 
characters glided across the 
ice gracefully to get the child-
dominated crowd prepped for 
the show. Princes, princesses, 
lions, fish and a nightmarish 
Pumba did rounds with their 
specific theme songs before 
the show got underway. Mickey 
began to tell Minnie (let the 
record show that they are 
married, 
NOT 
brother 
and 

sister, as I have thought my 
entire life) a story about true 
love, between sisters. It was 
a progressive message that 
most Disney stories haven’t 
yet embraced compared to the 
typical prince/princess story 
lines.

Out 
of 
excitement 
for 

“Frozen,” 
moments 
before 

the show began, I had a minor 
panic attack, a reaction friends 
who I brought for moral support 
successfully made fun of. Wait, 
will it be the actors’ voices? Or 
the ice skaters’ voices? Will it 
be the skaters singing? I do not 
give a shit about their voices. 
GIVE ME IDINA MENZEL 
AND KRISTEN BELL OR GIVE 
ME DEATH. After a vocally 
questionable intro with Sven 
and Kristoff, it was clear they 
kept near identical voices to the 
movie and the exact soundtrack 
recording 
for 
the 
musical 

numbers. Phew.

Furthermore (and I guess 

more 
importantly 
than 
my 

burning 
questions) 
the 
ice 

skating adaption stayed true 
to the film’s plot points, with 
minor cuts due to restrictions 
by the live production. Elsa and 
Anna’s parents were not present 
in the performance (But do we 
care? They were kind of dicks). 
Anna falls into a fruit stand 
instead of a boat when she first 
meets ultimate fuck-boy Prince 
Hans. But no worries, the really 
important stuff is still there. 
Olaf’s head comes off as many 
times as I could’ve asked for, Elsa 
whips off her cape in her fuck-
you-guys-I’m-awesome anthem 
“Let it Go,” and of course, there 
was 
an 
impressively 
large, 

inflated snow monster, which 
successfully scared the shit out of 
the young children surrounding 
me.

The 
live 
production 
was 

impressive to say the least. It 
came with snow falling from the 
ceiling, sparks and the occasional 
flame. A contraption on the 
ceiling worked in tandem with 

a staircase on the floor to give a 
buyable version of Elsa’s HGTV-
dream ice castle.

The biggest disappointment 

of the show was definitely when 
several green balls (presumably 
trolls) rolled across the ice into 
a woodlands set. We waited 
and waited for people on skates 
to burst out of their balls into 
full-on troll-hood, but to no 
avail. Soon after Anna and 
Kristoff’s dialogue, the balls 
rolled away and skaters came 
onto the ice separately. A small, 
yet 
extremely 
disappointing 

moment.

Sans 
some 
ball-enclosed 

Trolls, “Frozen on Ice” was 
everything I expected it could 
be. I got to sing “Let it Go” 
alongside an arena full of 
tiny humans, and believe it or 
not still got a little choked up 
when Anna saved Elsa. The ice-
skating added another aspect 
to the “Frozen” story, and the 
actors skated flawlessly around 
the arena floor for two hours 
slowing 
through 
dialogue 

and catchy musical numbers. 
Leaving Ann Arbor for the 
day and missing that party at 
Tower Plaza that was all over 
Yik Yak was totally worth it. 
“Frozen on Ice” was totally 
worth it.

A-

Frozen 
on Ice

The Palace of 
Auburn Hills

‘Returned’ mimics 
French predecessor

By MATT BARNAUSKAS

Daily Arts Writer

A bus full of high schoolers 

careens off a mountain side. 
Four years later, a girl named 
Camille Winship (India Enne-
ga, 
“Treme”) 

climbs 
up 

from the same 
spot 
the 
bus 

fell. She walks 
home through 
her 
town 
of 

Caldwell, 
Washington. 
She gets home, 
where 
her 

mother Claire 
(Tandi Wright, 
“Jack the Giant 
Slayer”), 
hav-

ing just lit candles at a shrine for 
her daughter, stares at Camille. 
While Claire stands silently 
shocked but happy, Camille 
remains oblivious, not know-
ing she’s been dead for four 
years and hasn’t aged a day.

