Review of Frozen (2013) by Schwinn D — 29 Dec 2014

If it weren't for the obscenely catchy musical numbers the best of animated feature of 2013 would have been rather lackluster. The film has plenty going for it, but despite magic galore within the flick, imagination is not one of those things. Beyond Olaf--easily the best part of the non-musical portions of the movie--there is little that makes me think the writers were thinking outside of the box. A Rudolf the dog-like reindeer doesn't count as imaginative. Especially when it's just a rehash of the horse from Tangled. Arbitrary talking rocks don't count either. They undeniably had fun with the music, but the fun stops there. In between songs I'm sure you'll find yourself waiting for the next Olaf one-liner. Kristoff isn't as much as a character as he is a plot device and reason for Anna to not talk to herself the whole movie (which she does anyway). The relationship development of sisters Anna and Elsa is inspiring and fun to watch, but both characters have nothing about them outside of that. Anna is simply giddy. Elsa is well... cold. Ironically the most interesting character is the one people are most likely to forget. The villain! I don't actually remember his name, nonetheless he provided a much needed sinister flavor to the film.

Okay okay, I know what you're thinking. "Are you really criticizing 2-dimensional characters in Disney film? A kids' film? Especially with Disney's more recent BH6 which is teeming with paper thin characters?".

That's no excuse. Disney and any animation studio is perfectly capable of making interesting characters. The did actually do it in BH6 with Hiro. Wreck it Ralph has several! Still, I might be able to overlook if "Frozen" compensated in some other regard. But it doesn't.

I'm not trying to say Frozen is bad by any means. It still successfully moves along at a good pace and fills time between songs with crisp (though cliched) dialogue.

A musical just needs more than good music.