Review of Frozen (2013) by Wayne K — 10 Jun 2017

I had been long overdue to see this, possibly Disney's most hyped-up computer-animated movie of all time. I'd love to start by saying that the animation is stellar, but I'm not really sure that needs to be said anymore.

Disney is a company with billions of dollars and decades of experience, there's honestly no excuse for their films to look anything less than breath-taking. The story is about as Disneyesque as you can possibly get: Faraway land, Princesses, magical powers, love at first sight, people singing everything when they could easily say it.

I know Disney movies are obligated to have songs in them, but usually they have a defined start and finishing point. Here the characters will burst into song while in the middle of conversation, speak-singing lines like in Les Misérables, which is occasionally funny but often frustrating.

It also has that incredible annoying trait of conflicts only existing and developing because characters either refuse to ask basic questions or never offer any kind of explanation. It's a Disney film, is it really so hard to believe that your sister has magic powers? But it shouldn't be dismissed entirely.

It's got plenty of funny moments, some exciting action scenes and the characters, when they're not being painfully stupid, are pretty likeable. Unfortunately, it's a film which has been completely overshadowed by its soundtrack, one song in particular, and when I discovered that the movie had essentially been rewritten around that one tune, you get a sense of what this movie truly is: A selection of lively tunes with a barebones story connecting them.

Its conclusion is irritatingly simple and trite, virtually undermining all struggle that came before it since it took about a minute to resolve. It was nice to see it one time, but I don't consider it to be anywhere even close to the established Disney classics.

Its songs will be fondly remembered, appearing on the playlist of every pre-teen girl's birthday party from here till the end of time, bu5 the story that backed them up will be seen as unremarkable and superfluous.