“Frozen” Review

By Christopher Campbell

If the movies “X-Men” and “Tangled” got married, their baby would be “Frozen.”

Elsa (Idina Menzel, “Enchanted”) is a princess of the land of Arendelle who has the power to manipulate cold. She can freeze things, create ice and even change the weather. She is very powerful, and she has trouble controlling it.

As a child, she realizes the danger of it as she is playing with her little sister, Anna (Kristen Bell, “When in Rome”), who encourages Elsa to use her power for their enjoyment. She accidentally hits Anna with her ice magic, and it knocks her out.

Their parents take Anna to some trolls who know how to cure her. Because she was hit in the head -- which they claim to be better than being hit in the heart -- they are able to help her out easily. The trolls advise the family to keep Anna away from her sister’s power.

Anna’s memory of the power is erased by the trolls, and Elsa keeps herself locked up in her room for years. As they grow older, Anna has little to no contact with her sister, and she does not understand why this is. Though she does not remember Elsa’s ice powers, she remembers that they used to get along. Suddenly her sister has estranged herself. What she does not know is this is Elsa’s attempt at protecting her.

Years pass, their parents die and Elsa is of age to be queen. The coronation party is the first time in years Anna actually talks to Elsa, and they get along really well.

Meanwhile at the party, Anna meets a man named Hans (Santino Fontana), and she really likes him. They decide to get engaged right then and there. Unlike “Cinderella,” in which this sort of thing is acceptable, this movie makes it known how stupid of an idea it is.

When they announce it to Elsa, she is not pleased with their decision. As Anna tries to convince her to give them her blessing, Elsa gets more and more angry until she lets her icy powers loose. The weather changes from summer to winter. This scares everyone, and Elsa runs away to be alone.

Anna goes after her in an adventure in which she meets a man named Kristoff (Jonathan Groff), his reindeer Sven and a naive, talking snowman named Olaf (Josh Gad, “21”).

Disney has found a new formula for princess movies that works pretty well. When the company started animating movies, the most romantic concept seemed to be that true love happens at first sight. This changed with “Beauty and the Beast” in which neither character even liked each other at first. However, as that movie progressed, they started tolerating and even loving the other person.

In “Tangled,” the characters do not start falling in love until they get to know each other as well. “Frozen” takes this radical new trend a step further by parodying how couples in old Disney animated features barely know each other before getting married.

There are a lot of similarities between this film and “Tangled.” They are both about a young girl who has been locked up in a building her whole life and one day goes on an adventure with a man and his cartoonish animal. The main problem with this concept is I do not understand why Anna was never exposed to the outside world. The only answer the film gives is she could not be exposed to her sister, but that does not mean the family had to keep her locked up. I think the filmmakers forced these circumstances on her so she would be a certain way not thinking about how logical they were.

This is also true about Princess Elsa. She reminds me of Rogue from the X-Men movies in that she has this power she does not know how to control. She has hurt someone she loves, and she tries to distance herself because of this. The concept of Elsa is really cool, but the character was two-dimensional. She completely closes herself off from Anna for years because the trolls tell the family to keep Anna away from her powers. I really doubt that in all those years she would have shut herself off as much as she did. I also wonder why no one ever attempted to train Elsa so she could control her powers. If the writers took this into consideration, it would have been a better and more interesting movie.

That is not to say I did not enjoy the movie. It does have its flaws, but there were a lot of parts that made me smile. This is partly done because some of the characters had distinct, interesting personalities.

The main character, Anna, is very entertaining to watch. She is a naive young woman who does not understand how the world works. There is a likeable awkwardness about her that Kristen Bell did a good job bringing out through her voicework.  

Olaf the snowman was also particularly loveable. He was created out of Elsa’s power and is very young. Like Anna, he is also very naive. When Elsa and Kristoff tell him they want to bring summer back, Olaf wants to help because he has never experienced summer. What he does not understand is heat would make him melt. There is an entire song he sings about how he looks forward to the season. It hilariously plays off the fact that he has no idea what summer would actually mean for him.

Another thing that works for this movie is it has a very good message about love. It has a common theme that has been present since “Snow White”: true love will heal a curse. I do not want to spoil it for anyone, but this movie had its own special twist on this theme. Not only is it interesting, it is also a good example for children who are watching it.

I give this movie four out of five stars. It does come with its share of logical errors. However, in suspending disbelief, it goes places other Disney movies have not been. It is also very charming, and it made me smile throughout. I would recommend this movie to anyone who wants to see another good, family-friendly animated feature from Disney.

Content: Rated PG. There is some mild violence and some images that might frighten children. The official MPAA rating says there is “mild rude humor.” I do not remember anything in particular about adult humor.