Spectacular Disney creation, but not without its flaws

Rating: 8/10 (1 December 2013)

There are no spoilers in this review so I highly encourage you to read this review in its entirety before you decide to spend your money taking the family to see this movie.
I will begin by giving you some background. I am not a fan of musicals of any genre. I have never made it through The Wizard of Oz from beginning to end and I literally fell asleep during a live performance of Phantom of the Opera.
Taking that into account, Frozen still managed to entertain myself and my two boys, aged 9 and 6, for a majority of the movie. Later, I will explain exactly what I mean by that.
This movie is a visual spectacle and cinematically speaking, it is an incredible site to behold viewed in 3D as we saw it. Animators have come a long way since the early days of Mickey Mouse and the 3D in this movie was flawlessly executed. The 3D effects were also subtle and not in your face like many other 3D movies which exploit it gratuitously like Spy Kids 4D (perhaps the worst movie I have ever reviewed).
I was quite impressed with the storyline as well. It was a unique story and not your typical good vs evil flick that has been done a million times over. The true villain was not revealed until the latter half of the movie. The music was also extremely well done and did not overly detract from the movie itself. I repeat, I am not a fan of this type of movie and my 9 year old also expressed that he thought there was a bit too much singing. But overall it was still a spectacle to behold.
Now on the negative side, the movie is listed as being 1 hour and 25 minutes long. After commercials, previews and a short Disney 'cartoon' before the movie begins, it was almost 2 hours long. The producers must realize that the target audience of such a movie is families with children of varying ages and attention spans. My boys were starting to get a bit antsy by the end and my 6 year old needed to use the bathroom half way thru. Frozen seemed to drag a bit in spots and the producers, in conjunction with the editors, could have easily deleted a few scenes or pared down a few and it would not have detracted at all from the story. An animated film produced for families does not require this level of complexity and character development to entertain. It's not Shindler's List or the Ten Commandments! There are also a few loud and frightening scenes that may not be appropriate for small children. I heard one youngster crying in the theatre.
Frozen will inevitably go down in history as a classic and result in hundreds of millions of dollars in box office and related revenue for the Disney money-making machine. I also have no doubt that it will garner several Oscar nominations in the animation and musical score categories. It is a great family movie and will entertain for generations to come. However, I would not recommend this movie if you have children under the age of 5, for the reasons mentioned above, or if you have children with limited attention spans or are easily frightened. If you do take your family to see this movie, be prepared for a long journey and get the kids to use the bathroom BEFORE you take your seats.