Warning: Review contains spoilers.
It took me a while to decide to review the newest Disney Princess
film. I was dithering over choosing to review the animated one over the
latest Hobbit installment. I’ve got things to say about Frozen, so I’m
going to say them.
Frozen is a film based on the book The Snow Queen, written by Hans
Christian Anderson, which was not the first of his books to been turned
into a princess film and produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. The
Little Mermaid was also based on a book written by him. Frozen was
released in the UK on the 6th December.
I saw this film on Boxing Day with my family, which was quite a humorous sight to the people working at the cinema, as the youngest member of our party was a 15 year old. One director, Jenifer Lee debuted with Frozen and the other Chris Buck, bought his Disney experience to the table and the two created something brilliant.
This film is a children’s film and it contains all of the things you would typically have in a Disney Princess film. There’s a prince, Prince Hans, there’s magic, Elsa’s snow and ice capabilities and trolls, the funny animal companions, in this case it’s an alive snowman and a reindeer, the humour that kids love, like wigs falling off, funny dancing and the pronunciation of weasleton. Despite all of that the film has messages to show to young children that will help pave a better future for the next generations society. It’s this reason I wanted to talk about an animated children’s film as apposed to the other films I recently watched that I could talk about the technical side and go in depth about cameras and things of similar nature.
The film is primarily about sisters Elsa and Anna, who used to be really close but grew further and further apart. They are locked in the palace for most of their lives because of Elsa’s magic. She can control and create snow. On the day of Elsa’s coronation everything goes awry.
The soundtrack for this film is one of the things that are most reviewed but I don’t want to get too in depth with that here. I would however, like to nod to the clever use of the opening song talking literally about breaking the heart of the icy lake and foreshadowing the events at the end of the film that are literal and metaphorical. Without spoiling too much, I refer to a main character Elsa who welcomes people into her heart. Speaking of nods to songs, I’d like to make an almost one to the song “Let It Go” where Elsa is building her ice palace on the mountain. The soundtrack includes strikes of music whenever Elsa does a bit of strong magic and the palace grows. Those strikes of music are the same ones that happen when Mickey Mouse does a bit of magic in the live show Fantasmic at the Disney Parks. It’s not that relevant to the review but it’s something I just noticed. Moving on.
Following the footsteps of “Brave”, the familial ties are a primary focus. The first lesson “Frozen” teaches is that love and companionship can heal a heart. That the bond siblings have is just as powerful, if not more, that the romantic love. There is romance in this film but the love that saves the day is the love between sisters. Earlier in the film they lose their parents and just as they needed each other most their childhood companion ship was destroyed. Throughout the film both sisters learn more about themselves and determination leads them to re-forge the sisterly bond they have despite the differences and arguments they have. This personally spoke to me as me and my sister have had a rocky relationship, growing up we argued a lot and even now as I went through my teenage years and Jude starting hers, we haven’t always gotten along, but I know that we love each other and I think a film like “Frozen” when I was a younger was greatly needed.
Being yourself and acceptance is a recurring challenge that happens to everyone from the sad young age of ten that could last forever. However ten to early 20’s is the most challenging and most common age for this problem to occur. Elsa struggles with her magic and her emotions as they are directly linked. Her whole life she is repeatedly told “Conceal. Don’t feel. Don’t let them know.” Those words become a mantra and she hides her entire personality from everyone because she is afraid of hurting people. Her parents are the ones that first tell her those three sentences and even long after their deaths Elsa still lives by those, causing her pain and isolation. After her secret is revealed she runs to the mountain and she decided to “let it go” she takes of her armor, her magic gloves that contain her magic, she releases the cool, uptight persona, and literally lets her hair down, she revels in her true self, explores her magic and becomes a graceful, strong, powerful passionate person. The song is such a powerful relatable song but by the end of it Elsa is still alone. There is an amazingly well put together scene where Elsa is trying to regain her small, closed in self and the angles and shots are fast paced and cut very close swapping to her pacing feet, her stressed face, nervous hands, all the while Elsa is chanting “don’t feel” which makes everything worse. Of course at the end of the film, she lets herself feel the love her sister gives her and the love she has in return and the love for her kingdom and by accepting the love and herself she lives in happiness. There is no doubt that the problem Elsa has can be easily transferred to real life situations and while a film may not dictate how a person feels, it’s a good start to a change in society for the better.
Disney is regularly criticized for the way the characters would instantly fall in with one another and marry them in all of their older films. I think that’s ridiculous and could write a whole essay proving it’s wrong but the problem was directly put to rest when two characters make a big deal about what a mistake it was. In two separate scenes the film outright says loud and clear that not knowing someone before who marry them isn’t a good thing. The entire film wouldn’t of happened if Elsa didn’t refuse to bless the wedding of Anna and Hans. Of course throughout the film feelings develop between Anna and a character she meets called Kristoff. They both have their flaws and an entire musical sequence is dedicated to saying it’s okay if there are flaws, nobody’s perfect and love them the way they are, they just need someone to help them along. Another popular criticism are the looks of the characters and the impossible beauty that children will aspire to and never have. In this film there are characters of all different shapes and sizes, and it’s not actually most generically handsome man Anna ends up with, it’s the one with a bigger stomach and a bigger nose that a lot of media exposed to children would call ugly. The princesses themselves have realistic characterisations; of course the drawing style doesn’t make them look real but things like face shape, eyebrows and noses makes each character unique and special. The well-done personalities of our main characters add to the unique-ness of them. Anna is shown to be a romantic, who loves to be around people, she also expresses moments of relatable teen awkwardness, especially when it comes to handsome boys and mornings. She is impulsive as is evidenced by the engagement and the “crazy trust exercise” and occasionally feisty, which is shown when she stops Kristoff from beating up the bad-y and punches the bad-y herself. That’s pretty awesome.
