Frozen (2013)

When my eight year old niece found out that I had never seen this film in its entirety, she was more then enthusiastic that I correct this and gladly watched the film with me. Now I had seen bits and pieces of Frozen before, mostly with her, but not as much of it as I had assume I'd seen, I figured I'd seen about 2/3rds of it but it was closer to 40%. Now my sister works in day care so she has seen it so often its difficult for her to take the movie now, and I know by reputation that many parents, siblings, grandparents etc. of young girls have become quite fatigued of the film, especially its near ubiquitous Oscar winning anthem 'Let It Go'. As a relative novice to the film however I rather enjoyed it, if anything I think it would wear better then the average Disney musical, so its a testament to the repetitive obsession so many little girls have with this film that its succeeded in driving so many a grown up near mad.

The story of course is loosely based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale 'The Snow Queen' and concerns a royal  with snow and ice powers who gets a little out of control, though I don't think there is any need for me to get into plot specifics. Suffice it to say a major theme of the film is sisterly bonding, I can't think of another Disney film where that has been a major theme, so perhaps that in part accounts for the popularity. Also there really isn't a traditional villain, and I've heard it said that the lack of any 'wicked witch figure' (Elsa excepted, she's just misunderstood) is another reason young girls have responded so positively to the film. The music of course seems to be the major factor in the films youthful popularity, certainly my niece seems to know the score pretty well by heart. Also Olaf the talking snow man I quite enjoyed,  a perfect Disney comic relief character, perhaps the best since the Genie in Aladdin.

The film looks and sounds beautiful, has likable characters of slightly greater internal complexity then is typical for a Disney product, and is positive with good moral themes, though there are many who have read a lot of progressive social commentary into the film, which if its there its certainly not overt, most Christian parents shouldn't have any problem with there children watching this movie, unless they're just sick of hearing the songs. ***1/2