Best animated film of the 2010s - a cult classic, with an enduring place in geekdom

Rating: Null/10 (13 May 2017)

Ah, Frozen. It's created Frozen Fever for the below-10 crowd. Around 2015-16, it was all Frozen Frozen Frozen in the girls' toy aisles. Frozen's merchandise and third-party products have given it a life of its own, beyond the mere movie that inspired them. When I first saw the movie, I gave it a 7. But a couple of years afterwards, with plenty of Frozen merchandise under my belt, I feel like I should give it a 10 - cult status, a franchise, a pop culture phenomenon, like LOTR, Twilight, and Star Wars. I'll settle for a compromise, and I'll give it a 9 for this review.
Frozen's most endearing and enduring aspect is the beauty of the characters. The scenery, majestic castles, and ice castle are beautiful, too. Elsa is one of the most stunning characters in the history of animation. She's like one of those gilded country singers. I still don't know what she did all day cooped up in her ice castle, but a girl can dream. Anna is very pretty, too. She has a gorgeous, multi-colored costume that looks faux-Swiss or Nordic or whatever.
Anna's princely love interest, Hans, is nice-looking, in an average way. Kristoff, oddly enough, is way handsomer, so I don't know why she didn't fall in love with him immediately. Do these animated characters have eyes or not? Humans are, unfortunately, visual creatures, so beautiful visuals in a film really speak to us, and lead to much more. Frozen inspired a clusterf--k of affilated merchandise, coloring books, memes, Pinterest pins, dreamy "princess" art, DeviantArt musings, etc. It's the cult of the princess in American pop culture. Little girls like it, and they don't know why they like it - it's just marketed to girls, and it fits the popular conception of what girls should like.
Frozen is good because it inspires you to dream, and it's escapism, and it fits into the Pinterest-y dreams that young American women are suckered into.
Frozen's songs are maybe second-rate, but they're still good. Mainly I know that Idina Menzel sang Elsa's songs in Frozen. Menzel is a semi-celebrity for the geek and Broadway crowd. She's the most famous Wicked actress, and for that, she's beloved.
Of course, the surprise element of the sisterly love between Elsa and Anna is one of the hallmarks of the film. It's creative and innovative. You'd think it's another prince-saves-the-princess film, but that's been done too many times in the history of Disney. In 2013, Disney needed to think harder.
Frozen is a gorgeous, perfect fantasy for girls and women. It will forever have its place in pop culture geekdom, like Harry Potter, Star Trek, Narnia, etc. It gives Beauty and the Beast a run for the money. Frozen and Beauty & the Beast fans have a lot of crossover. Both are girly, pretty fantasies with gorgeous mansions, landscapes, and lead characters. Beauty & the Beast has the deeper, more profound story, but still. In this age of Pinterest, Instagram, and third-party merchandise, it's not the story that's the king - it's the mere visual, or meme.