So everyone was going on and on and on about how I just NEEDED to see this movie because it was soooo good. So maybe it was because of my high expectations, but this movie just fell flat for me. I wouldn’t call it a Disney classic by any stretch. (Which sucks for me, because there’s something about this movie that makes fans get creepy upset with you when you say you didn’t like it much.)
Oh, and for the record. When people compare this movie to Tangled, I develop an eye twitch. No. Just, no. Frozen can’t hold a paper lantern to Tangled.
I mean, let me clarify. I liked the movie. It was fun to watch. But will I buy it on DVD to add to my embarrassingly huge pile of Disney movies? No. Will I nag at my husband to illegally download it so I can dance around the living room in my underwear pretending to be an ice princess? No. (Well, no to everything minus the dancing in my knickers. )
The movie was worth watching for the ice and snow graphics alone because the imagery was simply stunning. But it was stunning to the point where it seems the entire concept of the film was based on “How many cool frozen graphics we can shove into one film..? Let’s see, we can have frozen water droplets, a frozen castle, a frozen dress with a shimmering frozen cloak, and a frozen kingdom and.. and.. and.. we can call the movie FROZEN!” While I know it’s loosely based on Hans Christian Andersons “The Snow Queen”, I rather think the former explanation seems more fitting, all things considered.
My biggest complaint with the movie, of all things, is the music. It just felt like the Frozen soundtrack was one big Wicked rip-off. And the ones that managed to not sound like an overplayed Broadway show tune, just sounded like a made for TV ditty. Cute, enjoyable, but not epic. And the music was not memorable. Nor did it even flow with the film. They seemed forced and at times, slightly awkward.
And while everyone was raving over how “feel good” this film was, I had trouble feeling the warmth of this movie when the plot points were all so coldly calculated. (Haha, see what I did there?)
And I know that people were thrilled to FINALLY have a love story that’s not between a man and a woman, but when it’s thrust into the princess movie context, I’m just left rolling my eyes. Family feel good, siblings getting along flicks are a dime a dozen. I’m pretty sure there’s a whole Brady Bunch-esque sub-genre for the “my sister is my best friend” drivel. But dammit, princess love stories are called princess love stories because they are epic love tales between a prince and his princess. Seriously Disney. Don’t make me go all Facebook and start my “between a man and a woman” lectures on you.
The whole frost storm clearing scene where Anna chooses to save Elsa instead of saving herself is sweet, but it was such an obviously, “Haha, sike! Hoes before bros!” moment that the tenderness was kind of lost on me. The decision was just so forced. It didn’t flow.
In all honesty, I far preferred the opening Mickey Mouse cartoon than the feature film. And I’m not just trying to be the movie critic bad guy. I am so obsessed with Disney, it’s not even funny. Like, the only tattoo I would ever get on my person would be either Jesus or Disney themed. (Which probably tells you all you need to know about me, right there.)
I did like the moral of not rushing out and hooking up with the first “Prince Charming” that comes along, and instead waiting for “someone worth melting for”. If more girls paid attention to that advice, there’d be a lot less baby daddies running around. But then talk about mixed messages! “No, true love doesn’t happen after only knowing a guy for like, a day!! But ohhh hey! Look! This guy you just met in the wilderness is a hunk! Ooo! And he’s friendly to animals and trolls and thing! Go get em, gurl!” Like, huh, wha?!
So many things in the story line just left me unconvinced, to the point where I couldn’t move along with the story because I was still trying to figure out WHY. Why, exactly, did the trolls have to remove Anna’s memories? The explanation seemed so weak. Why did Elsa have to be stuck in her room, compounding her fear and isolation? After a couple of years, you’d think a light bulb would have gone off somewhere. And after all of her years and years and years of isolation, she never ONCE discovered that LOVE could thaw her icy creations?
And what’s with the gloves? Ice wasn’t physically shooting from her hands, she was, I dunno, willing it into existence. How did the gloves help her, exactly? I mean, when she was chained up she was freezing the metal hand shackles and breaking holes out the wall. Clearly, the gloves didn’t do much. And yet they were this huge aspect of the story, like Clark Kent’s glasses. A pointless and yet somehow vital aspect to maintaining her secret identity.
Ugh! I’m so sad I didn’t love this film. I was all geared up and ready to fangirl. I’m gonna go pout over some cookies now.
So, share with the class, what did YOU think of the film?
The gloves didn’t do anything. It was more of a security blanket and a reminder to conceal herself. And while Elsa might have well been called Elsaba and it wasn’t a “Disney princess” movie. The theater geek part of me is absolutely in love with the film. It uses every theater trope in the books along with somewhat contrived plot lines, show stopping musical numbers and one heck of a deus ex machina. But that’s why I adore it!!! It’s a theatrical Disney film. Ugh, I feel very much like that fan-of-something-you-aren’t-a-fan-of person going “but like….it’s just so….I can’t…how do you not like it!?” ;-p
I’m with you on this one.
Explain! 😉
It’s not a Disney princess movie? Are you kidding?! Disney is lauding the two as “the newest Disney princesses”, not to mention that it is a Disney movie, and it features princesses that they are slathering all over Fantasylands everywhere… therefore, ipso facto, I’m your boss. I mean, it’s a Disney Princess movie. Also, it’s hardly a deus ex machina when the plot line is so glaringly obvious. I think have the movie, when we weren’t watching Tessa being adorable, we Jon and I were calling out what happens next to each other before it happened. When the “major” points in movies can be seen coming from a mile away, it goes down a notch in my book. And anyway, my BIGGEST peeve was the music. So unoriginal when everything sounded like washed up Broadway one hit wonders.. ugh! Sooo sad me no likey!
Wow, I need to NOT type without my morning coffee, ever again.
