Movie Review: Frozen (2013)
Most of us grew up watching Disney musicals. Heck, I still consider “The Lion King” as one of my all-time favorite movies (and I’m sure many of you do too). “Frozen”, the latest film to come out of Walt Disney Animation Studios, is a charming tale of friendship and love, and while it doesn’t reach the heights of some of Disney’s classics, it’s a sweet and beautifully animated film that will please its target audience, while reminding adults why they fell in love with Disney cartoons in the first place. And yes, it’s a musical, but don’t let that scare you away.
“Frozen” tells the story of Elsa (Idina Menzel) and Anna (Kristen Bell), two young princesses hailing from the Kingdom of Arendelle. Elsa is no ordinary princess, however; she possesses special powers that allow her to control weather, and she can pretty much turn anything she wants into an icicle. When Elsa accidentally injures Anna while playing, her parents consult some sort of Goblin leader, and he proceeds to erase Anna’s memory so that she forgets that her sister possesses such powers. As a result, Elsa must now live in seclusion, away from her beloved sister, so that she may never accidentally hurt her, or anyone else, again. Many years later, and after some pretty grim circumstances, Elsa is forced out of hiding, and when she accidentally freezes her entire kingdom, she leaves Arendelle to live in seclusion in her very own Ice palace. Determined to bring her sister back and end a seemingly eternal winter, Anna goes after her sister with the help of Olaf the snowman (Josh Gad), mountain man Kristoff (Jonathan Groff) and his reindeer Sven.
Let me get the bad stuff out of the way first; I wasn’t all that impressed with the story. I thought the entire goblin subplot was extremely random, and it felt like something out of a Dreamworks film instead of a Disney princess flick. And the whole “let’s erase Anna’s memory and keep her and her sister separated” thing was a bit of a stretch. But to be fair, this is a Disney cartoon, so these are just minor quibbles, but I felt like they needed to be addressed.
What does work is the beautiful, bright and lively animation, as well as some of the catchiest songs in any recent movie musical. It was brought to my attention that the music was written by Broadway veterans Robert and and Kristen-Anderson Lopez, and it shows. The songs don’t come off as annoying, and while it personally takes me a song or two to fully get lost in a musical (I always cringe during the first song), I was okay for most of the film’s running time.
The Verdict:
When it comes to Disney musicals, “Frozen” is as good as they come nowadays. It doesn’t come close to classics like “The Lion King”, “The Jungle Book”, or “The Little Mermaid”, but then again, nothing ever will. “Frozen” needs to be judged by today’s standards, and it will one day be considered a classic by kids who grow up watching it over and over again on blu ray. The story could have been a bit tighter and more coherent, but at the end of the day, “Frozen” is a great family movie with something for everyone.
Numerical Score: 7.5/10
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