‘Frozen’ Is the Best Disney Film Since ‘The Lion King’ Link to article {http://thebea.st/193R8vg}
Who needs Pixar? Frozen confirms that the House of Mouse is capable of melting hearts again.
There's a special place in the heart reserved for wisecracking candlesticks, singing crustaceans, and lion cubs growing up to be mighty kings. It's a place where nostalgia is kept, where a warm feeling swells at the thought of things that we used to love, that used to be great. For the better part of this new century, Disney's animated features resided there. With a string of brilliant animated musicals in the late '80s and '90s—The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King—the House of Mouse reigned, with hit after hit of family-friendly cartoons that dominated the box office, dazzled critics, and warmed cold hearts with signature Disney magic and catchy tunes. The Magic Kingdom was overthrown in the new millennium, with Pixar delivering its own brand of reliably wholesome and reliably brilliant films—Toy Story 2, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Up, Wall-E—while Disney struggled to adapt its magic to a new tech-savvy age. Not anymore. Frozen, which hits theaters Wednesday, is the best Disney film since The Lion King, and a powerful reminder of how astonishing the company's magic can really be. This is also, as it happens, the third consecutive year that Disney's big animated release is better than Pixar's. The knee-jerk reaction to such a thing would be to call Disney the new Pixar. But the more accurate coronation is that Disney is the new Disney.
Frozen pulls off its animated abracadabra by conjuring up the elements that made Disney's modern classics just that. It's about two sister princesses—this is Disney, did you really expect anything else?—in the Scandinavian kingdom of Arendelle whose relationship is tested when their parents die in a tragic accident—again, this is Disney, did you really expect anything else? Mostly, though, it's about the transformative powers of true love, of both the sisterly and romantic kind. This is Disney, and we don't want to expect anything else. Anna (voiced by Kristen Bell as an adult) and Elsa (Idina Menzel as an adult) are inseparable as little girls. They adore spending time with each other, especially when Elsa uses her secret power to make it snow inside the castle. As must be learned, great power comes with great responsibility. Elsa's lesson comes when she nearly kills Anna while casting a chilly spell. Anna is fine—a wise (and adorable) old troll erases her memory of the incident. But in Elsa's eyes, great responsibility means Rapunzel-ing herself in her castle bedroom, where her powers can't hurt anyone else. But she does hurt Anna, every day, as her heart breaks at the transformation of her fun-loving best friend into a mysterious recluse. The dissolution of their relationship plays out in the achingly poignant duet "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" sung by the girls from opposite sides of locked doors as the years pass and they grow into lonely adults. (This is where we see their parents die.) The sequence evokes the masterful montage from the beginning of Pixar's Up, but made perhaps even more wrenching by the essentially Disney element of song. When Elsa comes of age, a ball is held to celebrate her becoming queen, the first time the people of Arendelle are allowed within the castle's walls since the death of her parents. Anna, spunky and cute with a tiara on her head and heart on her sleeve, delights in the company of others, including a prince she believes is her true love, and needles Elsa to allow it to happen more often, unable to understand why she won't. Frustrated at not being able to give Anna the happiness she wants, Elsa loses control of her powers, accidentally turning the entire kingdom into a frozen wasteland and outing herself as a magical freak.
