Frozen Review
By: April Faith Spice
I have to admit that when I first heard sometime last year that Disney's next "Big" movie was called "Frozen" and was about the "Snow Queen" I was a little disappointed and even though I tend to be somewhat of a "Disney Nerd" didn't check into it too terribly much before I was able to see a screening of it this week. I saw the generic teaser that played before Monster's University in May but it also didn't tell me much ABOUT the film, so I wasn't sure where Disney was going with this one.
I am glad to report that I was very very surprised with how much I like, no loved Frozen. Before the movie started, I heard a man talking behind me that Disney just isn't his "thing" and that he could take it or leave it, That his life wouldn't be affected either way if it had never existed. My immediate thought was "Blashpemy!", but I kept that to myself. Honestly in my opinion that is a ridiculous claim... Walt Disney took animation to a whole other level back in his early career, He had the first ever full length animated film for goodness sakes with "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" in 1937! My point in all this is that at many many times during the movie, I heard this man in particular, Cracking up. I am pretty sure I even heard a clap or two.
Having said that, Frozen was a delight! I took my 5 and 8 year old daughters with me and they gave it a definite A+. But this is not just a kids film. Trust me on that! In my opinion, this film has potential be to up in the big leagues with other huge Disney film's such as The Lion King, The Little Mermaid and most recently Tangled. It has everything you want from a good classic Disney film. A message, great music, fantastic animation and the ability to make you FEEL!
The tale of Frozen is set in Norway and based on the two princess' of a small town named Arendelle. The soon to be queen Elsa (Idina Menzel) and Anna (Kristin Bell) were very close as younger children, but when a tragic accident causes Elsa to hurt her younger sister with her magical powers (she can create snow and ice!), Elsa hides away in her room to try and control her powers while Anna grows up before our eyes. On Elsa's coronation day, she lets her emotions get the best of her, therefore exposing her powers and she flees to the North Mountain where she builds herself an ice castle and causes an eternal winter upon the land. Anna being the stubborn, loving that sister that she is, sets out to find and talk to her sister to make things right again. Along the way she meets Kristoff (Jonathan Groff), his friendly reindeer, Sven, and a magical talking snowman Olaf. Their adventure is quite hilarious! Anna is such a likeable character and might now be one of my favorite Disney princess'. Her and Kristoff have awesome chemistry and did I mention there is a slight love triangle in this movie?! I'm not going to give away the rest of the plot because I thought at first that it was going to be rather predictable but I ended up being surprised in the best possible way! I will say however that I loved the empathy that the movie made me feel for the characters involved in this plot!
There really wasn't much I didn't like about the film, besides that in true Disney form, There is a death of the girls parents at a young age. I just don't understand why Disney 98% of the time has to kill off the parents. The run time seemed appropriate and neither one of my daughters got bored with it. I frequently looked over to find them smiling and laughing.
I've stated before in previous reviews that I'm not a huge fan of 3D movies, but this like Tangled, really proved me wrong as far as that goes. This was the first movie that my 5 year actually kept her 3D glasses on for the vast majority of the film and the snow and animation is just BEAUTIFUL in 3D!
I loved how the telling of this story doesn't conform to the typical "love at first sight" of so many fairy tales and teaches that LOVE above all else is the greatest power and comes in many different forms. I really think that parents and kids alike will enjoy this film for years to come! The power song "Let it go" is sure to be an oscar contender like "I see the Light" in Tangled was. I found myself leaving the theater and wanting to buy the soundtrack on itunes!
Also, Would you like to build a snowman? :)
Animated Short "Get A Horse"
Before you get settled in your chair to experience "Frozen" next holiday weekend, You get treated to a wonderful Disney short entitled "Get a Horse". Upon first inspection you believe that you are watching a true Disney original Mickey Mouse short. I was quite happy with this, seeing original Mickey up on the big screen for the first time but as you keep watching, the characters come to life in 3D and Mickey and his friend quite literally pop out of the screen into full color! Its quite the back and forth for 7 minutes and I was like a little girl giggling at how neat it all was! Especially when the credits rolled and it showed "Walt Disney" as Mickey's voice! It wasn't upon further googling when I got home that I learned this was not indeed an old cartoon but one that animator Eric Goldberg (famous for his word on "Aladdin's" Genie) created to replica the 1920's cartoons! I'm not quite sure how they managed to pull it off quite like they did but it sure did put me in a great mood to then watch the feature presentation!
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