What better way to end the year's worth of posts than a post about my thoughts on the Disney movie for 2013, Frozen. I've read reviews about it comparing it to Tangled and it seemed to be in the same vein. Just throwing it out there now, it's not as funny as Tangled, nor the story is as great. However, this is still one of the best Disney movies in the last ten years (since 2008's Bolt, Disney has started to be on a roll, churning out one solid animation to the next). Frozen takes on a story based on The Snow Queen, which is an excellent premise. The snowy and ice setting makes for some dazzling scenes. In case you didn't know, Frozen also includes songs and the songs are half-decent. Sure, they're no classics like Aladdin and The Little Mermaid, but they were easy on the ears and it was more catchy when compares to the likes of The Princess and the Frog and Tangled. The heroines in the movie are no longer the damsels in distress, each are independent and their actions are touched with modern influences.
The movie starts off getting straight into it and it doesn't take long for it to get into the crux where Elsa builds herself the breathtaking ice palace. Songs are frequent in the first half but disappears soon after, which is a shame. A signature piece at the climax would not have been displaced. There's the whole princess meets her prince and falls in love type of thing, but the funny thing is that it pokes fun at the "Disney couple falls in love after just meeting" cliche, that was a very nice touch. The addition of Kristoff set some doubts on Hans and I was wondering how it was going to end, although you do suspect something. When that suspicion comes true, it feels kind of odd as he seems so evil. It was also a little bit surprising at the violence of Anna's treatment to Hans. I like how there were a few pieces focusing on two vocals and the way they fed off each other. It was nice but I found sometimes the voices of the singers didn't quite reach that sweet spot. Nevertheless, an excellent film and one I look forward to watching again.