Based on the Internation-

al 
Emmy-winning 
French 

drama “Les Revenants,” “The 
Returned” 
is 
a 
perplexing 

remake developed by the pro-
lific Carlton Cuse who also 
produces A&E’s “Bates Motel,” 
a show which “The Returned” 
complements nicely consider-
ing both of their dark natures. 
At least for its first episode, 
“The Returned” remains large-
ly, sometimes overly, faithful 
to its French counterpart and 
effectively captures a sense of 
psychological complexity and 
unease within its small town 
setting.

Just like the idea of people 

returning from the dead, “The 
Returned” is a difficult show 
to initially wrap one’s head 
around. The show challenges 
viewers to think of the conse-

quences that a person returning 
from the dead might yield. None 
of the answers are exactly easy 
to grapple with. 

By 
primarily 
maintaining 

focus on the Winship family in 
its first episode, the show gauges 
the effects that a loss can have on 
a family and how this supernatu-
ral interference can further open 
these wounds. The home Camille 
returns to is drastically different 
than the one she left four years 
ago. Her parents are divorced, as 
her father Jack (Mark Pellegrino, 
“Lost”), is particularly embit-
tered, angrily attending group 
grief counseling sessions led by 
Peter Lattimore (Jeremy Sisto, 
“Suburgatory”) – who is now see-
ing Claire. Meanwhile, her iden-
tical twin Lena (Sophie Lowe, 
“Once Upon a Time in Wonder-
land”) has aged four years and 
deals with her problems by par-
tying at the local bar.

The family’s reactions to 

Camille’s return run the gaunt-
let of emotion. Claire’s initial 
happiness contrasts with the 
almost horror experienced by 
Lena. While Jack emotionally 
questions, “What kind of accep-
tance am I supposed to have 
now?” when talking to his wife 
and Peter, he reflects the inher-
ent sadness of what Camille will 
have to face, saying, “She has 
absolutely no idea what she’s 
returned to.” The performance 

of Pellegrino is the strongest 
from any actor in this impres-
sively acted premiere. Jack is a 
troubled man who now has to 
wrestle with the guilt of seeing 
his daughter return to a broken 
home.

Camille is not the only 

deceased to return though. 
There’s Simon Moran (Mat 
Vairo, “Revolution”) who wan-
ders the town trying to find his 
bride-to-be Rowan (Mary Eliz-
abeth Winstead, “Scott Pilgrim 
vs. the World”). And there’s the 
mysterious silent boy known 
only as Victor (Dylan Kin-
gwell, “Big Eyes”), among sev-
eral other plotlines introduced. 
There is an unease in the pre-
miere regarding these returns. 
The night of the returns cov-
ers the town in shadows and 
characters attempt to navigate 
the unknown territory they are 
experiencing. The efficient use 
of the Dutch angle in cinema-
tography makes several interac-
tions with the title “Returned” 
feel effectively off, as though 
reality were rejecting the very 
concept that has been made 
real. The use of these tech-
niques displays an influence 
of horror in the series which 
is further reinforced by turns 
“The Returned” makes near the 
end of its premiere.

The 
success 
of 
“The 

Returned” lies in it being able 
to distinguish itself from its 
acclaimed predecessor. In the 
coming episodes, the show will 
need to take opportunities to 
diverge, tinker or subvert what 
came before instead of strictly 
following the blueprint of “Les 
Revenants.” The pieces are 
there for a strong debut season, 
but it’s up to Carlton Cuse and 
his writers to effectively adapt 
the source material beyond a 
simple copy.

B

The 
Returned

Season 1, 
Episodes 1-3 

Mondays 
at 10 p.m.

A&E

DISNEY ON ICE

Prince Fuckboi.

A&E

“I hear dead people.”

GIVE ME 

KRISTEN BELL 

OR GIVE ME 

DEATH 

VIDEO GAME REVIEW
‘Rainbow Curse’ is 
lazy game-making

By JACOB RICH

Daily Film Editor

“Kirby and the Rainbow Curse” 

looks absolutely amazing. Its 
unique blend of Claymation and 
CGI gives the 
game a fabu-
lous, 
colorful 

look that’s much 
more 
consis-

tently 
appeal-

ing than other 
games like “The 
Neverhood” and 
“Clay 
Fighter” 

that attempted 
video 
game 

Claymation 
back in the ’90s.

