Frozen

I must admit I was not fully prepared for Frozen before I saw it. First of all, it is not a Pixar movie. That would explain why it is so much fun. Secondly, it is a musical. Walt Disney Animation has been doing musicals for a very long time, so this makes sense, but we have all grown so accustomed to Pixar that we have forgotten about the catchy singing princesses who tragically lose their parent(s) before discovering something important about themselves. Well that’s the plot of Frozen actually. Anna (Kristen Bell) teams up with a misfit crew to track down her sister who has trapped the kingdom in eternal winter.

The film isn’t a predictable princess story though. The sister, Elsa (Idina Menzel) is kind of the bad guy, but she isn’t bad. Instead there are sister princesses who are both likable. Josh Gad plays Olaf, a talking snowman and is quite funny. The character will likely become a fan favorite. In terms of the plot, the lines between good and evil are blurred to the point where it’s not entirely clear who the bad guy is through the majority of the movie. This is a fresh approach since the wicked Queen and other heartless villain stereotypes have been exhausted by the studio in the past.

So take the inevitable popularity of a Disney animated movie, combine it with the fact that the movie is actually a fresh story and successful effort and you have a huge box office success. Also, it probably doesn’t hurt that the movie is about the winter and released in a holiday season completely void of new Christmas films. But after another Disney movie where the parents die, the writers must be doing this on purpose. I mean, people do become independent while their parents are still alive. Someone go tell that to Disney Animation.

Each film earns either zero, a half or a full arrow in five categories. The categories are Acting, Writing/Directing, Emotion, Innovation and Overall Impression. The arrows are added up to equal the full score.