Disney is in a strange place with its animated features, especially when it comes to fairy tales. In some ways, the studio is still struggling in a post-Shrek world, trying to figure out how to sell unironic sentimentality like dreams and true love to a more cynical audience. At the same time, the studio has become more corporately controlled, and everything is constantly focus-tested and second-guessed. As a result of this schizoid approach to filmmaking, many aspects of Frozen feel uncertain.
The story takes place in the kingdom of Arendelle, where the royal castle is sealed off from outsiders. Princess Elsa (Idina Menzel) possesses magic ice powers that are triggered by emotion. As a child, she almost killed her younger sister Anna (Kristen Bell) with these abilities, so she forgoes all human contact in order to keep her family safe.
When the time comes for Elsa’s coronation as Queen, the castle is opened for foreign dignitaries. This thrills Anna, who has felt stifled during the years of seclusion. She immediately falls head over heels for the visiting Prince Hans (Santino Fontana), and the two become engaged after a few hours (and one musical number) of courtship. When they break this news to Elsa, she loses control and exposes her magic. Ashamed, Elsa runs away to the mountains, unknowingly casting all of Arendelle into a thick, unseasonable winter. Anna goes after her, picking up a few friends along the way: eccentric ice vendor Kristoff (Jonathan Groff), his reindeer companion Sven, and animate snowman Olaf (Josh Gad).
Disney has been trying to adapt Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen since the 1940s, never quite able to make it work. Writer/director Jennifer Lee and co-director Chris Buck solved the problem by not actually adapting the book at all. The film has nothing in common with the original tale beyond a queen who controls snow. It’s appropriate that the title was changed to the supremely generic-sounding Frozen, since the film doesn’t have anything on its mind beyond the well-worn tropes of True Love, Friendship, and Believing In Yourself.
There are a few positive elements. The voice actors all do nice jobs in both the emoting and singing departments, and there are a few terrific emotional beats along with a generous amount of good humor. Anna is a great protagonist – capable, smart, and awkward in a way that’s (mostly) endearing and not too cutesy. And then there’s Elsa, who is dealing with things Disney characters normally don’t face, even if her situation feels like an X-Men riff (in keeping with recent trends, her ice tricks play a lot more like superpowers than any kind of magic). A better version of this film would focus more on her; the movie falters whenever Elsa isn’t present, and we only get one-and-a-half Idina Menzel musical performances, which I’m pretty sure is criminal.
Frozen is stuck between playing its cliched themes straight and trying to subvert them. Like Enchanted, it tries to have its cake and eat it too. Making fun of “love at first sight” doesn’t change the fact that a whole song was sung about it. Pointing out that an obvious bad guy’s name sounds like “weasel” does not redeem the use of a blatantly obvious bad guy. The movie goes for both “traditional” and “hip,” most evident in the jarringly modern, Whedonesque patter of the dialogue.
On occasion, though, the film pulls it off. Kristoff holds “conversations” with Sven in which he performs a silly voice for the reindeer. It’s a clever twist on the talking animal sidekick. Olaf, despite being entirely toyetic, is a non-annoying presence, his comic relief wackiness buoyed by Gad’s enthusiasm.
Frozen does its best to overcome traditional archetypes, but doesn’t go far enough. It centers on a sibling relationship rather than a romantic one, but the interaction between Anna and Elsa is too limited. Even more frustrating is how nothing that happens to the characters on their journey impacts their development at all. When Elsa first runs off, she seems to embrace her powers, and while this loss of inhibition thankfully doesn’t signal her transformation into a villain, it also doesn’t change her in any other meaningful way.
Much of Frozen is reminiscent of Tangled, a similarly pleasant but ephemeral experience. The bicker-banter relationship between Anna and Kristoff is beat-for-beat a retread of the one between Rapunzel and Flynn, and Sven might as well be the horse Maximus. Worse, though, is that the animation looks nearly the same as it did in the former film. A lot of computer-animated films featuring humans are nigh indistinguishable, and this is no exception. It looks pretty, but technical prowess is not a substitute for true artistic ingenuity.
