Trailer and marketing is an important things in movies industry because it will set the expectation from the audiences before they watched the actual movie. It is not uncommon to find a great movie with a not so interesting trailer or marketing (It happen to me with the Gravity's trailer) and Frozen is actually the victim of this kind of trend.
Frozen is another Disney princesses animation movie which the marketing of the movie is kinda misleading the audience. The movie's marketing seems to be focused at it's silly comedic relief in the movie named Olaf The Snowman and he is not that funny in that marketing campaign too. So when i first saw a short animated campaign for the movie in Disney channel, my initial reaction is just "Meh, it doesn't seems interesting at all". It's a good thing that i watched that one video review in Youtube which said that this movie was great because i owe that reviewer a drink or two. Frozen is an awesome animated Disney movie that i really recommend to everyone.
The movie is a loose adaption of Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen, which to be honest, i never heard or read (sorry, my childhood is not that pretty) so i am in blind mode for what this movie about. It tells a story about two sister from the Kingdom Of Arendelle. Eight-year old Elsa, princess of Arendelle, possesses the elemental ability to create and control ice, frost and snow. One night while playing, she accidentally freezes her five-year old younger sister, Anna, with her powers causing a small part of her hair to turn white. The king (Maurice LaMarche) and queen seek help from trolls, who heal Anna and remove her memories of her sister's magic. Their leader, Grand Pabbie (Ciarán Hinds), informs them that if Elsa had struck Anna's heart it would have been fatal. In order to protect Elsa and avoid her powers from endangering anyone else, the royal family locks themselves away in their castle. Elsa, afraid of hurting Anna again, spends most of her time hiding in her room, creating a rift between the two sisters as they grow up. Ten years later, their parents are killed at sea during a storm.
Three years after the death of the king and queen, dignitaries from all over the world flock to Arendelle to see twenty-one-year old Elsa's (Idina Menzel) summer coronation. Among them is the Duke of Weselton (Alan Tudyk), a neighboring royal who wants to exploit Arendelle for profit. Eighteen-year old Anna (Kristen Bell) is excited that the castle gates will open and she'll finally get to meet people. While strolling through the streets, she meets Prince Hans (Santino Fontana) of the Southern Isles, and the pair quickly fall in love. Though Elsa is terrified of revealing her powers, the coronation goes off without incident. During the reception, Hans proposes to Anna, who accepts. Elsa, however, refuses to grant her blessing, setting off an argument that culminates in her elemental abilities being exposed to everyone. Elsa run away after accidentally shows her magic and freeze the whole kingdom in permanent winter. So begins Anna's journey to save the Kingdom of Arendelle and her own sister from metaphorical puberty jails.
Because the misleading marketing campaign, i thought this movie will be the standard Disney's adventure movie with the standard Disney's love stories added with Disney's standard annoying comedic relief which is actually...not a big deal for me but it isn't something that i liked that much either. Surprisingly, The movie is far better from what the marketing is shown since the actual focus is actually the relationship between the two sister and the test of their love for each other.
The other kind of "love", that is...
Almost all of Disney princesses movie involved that cliche tropes like true love, damsel in distress and all things that make your daughter want to be a princess who let the men do everything for her. But right off the bat, the movie makes a fun of that true love cliche by Anna request to get married with a man that she literally just met which Elsa said that it is very stupid. In that scene, I knew that Disney is trying to do something new in this movie but the "whoa" moment came in a really surprising way that managed to caught me off guard. The movie used the well established trope then gives it some unexpected twist, resulting in a almost evolutionary moral message that kids will dig and adults can appreciates.
The Animation is top notch as expected from Disney's production. The way the characters moves reflect their personality and their energy flawlessly in every frames they are in. Anna and Elsa looks like your typical pretty Disney Princess at first when they are just standing still but when they moves that images changes. Elsa transformation from restricted girl to an expressionist woman is a spot on from the way he walks and moves. Anna eagerness and spirits is also greatly animated and i also need to mention that this movie also made me go "damn, i should have watched this in 3D" again. I guess 3D does have a place in modern cinema.
This movie is Disney efforts to relive their renaissance moment like what they achieved with Beauty And The Beast and The Little Mermaid which i honestly forgot if i ever watched it when i was a kid or not (I am still trying to repress my childhood memory) so Frozen is actually a musical animation movie. Musical Movies tends to irritates me since it is often unclear why the characters can suddenly singing about everything in the middle of something. For all that i know, they might sing about dysentery in the middle of something and it still makes sense in the context of the movie. There is a moment when the song in this movie kinda irritates me because how often they showed up from nowhere but that moments falls short because all the songs in this movie is great and memorable. Many peoples said that the Let It Go session in this movie is a masterpiece where the song and animations flows in a harmony that just so great to watch and listen though i still think that my favorite has to be Do You Want To Build A Snowman? session which....well, ok i have to be honest, i became quite emotional in that session.
The comedy in Frozen is actually kinda feels like a classic Disney's movies. There is no pop culture reference which is almost like a mandatory to have in a comedic movie today because all the laugh came from a situational moment which makes this movie's comedy became timeless. Peoples in the future will still laugh in this movie as good as the peoples in nowadays laugh at it which is a great thing to have in a movie.
This movie is Disney efforts to relive their renaissance moment like what they achieved with Beauty And The Beast and The Little Mermaid which i honestly forgot if i ever watched it when i was a kid or not (I am still trying to repress my childhood memory) so Frozen is actually a musical animation movie. Musical Movies tends to irritates me since it is often unclear why the characters can suddenly singing about everything in the middle of something. For all that i know, they might sing about dysentery in the middle of something and it still makes sense in the context of the movie. There is a moment when the song in this movie kinda irritates me because how often they showed up from nowhere but that moments falls short because all the songs in this movie is great and memorable. Many peoples said that the Let It Go session in this movie is a masterpiece where the song and animations flows in a harmony that just so great to watch and listen though i still think that my favorite has to be Do You Want To Build A Snowman? session which....well, ok i have to be honest, i became quite emotional in that session.
The comedy in Frozen is actually kinda feels like a classic Disney's movies. There is no pop culture reference which is almost like a mandatory to have in a comedic movie today because all the laugh came from a situational moment which makes this movie's comedy became timeless. Peoples in the future will still laugh in this movie as good as the peoples in nowadays laugh at it which is a great thing to have in a movie.
Kristen Bell as Anna did a terrific job portraying a naive eager girl who rarely met anyone outside her castle while Idina Menzel voice, who had an amazing track record in Broadway musical performance, is also great, especially when she sings that Let It Go song. Surprisingly, the characters that i think i will hate is actually the show stealer of movie which is Olaf The Snowman voiced by the amazing Josh Gad. There is just something so adorable with how Josh Gad portray Olaf goofiness and clueless behavior that steal the audiences heart's.
There is a moment where i thought that this movie will walk to the unexpected dark path. Sadly, it didn't go that way which kinda disappoint me for some reason. Maybe i just had some fetish with a kids movie going into some dark turn or maybe i am just trying too hard to became Batman.
I won't let this childhood dream go.
In conclusion, Frozen is one of the best, if not the best animated musical movie, in recent years. I love how this movie made me feels like an excited innocent child watching his first animated movie with his parents. It isn't perfect, that for sure. I wish the song could be paced a lil bit more better so it wont feel cluttered at some part and i still kinda hope they could make it with a lil bit more dark moment but that is just my self preference. This Movie is a must watch if you have kids and even if you don't have one, you will still having a good time laughing and smiling.
Initial El Review Score
9.5
Some movies are worth melting for.
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