A Fresh Take on your Typical Princess

Rating: 7/10 (27 January 2014)

Frozen, which launched in theaters on November 29, 2013 and brought in an estimated $67 million during its opening weekend, has certainly been a hit with both kids and parents. The driving theme in Frozen is the relationship between sisters. While a love story is woven into the mix, the movie is ultimately about the love of sisters, Elsa and Anna. This Disney princess movie debunks the myth that love can be found overnight. The naïve young Anna accepts a marriage proposal from a man she met earlier that day. Anna's sister Elsa, a newly crowned queen, will not bless the marriage. In her rage, Elsa exposes her winter powers that have kept the sisters locked away in a castle for so many years. Elsa's powers make her appear unfit to be queen of Arendelle and the people believe her to be a dangerous sorcerer, and Elsa flees the castle to avoid hurting anyone. Searching for the answer to her sister's strange outburst and solitary childhood, Ana journeys to find her sister and bring her back to Arendelle. Along the way, she befriends a man who helps her through the icy climate to find Elsa and end the eternal winter. Frozen was not a stereotypical Disney Princess movie. While, romance is a part of this movie, the most notable relationship is the relationship between Elsa and Anna. Their sisterhood is set up at the opening, and it continues to pull at the heartstrings of the audience throughout the film. The characters in Frozen are distinct from one another, which makes the relationships more interesting. Elsa is the independent older sister who has hidden herself away for most of her life to protect her sister for most of her life. Anna is childlike even as an adult character but strong and capable. The artistry in this animation is also notable. It was shown in both 2D and 3D. Frozen had crisp graphics, and the backdrops appeared more life-like than animated. The characters looked like they were walking through a realistic set. There were two characters that did not fully fit in this movie: Olaf, the happy-go-lucky snowman, and the Duke of Weselton, a power hungry trader that wants to portray the queen as a monster. Olaf's character was visually out of place with the rest of the characters. It was a good idea to bring the sisters together with the snowman from their childhood, but this character did not work visually. Besides Olaf the snowman, the characters in Frozen were animated beautifully and looked good with the realistic set however Olaf appeared as something out of a typical Saturday morning cartoon, not a major motion picture. The Duke of Weselton was only in the movie for a few brief parts, and he made the audience think that he was the bad guy. But in the end he the audience finds that he has no real importance to the plot. Frozen shows a definite change in Disney princess movies. We got a first glimpse of this transition in the animated Disney princess movie, Brave. Disney seems to be shifting the values of its princess movies from forbidden young love to family love. Frozen had two Academy Award nominations for best animated film and best original song, a Golden Globe for best animated feature film, and ten Annie Award nominations. Frozen is another Disney Princess instant classic, and is something both kids and adults can enjoy. However, it would be just as pleasing and cheaper to wait until it comes out on video to watch. Even for a little girl who loves princesses, the six year old that I took to this movie had forgotten about it a few days later.