Frozen

Anna and Elsa are sisters who are as close as can be. But when Elsa accidentally hurts Anna with her icy powers, she grows up isolated from Anna as well as the outside world. Years later, Elsa is to be named Queen of the kingdom, and as the whole land watches, her powers are finally discovered. Elsa runs to a far mountaintop while her powers unknowingly plunge the kingdom into eternal winter. Anna teams up with Mountain Man Kristoff and his reindeer pal Sven to find her and rescue the kingdom.

Cast

Kristen Bell as Anna
Idina Menzel as Elsa
Jonathan Groff as Kristoff
Josh Gad as Olaf
Santino Fontana as Hans

Who will like this

As a Disney movie taken from a classic fairy tale, Frozen delivers for Disney enthusiasts young and old. There are many similarities to the last animated feature Tangled, so chances are that if you liked that one, this will be up your alley as well. It is a perfect family movie night out movie.

Phantom Thoughts

In doing my research on this movie, the history of Frozen getting made is almost as interesting as the plot itself. It's a well known fact that the fairy tale Frozen is taken from is the Hans Christian Anderson story "The Snow Queen". And it deviates greatly from that story, to make it more relateable to modern audiences. But in order to do that, it took many years to accomplish. Disney had a treatment to bring this animated feature to life as early as the 1940's. In the late 1990's Disney once again tried to make "The Snow Queen" into a movie. There were several failed attempts that went through 2010. It wasn't until 2011's success with Tangled did they come up with a way to change the story to the one we saw on screen.

But that is also part of the problem. Because many of the characters bear a very strong resemblance to the characters of Tangled. They changed the Snow Queen to be the sister of Anna, the heroine in the story instead of just a villain, completely changing the essence of the original fairy tale. The story itself is just alright, but it is saved by not going down a predictable path, which I was afraid it was going to, until near the end of the movie where a plot twist occurs. There are a number of different similarities to the movie Tangled, including the title change. But the lack of differences in the character looks remain the strongest.

However, there are a lot of good in Frozen as well. The music and songs are very good done by Husband and Wife team Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez and reminds me of the songs of The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast which were put together by the late great lyricist Howard Ashman. The visuals of snow and ice are brilliantly done and the comic relief of Olaf the snowman was not over the top and a sub plot keeping the main focus on the plot.

Though extreme critics have put nit picked the heck out of Frozen, overall I think it was a good movie and one that families will enjoy. Disney enthusiasts will be proud to add this movie and songs to their collection of favorites.

Until next time, see you in the center seat!