So Close to Being Flawless,

Rating: 9/10 (23 December 2013)

As a Disney fan both as a child and 21 year old college film student, I was hesitate to see this film. It seemed to be marketing itself towards a female audience and as a single male with no children, I really didn't see a point in going to see it.
Than the critical praise came out, people saying it was Disney's best film since "Beauty and Beast." Well since Beauty and The Beast is in my opinion a flawless film, I had to see this for myself to satisfy my curiosity on whether or not it would live up to such standards.
While the film does indeed cater to "sisters, couples, and girls" it doesn't alienate it's male audience either and for that I applaud it. While I wouldn't say it's a flawless film, it is indeed up there as one of Disney's most well crafted films since the Disney Renaissance era.
I suppose I should start with all the positive and than explain the small section of negative. So here goes.....
Well first off I really enjoyed one of the main messages of the film, which I took as being "true love isn't instant." In the film; two characters meet, they sing a song in classic Disney fashion (Which borders almost on parody of itself) and decide to get married. But then the film raises the question of whether or not they're just rushing it and whether or not that is a good thing to do. It's nice to see one of the characters actually display some form of common-sense in this situation and I enjoyed the stab at Disney's own clichés and also raising a good message to kids that really isn't addressed as much as it probably should be. For that alone, I give this film huge props.
In fact a lot of things this film does brings a great sense of originality to the Disney formula. For example, we actually have a great play on the "Talking animal" cliché, with a character doing the talking for the animal instead. They could have just made the animal talk, but instead they got a little creative and that makes the cliché less lazy and more original and unique.
I also enjoyed that the comical relief character isn't just a character we meet on the journey who joins the group just to be a comical relief character, he actually has a bit of a history with the two lead characters. It would have been easy to just bring him in and have him be there for the sake of just providing laughs. But by grounding his existence with the lead characters it gives his own purpose a little more weight and legitimacy. Once again, they could have taken the lazy approach to him, but didn't and I applaud this film for doing that.
Also, so glad that the romantic subplot is put aside and instead the film chose to focus more on the relationship with the sisters. That's where the heart of this movie is (possible pun intended) and it was a smart move to play the best cards they had. The relationship with the sisters is pretty flawless, both are unique and have different character flaws that ground them and make them feel more real. Yet both love each other and showcase that love by fighting through their flaws together. The romantic stuff is still there, but it's mostly put on the sideline without feeling too forced or unneeded.
The voice acting is also really fantastic. I never once recognized an actors voice, which was really great because that really brought the characters more to life and made them feel more legit. I never once thought "Oh wow, Kristen Bell is a great singer", instead I found myself thinking "Wow, Anna is a great singer."
Animation.....top-notch....nuff said.
Now I did say this film wasn't flawless, but don't think this means it's a bad film. My only two flaws are very minor and don't ruin the film on a whole.
The first problem I had was that one of the songs felt completely unneeded and kinda ruined the pace of the film at the beginning. It almost felt squished in there and I felt that a non-lyrical musical montage like that famous scene in Pixar's UP (Another flawless film) would have made that scene more effective. It wasn't a bad song; in fact it was one of the better ones, but it would have been better left on the cutting room floor.
The second flaw is that the villain in the film was introduced so late in the movie that I didn't have time to grow to hate him. If this film followed Alfred Hitchcock's rule of suspense (Showing the audience a bomb that the characters are unaware of, is more suspenseful than just having the bomb go off surprisingly) than that would have made the villain more vile and disgusting. I saw this film with my mother (who saw it once before) and she said that she did hate the villain more the second time viewing the film because she knew who the villain was. Which only proves my point. I usually hate obvious villains, but in this case it would have been better that way.
Other than those two minor flaws, the film is fantastic. It's got a great message, some catchy songs, good developed characters, solid voice acting, and is really smart at avoiding or being aware of the classical Disney formula that it's trying to live up to.
This feels like a huge step in the right direction for Disney and I can only hope that more films like this are to come.
9 out 10 (Perfect for audiences young or old)