She exiles herself to the mountains, and Anna chases after her, desperate to have her sister—and a warm kingdom—back. From the fall of the first snowflake, Frozen is gorgeously animated, turning a dramatic Nordic landscape into a wintry animated wonderland. It's icing on the, well, ice that the film's story is as emotionally cascading as the setting. With Anna, you have a female protagonist who is exceptionally female-positive. She's a princess, but she's a clumsy tomboy. She's beautiful, but she's headstrong. She's obsessed with falling in love—her meet-cute with Prince Hans (Santino Fontana) is as precious as their silly-and-lovely duet "Love Is an Open Door"—but learns that love isn't something that can be whipped out of thin air, like Elsa's snowflake, and that stories don’t always end with Happily Ever After, even if you are a princess. She's a multi-faceted, rich lead character, owed both to writer Jennifer Lee's scripting and Kristen Bell's perfectly precocious, zippy voice performance. With Elsa, you get an adversary with much more nuance than anyone would expect. Though she's the one who buried her kingdom in snow and the one responsible for Anna's life-long loneliness, she's never the antagonist. It's fitting that Menzel voices the character, as the "how she got this way" insight given to Elsa is as empathetic and heartbreaking as the backstory in Wicked—Menzel starred as the Wicked Witch of the West, another not-quite-a-villain, in the Broadway production. Frozen's most rousing song, "Let It Go," is actually Elsa's, not Anna's, an empowerment ballad about Elsa deciding she's no longer going to be afraid of her powers. Menzel belts it out like an vocal blizzard. Most animated films have you rooting for the guy and the girl to get together. By adding unexpected dimension to Elsa, this one has you more invested in the reunion of these sisters. There's a flurry of other things to cherish about Frozen. Josh Gad turns talking snowman Olaf into a comedic sidekick that ranks alongside the Genie and Lumiere in Disney’s rich history of scene-stealers. Jonathan Groff turns a hapless mountaineer who talks to his pet reindeer into a swashbuckling Prince Charming. And while the ending might be written on the wall from the get go—again, this is a Disney movie!—the journey there careens in unexpected and satisfying ways. The original music is from husband-and-wife team Robert and Kristin Anderson-Lopez. Robert is the Tony-winning genius behind the music of The Book of Mormon, which explains the sly wit (Olaf's denial fantasy "In Summer" is particularly inspired) and appealing Broadway bombast of the songs. All of this works together to make Frozen the most Disney-feeling film in over a decade, the crescendo of what's been an exciting build over the past few years. The Princess and the Frog was a welcome return to classic animation from the studio, but stayed perhaps too closely to its mission of reviving classic animation. While magical, it never felt special. Tangled confirmed that Disney Animation could compete with Pixar, but the plot was a bit knotty and the songs completely unmemorable. Last year's Wreck-It Ralph was a brilliantly conceived take on blurred lines between "good guys" and "bad guys" and executed with ample intelligence and sass, but it didn't feel Disney the way that Frozen does. Disney getting its mojo back would be something to celebrate at any point; mojo by its definition is a great thing, and Disney's was particularly groovy. But it's especially welcome at a point when Pixar seems to be losing its own. For years, Pixar was this quirky little oasis of family film, where heart and humor were equally important and stories that should never work on film were turned into the best films. But following the stunning Toy Story 3 in 2010, the studio's been on an off streak, with the lazy Cars 2, the imperfect Brave, and the uninspired Monsters University. It's as if the studios have reversed roles, with Pixar mired in sequelitis and write-by-number scripts while Disney gambles on out-of-the box story ideas (Wreck-It Ralph) and nostalgia (Frozen). There's no vindication in this, of course. The sooner Pixar gets back to making great movies again, the better. But if Pixar's going to slump, it's comforting that Disney is back to its old tricks. The wise words in Frozen are that "Only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart."Frozen proves that Disney we loved is, indeed, back…and back to melting hearts.
It was easy come, easy go for admitted insider trader Jesse Tortora. The former tech analyst turned government witness — who was at the center of what prosecutors call a “corrupt circle” of insider-trading pals — said he lost most of his millions gambling in Vegas, day trading and paying legal fees. The 37-year-old Tortora, testifying for the third day in the case against SAC top money man Michael Steinberg, said his big year at now defunct hedge fund Diamondback was 2008, when his compensation hit $2.5 million. He only made $800,000 in 2009 and left the firm that was founded by former SAC portfolio managers early in 2010. Tortora, who is living with his parents in Florida while he awaits sentencing for his cooperation in the Steinberg trial, said he has only $100,000 left from his years of living high as a hedge-fund analyst. While the financial crash decimated portfolios of millions of Americans in 2008, that was Tortora’s big year, when insider trading tips about Dell, among others, paid off. Steinberg traded on that insider tip and knew it was illegal, prosecutors allege. Tortora said he lost $400,000 day trading and “several hundred thousands” in Las Vegas on blackjack and sports betting. He said he has also spent $400,000 on legal fees since his arrest on insider trading charges. While at Diamondback, he also fed insider tips to his stepfather, who did not know they were illegal. “In general, he’s done poorly,” Tortora told the jury. “He has lost a good amount of money.” Steinberg’s defense lawyer Barry Berke is expected to cross examine Tortora this afternoon. Jon Horvath, a member of Tortora’s insider-trading circle who reported to Steinberg, is the government’s next witness.
