Movie: Frozen

It always seems somewhat ironic to watch an American Christmas movie in Australia, and with 30 degree temperatures this year, Disney's latest animated musical, Frozen felt a little misplaced, though it was a great movie.

Frozen is a story primarily about Anna, a princess of Arendelle locked away from her people after she suffers an ice magic curse from her sister. As far as curses go, this one is pretty minor: Anna's hair changes colour and that's about it. But when her sister loses control of her powers, it is up to Anna to save the day.

Now I say this story is primarily about Anna. It has a pretty big cast of protagonists (with some surprising voice talent) which do not really fit cleanly into the archetypal characters which Disney has relied on for decades. Taking centrestage, we find Kristoff (the ice vendor) and Sven (his reindeer), Elsa (the Snow Queen) and Prince Hans (the roguish 'prince'). Supporting these, we have trolls, savvy Dukes (including the always-excellent Alan Tudyk), an animated snowman named Olaf (who gets one of the funnier songs of the movie) and a stereotyped Nordic trader. 

There are a lot of characters sharing stage, and the subplots advance rapidly. As a result, I found the movie a little confusing, the characters bouncing from one event to the other without much of a central plot line. Heroes become villains and villains become goofy side characters. Without a central villain or hero of the piece, it just seems like the whole plot is pushed forward by luck and happenstance. This is unfortunate, because there is a very strong story beneath it all, which the script could have done more for. 

The animation is excellently done, and the animators had a lot of fun with everything they could do with snow and ice, giving the whole thing a magical feel. The main characters have little quirks and it looks like Disney is making little changes each new movie to settle on a unique animated style for its characters. They really play around with the animations during the singing, particularly during song 'For the First Time in Forever'. No complaints here!

I enjoyed the movie a lot, thanks in huge part to two things. 

Elsa's inner struggle is a big
tug on the heart-strings.

Firstly, the singing is excellent. Fans of Veronica Mars would have heard star Kristen Bell singing once before (S01E12), but it still surprised me to see her name in the credits at the end of the movie. She takes a strong lead, only overshadowed by Idina Menzel of Wicked fame who brings her iconic singing voice to the Snow Queen Elsa and makes the movie feel like Wicked done by Disney. I particularly recommend 'Let It Go' and 'For the First Time in Forever' which felt like big Broadway numbers. 'In Summer' was funny, though it probably should have melted away a bit sooner. Finally, 'Do You Want to Build a Snowman' was a cute montage song for the two girls growing up. The songs aren't particularly memorable, and we probably won't be adding them to our Disney playlists alongside 'A Whole New World', 'Under the Sea' or other favourites, but they are good songs.

The second reason I enjoyed Frozen was its plot twists. While I did find the plot a little confusing and atypical to standard Disney fare, it had some of the best twists I have ever seen. Without spoiling the movie for anyone, there were two particular moments of the film that gripped me: when Anna finally returns to Hans for him to save the day, and the resolution of the snow storm at the end of the movie with its act of 'true love'. The first is a far more devious and adult twist than I have ever seen in a Disney movie before. The second turned what I thought would be a cheesy ending into a real tear-jerker and a pleasant twist on Disney's bread-and-butter "prince saves the damsel" plot.

Frozen has been out in America for a while, but for some reason Australia is only just getting it. I would definitely recommend seeing it if you get the chance, though I wouldn't say you need to go out of your way for it. Try not to spoil it too much for yourself, because that first time plot twist is a beautiful one. And while I didn't leave singing its songs, I would definitely consider putting it on TV next Christmas.

The Ups: Beautiful singing, excellent snow/ice animation, and jaw-dropping plot twists.

The Downs: No solid plot line, a good helping of random events, and subplots which seem to get away from the main plot lead to a confusing movie. 

Verdict: 3 melted snowmen out of 5

I am really pleased with the way Disney is going. This is a refreshing twist on Disney's archetypal plot lines, and an overall wonderful movie.