I need no introduction to my life with Disney, we all grew up with it, we all have a favorite, least favorite, first one we saw, first one we saw in theaters, everyone who has a love for movies in general first watched a Disney movie
we deny we liked it when we go to High School, then come back to it, there's no word for it, but Disney.
This is my big return to Disney on the cinema, since the last Disney movie I saw in cinemas was "Treasure Planet" (2002) which was 10 years ago. They went through a downturn with "Home on the Range"(2004) (while i found that movie to be funny and entertaining when i was younger, i can side with people who say it is far from being a "good" Disney movie.) Then on Disney movies were average but had loyal fans, and Pixar took over as the Best Animated movies (until 'shudder' Cars 2). Now Disney is making good stuff again starting with their return to 2D in 2009 with "Princess and the Frog" (which I haven't seen, but consider due to the awesome villain.) "Tangled" (2010) I liked a lot, proving how far Disney has come with 3d animation 'without' Pixar. Even more so with "Wreck it Ralph" (2012) which I rented on DVD when it came out, and thought to myself "this would've looked great in 3D". Considering that this movie was done by the same people of those last two films, and the fact that i haven't watched a Disney movie on the big screen in almost ten years, that was more than enough reason for me to check it out
I found it to be an overall good time with great animation and Disney magic, and definitely recommend it to people to check it out for themselves and decide. By no means "Beauty and the Beast" (1991) quality, but that's doubtful Disney will come that far again anyway. as much as I love "Beauty and the Beast", "Aladdin"(1992), and "Lion King" (1994), I'm never try to compare any other Disney movie to those, I accept these are classics, and focus on lesser appreciated ones nowadays like "Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1996), and "Hercules" (1997) (this movie is so clumsy, flawed and flimsy and i love every second of it, particularly the art design and James Woods)
"Frozen" is inspired by "The Ice Queen" by Hans Christian Anderson much like "The Little Mermaid" (1989), the main character is a redhead, and NOT voiced by Jodi Benson, because Disney knows better how to rip itself off than Don Bluth.
It's written and directed by first timer Jennifer Lee who wrote Wreck it Ralph and Chris Buck who has been involved with most Disney movies and directed "Tarzan" (1999) the very first Disney movie I saw in the cinema. The movie opened with a Mickey Mouse cartoon, which thank god they did, because I arrived late and didn't want to miss it.
The plot revolves around a young princess named Elsa who has the power to make ice, but because of a childhood accident she caused her sister, Anna, she stays isolated and tries to hide it. Their castle is sealed off, and the sisters grow apart. Years later their parents soon die in a storm (not a spoiler it's a Disney movie). One day they decide to open the gates to have Princess Elsa crowned queen, which excites her sister Anna who wants to meet maybe her true love which she immediately does and proposes on the spot (also not a spoiler, Disney movie, though it is funny to actually hear the words "you can't fall in love with a person in one day" actually said in a Disney movie). Elsa's powers are exposed and she runs away to the North Mountain, inadvertently unleashing eternal winter on the kingdom. Anna goes off an adventure to talk some sense into her with an ice trader Kristoff, his reindeer Sven, and a living snowman Olaf, who sparks a childhood memory in Anna.
Pretty simple, and they surprisingly do a good job, throwing good and twists and turns at you, I legitimately didn't know where it was going, and there was some good surprises.there's good chases scenes, adventure, and action, and a snow giant with an awesome design. I wont spoil it but there's a reveal with a villain, I will admit, when it was revealed I did NOT see it coming, but it could've been developed a little better, the way it was with Wreck it Ralph, coincidentally with a character who may or may not be the villain, voiced by Alan Tudyk. I didn't expect a great villain, which DIsney is known for, but it could've been handled better. I expected the strength to be the emotional connection, between her sister. It showed promise in the beginning, but I expected a more fleshed out relationship between the two, and that would be the movies' strength, like "Lilo and Stitch"(2002). They throw in a couple aspects that aren't explained as well, but keep it simple enough for me to be invested, and Disney movies have a strength and leaving you wanting more. There are some cheesy jokes that are there for the kids, and some that try to be for older audiences (like Dreamworks) and some backfire but none made me shake my head in disapproval. Some cheesy jokes had a charm to them that made me laugh. There are some small rock creatures that raised Kristoff, who at one point during a musical number to bring the romance of Kristoff and Anna, one of them says he passed a kidney stone, that cheesy joke i have to admit was pretty clever and got a laugh.
