A disappointment

Rating: 3/10 (6 January 2014)

*** Spoiler Alert ***
Having been fooled by all the rave reviews on IMDb into seeing Frozen in the theater, my take is that it is not a great movie, and it isn't even a good movie. It is not nearly as good as either The Beauty and the Beast or Tangled. Many reviewers here gently refer to the movie's flaws, but the flaws are basic and pervasive. Elsa is the sister with the curse of freezing everything she touches, but we don't spend enough time with her. We spend most our time with Anna, Elsa's normal sister. So we don't get inside Elsa's character, we don't see her try to learn to control her powers, we don't see her evolve. If Elsa's problem is that she freezes everything when she gets mad, why isn't she working on emotional control with a wizened therapist, rather than walling herself up in an ice castle? (Contrast with Beauty and the Beast, where the beast's evolution is at the center of the movie.)
The road trip at the center of the movie is pleasant enough, but it does not move the story along at all. There are many things that don't make sense. Why is there a snow monster (created by Elsa) who is trying to kill everyone, when supposedly Elsa and Anna love each other? At movie's end, the resolution of Elsa's problem and the town's problem is so sudden, simple, obvious and sappy that you wonder why these bright sisters didn't think of it in the first 10 minutes of the movie, rather than in the last 5.
This movie is really OK for age 5 and under. Anyone older than that will be dissatisfied by the movie's incoherence. As for all the glowing reviews on IMDb, I'm wondering if those reviewers saw a different movie, or if Disney has figured out how to ensure positive, revenue-generating Internet buzz for its creations.
My recommendation is to wait until you can watch the movie at home, so you can go get yourself a sandwich during the annoying songs, a salad during the slow parts, and some ice cream during the parts that make no sense. Then you won't feel foolish like me for spending real money to see it in the theater.