Overall, sending out a good message to kids, teens and adults alike
was the best things about Frozen. All though the film was beautifully
done and had breathtakingly gorgeous scenery, I felt like the majority
of the review should be done to show the positivity Frozen gives out.
Frozen was a great film that was beautiful, inspiring, educating and
entertaining.
Film Poster
I saw this film on Boxing Day with my family, which was quite a humorous sight to the people working at the cinema, as the youngest member of our party was a 15 year old. One director, Jenifer Lee debuted with Frozen and the other Chris Buck, bought his Disney experience to the table and the two created something brilliant.
This film is a children’s film and it contains all of the things you would typically have in a Disney Princess film. There’s a prince, Prince Hans, there’s magic, Elsa’s snow and ice capabilities and trolls, the funny animal companions, in this case it’s an alive snowman and a reindeer, the humour that kids love, like wigs falling off, funny dancing and the pronunciation of weasleton. Despite all of that the film has messages to show to young children that will help pave a better future for the next generations society. It’s this reason I wanted to talk about an animated children’s film as apposed to the other films I recently watched that I could talk about the technical side and go in depth about cameras and things of similar nature.
The film is primarily about sisters Elsa and Anna, who used to be really close but grew further and further apart. They are locked in the palace for most of their lives because of Elsa’s magic. She can control and create snow. On the day of Elsa’s coronation everything goes awry.
The soundtrack for this film is one of the things that are most reviewed but I don’t want to get too in depth with that here. I would however, like to nod to the clever use of the opening song talking literally about breaking the heart of the icy lake and foreshadowing the events at the end of the film that are literal and metaphorical. Without spoiling too much, I refer to a main character Elsa who welcomes people into her heart. Speaking of nods to songs, I’d like to make an almost one to the song “Let It Go” where Elsa is building her ice palace on the mountain. The soundtrack includes strikes of music whenever Elsa does a bit of strong magic and the palace grows. Those strikes of music are the same ones that happen when Mickey Mouse does a bit of magic in the live show Fantasmic at the Disney Parks. It’s not that relevant to the review but it’s something I just noticed. Moving on.
Following the footsteps of “Brave”, the familial ties are a primary focus. The first lesson “Frozen” teaches is that love and companionship can heal a heart. That the bond siblings have is just as powerful, if not more, that the romantic love. There is romance in this film but the love that saves the day is the love between sisters. Earlier in the film they lose their parents and just as they needed each other most their childhood companion ship was destroyed. Throughout the film both sisters learn more about themselves and determination leads them to re-forge the sisterly bond they have despite the differences and arguments they have. This personally spoke to me as me and my sister have had a rocky relationship, growing up we argued a lot and even now as I went through my teenage years and Jude starting hers, we haven’t always gotten along, but I know that we love each other and I think a film like “Frozen” when I was a younger was greatly needed.
Being yourself and acceptance is a recurring challenge that happens to everyone from the sad young age of ten that could last forever. However ten to early 20’s is the most challenging and most common age for this problem to occur. Elsa struggles with her magic and her emotions as they are directly linked. Her whole life she is repeatedly told “Conceal. Don’t feel. Don’t let them know.” Those words become a mantra and she hides her entire personality from everyone because she is afraid of hurting people. Her parents are the ones that first tell her those three sentences and even long after their deaths Elsa still lives by those, causing her pain and isolation. After her secret is revealed she runs to the mountain and she decided to “let it go” she takes of her armor, her magic gloves that contain her magic, she releases the cool, uptight persona, and literally lets her hair down, she revels in her true self, explores her magic and becomes a graceful, strong, powerful passionate person. The song is such a powerful relatable song but by the end of it Elsa is still alone. There is an amazingly well put together scene where Elsa is trying to regain her small, closed in self and the angles and shots are fast paced and cut very close swapping to her pacing feet, her stressed face, nervous hands, all the while Elsa is chanting “don’t feel” which makes everything worse. Of course at the end of the film, she lets herself feel the love her sister gives her and the love she has in return and the love for her kingdom and by accepting the love and herself she lives in happiness. There is no doubt that the problem Elsa has can be easily transferred to real life situations and while a film may not dictate how a person feels, it’s a good start to a change in society for the better.
Disney is regularly criticized for the way the characters would instantly fall in with one another and marry them in all of their older films. I think that’s ridiculous and could write a whole essay proving it’s wrong but the problem was directly put to rest when two characters make a big deal about what a mistake it was. In two separate scenes the film outright says loud and clear that not knowing someone before who marry them isn’t a good thing. The entire film wouldn’t of happened if Elsa didn’t refuse to bless the wedding of Anna and Hans. Of course throughout the film feelings develop between Anna and a character she meets called Kristoff. They both have their flaws and an entire musical sequence is dedicated to saying it’s okay if there are flaws, nobody’s perfect and love them the way they are, they just need someone to help them along. Another popular criticism are the looks of the characters and the impossible beauty that children will aspire to and never have. In this film there are characters of all different shapes and sizes, and it’s not actually most generically handsome man Anna ends up with, it’s the one with a bigger stomach and a bigger nose that a lot of media exposed to children would call ugly. The princesses themselves have realistic characterisations; of course the drawing style doesn’t make them look real but things like face shape, eyebrows and noses makes each character unique and special. The well-done personalities of our main characters add to the unique-ness of them. Anna is shown to be a romantic, who loves to be around people, she also expresses moments of relatable teen awkwardness, especially when it comes to handsome boys and mornings. She is impulsive as is evidenced by the engagement and the “crazy trust exercise” and occasionally feisty, which is shown when she stops Kristoff from beating up the bad-y and punches the bad-y herself. That’s pretty awesome.
Who says there’s no cinematography in animation?
