Home Reviews We review Frozen (3D) – A thematically dense treat for lovers of Renaissance Era Disney musicals

We review Frozen (3D) – A thematically dense treat for lovers of Renaissance Era Disney musicals

2 min read
5

First things first: if you’re expecting a faithful animated telling of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen, you are likely to be disappointed. Frozen is an even greater departure from its source material than Tangled (Walt Disney’s last CGI-fairy tale) was from Rapunzel.

"FROZEN" (Pictured) ELSA. ©2013 Disney. All Rights Reserved.

This said, despite its deviation from a rich original story – and despite not actually being as good as 2010’s Tangled (more about that in a minute) – the makers of Frozen have nonetheless managed to craft a thematically dense tale of their own creation. There’s a surprising lot seething beneath the surface of a fairly straightforward narrative.

And although Frozen falters in the end, by suddenly drowning out its surprisingly subversive messages with ye olde “importance of true love” insistence, there is still a lot of interesting content that precedes it. Not to mention a gorgeous Scandinavian aesthetic, and some marvellously memorable Broadway-style songs – including the Oscar-nominated show stopper Let It Go.

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For the record, Frozen centres on two royal sisters, Elsa (voiced by Idina Menzel) and Anna (Kristen Bell) whose once close relationship is threatened by the fact that Elsa has magical abilities. Taught to be fearful of her powers, an emotionally distraught Elsa eventually flees, plunging her kingdom into an endless Winter. It falls to Anna, aided by misanthropic ice salesman Kristoff (Jonathan Groff), his reindeer Sven and animated snowman Olaf (Josh Gad), to find Elsa and convince her to end the enchantment.

Truth be told, with the exception of the songs, written by husband-wife team Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Frozen isn’t as consistently and effortlessly entertaining as Tangled. The inclusion of Olaf and a band of rock trolls, though suitably Disney-esque and fairy tale-like respectively, feels strained. At times it’s as if Disney is trying too hard to replicate a recipe, whether all the ingredients are suitable to toss together or not.

This said, Frozen can still be celebrated for mixing up the Disney Princess formula more than ever before. For example, hyper-but-sweet-hearted Anna is subjected to severe criticism for wanting to marry someone she has just met. Meanwhile, aloof Elsa’s struggles with anxiety, shame and guilt over hiding her true self, make her arguably the most flawed Disney Princess to date.

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Disney-Pixar’s Brave was supposed to be groundbreaking in terms of female character depiction, but in actual fact it is Frozen that is really bucking the trend. Ultimately, the new film can be boiled down to a well-handled, non-sentimental tale of sisterly love, and that is definitely unusual for an animated film. Critical commentators with a gender focus will be plucking at Frozen for a loooong time to come.

Frozen can definitely be recommended as a big screen experience, although a 3D viewing isn’t essential. The film is beautiful, it’s fun, it’s action-packed and it’s empowering – ticking all the boxes for a good family (and animation enthusiast) outing to the cinema.

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Last Updated: January 23, 2014

5 Comments

  1. RinceThis2014

    January 23, 2014 at 10:11

    Really want to see this. I hear she does a good job of depicting depression and anxiety etc?

    Reply

  2. Tracy Benson

    January 23, 2014 at 10:24

    I *loved* Frozen, but now that you mention it I can see some of the flaws. The troll scene did feel a bit out of place, and I thought the ending was very abrupt.

    That being said, it was a good twist on the idea of “true love” and it really shook up a lot of the typical “Disney” ideals. Good article to read (obvious spoiler warning): http://www.policymic.com/articles/79455/7-moments-that-made-frozen-the-most-progressive-disney-movie-ever

    I’ve also had Let It Go stuck in my head since I watched it in December.

    Reply

    • Corporal Stick

      January 27, 2014 at 01:56

      Let it go, Let it go. Turn away and slam the door.

      Yes. I also have difficulties getting it out of my head. Lovely movie though.

      Reply

  3. James Francis

    January 23, 2014 at 12:40

    I wouldn’t say this exceeds Brave in pushing past female stereotypes, but it does still steer itself in that direction. Where this falls short of Brave is the extreme fairy tale quality: practically nothing makes real sense – from how a kingdom was run from utter isolation to how there appears to be no royal guards to escort the younger princess. Not to mention that it took several scenes before someone pointed out the one characters’ disparaging remarks about the queen were quite treasonous.

    There is nothing wrong with those elements, but they do steal some of the movie’s equal gender thunder. Also, unlike Brave this film readily trotted out romantic interests the second it could (whereas Brave quickly made them parodies of the idea). It’s much closer to the traditional Disney archetypes than Brave was. The need for a manic snowman and goofy reindeer to add some slapstick really shows how Frozen dug deep into Disney’s roots.

    Personally I hated the songs. They had none of the hooks of earlier Disney works and at one point I wasn’t even certain if I was hearing a new one of a continuation of an older one. This was far more Glee than Broadway.

    But it is a fun film and really picks up pace nicely. And I did appreciate the subtle switch at the end, bucking a fairy tale archetype.

    Reply

  4. Lardus-Resident Perve

    January 23, 2014 at 13:38

    I got goose bumps from Let It Go! Even when just playing it on Youtube, I still get goose bumps! For me the best song from last year, and one of my top 5 movies as well. I also really liked the “miss interpretation” they had about “true love”. Everyone always assumes it has to be with the opposite sex and be romantic in nature, while this movie showed it can be another type of bond/love as well! PS – Disney have an agenda: look at how many times the parents die in their movies!

    Reply

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