Disney's Frozen is the best since the Renaissance

Ixzion · **Posted:** January 5th, 2014, 7:03 pm

So I went to see Disney's Frozen today, which is the best movie since the Renaissance. The movie is based on The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Anderson, which I've never read, so I had no expectations of the story going in.

What can I say about this movie? Plenty!

Music
First and foremost in my mind is the music. The entire soundtrack has not a single bad song in the bunch. There's one I wasn't wild about (the one with the trolls), but I still liked it.

The absolute classic of the the soundtrack is "Let It Go", which I believe is the song of the movie. Damn good choice. It's a song about letting go of the expectations that others hold for you and embracing yourself. This one I'm sure we'll hear for years to come.

"Let It Go" video courtesy of Disney

The song "Do You Want to Build a Snowman" is also one that resonated with me, even though it was an early song. It's a song that, much like Aladdin's "One Jump Ahead" brilliantly paints the backstory of the movie in a visually splendid 3 minutes or so. It's happy, melancholy, and everything in-between. A gem.

"Love is an Open Door" is also a wonderful love song. The visuals from that were stunning, too.

Visuals
Disney's artists are masters of the craft. I really can't say enough about how visually appealing everything is, even though most of the movie is dealing with white and snow. It's so varied in how they handle it. Many kudos to them.

Characters and Plot
The characters are central to any animated film. However, one thing that frequently seems to trip people up is the use of potty humor and low-end humor for the characters "for the kids"....

Thankfully, Frozen avoids this pitfall with the character of Olaf, the snowman with a heart of gold who's dumb of a stack of bricks. And he wants to experience summer, but he has no idea what the means for snowmen. He's a character is that could have been annoying, but somehow he turns out to be the perfect comic relief character. Major props to the writers and voice actor for him.

Also very interesting in this movie is that it has two main characters, both of which are female. The sister sovereigns, the elder Elsa (Queen) and the younger Anna, are both very strong main characters. It's very difficult to get one right, much less two. And they're not annoying girl power rah-rah-rah types. Anna is more innocent and wondrous, while Elsa, having ice powers and having learned responsibility early on, is more reserved but still passionate. Great chemistry between the two.

Finally, the men. Kristoff the ice seller and Hans the Prince. Kristoff is a loner guy who's much happier being with his elk Sven than with people. Kinda roguish but heart of gold guy. I really liked Hans the Prince and the Duke of Weselton. They kinda pulled a rope-a-dope with the Duke and Prince. I was legit shocked when it turned out that the Prince was ALSO a bad guy (the scene where he's revealed for what he is is SOOOOO ice-cold). But perhaps I should have realized that if they had two main characters, two main villains would be here, too.

The ultimate resolution being "true love is needed to break the curse" and everyone saying that "oh yeah, true love's kiss would do it" made me think "okay, well it's a Disney movie, of course it's coming", but I would have been satisfied with it. I know what I'm getting into when I go into one of them. However, the surprise that they pulled here was amazing. Instead of making it the kiss of Kristoff and Anna, they made it the act of true love that Anna displayed when she prevented her sister from being killed by Hans. A wonderful, wonderful twist on the formula and I couldn't have been happier to see that happen. There are other kinds of true love than from a kiss, after all.

I think this movie can proudly be said in the same sentence with masterpieces such as The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and The Lion King. I can't say enough positive about this movie.

The characters, music, visuals and humor come together almost perfectly. This is the first CG movie from Disney that has invoked those classic 2D feels from me. That should say enough right there.

If you like Disney movies or just good movies in general, I can fully endorse watching this movie.

Bonanza · **Posted:** January 16th, 2014, 3:49 pm

I cosign this. I posted about it on facebook, but more modestly. xd

Fayorei · **Posted:** January 16th, 2014, 4:08 pm

I am going to see it in about an hour at old people theater time.

GoldGlee · **Posted:** January 16th, 2014, 5:57 pm

I saw this movie on my birthday. It was awesome. I have Demi Lovato's version of "Let it Go" downloaded on my iPhone. And not only that, but I recently found out that it's soon to become a Broadway musical. Can't say when because I don't even know when yet. But I'm looking forward to when it comes out on DVD. If that wasn't enough I heard that it was nominated for TWO Academy Awards. I hope this movie will win for one of two categories it's nominated for.

Fayorei · **Posted:** January 17th, 2014, 4:34 pm

I freaking loved the movie! This is exactly the kinda stuff I am talking about with better female characters and narratives. It does not surprise me that it was the FIRST lady director of a Disney feature who made this as a result. MORE WOMEN DOING THINGS PLEASEEEEE. The musical numbers are SO catchy! Olaf was great! Kristoff is legit hilarious and awesome. I wanna go see it again in theaters really.

"Let it Go" hit a personal note for me. Women as a whole(and the whole being gay) are taught to conceal/not feel in order to be "strong" or "silent/good". So that whole number was pretty fierce and awesome for me! I also loved "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" I mean Anna is definitely just such an enjoyable character overall.

Also Gold, did you know Idina Menzel(the actress who plays Rachel's mother on Glee) is the singing/acting voice for Elsa?:D She's really great in this!

GoldGlee · **Posted:** January 17th, 2014, 5:13 pm

Fayorei wrote:

Also Gold, did you know Idina Menzel(the actress who plays Rachel's mother on Glee) is the singing/acting voice for Elsa?:D She's really great in this!

I did and she is.

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Disney's Frozen is the best since the Renaissance

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