FROZEN: A Film Review

This is my film review for the blockbuster Disney film, Frozen. This may be a little late but… oh well, on with the show!

[SPOILER ALERTS]

OVERVIEW

Based on a classic fairy tale The Snow Princess, Frozen is the story of Anna, a young adventurous princess, and her sister Queen Elsa, who has power over ice and accidentally turns Arendelle, their kingdom, frozen. I won’t elaborate the story for the sake of making this post concise.

REACTION (General)

The new films Disney are making are pieces of crap- says 90s geeks who are too blinded by their hate of the new generation. Seriously, I hear it everytime and it gets annoying. I personally disagree to this. I myself am a 90s kids but I love Disney films of this generation as much as I love the Disney classics and films from Disney Renaissance. “Princess and the Frog” and “Tangled” might not be as groundbreaking as “Beauty and the Beast” or “Lion King” but they still don’t disappoint me in touching my heart and reminding me that I still have a heart of a child. This may sound cheesy but it’s true.

Anywho, I must move on with the review. I really think that Disney took a leap of faith in this film. Unlike the past films, Frozen made new things familiar and familiar things new to us.

There are so many reasons why Frozen is more innovative than the past Disney films, but I think the most crucial reason is their elimination of the concept of “Love at first sight” which is present in almost every past Disney Princess films. When Anna asked her sister Elsa to grant her and her lover-at-first-sight Prince Hans a blessing to marriage, Elsa indubitably said no, stating that someone (Anna) can’t marry someone whom they just met. Same reaction is shown by Kristoff, expressing his utter confusion when Anna talked to him about marrying Hans, a man whom he just met. Disney broke the stereotype that the company itself had made.

About time, Disney

And since we’re talking about breaking paradoxes, Frozen also showed us that “true love” doesn't always talk about that romantic kind of love, but rather the love we felt for our loved ones, which in the film’s plot is Anna’s love for her sister Elsa. I mean, during the part when Anna sacrificed her life to save Elsa, it’s really heartbreaking and it just makes you want to cry. That being said, Elsa also discovers later that love is the key to controlling the fear that imprisoned her ever since childhood.

I also want to note that this is the first time a Disney princess has shown total dominion over their kingdom. Unlike the other princesses, who are just princesses in the story for the sake of being a princess, Elsa proves herself to be a paragon ruler, and that her words are still the foundation of their kingdom. No one questions her power even though she isolated herself from everyone in the kingdom.

But a great film is without its flaws. For me, than biggest flaw in the story is the characterization of Prince Hans. In the earlier part of the film, Prince Hans seems like a perfect prince any girl would want, but then when he stated his true intentions of why he would marry Anna, we discovered that he’s a hideous selfish prince! I mean sure, it’s fine for me that they didn’t put any solid villain in the story but come on! How the hell did Hans get there? It wasn’t even foreshadowed earlier in the film that he would become the antagonist. It’s like they rushed his character and in the end, they decided to make him a villain to spice things up. Nevertheless, he’s still a good character. One more trivial thing is the characterization of Olaf, whose only role in the story is to remind Elsa and Anna of their sweet childhood memories. I mean, they could’ve deepened his role more than just being a mere reminder and a comical clown/snowman. Those are just my thoughts anyway.

My Rating: 8 out of 10.

ANIMATION

If you’ve watched Tangled, the first digital Disney princess, then nothing much can be said about Frozen’s animation. The two films are almost identical in terms of graphics and character animation. Both films have pretty little 3D princesses, charming 3D lovers, and cute 3D sidekicks. Nothing new.

Even so, I think Frozen has more vivid visual effects than Tangled, and Elsa’s ice magic is splendidly visualized, especially on that part when she made that hell of an ice castle. I mean that is legend- wait for it- dary! Legendary! (HIMYM fan alert) Other things like image refraction on ice surface, snowflakes flying around and the visual sequence in the songs certainly defeat Rapunzel’s music-powered bioluminescent hair and Mother Gothel’s creepy allusions to horror stories.