Unfortunate-

ly, it’s also total-
ly boring. Its unique look just isn’t 
enough to make up for its lacklus-
ter level design and heavily flawed 
cooperative gameplay.

“Kirby and the Rainbow Curse” 

is a 2-D platformer controlled 

exclusively using the Wii U Game-
pad’s touch screen. Kirby (whose 
limbs have been compacted in 
what we can only assume was a 
truly horrific accident) takes the 
form of a sphere, which the player 
controls using rainbow pathways 
he or she draws with the stylus. It’s 
the same system used in the early 
DS game “Kirby: Canvas Curse,” 
only it’s way less interesting here. 
Kirby can’t copy the abilities of 
his enemies, and the gameplay 
of “Rainbow Curse” feels empty 
without this staple ability that 
has consistently been the most 
interesting part of “Kirby” games 
throughout the series’ long history.

Perhaps I have been spoiled by 

Nintendo’s other recently released 
platformers, like “Donkey Kong 
Country: Tropical Freeze” and 
“Super Mario 3D World.” These 
games are highly regarded for 
introducing a new gameplay con-
cept into every single level, always 
shaking things up enough to 
keep its solid base of platforming 

mechanics interesting through-
out. “Rainbow Curse” fails to 
reach this high bar. By the second 
world, I was tired of controlling 
Kirby with the stylus and the over-
ly simple mechanics introduced 
as I progressed had me clamor-
ing for complexity. I can remem-
ber most of the levels in “Super 
Mario Galaxy 2,” because of the 
new gameplay dimensions it intro-
duced in each of its dozens of lev-
els. I’d be hard-pressed to come up 
with more than a few innovative 
mechanics introduced in “Rain-
bow Curse.”

The game tries to shake up the 

typically bland level design with 
simple vehicle-based segments. 
Sadly, these levels fail to interest 
after their initial impact, and they 
quickly become just as boring as 
their more standard counterparts.

The game’s end-of-world bosses 

are initially moments of intrigue 
among the blandness, but only for 
the first three worlds. The bosses 
of worlds four through six are re-

D+

Kirby 
and the 
Rainbow 
Curse

Wii U 
exclusive

Nintendo

skins of the first three bosses. It’s 
an 
inexcusable 
corner-cutting 

measure, proving that this game 
likely would have been better if it 
had more development time.

The game offers cooperative 

play for up to four players, but this 
cooperative experience is heavily 
flawed. No matter what, the first 
player dictates the boundaries of 
the screen as Kirby (the other play-
ers follow along with Wii remotes 
as secondary “Waddle Dee” char-
acters). While I played through 
World One with two other players, 
the newcomers were consistently 

warped to my location after lag-
ging behind or running ahead of 
me. Besides being able to attack 
foes, they had no agency over the 
level’s progression and quickly 
became frustrated. The co-op in 
“Rainbow Curse” typically boils 
down to “run around pointlessly 
while player one actually accom-
plishes things,” completely defeat-
ing the purpose of multiplayer.

To 
make 
matters 
worse, 

playing in co-op mode adds a 
tedious mini-boss fight into each 
level, in which the non-Kirby 
players must defeat an enemy that 

grabs and restrains Player One. 
It feels like a lame concession 
to the co-op players, with the 
designers acknowledging the 
lack of substantive multiplayer 
gameplay.

If you’re looking for a great 

Wii U platformer, leave “Rain-
bow Curse” in the dust and head 
straight for “Donkey Kong Coun-
try: Tropical Freeze,” a game 
with infinitely better level design 
and a whole lot more heart.

“Kirby and the Rainbow Curse” 

was reviewed using a digital copy 
provided by Nintendo.

NINTENDO

A Rainbow Curse doesn’t sound all that bad, actually.

It challenges 
viewers to 
think about 

consequences.

