Monday Movie Mania on a Wednesday - Frozen

FTC Notice: The movie was courtesy of a free promotional weekend by HBO.

For the past year, you couldn't avoid Idina Menzel's incredible voice belting out the show-stopping number from Disney's latest animated fairytale flick. Because of the move from hell, it was the first time our family ever missed a first-run in the theaters, but even GK sat through my princess night on Saturday (ABC Family also ran Tangled that night, so we had a Disney movie-a-thon.), because yes, both movies are that good.

The story is loosely, very, very loosely, based on the Hans Christian Anderson classic, The Snow Queen. Alas, no demons or magic mirrors in this version.


* * * SPOILERS * * *


Elsa and Anna are two young princesses in a Scandinavian land. Elsa has powers to create snow and ice; Anna doesn't have any magical abilities. But that doesn't stop the sisters from having an incredibly close relationship until the day Elsa accidentally harms Anna.

It takes a troll king to heal Anna. Far, far worse is the damage the girls' parents do by forbidding Elsa to use her powers and forcing her to hide them. Elsa becomes so afraid of herself that she shuns any contact with Anna or anyone else. Matters come to a head when the sisters quarrel on the day of Elsa's coronation, and she accidentally turns her kingdom into a frozen wasteland.

PROS
1) The writers captured the sibling relationship perfectly, how they can be best friends and worst enemies at the same time.

2) For once, the male characters weren't the perfect heroes that swooped in and saved the day. Disney tried to change the trend in Tangled, but they fully succeeded in Frozen. It wasn't romantic love that saved the sisters, but their love for each other.

3) Idina Menzel and Kristin Bell's duet. 'Nuff said.


CONS
1) Why does Disney have an obsession with whacking the parents? This is one case where I wish the parents were alive, and they learned their lesson that oppressing their daughter for her own good was the stupidest thing they could have done.


I give Frozen a 10 out of 10 for its Girl Power message and the best music in a Disney score since The Lion King.