In comparison to other animated films of this generation though, Frozen’s animation is mediocre. Rise of the Guardian star Jack Frost and his magnificent ice-bending certainly kicks more ass than Elsa’s ice magic. BTW I think Jack Frost and Elsa are cute together.

So which one do you think is cooler [no pun intended], Elsa or Jack Frost?

My Rating to Animation: 3 out of 5

MUSIC/ SONGS

And here we go, a Disney canon film is nothing without its musical numbers. And for Frozen, it didn’t fail to make more remarkable songs that can be lined up with other Disney Classic songs. The songs are written by songwriting couple Kristen Anderson- Lopez and two-time Tony winner Robert Lopez.

There are 9 original songs in the film, one reprise and (as usual) one pop version of the film’s most popular song, which in case of Frozen is “Let It Go”, sung by Demi Lovato.

The first song is called "Frozen Heart", sung at the very beginning of the film. This is kind of like Fathoms Below from Little Mermaid or The Virginia Company in Pocahontas. Nothing much is in this folk-scandinavian song except for the people making ice cubes or something.

The next song is called “Do You Want To Build a Snowman”, sung by Anna from her childhood up to her adolescent stage. This song is very fun yet very sad, expressing Anna’s wants of bonding with her sister, after their parents decided to isolate Elsa from everyone. Very cute and very catchy.

The next song would be “For The First Time in Forever”, sung by Anna and Elsa in the latter’s coronation day. This song is very cheerful and hopeful and it contrasts the ironical desires of the two protagonist: Anna wants to meet new people from outside the kingdom’s gate and find the love of her life while Elsa doesn't want to meet them in her fear that she might lose control over her powers and consider her a monster. I think this is the profile princess song in the film, like Part Of Your World or When Will My Life Begin.

Anna mimicking those people in the paintings. Crazy, right?

The next song is a duet by Anna and Hans, called “Love Is An Open Door”. This song, like the rest, is beautiful and very fun.  In this song, Anna and Hans profess their love for each other. Although, if you think about it, this song is purely evil considering everything that Hans said is a bunch of lies. BTW Kristen Bell and Santino Fontana’s voice blends so perfectly well.

"Our Mental Synchronization/Can have but one explanation" You need a mental hospital, bro...

The next and most popular song in the film is “Let It Go”, a solo by Queen Elsa. Sung after Elsa decided to be alone and free, this song was sung by ever-wonderful Idina Menzel. Let It Go sings of freedom, freedom that everyone wants to achieve, but can’t seem to get. This song tells us that the only way that we can be free is when we let the fears that hold us down go, and we must not let the society bother us with their unjust judgement. This song is tremendous, both musically and lyrically. Idina’s voice starts emotionally low, then it builds up to the song’s climax and it manages to create a very powerful ending. Let It Go totally deserves the awards and nominations it gets and would get.

It's ironic considering Elsa sung "That perfect girl is gone" and yet she looks like the perfect girl for me in that part

I don’t want to elaborate the remaining songs not because I hate them but because there’s not much to them and I’m exhausted as I did this review in one seating. The song “In Summer” as sung by Olaf, is very funny and it tells Olaf’s desire of experiencing summer, not knowing that he would’ve melted under the sun. The next is “Reindeers Are Better Than People” which is very short and is sung by Kristoff and his isolation to the society created by humankind. And last but not the least is Fixer Upper, sung by Trolls to Anna, telling her that Kristoff is the perfect man for her even though he has many flaws and imperfections. I almost forgot the For The First Time in Forever reprise, which is awesome and everything..

So yeah, I think that’s all. 

My Rating to Music/Songs: 8 out of 10

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God, I’m very exhausted, but at last it’s finished. If you read this ‘til the end, then thank you for your time, but if you didn’t, then it’s okay. After all, the only reason why I did this review is to settle an argument in IMDB :). If you want to say anything about the film, or my review, you can say it to me.