I think that she just thought the gloves would help. She was never allowed to try to control it. I really hated the fact that her parents put all that burden on her, made her feel like a freak, then took off on a ship to the bottom of the sea!
I read a bunch of Christian reviews & most people really liked it and gave it positive marks, but none of them recognized the obvious ‘dark magic’ bent to her attitude when she was going up the mountain all ‘one with the sky’. And someone please tell me what they saw when Oaken the merchant motions back at his family in the sauna.
My biggest peeve tho, is how impossible it will be for the majority of Disney Girls to actually sing along to those songs!
Kirstin Bell did any amazing job tho. And Alan Tudyk gave us another Disney voice, proving that he may turn out to be the go to guy for those characters!
Alan Tudyk did a voice for this flick?!
While I don’t think the movie was a bad as you felt it was, I totally agree with the music! Were they in Africa?
LOL, yeah, the music was kind of all over the place….
I too had trouble with moving on with somethings. When it came to the troll removing her memories, I had a 12 year old ask me why (I saw the movie with a friend and her kids). I had to make up some kind of gibberish ro satisfy her curiosity.
My favorite character was Sven. I think that’s because he never did, it had anything happen that didn’t make since.
Ok, I’m going to hush with my ramblings now. I have so much more to say…
“I had a 12 year old ask me why (I saw the movie with a friend and her kids). I had to make up some kind of gibberish ro satisfy her curiosity.”
LOL, THIS! This is why I didn’t like it. It’s one of those “ask no questions and just enjoy” stories. Could you imagine a murky plotline like this flying in Aladdin? Mulan? Beauty and the Beast?!
Hahahaha, a plot line like that would be a major no go with the Disney classics! I think I need to introduce that little girl to great Disney movies. Seriously, throughout the entire movie I kept getting the question “why”!
YES YOU DO!! haha… Watching Disney movies is pretty much a requirement in our home. 😉
While I disagree with much of what you have said about the movie, I personally adored pretty much all of it, especially the music, the one thing I felt was unnecessary were the rock trolls. They were kind of just tossed into the movie and I didn’t like their song at all.
The music was very Broadway-esc because most of the people that did voices and worked on the film have and do work on Broadway. I was very pleasantly surprised to find out Idena Menzel voiced Elsa.
And Alan Tudyk was the Duke of Weasleton! So good! And I don’t know if it’s just me but I wasn’t really able to predict the outcome of the film and Im usually pretty good at stuff like that. 😛
Wow, I can’t believe that was Alan!! He’s such a talented actor, holy crap…
I know! I went into this film actor blind. I didn’t look up who was playing who until I saw the credits xD
Have you seen Alan in I Robot?? I had no idea it was him.. he’s like a character chameleon!
Yea, when Hans was full out evil I was like Da FAQ!? And I said it wasn’t a Disney princess movie I didn’t say Disney wasn’t running with the Disney princess angle full speed cuz they so are. The whole thing was done Greek tragedy style and as an animated broadway musical it was stellar!
I guess thats my beef. I think the Broadway music angle is what wrecked it for me. oh well! To each their own! 😉
I still want to see it but I can wait till its on Netflix.
I thought this movie was very cute!! My kids and I loved it can’t wait for the sing along version!!
I just came across this and FINALLY someone else who didn’t think Frozen was all it was cracked up to be. I also think Idina Menzel should stick to Broadway. I enjoyed the songs but “Let It Go” was definitely not a typical sweet voiced Disney song (which was probably their point). *shrug* I was expecting more. While the movie wasn’t terrible, it just couldn’t hold a candle to Brave or Tangled.
People say “this isn’t a love story.” Which shows you how infuriatingly stupid most people are. Clearly, it is a love story, (ie the whole plot centers around her liking the wrong guy only to fall in love with the “right” guy at the end). If this isn’t a love story, then The Bachelor isn’t a love story either. And also THERE IS NO MORAL TO THIS MOVIE except maybe that it is perfectly okay to be ditzy and stupid because you’re in a Disney movie and you can’t ever get hurt. When the opposite is true in real life. Beautiful wiomen get raped and murdered all the tyme for doing stupid shit like the main character in this movie. It is simply a collection of cliches they threw together. Crappy music and storyline. Albeit the animation was great, making it mildly entertaining to watch, nothing else.
It’s more so a love story between two sisters. This movie showcased Anna’s love for her sister Elsa and Elsa’s love for her sister as well although she thought she had to isolate herself to keep Anna safe.
The moral to this movie, well I feel there were several.
1. You really shouldn’t agree to marry someone you just met because you don’t know who they truly are.
2. Elsa’s parents did the wrong thing in the beginning, trying to hide her gift. That only made things worse for Elsa as she never learned how to control her powers until the end.
3. Tying into that, Elsa learned that love, real love and showing that love, letting that love into her heart, is what helped her control her powers. One learns that love is more powerful than anything in this film.
Of course nothing as horrible as rape is going to be addressed in a Disney film, it is still a Disney film and they are cartoons. The music was spectacular, as evidenced by the Oscar they just won for best song. It’s okay to not like the movie but you seem to have missed out on a lot.
Disney IS progressively getting darker though! I’ve been shocked by some of the things they’ve been putting into childrens movies recently.. I wouldn’t be surprised if they insinuated rape in a kids movie within the next 30 years.. lol
Yeah, I only liked the animation.. the rest was superbly meh for me…
YES. This movie was terrible. Did anyone else catch the bestiality reference in Fixer Upper. Yikes. And don’t even get me started on how terrible it was that the trolls encouraged Anna to cheat on Hans. What has Disney become?
Even the songs were terrible. Let it Go is only popular because Idina Menzel sang it, but I think both the song and the singer are super overrated.
I loved this one. Especially the scene where she saves Elsa !!!