A revision of the Disney Princess mold, from the absence of a villain (mostly) to the messages of empowerment and acceptance

Rating: 9/10 (26 April 2014)

Word is that in its original conception "Frozen" was to feature a traditional Disney villain, namely the magically-empowered older of the two starring sisters. Wiser counsel prevailed, and in the movie that came into existence the sisters are given the freedom to be real. While they fill the narrative spaces that are usually occupied by hero and villain, they are not constrained by the usual limitations of those categories. The principle character, Anna (Kristen Bell), is naive and sympathetic, while the exiled Elsa (Idina Menzel) is uncommunicative and sympathetic. Disney movies have pitted two women against each other before, as in the case of Aurora and Maleficent or Ariel and Ursula, but in those cases the lines between them were black and white and the characterizations were rooted in traditional dichotomies of appearance and mannerism. In "Frozen" the sisters are instead cut from the same mold, and as the movie progresses they become more alike rather than less so. For most of the movie there really is no "bad guy" (when one is suddenly revealed towards the end it feels too convenient, more in service of plot than character), and this creative decision puts the focus on internal conflicts that are more nuanced than the external ones that usually drive Disney stories.
The girls are, rather than enemies, profoundly different in their essential natures without either being held up as an ideal or a monster. They differ in a way that is gloriously open to all sorts of interpretation; I, as an introvert and an older sibling, take the story to be an illustration of introversion versus extroversion, but it may just as well be about sexual orientation or other ways in which people are what they are regardless of social pressure to the contrary. Those layers of meaning, like the revisionism of the romantic storyline (the main love interest is a typical Han Solo type, but his role in Anna's life is that of sidekick rather than savior), is something that children who grow up with the movie may consciously appreciate only when they revisit it as teenagers and young adults. They will surely find that it holds up well over the years, and they should count themselves lucky that such an intelligent and affirming film is the iconic Disney product of their generation. It is probably better and better for you—and I say this as a fan of the entire Disney canon— than "The Little Mermaid"s of my generation or the "Sleeping Beauty"s of generations past.
Contemporary, plasticky 3D animation of which I am usually not a fan is put to use in "Frozen" a way that makes it almost artistically necessity instead of merely economically efficient (though the girls' eyes surely did not need to be so anime-like in scale). An early scene in which the 3D Anna poses in front of 2D oil paintings would be hard to replicate in traditional, hand-drawn animation. As for the songs, Disney films have never lacked for good ones, and at least two from "Frozen" ("Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" and "Let it Go") have already rightly become classics. The songs do a lot of the narrative work, particularly in the early set-dressing stages, and as good as they are it would have been nice if the script had devoted one or two additional spoken scenes to Elsa in her ice palace. To ask for a movie to be longer than it is is of course not a criticism but a compliment.