Written by Jennifer Lee And Chris Buck And Shane Morris
Directed by Chris Buck And Jennifer Lee
Elsa: "The cold never bothered me anyway."
With Disney having a rough time during their 100th anniversary, there was a time when they were at the height of success and one of those times involved this movie. A movie in the shortest time ever became something of a global event.
Loosely based on the story, The Snow Queen and set in the fictional world of Arendelle, the story focused on Elsa (Idina Menzel). Elsa's the oldest child and has a close friendship with her sister Anna (Kristen Bell). Or she did until her ice and snow powers emerged and she inadvertently hurt Anna, changing their relationship for quite a long time.
Elsa became cold and distant with Anna as she struggled to control her powers and on the day of her coronation, her powers revealed themselves to the kingdom in the worst way possible. With Arendelle trapped in an eternal winter and Elsa fleeing in shame of her powers, it was up to Anna to save the day and get her sister back.
Of course Anna had to tread an icy environment and for that she needed the help of an iceman named Kristoff (Jonathan Groff) and the latter's reindeer, Sven (Frank Welker). It's not long before there's an emerging love story between Anna and Kristoff as well as the introduction to comic relief character Olaf (Josh Gad). Needless to say, Olaf is a delight, albeit rather naive about the dangers of heat to a snowman like him.
As for Elsa, she built herself an ice palace, rejected Anna's attempts of a reunion and then got captured by the scheming Duke of Weselton (Alan Tudyk) and the more subtle in his scheming Prince Hans (Santino Fontana) of the Southern Isles. The former's more of a bigoted but bumbling oaf while the latter was more quietly callous compared to past Disney movie baddies.
Having Hans portrayed as a pseudo love interest for Anna was a smart move, especially when his real motives came to light and he took pleasure in Anna's need for true love to fix her heart. However unlike Disney villains of the past, he actually survived to face the consequences of his misdeeds.
As for Elsa and Anna, they more than reconnected with each other with a sibling bond being the thing to save Anna's life. It was a nice twist to a usual fairytale predicament and with Elsa embracing her powers, things did work out well for the Queen of Arendelle.
- The Arendelle setting drew heavily from Norwegian and Scandinavian culture as well as the Sami culture.
- Fans of Tangled get a brief cameo from Rapunzel and Flynn during one scene.
- The Pebble folk who have their own magic were mistaken for trolls by Anna.
- The end credit has a short scene with a snow creature wearing Elsa's crown.
- Standout music: The obvious highlights being Let It Go, Do You Want To Build A Snowman?, For The First Time In Forever and Vuelie.
- Chronology: For the majority of the movie, Elsa and Kristoff are 21, Anna is 18 and Hans is 23.
Frozen was a triumph of a movie. A Disney classic through and through, following some of the traditional tropes but also subverting them too. A great cast, brilliant character dynamics, more subtle villains and some of the best musical numbers. A pure joy.
Rating: 10 out of 10
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