Don't Believe (All) the Hype

Rating: 7/10 (31 January 2014)

Perhaps the biggest flaw of Disney's new musical, Frozen, is the music. More specifically, it's the songs. None of them are memorable, at least not in the same manner as those from films like Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King. The characters sing to cheesy percussion in songs that sound prepared more for the Disney Channel than a Disney movie. In one instance, a main character looks directly into the audience as she belts out her big tune. That was the moment that I realized the musical numbers were individual music videos tacked onto an otherwise fine film.
And, really, there isn't a whole lot to complain about with Frozen. The animation is absolutely gorgeous. rivaling last year's Pixar offering, Brave, for the award for Best Animated Landscapes. It also goes a long way to distance itself from other animated films featuring a bored or discontent heroine who wants to be independent. In fact, the lessons of Frozen all involve selflessness and sacrifice, a welcome change after the narcissistic Brave.
The story is a Disney retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen," in which we find protective older sister Princess Elsa (Idina Menzel), who was born with the special power to conjure ice, distancing herself from younger sister Princess Anna (Kristen Bell) after a childhood accident forced their parents to hide Elsa's secret.
Elsa's secret eventually comes to life when she is crowned queen, and in an attempt to isolate herself, she inadvertently covers the kingdom in perpetual winter. At that point, it is up to Anna, her fiancé Prince Hans, and hunky mountain man Kristoff to save the day.
Frozen is brimming with excellent supporting characters, from a goofy Scandinavian sauna proprietor to the lovable living snowman Olaf (expertly voiced by Josh Gad). Olaf is easily the most enjoyable animated character since Dory in Finding Nemo, and like that character, the filmmakers use his comic relief only enough to balance out some of the drama. That is to say, Olaf never becomes Jar Jar Binks. They could have devoted the whole film to him and I would be a repeat viewer.
Still, Disney's latest offering is far from perfect. Things wrap up far too easily after too much exposition at the beginning. Characters are introduced and barely heard from again (a magic group of trolls comes to mind). I have the feeling that without the radio-ready pop songs, more time could have been spent on fleshing out the margins of the story and providing an even more unique vision within the Disney universe. Menzel and Bell are perfectly pleasant in their voice work, but their huge duets spiral down into "Dueling Vibratos."
It's good that Disney is tearing down its own "princess" stereotypes of late, and Frozen strikes the right balance of not making its heroines dependent upon anyone but each other. If only it could have found a way to reconcile its great characters with its mostly awful tunes, we may have held Frozen as one for the ages.