As a musical, Frozen is much more successful than Disney’s other recent attempts to revive the format, capturing the same feeling and Broadway-lite style as the films from Disney’s “renaissance” in the early ’90s. There are a few memorable songs, and most of them are well-integrated into the story, propelling the narrative forward or illustrating the characters’ emotional states in a dynamic way. For example, the lyrics and melody of “Do You Want to Build a Snowman” are simple and unflashy, but the piece is effective because it organically conveys the passage of time and the growing gulf between Anna and Elsa as they age. It also helps that the movie has a decent amount of songs (Tangled had four. You call that a musical?), which are spaced evenly throughout the runtime. The only thing it lacks is a proper finale number.
The best song in the film is “Let It Go,” in which Elsa expresses her exhilaration at being able to freely use her abilities for the first time in her life. It’s an Idina Menzel power ballad, so of course it’s good. Another standout is “For the First Time in Forever,” which is sung ably by Bell and gets gets a nifty reprise later on as a duet with Menzel. Other critics have professed love for Gad’s “In Summer,” but I can’t recall a single line of it. The soundtrack was written and composed by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, who are collectively responsible for the music of Avenue Q, The Book of Mormon, and 2011’s Winnie the Pooh. The fact that such talented people produced such a mixed offering of songs is a tad disappointing.
Frozen is nice, and that’s all. It’s born out of warring needs to both play things safe and be truly bold,  so it while it’s never outright bland, it lacks staying power. There’s nothing new here, but it accomplishes the old inoffensively enough.
37 thoughts on “‘Frozen’ Tries And Fails To Be Both Traditional And Modern”
Someone completely missed the point of the whole movie. Frozen is gorgeous, the storyline, the musical numbers, the visuals. Hipster critics will hate.
You’re just one of those sheeple who takes any criticism of Pixar or Disney as a personal attack on your taste.
Do you have anything to bring to the table that doesn’t amount to either ad hominem or constructing a straw man?
Seriously, almost every comment you’ve posted on Frozen articles contains one or the other. If you don’t have anything well-reasoned to say, then don’t say anything.
Do you have anything to bring to the table that doesn’t amount to either ad hominem or constructing a straw man?
Seriously, almost every comment you’ve posted on this website contains one or the other. If you don’t have anything well-reasoned to say, then don’t say anything.
I believe Tim was the first to go Ad Hominim when he implied that Pixar haters are hipsters by default. I think he can defend himself, he certainly doesn’t need you stepping up for him.
Secondly, this is the ONLY topic on this entire website I’ve ever commented on.
You’re right on the money regarding the film being gorgeous. The musical numbers were catchy as well, and the visuals were simply breathtaking. I do not, however, agree with you on the storyline. I found it to be considerably lacking in the story department.
I absolutely hated this movie. The worst Disney movie I have ever watched. I wish I could take my time and money back.
Ugh. I am just about annoyed with you. This movie couldn’t be worse than Home on the Range.
Frozen is amazing and not bland or typical! your wrong and ur opinion is shit. peace out and let it go bishhhhes
Uh, yeah. I know that! I was getting annoyed at the other person for saying Frozen is the worst Disney movie when I can think of a few that are much worse. Believe me Frozen may be my favorite animated movie.
You know what’s sh*t? Your grammar.
“Ugh. I am just about annoyed with you.”
^So you’re not annoyed yet? Dang. I’ve gotta try harder! 😉
Hahaha well that’s awkward because I have no idea who you are. I didn’t know people bothered to read all my comments and reviews. I’m honored! I hope some Disney executive reads them too and starts taking them seriously.Did I say that “every Disney fan is disappointed”? Please find me a quote where I say that.
“…but for real, get a life.”
^This is coming from the person who reads all my comments and reviews. How ironic.
Really? That’s a shame, but have you really seen enough Disney films?
Considering that this is the most successful Disney movie of all time and one of the top grossing movies of any genre ever, don’t you think that your opinion has as much credibility as a cotton condom?
^Flawed logic. That’s an argumentum ad populum. Nice try though.
I’m sure Disney is really upset that you didn’t like the movie. Obviously you’re just not very good at this whole movie reviewer thing.
I agree with this review, good job of highlighting the good parts while not being afraid to critique the bad. The interaction between Kristoff and Sven was a good twist on the talking animal companion and Olaf was amusing without being annoying. The first part of the film had a lot of potential and my wife and I were thoroughly enjoying it. The resolution however left a bit much to be desired and as you said, not much character progression, the experience doesn’t seem to have changed anyone except now they can talk to each other again? What could have been a climactic resolution ended up being a two-minute scene filled with hand-waving talk about love that somehow causes all the dignitaries to forgive the queen, Hans to be revealed as a traitor, Anna to be restored, sisters to be reunited and winter to be broken.
