Animation Celebration Saturday - Frozen

Disney, 2013
Starring Idina Menzel, Kristen Bell, Jonathan Groff, and Josh Gad
Directed by Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck
Music by Robert Lopez; Lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez

I know you're probably sick of hearing about this movie, but between the recent cold snap in my part of the US and the sequel coming out in late November, I thought it was a good time to finally check out Disney's biggest hit animated film to date. It was a box-office bonanza in 2013 and remains hugely popular to this day, especially with young girls. Does it deserve the adoration, or should people "let it go?" Let's take a sled ride to the country of Arendelle to find out...

The Story: Anna (Bell) and Elsa (Mendel), the princesses of Arendelle, are best friends in their youth. Elsa has snow powers she would use to play with her sister...until an accident makes her parents fear for the girls' lives. They close the castle and shuts Elsa up in her room until she can learn to control her powers. Elsa never does; she learns to fear her magic, hiding it under thick gloves and insecurity. Anna, for her part, can't figure out why her sister has shut her out, especially after their parents die at sea.

Anna's ecstatic when they open the gates for Elsa's coronation. Finally, she'll get to be around people! Her utter desperation to be noticed leads her to Prince Hans (Santino Fontana), the youngest of 13 boys. He so charms her that she accepts right away when he proposes. Elsa thinks she's crazy for wanting to marry someone she's just met and won't give her blessings. Angry, Anna grabs at her gloves...and Elsa unthinkingly unleashes her powers, freezing the whole land. She runs off, sequestering herself in the North Mountains.

Upset and confused, Anna goes after her sister. She's helped on her way by Kristoff (Goff), an ice cutter, and his reindeer Sven (Frank Welker), Olaf (Gad), the snowman she and Elsa made as children, and the trolls who adopted Kristoff as a boy. Elsa accidentally freezes Anna's heart in an attempt to get her to leave. The trolls say that only an act of true love will save Anna...but as the sisters discover when Hans manipulates them into believing the other is dead, there's more than one type of true love in the world.

The Animation: Disney worked hard to properly render snow in CGI. They did amazing work. You feel cold just watching this movie. Everything is so tactile, you feel like you could reach out and touch Olaf, or slide down the hill with Olaf and Anna towards the end of the film. Elsa's "Let It Go" number really does throw everything that Disney has into it, and then some. The movie just glistens with the sharpest blues and whites this side of a ski resort. It looks amazing, especially at Elsa's ice palace and in the finale.

The Song and Dance: This was another Disney movie that had a long road to the big screen...and it was definitely worth the wait. Anna and Elsa are two of Disney's more unusual female characters; Anna is a cute chatterbox with a tough side, while Elsa is aloof and insecure but can be tender with those she loves. Olaf is not only (mostly) funny, but he and the (non-vocal) Sven are among the few animated sidekicks who have some bearing on the plot. There's even more than a hint of feminism in how Elsa repressed her powers in order to please well-meaning but smothering parents...only to for there to be major repercussions when they come blasting out.

The other unusual aspect here is the villain. Hans may seem charming and like he has Anna's best interests at heart...but he's actually out for his own gain. He reminds me a bit of Gaston in Beauty and the Beast. They were charming, handsome, witty...and could easily manipulate an entire town into thinking that someone who's different from them is a monster and he's a hero. In some ways, he's even more of a monster than Gaston, or Elsa, for that matter. Unlike Gaston, he knew Elsa was sensible and aloof enough not to fall for his smooth act, which is why he went after Anna. She was craving love so badly, she didn't pay attention to the signals that something was wrong until it was too late.

Favorite Number: By far the most famous song from this movie is Elsa's anthem "Let It Go"...and yeah, it's probably my favorite number, too. The animation as Elsa goes from frightened and slightly dowdy "good girl" to sparkling ice queen is the best in the film, and the song is equally powerful. I also like "Love Is an Open Door" for Anna and Hans after their second meeting at the coronation and Anna's heartbreaking "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" as she and Elsa grow up - and apart from each other.

Trivia: Disney started development on a Snow Queen movie or short around the same time in the late 30's that they began work on other Hans Christian Anderson stories like The Little Mermaid and The Steadfast Tin Soldier. The initial development was shelved due to World War II. They pulled it out again in the late 90's, only to put it back on the shelf when it lost its director. Pixar tried in the mid-2000's, and then in the late 2000's after they were purchased by Disney. It wasn't until after Tangled was a hit in 2010 that Disney returned to The Snow Queen and tried to figure out a way to make the title character more likable and interesting.

A stage version of Frozen debuted at the St. James Theater on Broadway in March of 2018 and is still running there at press time.

Frozen is the highest-grossing film of 2013, and is at press time the highest-grossing animated film of all time.

What I Don't Like: And on that note...like The Little Mermaid, I kind of wish more of the original Hans Christian Anderson story had made it into the film. In fact, other than a Snow Queen, a girl who has to rescue someone from her, a reindeer, and the snow background, this uses almost nothing from the actual fairy tale. (Maybe they could figure out how to bring some elements from the original story into the sequel...)

For all the wonderful music in this...I actually wish it was even more of a musical. There's only two chorus routines, one for the trolls, one in the opening for the ice cutters, and only one song for the sisters, and nothing in the last 20 minutes.

The Big Finale: Frozen may not be my all-time favorite Disney animated feature, but I like it enough to to understand why it was such a smash hit. If you have young girls, you've probably seen it a hundred times. If you haven't, don't let the relentless marketing put you off. This really is a charming and delightful film, with wonderful songs, gorgeous animation, and some fairly unique characters.

Home Media: I had such a hard time finding it when it came out, I eventually ordered my DVD online. It's a lot easier to come by now in most places - and unlike a lot of Disney animated features, it can be found in all major formats.

DVD
Blu-Ray
Amazon Prime