Cast: Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, Josh Gad, Santino Fontana.; Direction: Chris Buck, Jenniger Lee; Based on story Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen; Producer: Peter Del Vecho Music: Christopher Beck; Genre: Animation; Distributor: Walt Disney; Location: Arendelle Running Time: 108 minutes
Technical assessment:
4
Moral assessment: 4
MTRCB rating: G
CINEMA rating: All
ages
Princesses Anna (Bell) and Elsa (Menzel) of Arendelle were as close as
two peas in a pod until the older Elsa accidentally freezes her younger sister
with her snow magic. Horrified, their parents choose for Elsa to deliberately
hide her ability from the world. Elsa, not wanting to hurt Anna again, distance
herself from her sister. Anna, whose memories of Elsa’s magic were erased, is left
completely confused and lonely. Ten years later, the king and the queen die at
sea and leave the princesses orphaned. Eventually, Elsa needs to come out and
face her subject during her coronation but carefully plans not to reveal her
magic to anyone until the lonely Anna naively falls for the first prince—Hans—who
proposes and asks the newly-crowned queen’s blessing. Naturally, Elsa denies
her blessings which infuriates Anna. She inadvertently removes Elsa’s
protective gloves and causes her to reveal her uncontrolled snow magic to the
kingdom. She runs away and in the process freezes the entire kingdom. Anna,
determined to marry Prince Hans (Fontana) runs after Elsa with the aid of
mountaineer Kristoff (Groff) and animated snowman Olaf (Gad).
Frozen
is a magical journey for the young and young at heart. The timelessness of the
classic fairy tale is modernized appropriately with a good mix of animation,
music and performance. The snow covered mountains, dangerous blizzards,
delicate ice castle and the dreamy snow flaked scenes are just breath-taking to
watch albeit purely animated. The songs, though, not entirely as touching as
previous Disney movies, but memorable just the same. The story is clear and
unfolds gracefully with the right amount of humor and suspense punctuating the
development. The voice actors reveal the inner persons of their characters
well.
Frozen
offer several layers of family values. One, it shows how family ties is the
very foundation of a sturdy relationship inside and outside the home. It
emphasizes the significance of family as the groundwork of a strong community
life. Second, Frozen redefines true
love not as romance but as sacrifice. In this modern age where everyone is
self-centred and materialistic, Elsa and Anna’s devotion to each other and
dedication to the people they serve can very well a model of what it is to be
human. Third, and maybe to a lesser significance, the movie gives a reminder to
the young—who are so wanting to be noticed, admired and given affection—not to
fall for the seeming attraction of a great façade. It pays to know the very core
and essence of a person—or ideal—before
committing.
