Movie Review: Frozen

Frozen is the latest animated musical movie from Disney which takes the traditional Disney plot points and twists them around into something fresh and new. This movie introduces us to the two  adorable princesses and sisters, Anna and Elsa, as children, just before their parents die. It then jumps ahead to when Elsa comes of age to be Queen. The only catch is that Elsa was born with ice powers She is allot like Iceman, but cooler than the one from the movies. However, her parents died when she was young, her powers are a secret and Professor X didn’t come to her rescue.

At Elsa’s coronation, her powers are revealed to the world after Anna asks to marry her “Prince Charming”, Hans, whom she only just met. This leads to everyone wanting to hurt her. Scared, Elsa proceeds to go off and make a cage of emotions in the mountains, and finally unleashes her power. Anna then goes on a quest to bring Elsa back while Hans looks after the kingdom.

This movie was paced very well. The songs were all upbeat and never felt like they outstayed their welcome (unlike Les Miserables). The story never felt like it dragged out with the plot continuously moving forward. It isn’t often that I sit through a movie that is longer than 2 hours, especially a musical, where I don’t look at my watch at all.

The movie’s story really rests on the sisters, and it is here that Disney really nailed the characters. Elsa is the epitome of coldness and wanting to be left alone, while Anna is warmth and the sort of person that believes in love-at-first-sight. This makes the two sisters polar opposites in the extreme in their view of the world. The supporting cast also plays a memorable role, from the iceman Kristoff who criticizes love-at-first-sight, to the final twist on the traditional Disney formula with Prince Charming Hans.

However, at the conclusion, I did feel that Frozen let itself down. After the twist, this could’ve been set-up to be a classic take on the animated Disney formula. However, the final scene felt like they looked over the edge at what could’ve been, then got scared and wrapped everything up with a standard love-conquers-all, no-lasting-consequences Disney ending. Despite everything I liked about the movie, this ending did feel a bit like a cheat.

But at the end of the day, at least this wasn’t a story about two hopelessly-romantic princesses needing men to save them. In fact, at the conclusion, the main male hero in the story doesn’t play a part as it is up to the sisters to save themselves. And hopefully they won’t make a sequel.

4 out of 5 snap-frozen waffles.