Baby, It's Cold Outside!

Rating: 9/10 (26 April 2014)

This Disney effort is a delight from beginning to end. It is the story of a young princess who has a curse: anything she touches turns to ice. She can cause glaciers and formations to form just by the wave of a hand. When her parents die, she decides to completely isolate herself from her sister. They grow older on either side of a castle wall. When the castle is opened for the coronation, the younger sister, Anna becomes infatuated with a young prince and actually becomes engaged the same day. When Anna tells Elsa, she is furious and in the process she lets loose all her wintry power, running into the hills. The entire country is now frozen over and Anna's fiancé is left in charge as she runs after her sister. So much has been written, so I won't retrace the ground already trod. If I could offer a layman's advice, it would be to focus more on the character of Elsa. She is the tormented soul who hides away, trying to deal with guilt and despair. She is certainly not unlike Simba in "The Lion King" trying to find some peace, trying to recover from intense guilt. The cast of peripheral characters are incredible. I found the snowman really wonderful as are the rock creatures who role in and take on the form of trolls. The music is wonderful (even though I can't escape some of the songs these days) and the dialogue and timing wonderful.