Movie Review - Frozen

Frozen $$$

 

PG

108 Minutes

Starring: Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, and Josh Gad.  

Director: Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee.

 

            Frozen wasn’t exactly what I was expecting from the previews. It turned out to have a fair number of musical numbers, none of which were in the trailers. What appeared to be an evil sister menacing a kingdom wasn’t that at all. On the plus side, the film had plenty of funny parts that didn’t show up in the advertisements.

            Anna (Kristen Bell) and Elsa (Idina Menzel) are sisters and heirs to the throne of Arendelle. Elsa has the magical power to freeze things. As children, Elsa nearly kills Anna while they frolic in the frozen fun of her creation. Of course, that leads to an over reaction by the parents in cloistering the palace from the rest of the kingdom and forbidding Elsa from ever using her powers again.

            Then the parents die and Elsa is made queen. She accidentally unleashes her power and freezes the entire kingdom then runs away. Anna sets out to save her sister and the kingdom, enlisting an ice merchant named Kristoff (Jonathan Groff) and his reindeer Sven.  

            Frozen offers up plenty of fun for the family, but falls short of becoming a Disney classic. It earned 3 Movie Bucks. And this is how I rated it in each of the four areas of film quality.  

            1. Fun – Plenty of fun. The characters that go looking for Elsa are all funny and provide a steady stream of humorous bits. At its heart, this is a tale of two sisters who love one another and that certainly adds to the appeal of this movie.  I gave this part of the film a full MB.  

            2. Story – Unfortunately, a princess that is kept cloistered from the kingdom at large has been done—a lot. Adding a second princess doesn’t really make that part of the story any fresher. I felt that the real story here is Elsa. She has a more compelling story and is the one who undergoes a change. As much as I enjoyed the character of Anna, my mind kept drifting to what must be going through Elsa’s mind during all of this. Still, this was a funny script that flowed well and gave out plenty of laughs. I gave this aspect of the film a half of a MB.  

            3. Technical – Good animation. They did an excellent job with the ice theme, presenting plenty of eye-popping art based on the cold. Where I felt the film really fell down was with the musical numbers. None of them were catchy. Some I felt were fairly tedious. And the opening score sounded like it belonged in the Lion King rather than in a Scandinavian setting. The overall technical efforts earned a half a MB.  

            4. Acting – Very adequate. No painfully delivered lines. The funniest performance came from Josh Gad as Olaf the snowman. Kristen Bell was very likeable in her role as Anna. I gave this aspect of the film a full MB.  

            If you want a nice family movie for the holiday, then you are pretty safe with going to see Frozen. See it as a matinee and take all the kids.  

 

                        Randy’s Rating System 

$$$$   = Full Price    See this movie right away and pay full price, it’s worth it.

$$$     = Matinee      Catch this as a matinee or other discounted showing.

$$        = Discount     Wait until this movie reaches a discount theater near you.

$          = Rental         Wait until this movie reaches your local video rental outlet.

0          = No Sale       Don’t see this movie at any price.