Idina Menzel’s song is probably the best publicity for the movie, unfortunately the rest of the film wasn’t as powerful and I wouldn’t be surprised if I never watch it again, and if it soon becomes as forgotten as “Tangled”.
Tangled hasn’t been forgotten at all! It has a whole fanbase (not as large as Frozen’s but still there).
It’s unfortunate that Tangled is forgotten now. It was such a wonderful movie!
Let’s keep the comments, PG, people. This, after all, is a review about a children’s movie. Older children might log on to read the review and its comments, and they deserve something better than thinly veiled obscenities and ad-hominems against reviewers.
Oh, believe me. I grew up on Disney. The only other one that comes to mind right now is Brave, which was a close second.
What was wrong with Brave?
The story line was so dull that I could only sit through it once. She turns her mother into a bear and manages to undo the problem that she caused and somehow she’s a hero?
I guess, but there’s no use wasting energy complaining how much you hated a film (yes, I saw you profile picture).
You’re probably right. I do waste too much energy complaining about how much I hate Frozen, but if everyone who hated the movies kept silent, then all we would get is the overbearing love for the movies and Disney would continue to spew their feces at us.
Also, I happen to love this profile picture. It is in retaliation against all the horrid Elsa faces everywhere. I got it from the “Frozen Sucks” page on Facebook. 🙂
True, if people don’t like a film, they should at least say why so the filmmakers can improve, but I wouldn’t go around the Internet ruining a film I didn’t like for people who did like it or show off a hateful profile picture towards the film in some of the “Elsa fans” faces. I doubt that the Facebook page you got the profile picture from was actually from a group of people who genuinely hate Frozen. I think that it’s just an example of “the popular thing that becomes hated upon.” It could be just from the fact that some people are tired of Frozen, and want to throw hateful remarks. I also read some reviews on IMDb about Frozen, and there are a number of 1/10 reviews, most of which don’t really go into reasons why they didn’t like the film. This gives me the idea that people are purposely making negative reviews to make the rating go down (some are real, of course, like any film, though). Just to be sure, I’m not referring to YOU, just some others.
I agree some of the fandom can be jerks. I’m a bit of one myself, but some are INSANE with how they respond to criticism of the film, rude remarks to people who didn’t like Frozen, and not give valid reasons for why the film is good to them. Nevertheless, if they genuinely think that Frozen is the “greatest film made,” it’s a valid opinion. Objectively, they’re wrong, but that doesn’t make the opinion any less valid.
I agree. I think that there are a lot of people out there who are hating Frozen just to be hipsters. I, however, am not one of those people. I hated it as soon as I saw it. Over time, it got even more annoying, with the fandom. However, the page from which I got my profile picture was made by a person who was angry with the way Disney ruined The Snow Queen. We both hate the movie, but for different reasons.
Of course. I urge Frozen fans to defend their movie! If my favorite movie was being bashed, I’d defend it to the end as well. They can have their opinions and I can have mine. I have a few friends who happen to love Frozen. That’s up to them. I choose not to partake in their Frozen fests. Like you said, there are people who dislike Frozen just because it’s popular. However, there are also a lot of people out there who bought into the hype around Frozen and its ‘feminist’ message or whatever else the media fed them. I mentioned this in my IMDb review of Frozen.
Was your review ruth-music-1234?
It was.
Oh, then I respect your opinion and all, but I don’t understand some of your complaints.
For one thing, I CAN understand your complaint about the sudden “love” thing at the end, but my take was that Elsa’s powers are controlled by feeling “love” and uncontrollable if she feels “fear.” I’m sure there was love during the whole film between Anna and Elsa, and I have no doubt Elsa knew that Anna loved her, just not enough to jump in the way of a sword with her final breaths.
Also, a resolution where the magic is kind of wonky at the end happens in other Disney films. For instance, at the end of Beauty and the Beast, the Beast turns back into a human AND comes back to life. However, the curse was that the Beast would turn back into a human if he learned to love and be loved in return. Technically, the Beast should have turned back into only a human, not be saved from death.
