Movie Review: Frozen

"Some people are worth melting for."

I had a private little wish that I would make it to 100 posts this year.  I had written goal, but I backspaced that, because I had never actually made it something I was actively working towards, nor anything official.  But, this happens to be the 100th post.  So, wish achieved.  And it's achieved with a movie review.  Sarah (my fourteen-year-old sister) has taken a huge liking to the movie Frozen.  In fact, she has seen it multiple times in the theatre.  So, I went to see it with her, since I hadn't seen it yet, and she needed another excuse to see it again.  So, here's my review of it:

Frozen is about two princesses named Anna and Elsa.  They are sisters, but the older one, Elsa, has snow-creating powers.  Eventually, in order to protect Anna (and other people), Elsa decides to isolate herself entirely from her sister.  When Elsa accidentally freezes the kingdom on her coronation day, she leaves the kingdom for the mountains.  Anna must go and find Elsa, leaving behind her true-love-of-two-hours, Prince Hans of the Southern Isles to take care of the kingdom.  On her way, she meets Kristoff and his reindeer, Sven.  And they have to save the kingdom and stuff.

There is actually significantly less bad than good in this movie, so I'll do bad first:  the ending couple kind of has a meh relationship.  Especially after the fantastic romance this creative team made in Tangled, it fell a little flat.  But this is also a good thing, and that will be better explained in the goods.  The other problem.  The snowman that everyone loves?  Olaf?  I find him just a little bit more than a little obnoxious.  I kind of felt like the entire movie felt rushed--nothing progressed at a natural speed, and it seemed like it was "quick-get-to-the-next-scene" the entire movie, even though it wasn't really short.

The good stuff:  Good songs (though they didn't get a classic out of it like See the Light), really witty dialogue and generally enjoyable entertainment.

The really good stuff:  The production design was really exquisite.  The kingdom is kind of based off a Scandinavian culture (thus the names), and the artistry is really gorgeous.  I've always kind of liked Scandinavian folk art and such, and so I enjoyed the decorations on the dresses and walls and beyond.  But the best of the best was how they kind of thought of what princess stories teach girls about relationships and made a good effort to change that.  Anna is convinced that she's in love, only to find out that she had no idea what the word even meant.  You can click with someone really well, but that doesn't mean that you love each other.  Or maybe you do love each other, but if I learned anything from my called-off engagement it's that sometimes you loving someone doesn't mean you should marry them.  Not everyone you love would make a good spouse. And that's why maybe it's a good thing that the end couple is not quite developed as a couple.  Because the end of the story isn't them living happily ever after, but realizing that they have some love and they have some potential.  But that potential has a long ways to go when we leave them to their lives.  It also teaches that maybe being bubbly and wearing your heart-on-your-sleeve is a good way to get hurt; on the flip side of that, it teaches that passion and emotion are not negative and should also not be denied.  A huge message is that the most important thing to be with your emotions is controlled but genuine, accessible but guarded.  Elsa and Anna are the opposites of this spectrum, and both learn that maybe they both could learn some things about it from the other.

I would, over all, give it 4 stars.  It misses a bit of the magic of Tangled, but it comes close and really explores some of the problems with what culture says to girls today about relationships.  It empowers women without saying that women aren't gentle or kind, or warm, or loving.