Review of Frozen (2013) by James S — 23 Jan 2015

Starring: Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Josh Gad, and Jonathan Groff.

Directed By. Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck.

Rated: PG.

Elsa and Anna are close sisters even though Elsa has the magic power of making it snow wherever she is. After an accident hurts Anna, Elsa is kept hidden in her room until she is old enough to run the kingdom and the two grow apart. Years later Elsa loses control of her power and casts their kingdom into a never-ending winter and it's up to Anna, an ice salesman, and a magic snowmen to save Elsa and everyone in their homeland.

When the teaser for Frozen first hit theaters, I was not impressed. The snowman, Olaf, just came off as annoying (as a friend of mine put it "the Jar Jar Binks of Disney movies"). I could only imagine I would want him to shut up the entire movie. Needless to say, I wrote it off as an easy pass and didn't give much thought to it when it came into theaters. Then it stuck around and I started to hear from friends how good it was, so I thought I would give it a chance. Disney has managed to surprise me before when I thought a movie wouldn't be very good. It happened with Tangled, so maybe it could happen again. I'm glad I changed my mind and decided to see it.

Josh Gad as Olaf never, ever reached any level of annoyance. Olaf was the funniest part of the whole movie and his innocence and excitement make him one of the best side kicks than others from recent kid's movies.

Idina Menzel voices Elsa, another great addition to Disney characters. She is a complex, sad character that we don't get to see often enough is kid's movies. She is scared of what she can do and is torn between wanting to be with her sister and not wanting to hurt her. Idina does a great job and has a powerful singing voice and will help make "Let It Go" a longtime favorite of many.

Kirsten Bell's Anna and Jonathan Groff's Kristoff aren't really as interesting as the other two, but still strong enough to carry the movie. They have their own good moments, like Kristoff's "conversations" with his reindeer, Sven.

If I had to think of something that I disliked about the movie it would have to be the abundance of songs in the first half of the movie. It seems like they couldn't go more than 5 minutes before having another new song. They were good songs of course, but it just started to get annoying after a while. Eventually they start spreading out more and I soon forgot about it.

I love that Disney has been reinventing themselves lately when it comes to most of their animated films. They keep the important stuff from their old cartoons (lovable characters, catchy songs, beautiful animation) while staying away from much of the clichés that were starting to wane thin over time. Instead of the usual love story, they went a different way and made the movie more about the relationship between two sisters. Much like how Brave tried to be different and focus on the mother/daughter relationshipand ultimately failing, Frozen actually managed to pull it off with a much better story that was far more interesting and entertaining.

If you choose to ignore this one like I had initially, give it a chance and see it. Frozen is well worth your time and will probably stay in theaters for a couple more weeks.

8 Reels Out Of 10.

"Winter's a good time to sit close and cuddle / But put me in summer and I'll be.

A..... happy snowman!".