Still remains incredibly entertaining despite the Disney clichés

Rating: 7/10 (31 May 2014)

Well, I finally watched that Frozen movie all the kids have been talking aboutand it was good but it isn't exactly the thing everyone has made it out to be. Elsa (Idina Menzeljeez, John Travolta can you pronounce anything right?), the princess of Arendelle, possesses ice and snow powers but one night hurts her sister, Anna (Kristen Bell), and this causes her parents to make Elsa repress her powers, to push them away and push people away, they are viewed as dangerous and uncontrollable. And then in a ridiculously fast montage of events, their parents die but we also experience what is one of the best pieces of music I've heard in a movie in quite some time, "Do You Wanna Build a Snowman?" But seriously, we go through like 10 years in less than ten minutes and Anna is 18 years old throughout the film and Elsa is 21 years old which is certainly older than most Disney protagonists I'm sure.
Truly, the musical pieces are what carry this film from its very cliché plot elements without them the movie would feel more cliché than it already is, it's very typical Disney which isn't entirely a problem by any means and was more or less expected I think. But I also think the musical pieces wear thin by the 45 minute mark, the best pieces have already passed ("Let It Go" and "Do You Wanna Build a Snowman?") and the other pieces don't really hold a candle to them which is quite unfortunate for the movie's lasting appeal as a full piece, the first half is better than the other half for sure as the latter half falls into typical plot conventions and the music justisn't that impressive.
The animation is absolutely gorgeous though and as time goes on I've begun to love CGI animated films more and more especially if they continue to look this good. The setting, based on locations in Norway, look absolutely incredible throughout the entire piece and just goes to show the era of technology we are truly living in right now in the realm of animated films. I could certainly look at more of this for quite some time and would love to, visually; I'm extremely excited to see what Disney has up next.
The movie as a whole though is actually more focused on Anna over Elsa, she is truly the main character as she learns what "love" is and trying to recover her relationship with Elsa after so many years have passed which I did not expect and I think it mostly works. The movie has a slew of side characters as well, Jonathan Groff as Kristoff, an iceman (he literally sells ice) who helps Anna out throughout the film and his side kick reindeer Sven who serves as decent comic relief throughout the film. Josh Gad as Olaf, a snowman who also serves as comic relief and has one of the better musical numbers about summer and lastly, Santino Fontana as Hans, a prince from the Southern Isles. These characters are interesting enough-although not very in depth-to keep the viewer entertained, I enjoyed them but they aren't incredibly memorable.
My only real "flaw" of the film beyond the problems of obvious Disney clichés was the transition of Elsa early on in the film. She goes from extremely repressed about her ice powers but then immediately belts out "Let It Go" and feels very free from them and doesn't care anymore which is justuhhI don't know, weird? I feel in the minority about this, I think a transitional phase should have been placed before she belted out "Let It Go," it would have made the transition feel more authentic as a whole. Regardless, Frozen is a welcome entry into Disney recent revival since The Princess and the Frog, I'm happy to see Disney really in a period similar to the 90s era, each year we are getting a fantastic film and it doesn't seem to be ending anytime soon and as a lifelong fan of Disney, I'm really happy about all of this really but I would like to see a straying away from some of the clichés.