Review of Frozen (2013) by Uncannygarlic — 04 Mar 2014

Frozen is an enjoyable romp that left me feeling a bit empty. After watching it for the first time, I had difficulty pinning down what exactly the source of that feeling was but I did know that it didn't feel like a Disney movie. Upon a second viewing I confirmed suspicions and found other problems.

I think the language used by the characters would have been enough to prevent the film from becoming a classic. The characters speak with a lot of modern colloquialisms, particularly in the first half of the film, which really grates at times. For some reason the writers at Disney have decided that to have a ditzy, innocent female protagonist they have to start her off as an annoying tween. I understand that you want your audience to identify with the characters but it doesn't fit the setting and comes off as forced.

The Musical numbers are good but really lack the timeless quality of the Disney Renaissance musical numbers, in no small part because of the language but also due to having a young feel about them that I associate with some recent Broadway musicals. It's all very high energy, lacking the climaxes and the feeling of deliberate, thought-out pacing leaving the songs feeling a little forced. "Let it Go" has rightfully been getting praise and is definitely the highpoint of the score but even it fails to live up to the scores of "The Little Mermaid" through "The Lion King".

This leads into the problem of pacing with the film in general, the film feels a bit frenetic. It throws in jokes wherever it can, much like Fox Animation and Dreamworks tend to, interrupting the scene it's trying to build. Olaf in particular simply destroys dramatic tension and pacing. That isn't to say that he brings in humor to take the edge off when things might be getting to intense for kids, he incessantly interrupts the process of building tension. Olaf seems to generally be a love or hate character, my girlfriend thought he was the best part of the movie and was less impressed with the film than I was. I simply felt that he was extraneous, Sven provides just the right amount of slapstick by himself and goofy characters and gags are liberally sprinkled in to create more than enough humor without an extra comedic sidekick.

Onto what the movie does really well, CGI. The movie is absolutely gorgeous. Characters are extremely emotive and the snow magic is breathtaking. The imagery of "Let it Go" was amazing and exciting. Watching Elsa explore her powers was a ton of fun and was excellently combined with the musical number. The fight scene with the snow monster was the height of the films animation. Movement was fluid, characters were full of emotion, and tension oozed out of the screen when it wasn't leaving you breathless from action.

There is something that itches about some of Elsa's animations though, I'm not sure if she reminds me of a character from something else or if her facial animations approach the uncanny valley at times but I get this uncomfortable feeling that she's from a direct to DVD movie at times and not because it's bad animation.

I fully recommend Frozen to families with children up to their tweens and to Broadway fans, especially younger ones. Don't go into Frozen expecting a classic Disney musical or another Wreck it Ralph and you'll be fine.