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Remy Slumps on Profit Forecast, Bernstein Says Worst Yet to Come 2013-11-26 08:25:18.23 GMT
By Heather Burke Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Remy Cointreau falls as much as 8.6%, most since March 2009, sees “substantial double-digit decline” in FY current oper. profit. * Biggest Stoxx 600 decliner, vol. 100% of 3-mo. daily avg. in 1st 10 min of trading * Food/beverage sector down most in index; Pernod -2.1%, Diageo -0.7% * Bernstein suggests 1H beat due to phasing, worst yet to come (underperform) * Kepler says profit drop due to poor China sales outlook, inventories still high (buy) * Weak forecast may also be due to worsening competitive environment in China * Earlier reaction here
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To contact the reporter on this story: Heather Burke in London at +44-20-7673-2044 or hburke2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Ludden at +44-20-7673-2645 or jludden@bloomberg.net
* Global Economics: We now expect global growth of 2.9% in 2013, a touch lower than in 2012. The outlook for 2014 is cheerier. We expect the global economy to achieve above-trend growth (3.7%), supported by a rebound in developed markets (led by the US and the euro area). The spread between EM and DM growth rates is expected to be the smallest since 2002. For additional details on Emerging Markets, please see the EM Quarterly.
* US Economics: Our base case remains for the FOMC to announce a modest $10bn taper on January 29. However, the strong October nonfarm payrolls report boosted the risk of an initial tapering move in December.
* Global Equity Strategy: We stick to our long-standing overweight of equities and our end-2014 target of 1,900 on the S&P 500 but we see a heightened risk of near-term consolidation. Within a European portfolio, we believe investors should be overweight peripheral Europe.
* Technical Analysis: Japan resumes its core bull trend, and we look for the Nikkei to retest its year high and secular downtrend at 15945/16155, and USDJPY to retest 103.10/74. Copper looks to be resuming its core bear trend. We stay bearish Gold for $1157/54. We look for 10yr US/Germany to test the 2005/2006 wides.
* FX Strategy: We have been bullish on the dollar and now believe that the long-anticipated USD rally could be about to commence. With the ECB likely to have been shocked by the further disinflation in Europe over recent months, we also downgraded our forecasts for EURUSD.
* European Rates: We were neutral on outright duration but the surprise rate cut from the ECB has changed this view – we are now modestly bullish.
* US HY Credit Strategy: We had been overweight HY cash in 4Q but with the Liquid U.S. High Yield Index (LUHY) rallying 2% in October and spreads at post crisis tights, we move to a more neutral stance in HY cash.
The unstinting demand for retail properties in Europe’s prime luxury locations, coupled with the limited availability of top retail spots, has helped boost rents on a number of luxury streets over the past year.
According to research from global real estate advisor Cushman & Wakefield, while retail rents in prime luxury areas across Europe rose a healthy 5.7 percent in the year to June 2013, a number of streets notched up major gains. Paris’ Avenue des Champs-Élysées saw rents rocket 38.5 percent to $1,601 a square foot annually, making it the most expensive retail location on the continent. Meanwhile, rental levels on Paris’ Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré and Avenue Montaigne surged 25 percent to $889 a square foot, while levels on London’s New Bond Street gained 15.6 percent to $1,047 a square foot.
Peter Mace, head of central London retail at Cushman & Wakefield, offered some insight into luxury retail property’s robust performance.
• As retailers tend to hold on to property in prime luxury areas, a lack of liquidity in the market makes the demand for rarely available properties intense. One jewelry house Mace is representing has been “waiting for two years” to get a spot on New Bond Street. As a consequence, retailers who want to gain representation on prime retail streets will pay tens of millions of pounds in key money — a onetime payment to an existing tenant — to take over its lease. On top of this, rental costs rise as 10 brands compete for each property that becomes available on New Bond Street. “There’s a complete imbalance of supply and demand,” said Mace.
• The popularity of Europe’s prime luxury areas among international tourists means a presence there is a must for top labels.
“Most of these luxury brands rely on international tourism [for sales],” said Mace. “And it’s not just in the summer months, it’s all the time.” That means rents in prime luxury areas outpace those in locations slightly off the tourist track, such as London’s King’s Road and Kensington High Street, which rely on spending by locals. “There, you’ve seen rents stagnate.”