The characters are good, Anna is at times a bit forced with her clutszy optimism in the same fashion as Rapunzel, but she's overall as likable, voiced by Kristen Bell of "Veronica Mars", who I'm sure many people would have liked to see as a Disney princess. Elsa, surprisingly doesn't get that much screentime. But I liked Elsa enough, I love her design, she has impressive powers, and is sympathetic. (Now there's Jack Frost and Elsa slash fanfiction taking place of Jack Frost and Rapunzel) Idina Menzel does a good job and surprisingly her adult voice fits fine with the character (unlike Jay Bruchael in How to Train Your Dragon, Chris Pine in Rise of the Guardians, and Ed Helms in Lorax) ironically it's her singing voice that barely fit with the character, inspite of how good her singing voice is. Kristoff is a fun male character and he and Anna play off each other real well, and he also plays off well with the reindeer Sven, who gets a lot of good silent humor, there is a running joke where Kristoff talks for him, it's kinda cheesy, but it's humor for the kids, there is one point where he's debating whether or not to go with Anna and he talks for Sven telling him to go, and that got a laugh. The show stealer created for the kids of course is Olaf the snowman who wishes to experience Summer. At first with the trailers I thought I wouldn't like this character, but I heard good things, particularly that he's voiced by Josh Gad, whose work I'm not familiar with, but I've heard he can be really funny, and was in Broadway's "The Book of Mormon" made by the guys who did "South Park" which you can't go wrong with. The character of Olaf is funny and likable, there are a few corny jokes, but he has his moments, Josh Gad's delivery is mostly what sold it for me, (BTW, people were right he does sound like Jonah Hill). Then there's Alan Tudyk, when the movie started I actually forgot which character he was playing, so I listened to each character and tried to figure out who he voiced. I guessed about 3 characters, and it turns out he was playing the Duke of Weselton. Which is a shame because they didn't give him much to do. There is a funny scene where he hits on Anna and seems pretty energetic, and corrects people on the pronunciation of his town. But there still wasn't much to him, it's not like King Candy in Wreck it Ralph, where in spite of him essentially impersonating the Ed Wynn Mad Hatter (from "The much better Disney movie!") was a lot of fun and entertaining. Alan Tudyk is fun and entertaining as usual with the character and the over the top accent, there's just not much of him. Unlike a lot of animated movies, the voice actors are not distracting, they have familiar faces, but none of them are so distinct that they're distracting. that's why Mandy Moore didn't distract me as Rapunzel (in spite of what other people thought). Kristen Bell's voice definitely matches up good for Anna. and they have Maurice LaMarche as the father (a pro voice actor in a theatrical animated movie, imagine that)
The animation is of course gorgeous. While a few people aren't too big on the big eyed "Tangled" style animation, I personally find it appealing and nice to look at. Unsurprisingly one of my favorite piece of animation is the ice kingdom formed by Elsa, (I wished there was more of it) and the way her powers worked. I saw it in 3D, since animated movies often have a reputation for looking phenomenal, I don't know what phenomenal 3D looks like I haven't seen Avatar or How to Train Your Dragon, so i don't know if it's just those movies, or if my theater doesn't have the same great 3D projection (I have not been to an IMAX theater yet.) But the 3D here worked well, there are times where you feel like you're in a world of snow, which is a good movie to have in 3D, the same with a video game world.
The musical numbers are pretty good, not Disney's best or the most memorable, but given time I'm sure they'll grow on me; I don't remember many songs the first time i hear them anyway. Some are used to further the story like a musical should, though at times they do feel out of place, some cheesy lines, and not all are needed. But the songs are good enough, I did not know it was Kristen Bell singing the first time i saw this, and i have to say she's not too bad, Josh Gad with his Olaf introduction song sounds good, he was on Broadway, after all. Jonathan Groff and Idina Menzel, of course have great voices.
While Menzel's voice for the famous "Let it Go" song, surprisingly I preferred the Demi Lovato version. It could be because I'm more used to it, but i thought her rendition was great. Demi Lovato, who I'm not an enormous fan of, nor do i hate her (that would be reserved for the Jonas Brothers her costars, ugh), but i give credit where credit is due, she belts it out and gave the song great compassion, and it sounds fantastic, i stayed at most of the end credits just to hear it
So overall, the more i think about it, I did really like the movie, it is worthy of being from Disney. any problems i did have with it, was clouded by something interesting, I wanted to know what happened next and was invested, especially by the time we got to the adventure part. The characters are good, the animation is great as usual, i definitely say, if you're a fan of Disney (which I'm sure you are) check it out and decide for yourself.
