I loved Frozen

Rating: 10/10 (3 April 2014)

Frozen is supposed to be Disney's version of Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen. I recently read The Snow Queen, and I can find little or no resemblance between the movie and the classic story. That being said, Frozen is a marvelous Disney movie! The opening sequence shows ice cutters, singing while at work. This reminded me of the roustabout scene that opened Dumbo. We see a boy with his pet reindeer, trying hard to work with the men and generally just getting in the way. Two sisters, princesses Elsa and Anna, are very close and love to play together. The eldest, Elsa, was born with the ability to create snow and ice, and Anna would often wake her sister up so that they can play snow games in the great ballroom of the palace. One night, however, Anna becomes so exuberant that Elsa's attempt to protect her (by making soft snow hills for Anna to fall into) goes wrong, and Anna is hit by a magic burst to the head. The king and queen rush Anna to the Troll King, who is able to reverse the damage and also removes Anna's memories of her sister's magic ability. From then on, Elsa is taught to control this ability by pushing down her emotions and by wearing gloves. She cloisters herself in her room and no longer plays with her little sister. Of course, Anna has no memory of the accident, so she doesn't understand why Elsa is so distant. The gates of the palace are closed, so Anna has little interaction with people. After the death of the king and queen, Elsa is to be crowned the new queen as she comes of age in the summer. Elsa and Anna are virtual strangers at this point. Anna falls in love with the first young man she meets, Hans, a prince from a different kingdom. When she announces this to her sister, Elsa is outraged and states that the wedding will not take place. Anna tries to argue and accidentally pulls off one of Elsa's gloves. Elsa's emotion releases her power and imprisons the kingdom in ice and deep snow. Elsa flees the kingdom and Anna takes off to find her, leaving Hans to take care of the kingdom while she is gone. Elsa secludes herself in an ice palace she creates in the mountains (think Fortress of Solitude, only much prettier.) Anna meets Kristoff and his reindeer, Sven, who help her on her search. Kristoff was the little boy we saw at the beginning of the movie. She also runs into the snowman, Olaf, that she and Elsa had built on the fateful day she had been injured and now is alive. Kristoff had been raised by trolls. He and Olaf provide support and comic relief. The music is wonderful, the plot is well-planned, the ending is satisfying and this movie actually kept my four-year-old niece interested for more than 15 minutes at a stretch. My only qualifier is that the Mickey Mouse cartoon that was included on the DVD is excessively violent and not funny. It is a modern cartoon that was drawn in the "old" Disney style, so the viewer thinks it is a classic as it starts. I felt cheated. Other than that, I highly recommend Frozen for all ages. Rated PG.