• There’s increasing hunger for large “maison”-style stores in prime locations, encouraging retailers to expand their existing stores or secure bigger spaces, thereby fueling demand. Christian Dubois, managing director of Cushman & Wakefield in Paris, noted that “established players inaugurating refurbished formats to face increasing competition” is one of the factors driving rents in Paris’ luxury areas.
Meanwhile, in London, Chanel and Belstaff both opened large-scale stores on New Bond Street this year, joining Louis Vuitton’s maison, which bowed on the street in 2010. Mace said that facing competition from online retail, retailers are “trying to reinvent themselves and [make shopping] more of an experience.” Landlords are also driving this trend — Mace noted that London’s Crown Estate is striving to reduce the number of stores on Regent Street but make each unit larger, encouraging brands to carry their full product range in those stores, thereby being more of a draw to shoppers.
• Mace believes rents will continue to make steady progress in prime luxury areas, with bigger gains ahead for pockets of streets that are undeveloped. The north end of New Bond Street, for example, is being redeveloped as part of Transport for London’s Crossrail project. While rents in that area are relatively low, in 2017, when the Crossrail project is completed, Mace predicts the rents will “shoot up.”
Airlines -1% Brent back above Fridays close (sector was strong yday) Algeta +15-20% Bayer in prelim talks with Board for t/over @ NOK 306/sh Bayer unch In prelim talks to acquire Algeta (NOK 306/sh, 27% prem) Britvic +2% Stmnt reads well (mgns improving). New contract w/ Pepsico Diageo -1% Negative read from RCO FP warning (poor EU, China weakness) Genmab +1% Raising revenue guidance but still not where consensus is Greencore +1% OP inline but EPS 5% on lower interest / tax charges Hugo Boss -1-2% Negative comments from Inv Day (slower pace of mgn impvt) LVMH -1% Negative read from poor China commments from RCO FP M&B unch Net a small beat - outlook still cautious Miners unch China unch, Copper +0.4%, OZ miners -0.5% Pernod -1% Negative read from RCO FP warning (poor EU, China weakness) Peugeot +2% Confirms Carlos Tavares as new CEO (was specualted yday) R.Cointreau -5% Warning. OP to fall dble digits (vs ~7.5%) on China wkness Repsol +3-5% Spec Argentian Gvt may offer comp for REP's stake in YPF Sacyr +5% Positive read from Repsol news (Sacyr own ~ 9.4% REP SM) Sev Trent unch H1 inline and reit FY outlooks Yara +1% CMD comments small +ve (To buy OFD Holdings for $425m)
Carlyle to Buy Firm That Invests in Hedge Funds Deal Continues Firm's Expansion Into Private Equity
Carlyle Group CG +1.08% LP said it will acquire Diversified Global Asset Management Corp., a Toronto-based investor in hedge funds, as the firm continues to expand from private equity.
The deal is valued at $33 million, plus a possible $70 million if the hedge-fund firm achieves a certain level of performance.
Carlyle is a private-equity powerhouse but until recently hadn't developed a big presence in other businesses as some rivals have, including Blackstone Group BX +2.86% LP, which runs a large real-estate operation. In 2011, Carlyle began to focus on advising intuitional investors on so-called alternative investments, which include everything from real estate to timber. That year, Carlyle purchased AlpInvest Partners, an adviser to investors on private equity.
Earlier this month, Carlyle acquired Metropolitan Real Estate Equity Management LLC, which invests in global real estate.
The deal for DGAM gets Carlyle into the business of investing in hedge funds. Carlyle already owns large stakes in several hedge funds, though it hasn't had a presence in the business of investing in groups of hedge funds for clients.
This industry, called the fund-of-funds business because these firms handle matters such as developing funds of hedge funds for big investors, has been under pressure in recent years. More investors are investing directly in hedge funds and resisting the fees that fund-of-funds firms charge, especially since hedge-fund returns have been poor relative to the overall market since 2009.
Still, DGAM has been able to double assets under management to about $6.7 billion in the past three years, executives of the firm say, by searching for funds with niche investment strategies, tailoring customized products for clients and embracing unconventional moves, such as investing in reinsurance and buying protection ahead of the 2008 market collapse. The firm's clients include pension funds, endowments and sovereign-wealth funds.
DGAM Chief Executive George Main said his firm has grown and generated strong performance, but still was "a relatively unknown brand from Canada."
He said he expects the Carlyle deal to allow his firm to expand is client base.
