Most of us are familiar with fairy tales such as Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, and Beauty & the Beast. But likely fewer of us are as familiar with the tale of the Snow Queen. Walt Disney Pictures loosely based their new animated musical Frozen on this fantasy story. The film has become Disney's highest-grossing cartoon of all time, even blowing past The Lion King!
The film (at the time of the writing of this review) has two Oscar nominations, for Best Animated Picture and Best Original Song. It won awards for both of those categories at the Golden Globe Awards. The film stars
Idina Menzel as Queen Elsa, Kristen Bell as Princess Anna, and Jonathan Groff as roughneck mountaineer Kristoff.
SUMMARY
In a kingdom called Arendelle lives two sisters named Elsa and Anna, who are the young princesses of the land. The pair of little girls obviously enjoy playing together, especially when Elsa uses her special ice powers. Unfortunately, Anna is hurt by the magic and her family takes her to the magical trolls, as they are the only ones who can help her.
However, this leads Elsa to become reclusive to the point of never seeing her sister and staying locked in her room for years.
Three years later, Elsa is to have a coronation in order to become queen. For the first time in three years (or "for the first time in forever," as Anna's song suggests), Elsa must order the castle gates to be open to the villages and also foreign dignitaries.
That night, Anna and Elsa get into an argument which causes Elsa to use her powers. After a lifetime of secrets, she is finally found out. With no other choice, she flees the kingdom and heads for the northern mountain where she builds herself an ice palace. Here, she sings a song signifying her act to "let it go" (a brilliant performance by Idina Menzel).
Anna heads out to find her sister because Arendelle was cast into winter. Along the way she meets mountain miner Kristoff (as well as his reindeer friend Sven) and a snowman named Olaf.
The remainder of the movie brings surprises and a wonderful ending!
CONTENT
The violence in Frozen was appropriate for the PG rating, though some things might frighten younger children (though my five-year-old sister was alright). Elsa's magic accidentally harms people (although once she purposely hurts someone). Crossbows are also fired at both fantasy creatures and humans, but we never see someone hit. Also, there is a giant snow monster which could possibly scare young kids.
There a kiss or two in the film, but this is pretty innocent. Two characters sing a song entitled Love is Open Door, and they want to marry on the spot (this is later shown to be unwise and irrational).There was fortunately no foul language in the film.
There was some mild rude humor, but nothing too much. Olaf the snowman makes a couple of references to his behind.
The movie focuses on Elsa's magical skills. She is referred to as a sorceress, and a man remarks that her powers are sorcery. It is not, however, made clear where these powers came from. But this is far from dark magic, rather what you would find in classic Disney movies such as Beauty and the Beast.
This is a great movie for the whole family and is certainly a new favorite of mine. While all may not have had (or will have) the chance, it was stunning in 3-D. This was definitely a wonderful new addition to the Disney collection!
GENERAL INFORMATION
Length: 108 minutesRating: PG (for some action and mild rude humor)
Directors: Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee
Producer: Peter Del Vecho
Music: Christophe Beck (film score), Robert Lopez & Kristen Anderson-Lopez (lyrical songs)
Year of release: 2013
Primary audience: Family
No comments:
Post a Comment