Frozen (I) (2013)

Currently, "Frozen" has a very high IMDb score of 8.1. I was actually surprised by this, as I did enjoy the film but though it had some plot problems that prevented it from being among Disney's best in recent years. Apparently, other folks don't agree with me.

The film is supposedly based on Han Christian Andersen's story "The Snow Queen", however little of the finished film seems to be related to this story...very little. This isn't really a criticism--I am just trying to clarify the film a bit.

The story is about two sisters--one who eventually becomes queen and one who is her younger sister, a princess. However, the Queen, Elsa (Idina Menzel), has a huge problem that is never really explained in the film--she has magical powers to make things frozen as well as to create snow. While this seems great, it's also a dangerous power and one she cannot fully control--and she COULD accidentally kill someone. Once she becomes queen, the power is exposed--and she disappears into the mountains to live life apart from others.

The younger sister, Anna (Kristen Bell), decides to do what any responsible lady would do in this situation--abandon her kingdom and give control of it to an almost complete stranger! Why she didn't just send some of her people out to find Elsa is beyond me. Regardless, along the way she meets a guy who is to become an obvious love interest and together they seek out Elsa and try to bring her back to the kingdom. After all, since Elsa's departure, the place has been bathed in perpetual winter!

The film is glorious to watch--particularly on the big screen. The CGI is absolutely lovely as are the character designs. However, it's a film that looks great but whose story is less than stellar. Part of it is because the characters sometimes do inexplicable things (mentioned above), part of it is because parts of the plot are missing (such as explaining how everyone LOVED the interim leader yet hated him later--after he'd actually done a good job in regard to the people as well as why everyone suddenly hated the guy from Weaseltown) and part of it is because there were too many distractions when the main thrust SHOULD have been the relationship between the sisters (the reindeer and guys got in the way). Still, it is worth seeing--especially if you don't spend too much time thinking through the plot. Plus, many might enjoy the more Broadway style of the music, as Idina Menzel really pours it on when she sings (as do the rest, though she clearly overshadows them with her magnificent singing).