In Tangled, it’s a bit of a deux ex machina (if that’s the correct term) when Rapunzel’s tears heal Flynn Rider/Eugene Fitzherbert since it was established that her hair was the source of healing power. Also, Mother Gothel technically shouldn’t have died when Rapunzel’s hair was cut, because the flower wasn’t ALL gone, as it was still in Rapunzel’s tears and I have no idea how Mother Gothel knew the words to make the flower work in the first place.
The reason Elsa didn’t want to bless the marriage was because she couldn’t deal with a bunch of older brothers living at the castle with her powers still still uncontrollable. She could barely live with the coronation lasting for a day. Anything could happen if more people started to live at the castle. Also, it looked like Wlsa was going to talk to Anna about the situation privately, but since Anna refused, Elsa really didn’t have a choice but to say “You can’t marry a man you just met,” which is still a good reason for her to not want to bless the marriage especially since Anna really didn’t know anything about true love.
Sure, Elsa wasn’t the first Disney Princess to be “progressive” about this aspect, but blame the audience. They were the ones to think that Anna and Elsa were the first princesses to not end up with a man they just met, and I don’t think that the film itself implies it.
Hans never protected Elsa. He just made it seem like he was. Right before he shot one of the Duke’s arrows at Elsa’s chandelier, Hans can be seen looking right up at the chandelier right before he shot. He attempted to kill Elsa, but make it seem like it was an accident.
The Olaf Anna and Elsa created when they were little was shown to have collapsed after young Elsa shot young Anna on unconscious.
That thing with “Fixer Upper.” I don’t see how it promotes cheating. Anna never showed feelings for Kristoff and during the whole song, and Anna denied that she and Kristoff had any romantic feelings with each other and believed that her true love was still Hans.
Thanks. I’m just going to leave some points here.
The ‘love’ between Anna and Elsa, to me, was just really poorly done. I mean, from the audience’s point of view, we see how much Elsa loves Anna, but their relationship is never established properly. They don’t see each other for 10+ years and all of a sudden, Anna’s willing to sacrifice herself for her sister, whom she doesn’t even really know? It just isn’t believable. Furthermore, Elsa seemed to ‘master’ her skills just fine while battling the guards in fear. She also controlled them fine while working on her ice castle. I’m just really confused by the inability for her to control turning her powers on and off. Also, why does she love her fear at the end of the movie? I’m still confused. Her powers are still there. She could still kill her sister at any minute. Quite honestly, I was hoping that she’d lose her powers. That would have been a much more appropriate ending.
The true love at the end of Disney movies can be a little wonky, but I’d rather a believable act of true love lead to wonky magic (like in BatB) rather than a non believable act of true love lead to sudden inexplicable abilities to control magic powers…
Rapunzel’s tear healing Flynn was a tribute to the original fairy tale, where Rapunzel’s tear heals the Prince’s blindness. Also, I have seen explanations about how the ‘tear’ that healed Flynn was kind of like the drop of sunlight leaving her although I’m not sure where I stand on this issue. I will admit that the first time I saw the movie, I thought it was a cop out ending, but then I remembered the original fairy tale and realized that it was actually an homage to it. I will insert here that Tangled paid a lot more attention to the original fairy tale than Frozen did.
I will agree that Mother Gothel’s death was a bit odd in that she should have died, but not at the speed that she did. I will just chalk it up to her being ridiculously old (like… hundreds of years old) and her body just couldn’t handle living without any more magic. I explain her knowing the words to the healing song by her being a witch. It would also explain how she knew that the drop of sunlight would appear there at that time.
The whole ‘progressive’ thing with Elsa and Anna was annoying only because everyone credited them for it and to me, it seems that the filmmakers clearly planted it in there to gain attention. I think that the directors were trying to mock Disney’s past and claim that their Disney princesses were better or whatever, but that may be just my view on it. When I saw that scene in the theater, I immediately knew that lots of Disney mockers would pick up on it and praise the movie.
Hans could have let the guard kill Elsa, but instead saved her from dying. What’s the point at aiming the arrow at the chandelier and risk the fact that she might not die (which she didn’t). If I were him, I would have just let the guard kill her. Then she definitely would have died.
Yes, I found out that Olaf was actually created by Elsa during the ‘Let It Go’ sequence. This was not clear to me after watching it only once. My bad 😛 (However, this still does not explain Elsa’s powers allowing her to create sentient snow beings. What?!)
