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Elsa, the queen born with winter powers, from the movie Frozen. (Walt Disney)
What it's about:
Fearless optimist Anna sets off on an epic journey - teaming up with rugged mountain man Kristoff and his loyal reindeer, Sven - to find Anna’s sister, Elsa, whose icy powers have trapped the kingdom of Arendelle in eternal winter.
Encountering Everest-like conditions, mystical trolls and a hilarious snowman named Olaf, Anna and Kristoff battle the elements in a race to save the kingdom.
What we thought:
Frozen is a good movie with solid characters, but one feels like Walt Disney went backwards instead of forwards with their revamping of the Disney Princess image. Compared to Tangled, Brave and The Princess and the Frog, Frozen doesn’t exactly stand out in the Princess franchise.
Besides the lack of physical originality for its female characters, Frozen has also gotten a lot of heat for not exploring all that the original Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, The Snow Queen, had to offer. Although I think the Disney version is so loosely based on the original that it doesn’t really warrant a comparison, I would still have preferred to have the Andersen version than this not-that-extraordinary plot.
What is a major plus point for this typical animation is the character of Olaf, voiced by rising star Josh Gad, who was an absolute stroke of genius. The trailer for Frozen is a little misleading, as it portrays the silly snowman as just another annoying sidekick with all the one-liners.
But oh no. He is so adorably silly that you just want to reach through the screen and hug him. He has some brilliant one-liners of course, but nowhere near being annoying, and his interaction with the other characters saves them from being too bland. Olaf is a combination of amazing design, clever scriptwriting and talented voice acting from Gad. I am so in love with this character I just want to buy the first Olaf merch soft toy I see.
Moving on, the movie does have some other original elements that does deserve some acknowledgement, for example the so-called ‘villain’ Elsa is a fresh change and the focus on a sisters’ relationship does follow suit with Disney’s new focus on family love rather than just romantic love, while retaining some of the old-fashioned romance that old Disney was known for.
But, Disney’s attempt to recapture their musical heydays falls flat in a big way, as the songs were nowhere near as catchy or memorable as those of The Little Mermaid, Aristocats and The Lion King, although I enjoyed the main theme song Let it Go sung by Idina Menzel.
Graphically, though, Frozen looks absolutely stunning with its snowscapes and manages to make snow and ice look gorgeous but still keeping it real enough to send some imaginary shivers through the audience – especially if you go see it in 3D
If you love the old style Disney movies of romance and adventure before Pixar took over, Frozen is definitely a good holiday movie for the family to enjoy and is definitely enjoyable for most audiences. But please just go watch even if it is only to see the cutest snowman to ever stumble onto the big screen.
Fearless optimist Anna sets off on an epic journey - teaming up with rugged mountain man Kristoff and his loyal reindeer, Sven - to find Anna’s sister, Elsa, whose icy powers have trapped the kingdom of Arendelle in eternal winter.
Encountering Everest-like conditions, mystical trolls and a hilarious snowman named Olaf, Anna and Kristoff battle the elements in a race to save the kingdom.
What we thought:
Frozen is a good movie with solid characters, but one feels like Walt Disney went backwards instead of forwards with their revamping of the Disney Princess image. Compared to Tangled, Brave and The Princess and the Frog, Frozen doesn’t exactly stand out in the Princess franchise.
Besides the lack of physical originality for its female characters, Frozen has also gotten a lot of heat for not exploring all that the original Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, The Snow Queen, had to offer. Although I think the Disney version is so loosely based on the original that it doesn’t really warrant a comparison, I would still have preferred to have the Andersen version than this not-that-extraordinary plot.
What is a major plus point for this typical animation is the character of Olaf, voiced by rising star Josh Gad, who was an absolute stroke of genius. The trailer for Frozen is a little misleading, as it portrays the silly snowman as just another annoying sidekick with all the one-liners.
But oh no. He is so adorably silly that you just want to reach through the screen and hug him. He has some brilliant one-liners of course, but nowhere near being annoying, and his interaction with the other characters saves them from being too bland. Olaf is a combination of amazing design, clever scriptwriting and talented voice acting from Gad. I am so in love with this character I just want to buy the first Olaf merch soft toy I see.
Moving on, the movie does have some other original elements that does deserve some acknowledgement, for example the so-called ‘villain’ Elsa is a fresh change and the focus on a sisters’ relationship does follow suit with Disney’s new focus on family love rather than just romantic love, while retaining some of the old-fashioned romance that old Disney was known for.
But, Disney’s attempt to recapture their musical heydays falls flat in a big way, as the songs were nowhere near as catchy or memorable as those of The Little Mermaid, Aristocats and The Lion King, although I enjoyed the main theme song Let it Go sung by Idina Menzel.
Graphically, though, Frozen looks absolutely stunning with its snowscapes and manages to make snow and ice look gorgeous but still keeping it real enough to send some imaginary shivers through the audience – especially if you go see it in 3D
If you love the old style Disney movies of romance and adventure before Pixar took over, Frozen is definitely a good holiday movie for the family to enjoy and is definitely enjoyable for most audiences. But please just go watch even if it is only to see the cutest snowman to ever stumble onto the big screen.
