Frozen

It took me a while but I finally checked Frozen. I didn’t went to see it in the theatre but I finally bought it on BluRay. 

When I first heard of the movie I wasn’t that interested since it was a Disney movie with princesses and singing but so there was so much talk about this movie that I decided to watch it. 

To be fair a movie that manages to win an Oscar for Best Animad Feature against Despicable Me 2 and The Wind Rises from Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki and another for Best Original Song (Let It Go) against the super hit Happy from Pharrel Williams and Ordinary Love from U2 can’t be dismissed as just another princesses movie. 

Here’s the plot from Wikipedia:

Elsa, princess of Arendelle, possesses the magical ability to create ice and snow. One night while playing, she accidentally injures her younger sister, Anna. The king and queen seek help from trolls, who heal Anna and remove her memories of Elsa’s magic. The royal couple isolates the children in their castle until Elsa learns to control her powers. Afraid of hurting Anna again, Elsa spends most of her time alone in her room, causing a rift between the girls as they grow up. When the girls are teenagers, their parents die at sea during a storm.

When Elsa comes of age, the kingdom prepares for her coronation. Among the guests is the Duke of Weselton, who seeks to exploit Arendelle for profit. Excited to be allowed out of the castle again, Anna explores the town and meets Prince Hans of the Southern Isles, and the two immediately develop a mutual attraction. Despite Elsa’s fear, her coronation goes off without incident. During the reception, Hans proposes and Anna hastily accepts. However, Elsa refuses to grant her blessing and forbids their sudden marriage. The sisters argue, culminating in the exposure of Elsa’s abilities during an emotional outburst.

Panicking, Elsa flees the castle, while inadvertently unleashing an eternal winter on the kingdom. High in the nearby mountains, she casts off restraint, building herself a solitary ice palace, and unknowingly brings to life her and Anna’s childhood snowman, Olaf. Meanwhile, Anna sets out in search of her sister, determined to return her to Arendelle, end the winter, and mend their relationship. While obtaining supplies, she meets mountain man Kristoff and his reindeer Sven. She convinces Kristoff to guide her up the North Mountain. The group then encounters Olaf, who leads them to Elsa’s hideaway.

Anna and Elsa reunite, but Elsa still fears hurting her sister. When Anna persists in persuading her sister to return, Elsa becomes agitated and accidentally strikes Anna in the heart with her powers. Horrified, Elsa creates a giant snow creature to drive Anna, Kristoff, and Olaf away. As they flee, Kristoff notices Anna’s hair is turning white, and deduces something is very wrong. He seeks help from the trolls, his adoptive family, who explain that Anna’s heart has been frozen. Unless it is thawed by an “act of true love”, she will become frozen solid forever. Believing that only Hans can save her, Kristoff races back with her to Arendelle.

Meanwhile, Hans, leading a search for Anna, reaches Elsa’s palace. In the ensuing battle against the Duke’s men, Elsa is knocked unconscious and imprisoned back at the kingdom. There, Hans pleads with her to undo the winter, but Elsa confesses she doesn’t know how. When Anna reunites with Hans and begs him to kiss her to break the curse, Hans refuses and reveals that his true intention in marrying her was to seize control of Arendelle’s throne. Leaving Anna to die, he charges Elsa with treason for her younger sister’s apparent death.

Elsa escapes and heads out into the blizzard on the fjord. Olaf finds Anna and reveals Kristoff is in love with her; they then escape onto the fjord to find him. Hans confronts Elsa and tells her Anna is dead because of her. In Elsa’s despair, the storm suddenly ceases, giving Kristoff and Anna the chance to reach each other. However Anna, seeing that Hans is about to kill Elsa, decides to throw herself between the two and subsequently freezes solid, blocking the blow.

As Elsa grieves for her sister, Anna begins to thaw, since her decision to sacrifice herself to save her sister constitutes an “act of true love.” Realizing love is the key to controlling her powers, Elsa is able to thaw the kingdom and even helps Olaf survive in summer. Hans is sent back to the Southern Isles to face punishment for his crimes against the royal family of Arendelle, and Elsa cuts off trade with Weselton. Anna and Kristoff share a kiss, and the two sisters reconcile; Elsa promises never to shut the castle gates again.

The story is simple but interesting and the CGI are some of the best I’ve seen but the songs could have been better and in less number. That’s not to say I didn’t like some of them like Let It Go that is beautifully singed. On the other hand the one with Olaf and the one with the Trolls were really anoying. 

In the characters department Olaf is the most anoying one but I really liked Sven. Both Anna and Elsa are interesting. I liked when Elsa used her powers to defend from the 2 Weselton guards at the tower. 

It’s interesting to see that this animated movie made me laugh more than some comedies I’ve seen over the last year and it’s refreshing to see a simple story with no deaths and big explosions and filled with plot holes.

Frozen reminded me of the Disney movies I used to watch as a kid like The Lion King that was another movie with songs that I rewatched again last year and is still one of my favorite movies.