“Fixer Upper”- “Get the fiancé out of the way and the whole thing will be fixed” (Basically, Anna’s engaged, but who cares about her fiancé, who is seemingly a decent guy at the moment. Let’s just pair her up with our ‘son’ anyways.) Also, Anna was flirting with Kristoff before she found out that Hans was bad. Re-watch the scene after they get thrown out of the ice palace. It was so obvious that they would be together after that. Hans’ ‘plot twist’ was just a convenient way for Anna to end up with Kristoff without her having to choose between the two. Furthermore, when Hans betrays her, she immediately sees Kristoff as her ‘true love’.
Lastly, to me an ‘act of true love’ is not the same as an ‘act of love’. When you call someone your ‘true love’, there’s only one person in the entire world that fits the bill. Likewise, I think an ‘act of true love’ should come from that one person. Yes, what Anna did was an act of love. No, I do not think it was an act of true love. I refuse to support this whole ‘act of true love’ can be between siblings. That is not what fairy tales are made of nor is it the same as the love between a prince and princess. I believe that a spouse’s love is infinitely more powerful and strong than a sibling’s. Yes, maybe I’ve watched too many Disney fairy tales, but I hate the direction that Disney is going with their new acts of ‘true love’ (see Maleficent, Frozen, etc.).
Hans didn’t let the guard kill Elsa himself because he wouldn’t receive much credit. Hans needed to kill Elsa himself and be looked at as a “hero” to gain Arendelle’s trust. If a guard killed Elsa, Hans wouldn’t really get the glory (at least from his eyes).
That thing with Elsa’s powers being able to clear life is a little weird, but to be fair, the full extent of them hasn’t been seen up until that point. Maybe bring life is one of them. Either way, I could still twist the same complait about Rapunzel’s powers. It being a nod to the original Rapunzel story isn’t a good enough reason in my opinion. I’m not familar with the original story, so I would have no idea at what they were trying to show me. It also doesn’t help if you look outside of a film, so much as looking at what is in front of you to decide if what the filmmakers did was right or wrong.
I also think you’re being a little hypocritical. I assume you hate Frozen because of all of your complaits in your review. When did it not being like the original story pop up? You also mentioned getting that profile picture from a Facebook done by a person who hates Frozen because it “ruined the Snow Queen” and that you and that person both hate Frozen for different reasons. So which is it? You hate Frozen because of whatever was in your IMDb review, or because it’s not much like the original story.
Back to “Fixer Upper.” The trolls were suggesting to Kristoff to get rid of Hans. NOT Anna. This isn’t cheating because Kristoff doesn’t have a partner. If the trolls told Anna, then that’s different. It would be like her getting rid of Hans so she could be with Kristoff.
Okay, so clearly I’ve had other more important things going on, but since I just saw this today, I’ll make a quick reply. I skimmed your response and for the most part, it doesn’t make any sense. You’re trying to incorrectly “correct” my mistakes.
Hans wasn’t even trying to kill Elsa. Otherwise, he would have done it already. Why would he go through all that trouble instead of killing her when she was unconscious? Your theory doesn’t even make sense.
Apparently I’m not allowed to have more than one reason for hating Frozen? I didn’t know that if you didn’t like something, you could only list ONE reason for not liking it. My review was actually close to 2000 words when I first wrote it, but I had to cut 1000 because of the word limit. Sorry that it wasn’t long enough for me to list everything I hated about the movie. There was simply too much to hate.
With regard to “Fixer Upper”- does it matter who the trolls were talking to? In the end, it makes Kristoff a home-wrecker. Need I say more? Sorry I’m not a fan of home-wreckers. Didn’t know that it was okay to be one. No more to discuss here as clearly you think it’s okay for guys to get involved with girls who are taken.
Lastly, love between siblings can be just as powerful as romance? The two are completely different types of love. If she only had to be saved by an “act of true love”, Olaf rescuing her should have counted. So should Kristoff’s rushing her back and leaving even though he ‘loved’ her.
Geez, let’s just drop this, okay? An opinion is an opinion. I didn’t expect you to list every reason, despite what I commented.
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CHICKEN NUGGETS!!!!
It is twist on beauty and the beast and it isn’t good movie but has hooked the preschool crowd do to its ear bleedingly catchy songs. Seriously Ana is Belle and Elsa the Beast done at sligthly faster pace. The twist is they are sisters and 1 born with curse.