An Icy Tale of Two Sisters

Rating: 8/10 (9 December 2013)

The latest Disney opus "Frozen" is based on the Hans Christian Andersen's complex tale entitled "The Snow Queen."
In this story, two close friends named Kai and Gerda were separated when splinters of an enchanted mirror enters Kai's eyes and heart and makes him hate everything he loved. The Snow Queen kisses the boy, making him forget Gerda and his family, and takes him to her frozen palace. Gerda risks all odds to locate Kai and when she finds him, her warm tears of love melts the shards of mirror from Kai's heart and eyes, and releases him from the Snow Queen's spell.
"Frozen" is nothing like this story at all. Instead we only get the ice palace, someone's heart getting frozen and needing true love to be saved. The story spun around this basic story was a wholly original tale about two royal sisters. One, Elsa, had a wonderful but dangerous power to create ice and wintry weather. The other one, Anna, being normal, had been kept in the dark about her sister's power following a near-tragic accident, so the two had been estranged since childhood.
When Elsa's powers were unceremoniously revealed at her own coronation as Queen, she flees and builds her own icy Winter Palace up a high mountain. Anna goes out to search for her sister, meeting a kind icemaker Kristoff, his hardy reindeer Sven, magical Trolls and a talking snowman named Olaf who join her on her quest. Can Anna mend her relationship with her sister, discover love in time, and save their kingdom from the eternal winter that envelops it?
The visuals of the wintry wonderland where this animated film is set were fantastically rendered. That part where Elsa was building her palace of ice was a most wondrous scene that will inspire awe. Cute as his character may have been written, I did not like the way they drew the face of Olaf the snowman. Truth to tell, when I first saw Olaf in the trailer, I almost did not want to watch the whole film.
The song that accompanied Elsa's emancipation entitled "Let It Go" was breathtaking as sung by the incomparable voice of Idina Menzel. This was easily the best and most memorable song of the film. Many of the songs, especially by Anna, were Broadway-esque, sweeping and melodic. The Trolls and Olaf have featured quirky songs of their own. Though cute, these songs both sounded out of place from the rest of the songs.
The story line of sisterly love and devotion is also a novel approach that makes this production stand out. Elsa had a unique and interesting predicament because of the powers she possessed. It would have been better I think if the film centered more on her than on Anna. The fact that this film had two female heroines will make this appeal more to the young female demographic.