A Nice New Addition for Disney

Rating: 8/10 (2 December 2013)

Disney is always known for and loved as a studio with its animated musicals for the whole audience, something for both the kids and adults. Last year, Disney expanded by not doing a musical with Wreck-It Ralph. Now, Disney is back with Frozen, a musical that fits in with Disney classics.
The film starts off with Anna and Elsa, two princesses who live in their parents' kingdom. Elsa has the ability to make Winter weather at any time, to which she and her sister have fun with it until her power accidentally hits Anna in the head and knocks her out. As Elsa's power grows stronger, she locks herself away from everyone, including her sister. When the time for her to be named queen, Elsa is afraid of what everyone will see, but keeps herself calm until Anna announces her engagement to Prince Hans, who she has just met. This causes an outrage in Elsa, who walks away in rage, but not without Anna giving her the third degree as to why. Elsa leaves for the North Mountain, and unintentionally causes an eternal winter in her home of Arendelle. When she makes it, she realizes that it's okay to not be afraid of her powers, and builds herself an ice palace (played over with the brilliant number "Let It Go"). Anna now makes it her mission to find her sister and bring back Summer. On the way, she enlists the help of an ice trader named Kristoff, his reindeer Sven, and an eccentric snowman named Olaf.
The cast all does a good job and worked their voices into their characters. Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel do some very nice work as the two princesses, Anna and Elsa. They both do nice of making their characters as great counterparts to one another and pull off their roles as sisters. Jonathan Groff is entertaining as Kristoff, the ice salesman who joins in Anna's quest to bring summer back. Alan Tudyk, who did some excellent work in last year's Disney film, Wreck-It Ralph, is hilarious in his minimal role here as the Duke of Weselton. The real stand out in this film is Josh Gad of Book of Mormon fame as Olaf the snowman. Gad does some brilliant work of making Olaf the comic relief who is always keeping positive and never in the way.
The story is loosely based off of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen" and the directors do a nice job of making their own thing, like many Disney movies before it. The animation is nicely done and has some great visuals and shot sequences. In addition to that is a brilliant score by Christophe Beck and some great songs that made for memorable musical numbers, some funny and some serious. "Let It Go" is the best of all the musical numbers.