Movie Review: Frozen (Disney 2013)
I have always enjoyed most Disney movies and I will come right out and say Frozen is worth seeing.
Disney often has lots of musical scores and for some reason this one felt more like a musical. I did not do any measured comparison, but it seemed there was more singing in Frozen than Tangled and some of their other more recent movies. I could be wrong, but that was the feeling.
Like all the Disney movies I have seen, there is always a deep adult undercurrent in the film and it shows how bad advice from a parent can make a mess of their children’s lives.
The movie is about two sisters who are the princesses of Arendelle. The older, Elsa (voiced by Idina Menzel), has magic powers, creating snow, ice, and freezing things at will. When they are young, Elsa accidentally hurts her younger sister Anna (voiced by Kristen Bell of Veronica Mars fame) and blames herself.
The King and Queen take Anna to the trolls to save her. In the process, Anna’s knowledge of Elsa’s powers is lost and her parents, fearing that Elsa is losing control of her powers, tell her to hide her powers, to conceal herself, and not feel (which causes her powers to activate). They send away most servants and lock themselves in the castle, separating Elsa away from everyone, even Anna, so Elsa does not hurt anyone else.
The King and Queen are soon out of the picture and the girls grow into teenagers having lived alone and locked away. Elsa has come of age and is to be crowned Queen of Arendelle. Not exposed to much social interaction, Anna is actually still well-adjusted. She’s lonely, but holds onto her adventurous spirit. She is looking forward to the coronation and the chance to meet people (and as a young woman, find romance). Elsa on the other hand is still closed off and fearful of letting people into the castle. She wares gloves and doesn’t want anyone to touch her.
After the coronation and during the subsequent party, a confrontation between the two sisters reveals Elsa’s powers to everyone. Scared and with people screaming about witchcraft, she runs away, not wanting to face her subjects. However, she unintentionally and unknowingly sets off an eternal winter. Anna, wanting to make amends and fix the situation, takes off after Elsa.
This sets Anna on course to encounter Kristoff (voiced by Jonathan Groff) a large, but young Scandinavian man whose job is to cut ice and bring it to the city (and he’s somewhat out of a job now). Kristoff is wanting to investigate what he saw in the mountains to find the source of the winter (not knowing it was the queen who did it). The two of them are eventually joined by a snowman, Olaf (voiced by Josh Gad), who Elsa created and brought to life (once when they girls were young and now again). With Olaf and Sven, Kristoff’s reindeer, the four of them go in search of Elsa in the hopes of ending the winter and saving the country.
There are some predictable plot elements, but also some things that are refreshingly unexpected. The movie entertained and while the kids will like Olaf and the reindeer, I was intrigued by the interplay between the sisters and the overall resolution of the plot.
There are some great visuals and a couple of songs from he film I really like. However, I was not fond of all the songs, so if you get the MP3s, you might pick and chose what you want.
Final verdict, Frozen gets 5 out of 5 stars and I’ll be seeing it again in the theaters.
