Frozen (***)

Directed by: Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee

Starring (voices): Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, Josh Gad, Santino Fontana, Alan Tudyk, Ciaran Hinds, Chris Williams

Seen: December 27^th 2013

*** Out of ****

Frozen is the newest animated feature from Disney, the animation powerhouse that has seemed quieter than their usual prolific self of late taking into consideration all the other studios’ rate of popping out good to great animated movies. In Frozen Disney has made an entertaining movie with great heart and extremely good comic relief. Mostly characters are well-developed as is needed by the story, but there are small gaps in credulity here and there. If you want to make a movie for kids and adults, don’t write it so that the only explanation for some events is that this is after all a kids’ movie.

Growing up, the princesses of Arendelle, Elsa (Menzel) and her younger sister Anna (Bell) had great fun and were very close. Elsa has a power, she can create and manipulate ice and snow, and one night Elsa accidentally hurt Anna with this power, which necessitated a visit to the rock trolls, who healed Anna and removed all her memories of Elsa’s powers at their parents’ behest. Elsa came away from the event scared of her powers and shuts herself in, while Anna still remembers special times with Elsa and becomes increasingly frustrated with always having at least a door between her and her beloved sister. As teenagers, the girls’ parents are lost at sea and the kingdom goes into a sort of limbo until Elsa can be crowned ruler. The coronation goes fine, but at the party afterwards Prince Hans of the Southern Isles (Fontana) proposes to Anna, who accepts without question, thinking only of true love, which sends Elsa into a frenzy. She loses control and exposes her powers, and runs away and freezes the entire kingdom in her distress. As she abandons restraint she fashions an ice fortress in the mountains, among other things.

Anna follows Elsa to try to bring her back, and to get her to restore Arendelle. En route she runs into Kristoff (Groff), who sells ice for a living, his trusty steed/best friend Sven, a very dog-like reindeer, and the magically-brought-to-life iceman Olaf. Together they set of towards Elsa’s fortress, but their path is not an easy or clear one, as they have to deal with more of Elsa’s creations along the way.

Frozen is great fun and interestingly enough is more a story about family and realizing that immature actions can have serious repercussions than it is the almost classic Disney love story. The relationship between sisters Anna and Elsa takes centre stage, with the flash-engagement between Anna and Hans as a side story, giving kids and adults alike a small lesson on whirlwind romances. From the death of their parents to the end of the story Arendelle seems to be run by no-one while Elsa is a recluse both in the castle and away from it and Anna is but a girl. The ultimate lessons and ideas the movie wants to bring across are sweet, with its greatest lesson perhaps obscured a slight bit by the movie’s big song – Let it Go, which is supposed to be a dark turn in the movie but which is presented as a good moment of liberation. This is an immature girl throwing a tantrum deciding that rules are not for her – and she has to return to rule the kingdom after delivering this song as if it’s the core message of the movie. The core message is more than this though, and it is delivered closer to the end of the movie, but it isn’t communicated as clearly as it probably could have been. I am not so much a fan of spontaneously-burst-into-song kind of musicals, but apart from this, Frozen is a truly funny and engaging animated feature which should keep most people happy.