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Author
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Topic: Frozen (2013)
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Mike Blakesley
Film God
Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 12-08-2013 05:38 PM
Frozen continues Disney's surprising comeback in the animation field.
The company's newest renaissance, which started with "The Princess and the Frog" continues with "Frozen," which has a story based loosely on Hans Christian Anderson's "The Snow Queen." While "Frozen" is not quite as good as "Tangled" or quite as inventive as "Wreck-It Ralph," it still carries enough Disney magic in it to make it a huge success with the family crowd.
The story is standard Disney fairytale lore: A princess, Elsa, has mysterious powers that can conjure up wintery snowscapes anytime, anywhere; but she sometimes has a hard time controlling her power. After an accident which nearly kills her younger sister Anna, Elsa and her "secret" are kept away from everyone in an effort to keep the powers from getting out of control. But that happens anyway, of course, so she flees to the mountains, not realizing she's plunged her kingdom into an eternal winter. It's up to Anna to go find her and convince her to bring back summer (and with any luck, fall in love and live happily ever after along the way).
The movie has two stars: The snow itself, and Olaf, a snowman who was brought to life by Elsa and provides comic relief. The story and the characters are a little pedestrian, but in that classic feels-good Disney way. There are lots of songs, just like in the most-beloved Disney films; a nice twist ending; a handsome prince and not one but two princesses. (If nothing else, Disney will probably make back their investment on this film just in toys and costumes.)
The animation is outstanding. You can really tell that the filmmakers did their homework in studying the behavior of snow, when it falls, tumbles and crumbles. The 3-D effects are quite good, but the whole snow-and-ice atmosphere of this movie really looks better in 2-D where the dazzlingly white snowscapes really sparkle.
The voice actors do an excellent job overall. Josh Gad, as Olaf, the snowman who dreams of being able to someday experience "summer," is hilarious. Kristin Bell (Anna) is funny and charming; she has the more independent/brave style of more recent Disney heroines, while the men in the story are relegated mostly to buffoon status. But Jonathan Groff (Kristoff) handles this well, coming off as an Owen Wilson-type character with quite a few comic touches of his own.
We had outstanding crowds the first few days, with some people coming two and three times and everyone raving that it's the best Disney movie they have seen in decades. So, I got "over-hyped" and was expecting to be blown away when we finally got to sit and watch it.
I wasn't blown away, but I was duly impressed. Frozen fires on most cylinders and delivers the goods, even if they're slightly retread in spots. Disney didn't really hit a home run here, but it's a solid three-bagger and people are loving it, so from me it gets 4 out of 5 stars.
An extra added attraction is "Get a Horse!" which is a cartoon short preceding the feature. This little thing has some of the best use of 3-D I've ever seen. In fact, a person in a multiplex would do well to go ahead and buy a 3-D ticket, watch the short in 3-D, and then go to a 2-D show for the main feature.
It starts out like a classic black-and-white cartoon starring old-school Mickey Mouse, who manages to tick-off bad guy Pegleg Pete, who proceeds to throw Mickey straight through the movie screen and into the theater. Mickey then has to use whatever means necessary to rescue Minnie from Pegleg Pete. I won't go into all the details, you just need to see it. In 3-D, that is. Out of all the shorts that have preceded animated movies since Pixar made that idea fashionable again, this is one of the best.
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Stu Jamieson
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 524
From: Buccan, Qld, Australia
Registered: Jan 2008
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posted 12-28-2013 06:01 PM
Following their adaptation of Rapunzel with Tangled in 2010, Disney Studios turn their very liberal adaptation skills to Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen with Frozen. In typical Disney style, the result bears only the most fundamental hallmarks of the source material but when the product is as good as Tangled, honestly, who cares? Frozen isn't as good as Tangled but it's not far off the mark.
Frozen's lineage to Tangled couldn't be more clear. It follows similar themes; it has an identical suite of characters; and it's rendered using the same animation engine. This instantly recognisable association with the film's predecessor works in Frozen's favour as it screams "quality entertainment" and, for the most part, it is right.
Frozen continues Disney's recent inclination to challenge it's own traditional tropes. Tangled challenged the traditional submissive imprisoned female waiting to be rescued; Frozen challenges the notion of love at first site. In what is Frozen's best moment, Princess Anna (Kristen Bell) attempts to explain the merits of meeting a man, falling in love, and pledging marriage all in the space of a day, to incredulous commoner, Kristoff (Jonathan Groff). Kristoff doesn't buy it. This modernising move by Disney can only be seen as a good thing.
Frozen's weakness, however, is that it follows the Tangled formula to the letter and lacks it's own originality as a result. It's all just a little bit too "samey" and I don't mean in terms of it's animation style. Frozen's theme song reminds us just a little too much of When Will My Life Begin from Tangled, for instance. And all the supporting characters are the same except that Olaf the snowman isn't as charming Pascal the frog; Sven the reindeer isn't as charming as Maximilian the horse; and Kristoff isn't as charming as Flynn Rider. Sadly, Disney's long tradition of morbidly sticking with tried and true formulae is one trope they seem less inclined to forego.
But this is only Disney's second round of milking this particular cow and so, for this moment, it still gets away with it. The next serving, however, will be noticeably colder.
8 out of 10
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