Frozen
Composite Score: 85.05
Starring: Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, Josh Gad, Santino Fontana, Alan Tudyk, and Ciarán Hinds
Directors: Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee
Writer: Jennifer Lee
Genres: Animation, Adventure, Comedy, Family, Fantasy, Musical
MPAA Rating: PG for some action and mild rude humor
Box Office: $1.28 billion worldwide
Why should you Watch This Film?
Frozen is the Disney animated film inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Snow Queen” about a princess with magical snow powers, named Elsa, and her sister Anna. The film follows Elsa and Anna’s story after their parents tragically die in a shipwreck, leaving Elsa to become queen of Arendelle when she comes of age. Having lived in fear of the destruction her snow powers could cause, the kingdom and palace have been shut off from outside visitors until Elsa’s coronation, which leads to her powers being revealed in dramatic fashion, Anna finding her “true” love in the visiting Prince Hans of the Southern Isles, and an accidental triggering of an eternal winter by Elsa. The rest of the film follows Anna as she seeks to bring her sister back to the kingdom and end the eternal winter that she has brought with the help of ice harvester Kristoff, his pet reindeer Sven, and a magically living snowman named Olaf. The film features the voice talents of Kristen Bell as Anna, Idina Menzel as Elsa, Jonathan Groff as Kristoff, Josh Gad as Olaf, and Santino Fontana as Hans. Along with being the highest grossing film of 2013, the film also won Oscars for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song for the near-ubiquitous “Let It Go”, beating out Hayao Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises and Pharell Williams’s “Happy”, in those respective categories. With its iconic songs, comparatively fresh story (it was 2013), and memorable cast of characters, Frozen etched its name in film and pop culture history.
Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?
I’ll be the first to admit that I am not the world’s biggest fan of Frozen. That would be reserved for my wife, who has helped me to see some of the higher points of the film, which I’ll talk about here in a second. For now, though, I’ll voice my critiques, most of which come in the form of comparison, so maybe I’m off here. In terms of Disney Princess films, Frozen was not the first to feature the princess saving the day – Mulan, Beauty and the Beast, and Tangled at least had all done that part before – so the celebration of groundbreaking story choices falls a bit short. Again, following in the footsteps of The Lion King or Lilo and Stitch or Treasure Planet, it’s not the first Disney film (or even the first headlined by female characters) to feature a nonromantic relationship as its central focal point, so there the celebration also falls a little flat for me. But in actuality, doing those things was still worth celebrating because of this film’s massive commercial success as the first animated film to gross more than $1.2 billion worldwide, making way for more of those less traditional stories from mainline animation studios.
My biggest actual gripe with Frozen comes in the form of its songs, which I think I just didn’t like because of how overplayed they were when I worked as a camp counselor in college. They’re well-made children’s musical songs, if slightly underwhelming at times because they seem to come from three very different themes and genres. Songs like “Fixer Upper”, “For the First Time in Forever”, “Do You Want to Build a Snowman”, and “Love Is an Open Door” all feel like pretty standard Disney Princess fare, some perhaps a bit catchier than others, but not crazy innovative beyond just being slightly self-aware at points. “In Summer” then comes at you with a Josh Gad performance that feels like it was taken from some weird community theatre junior version of Book of Mormon, then they don’t give Jonathan Groff any actual songs to sing, and you’re left with one of the best villain ballads ever put to screen in “Let It Go” except for the fact that Elsa isn’t the film’s villain. To close this rant, I’ll just say that I’m not convinced that this soundtrack stands up to the likes of Disney’s other bangers from the Renaissance of the 1990s, and the hype that it got frustrated me because of this, but I have since come to appreciate the songs more in their own right because they are the best Disney had put out since the 90s, though Tangled can hold its own on the strength of “I See the Light” alone and LMM’s Encanto soundtrack probably outshines Frozen now in a track-for-track comparison.
So wait, why should you Watch This Film?
As I mentioned before, Frozen is a cultural phenomenon that made the way for more innovative storytelling in the medium of mainstream animation. Do we still get the generic cash grabs like Minions, The Lego Movie 2, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie (excluding Jack Black’s performance of course)? Sure, but storytelling in animation has come a long way since Frozen showed that stories besides romances about damsels in distress can have both commercial and critical success in the world of animation. Frozen’s reminder that true love can come in the form of more than just a kiss from a romantic interest has vastly improved the offerings for family movies that have come since. While it seems a simple concept, Frozen made it marketable, and in sidelining its romantic arcs to a villain twist and a side plot that doesn’t really get fleshed out until the sequel, it paved the way for the success of films like Into the Spider-Verse, Encanto, Nimona, and Raya and the Last Dragon. For that, it deserves to be celebrated.
Helping sell the shift that it brough to the world of animation is Frozen’s iconic cast of characters and the actors who voice them. Josh Gad’s voice (now also a staple of some Disney documentaries) has become synonymous with the goofy little snowman Olaf, and that’s because Gad voices him with just the right amount of cringeworthy sincerity and cluelessness that makes him such an iconic comic relief sidekick. Jonathan Groff is a great choice for Kristoff, though we didn’t really get to see the fullness of this casting until his song in Frozen II, but he still sounds like the earthy but dreamy romantic interest that we need him to be, and you can tell that he’s enjoying his performance, particularly when he does the “voice” of Sven. Kristen Bell’s Anna is the quintessential Disney princess – in love with the idea of love and singing and getting involved – and the actress’s awareness of this fact gives the character just enough self-awareness to keep the adults in on the joke without ever losing the sincerity she needs to sell the story. Finally, Idina Menzel as Elsa fully makes sense once she casts aside her royal trappings and sings her iconic tune (which still slaps, much as I hesitate to admit it), playing the unrestrained magical queen and no longer the restrained, frightened princess.
The iconic songs and memorable characters of Frozen helped make it into a massive critical and commercial success, marking it as a key turning point in the world of animated family films and as one of those films deserving of a place among the greatest films of all time. Its story and songs might not be as original or as groundbreaking as initially heralded, but their confluence all in the same film have left a lasting impact on the world of film and of popular culture. This film can be streamed on Disney+ in the unlikely event that you haven’t yet seen it or if you’d like to watch it again.