Carlyle is using its own cash for the investment, rather than money from one of its funds.
"Increasingly, investors don't want to be approached with products, they want help from an organization to think through the different options available to them," including hedge funds, private equity and other kinds of investments, said Jacques Chappuis, who runs Carlyle's Solutions group, which works with institutions investing in alternative investments.
Other private-equity firms also have moved into the hedge-fund business. Last year, KKR KKR +1.72% & Co. bought Prisma, for example.
DM growth inflection, EM reforms to drive equities higher in 2014
*The DM growth inflection to finally aid EM in 2014 We expect EM GDP growth to rise slightly to 5.3%, and earnings to grow 8% in 2014. With some valuation expansion in China and Russia, we expect 18% price returns in 2014 (vs. 0% in 2013) similar to DM on a volatilityadjusted basis. US tapering and regional elections could be destabilizing in 1H, but EM should rebound as the DM recovery becomes more evident.
* Countries: DM-facing, C/A surpluses, and reform We upgrade China and Russia to Overweight, both of which have embarked on reform processes and are working more closely together in energy. We keep Korea and Mexico Overweight on DM growth acceleration. Sector P/E dispersion is wide but should decline: low-multiple areas (SOEs, Exporters) may re-rate on better DM growth and EM reforms. High-multiple sectors (Defensives, Domestics Cyclicals) may de-rate due to macro rebalancing.
* Themes we’re watching: Tapering, BRICs, flows US tapering and regional C/A deficits remain an issue for EM but the delay in tapering has allowed some countries to move closer to stability, reducing the magnitude of EM vulnerability. The 5-yr underperformance of BRICs vs. EM may finally reverse mid-year. EM bond flows may slow more than equity, which could drive continued divergence between EM equity & currency.
* What to do: Buy EWY FXI EWW RSX; exporters Given a more upbeat outlook, we would focus on long-exposure in our overweight countries, as well as Exporters, while fading Domestic Cyclicals and Financials especially in C/A deficit countries.
The shift to fourth-generation networks will be faster than the take-up of previous generations of mobile technology in most parts of the world, marking an unprecedented shift in mobile communications. The number of superfast mobile internet connections worldwide is forecast to pass 1bn by 2017, according to the GSMA, the organisation that represents the interest of mobile operators worldwide.
The rapid take-up means that more than one in eight mobile connections will use superfast 4G networks within the next four years, up from just 176m connections at the end of 2013. The technology, also known as LTE, offers rapid internet speeds rivalling fixed-line broadband networks, opening up a host of new applications and services for smartphone providers. Almost 500 LTE networks are forecast to be in service across 128 countries by 2017, roughly double the number of LTE networks today. The GSMA said the shift to 4G networks will be faster than the corresponding move from 2G to 3G technology over the past decade. Networks using 3G technology were initially slow to be adopted, in part owing to the expense of the spectrum acquired to use the networks in regions such as Europe and lack of smartphones and other connected devices. The GSMA highlighted a number of factors driving the growth of 4G, such as the more efficient allocation of spectrum to mobile operators, the availability of affordable suitable devices and the implementation of tariffs designed to encourage adoption of high-speed data services. The study calculates that about a fifth of the global population is within 4G network coverage range, which will rise to about half of the world’s population by 2017. In the US, LTE networks already cover more than 90 per cent of the population and account for almost half of global connections. However, Asia will grow to account for almost half of all LTE connections by 2017 as networks are rolled out in major markets such as China and India. China, the world’s largest mobile telecoms market, will be officially open to superfast mobile services next month when China Mobile begins selling 4G tariffs in Beijing, Guangzhou and Chongqing. China Mobile, the country’s largest mobile group with about 750m mobile subscribers, is expected to be granted a 4G licence in December. The state-backed group has been running trial services in cities in China. China’s government wants to catch up with the advances seen in countries such as South Korea, which is the most advanced mobile market in the world given half of total mobile connections are running on LTE networks. The GSMA study also found that LTE users consume 1.5GB of data a month on average, almost twice the average amount consumed by non-LTE users. In developed markets, operators have found that LTE can generate an average revenue per user uplift of between 10 and 40 per cent. “Since the launch of the first commercial 4G-LTE networks in late 2009 we are seeing deployments accelerate across the globe,” said Hyunmi Yang, chief strategy officer at the GSMA. “Our findings show that the global LTE market is at a tipping point.”