Frozen

Rating: 8/10 (3 April 2016)

The Disney juggernaut Frozen is a retelling of the Hans Christian Anderson classic The Snow Queen. It's garnered a tremendous amount of hype and do you know what? It's justified.
Princess Elsa's (Menzel) ability to create frost and snow is exposed at her coronation, and she flees Arendelle under a cloud. Her sister, Anna (Bell), pursues her to bring her home and absolve the claims of sorcery levelled against her.
Frozen is very much a story about these two sisters, with the male characters in supporting roles. Depending on which newspaper you read, it's the most pro-Christian Disney movie in history, or an insidious attempt to promote an LGBT agenda. In reality, it's neither of these, it's simply a story with very strong female leads and a wealth of themes to unpack and draw your own conclusions from.
Both the Anna and Elsa garner sympathy from the audience. This is, after all, a plight inflicted on Elsa without her having choice in the matter. And poor Anna, in the opening song, being rejected by her sister through a closed door is very upsetting, which makes her unwavering support for Elsa throughout the movie all the more moving.
Among the comedy characters, Olaf (Gad) stands head and carrot above the rest as the world's happiest snowman. He's charmingly designed and has some hilarious lines, though Kirstoff (Groff) and his reindeer Sven are not without a giggle here and there.
All of the action is accompanied by an excellent score. Even aside from its famous, and insanely catching, big hit Let It Go, the incidental score by Jeff Draheim is haunting in a way Disney hasn't really done before. Something about it is a little less jovial than previous movies, and it works well for the unforgiving icy setting.
The story is straightforward and subplots are lacking, which gives Frozen a little less depth. This might be, partly, due to the lack of focal villain for much of the movie. The trolls are also underused; Kristoff's adoptive mother (Wilson) seemed to want to be akin to Timon's mother (The Lion King 3) but didn't ever get the opportunity to be that.
Frozen is a straightforward story that packs a punch: a powerful message wrapped up in a thrilling, enchanting romp.