Frozen

Disney’s most recent animated feature, Frozen was released in November of 2013. Directed by Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee, the film starred Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, Josh Gad, and Santino Fontana. Grossing $1.3 billion at the box office, it wound up getting a theatrical sing a long release and a Broadway musical. Nominated for 80 awards, it won 56, including the Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song, The Alliance of Women Film Journalists for Best Animated Female, The Annie Awards for Best Animated Feature, Directing in an Animated Feature Production, Music in an Animated Feature Production, Production Design in an Animated Feature Production, and Voice Actin in an Animated Feature Production, The Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature Film, and the Denver Film Critics Society for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song.

Elsa (Menzel) and Anna (Bell) are the royal sisters of the kingdom of Arendelle, but when Elsa is crowned queen, her secret is revealed to the world and unleashes an endless winter upon the kingdom. Fleeing to the mountains, it’s up to Anna to find her.

Until this point, Frozen had been in development hell since Walt was alive. And once it was released, it was eaten alive by fans, many of whom saw it more than 20 times and compared it to The Lion King. But it must be asked. Did it deserve all the hype? Was it as good as everyone was screaming?

NO.

Make no mistake, Frozen is good. But it certainly isn’t the best Disney film ever made. In fact, an entire character could have been cut from the final product and nothing would have been different whatsoever. Olaf was completely unnecessary and was only around to spout one liners and act funny. His rescue of Anna and line of “some people are worth melting for” could have been given by somebody else and nothing would have changed.

Disney also decided to deconstruct and mock their conventional tropes, like Love at First Sight, the desire aspect of many of the songs and True Love. And while that’s not a bad thing, it was analyzed to infinity. But Enchanted did most of those first and no one really cared then. The only new deconstruction was True Love, which ended up being reconstructed as the unconditional love between sisters. And including that was good as the bond between siblings is something that’s rare in any sort of media.

But Frozen really isn’t bad. Elsa and Anna both have great character arcs. The former going from hating herself because she’s different to embracing her powers, which ends up giving her control over them. And the latter learns to be more discerning when it comes to first impressions. And with Elsa, it really wasn’t her fault to begin with as her parents completely misunderstood what the trolls meant at the beginning.

It’s a good film, but is nowhere near perfect. Did it deserve to win Best Animated Picture? Maybe. Maybe not. That would require a viewing of the only film nominated that had any chance of being equal. But a review of The Wind Rises shall be left for another day.

#25