Let it Snow!

Rating: 7/10 (27 April 2014)

My initial reaction on seeing the promotional poster for Frozen was disappointment as the character design seemed very generic. But when Anna started to sing "Do You Want To Build a Snowman" I was hooked for the rest of the film. The character animation is brilliant and the range of emotion and expression is some of the best I've seen. Anna carries on in the spirit of Tangled giving us a strong female lead with a manic positive energy that evolves into true courage and love when the final challenge comes. Elsa is equally strong as the sister tormented by the very power that makes her special eclipsed in the film's showcase song "Let It Go". Olaf, the wide eyed innocent snowman, reminded me of the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz in that he doesn't have a skull, or bones or much of a brain. He has a good running gag with Kristof's moose concerning a carrot. Speaking of Kristof, the one minor criticism I have is the male characters in the film. While they provided charming enough support characters they lack the dimension of the female leads. It's a fine line to walk between having a strong male character storyline when you have a female lead but in some ways Tangled was more successful because the male character had a strong internal conflict to resolve whereas the men in Frozen seem primarily to only be reacting to the situation at hand. All in all, however, Frozen is great family fun that both adults and children can enjoy and I can't get "Do You Want to Build a Snowman " out of my head.