I’m among the few people who did not completely adore Frozen. Don’t get me wrong – I thought it was a sweet, charming film with a refreshingly modern message. However, I don’t believe it lives up to the standard set by earlier Disney films.
Directed by Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee, the film follows “Anna” (Kristen Bell), princess of Arendelle, as she searches for her sister “Elsa” (Idina Menzel), whose uncontrollable power over ice and snow has cast the kingdom into an eternal winter. Along the way, Anna teams up with mountain man “Kristoff” (Jonathan Groff), Sven the reindeer, and magical snowman “Olaf” (Josh Gad) to defrost Arendelle and save Elsa from persecution.
The story, based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale The Snow Queen, is wonderful. The animation is gorgeous. The empowering, forward-thinking message is laudable. The problem here are the songs, written and composed by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez. They’re certainly not bad – in fact, “Let It Go” is a delight, and “Do You Want to Build A Snowman” brought me to tears – they just don’t add up to a cohesive soundtrack. Where movies like The Lion King and Mulan, for example, have songs that fit together beautifully and feel like parts of a whole, Frozen lacks a central musical theme. Though score composer Christophe Beck occasionally hints at a traditional Norwegian sound, Lopez and Anderson-Lopez seem to ignore it, making the characters’ numbers woefully generic – or, in the case of one song, peculiarly African, which sounds perfectly fine but doesn’t make much sense, considering the movie’s source material and setting.
The film’s other major flaw lies in its cast. Menzel may have a heart-stoppingly beautiful voice, but it does not sound like something that should come out of a young woman’s mouth. As a result, Elsa sounds like a 40-year-old woman, which just doesn’t suit the character and is a major distraction. It’s a shame, too, because the rest of the movie’s actors suit their roles perfectly.
All in all, Frozen may be one of the best princess movies that Disney has ever made, but that doesn’t mean it’s one of their best offerings. The Mouse House is capable of so much more.
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