Frozen- Review

Finally got around to seeing Disney's newest animated feature Frozen and I have to say it did not disappoint.


When I first heard about this film (a long, long time ago) I immediately fell in love with the story and the character Elsa. It is inspired by Hans Christen Anderson's The Snow Queen which meant two of my favourite things: snow and queens. And with recently animated movies capturing frost and snow such as that in Dream Works' Rise of the Guardians, I knew it was going to be very beautiful. One thing animation can bring to a winter wonderland that real life really can't is the intricate patterns frost and snow creates but so that our naked eye can see them. Animation allows artistic takes on these patterns that end up being so beautiful. While the frost in Rise of the Guardians was better than the frost in Frozen, the Disney animators went all out when it came to the ice and snowflakes. The animation was amazing and it was great to have the character Kristoff, an ice shipper and salesman, to constantly admired the ice created by Elsa because it really allowed the audience to stop and and appreciate it too.

As far as Queens are concerned, I've always liked and connected more with Disney Queens than Disney Princesses. It could be the whole power thing but from the Queen of Hearts to the Evil Queen in Snow White, I even liked Rapunzel's mother, I've always preferred to be or meet a Disney Queen than a Disney Princess. So when this movie was announced everyone kept saying that there was going to be two princesses in it and I had to keep saying 'no, one princess and a queen'. And what a queen Elsa is. As far as Queenly duties go, her first day I'd admit is a little rough, but she is very powerful. As far as her character s concerned I felt it lacked a little mainly because most of the focus was on her sister Anna and so at times Elsa fell a little flat and that disappointed me, especially at the end of the film. But the times with Elsa was amazing and I really do think she was one of the most beautifully designed characters ever.

One problem I had, though, was when Elsa sang. I love Idina Menzel, I think she is an amazing singer and a great actress and when she sings she has a unique voice that I instantly recognize as her. She has such control especially over high notes in not to go out of tune or too shrill and I greatly admire that because I feel like I can only do that on good days (but I'm an alto so singing high is not my specialty). But because I can recognize her voice so well when she sings and I know what she looks like, I felt a disconnect between the character and the voice when she sang. I saw the character's mouth moving but all I saw and heard was Idina Menzel singing. Which is very minor but when my favourite song of the whole film is sung by her in my favourite sequence, it bothers me a tiny bit.

Now to music. It is a Disney movie so of course there is singing. In fact the movie opens up with singing, majestic choir singing. I bet it was the same choir that sang all the choral parts and they were amazing! The entire movie could be done with their singing and I would be happy. Every time the chorus sang it was perfectly in harmony and it was much more powerful than any other songs in the film except maybe 'Let It Go'. I'm a choir singer and I can appreciate a damn good choir, and this was a damn great choir. And Demi Levato's cover of 'Let It Go' shies in comparison to the original, it isn't even on the same level, the point where I'd say it is like a bad YouTube cover of the song. Compared to Idina Menzel's voice, Demi Levato's just seems shrill and boring with really no depth to it like Menzel's achieved. So I'll stick with the original...on repeat.

As far as the songs in the film go, they were okay. None really stood out quite like 'Let It Go' did except 'Do You Want to Build a Snowman', both were key points in the film and great songs that really developed the characters and represented the root of the film. The voices were all great as well, I especially liked Josh Gad, who voiced Olaf, I didn't like the song 'In Summer' because I really don't like Olaf, but coming from the Broadway Production of Book of Mormon, he has a great voice when he is singing.


I really didn't like Olaf...at all. I understand why he is there, to make it more enjoyable for the kids that undoubtedly would flock to see the new Disney movie, but as an adult I felt there was plenty of comic relief in Sven and Kristoff. Those two were great together and hilarious but then when Olaf arrived pretty much all silliness from Sven and Kristoff disappeared and it was all channeled into Olaf. I felt like too much was placed on this snowman that really didn't need to be there.

One things I also look for in animated movies, especially computer animated films is the clothing. Did they show the stitching? Does it move like a realistic type of fabric? Can I recognize that fabric? And various other things just like that, and this movie did address all of this. You could see the stitching, you can see the realistic movement of the fabric and how it is sewn and pleated, and I can vaguely figure out what fabric is what. It is those little details that I really appreciate because it is a Disney movie, people are going to be wanting these costumes and I'm going to have to make them. Example, I've mostly finished Elsa's Snow Queen costume, will soon start on her coronation outfit, and my friend wants to be my Anna so, yeah, all those little details in the film helps because I want to be a accurate as possible.





Last, the story. It is a very good story, not great but good. The theme is obviously family, a tale of two sisters, and while the focus is more on Anna, they do a great job of showing their relationship and how Elsa feels about it and how Anna is confused about it. The end was sort of what I wanted to happen, but because the focus was on Anna and not on Elsa like I wished, the end wasn't as ideal as I would have liked, but still better than what they tired to get you to believe.



So there were elements that I absolutely loved and a few things that I really did not like but over all I am now obsessed with this movie. I'm a December baby so I've always loved snow, ice, frost, things like that, and finally animation is at that place where they can just nail it in their films and I would be sold just on that alone but with the addition of the costumes, the story, the queen, and choir, it is all just 'frost'ing. Like Tangled, this will be a classic Disney film in no time, but I think this could be tied with Princess and the Frog as my favourite 'princess' movie.

If you haven't seen it, go and see it, there is bound to be something in there that you will love.

-Charlotte