53. Frozen (2013)

With the success of Tangled, Disney decided to finally finish another fairy tale movie that had been in development for a long time, The Snow Queen, later renamed to Frozen. The result would be Disney’s most successful movie of all time; I don’t need to tell anyone how big Frozen was, everyone heard about this monster hit which is still going strong a full year after its initial release. People love the songs, the characters, the dialogue, everyone seems to love it and they all seem to love everything about it. Inevitably, the final product can’t possibly live up to this hype, which is fine, but what bothers me about it is this bizarre school of thought which has cropped up that Frozen reinvented, subverted and revolutionised Disney tropes in a way no Disney film has before. Despite what some people might have you believe, this is simply not true and the film is not without its flaws, either; in fact, on a purely structural level, it’s a bit of a mess. The interesting questions then, are how, despite these issues, is Frozen so likeable? Why has it gone on to become one of the biggest movies of all time? And why are people crediting it for achievements and milestones it didn’t accomplish?

The film’s visual style (as well as a few other things but we’ll get to that in a bit) owes a lot to Tangled, incorporating the same blend of traditional and computer animation which that film so wonderfully perfected. The character designs are remarkably similar, Anna in particular is basically just Rapunzel with some freckles and a different haircut and the general design of the movie just screams Tangled. While a bit lazy and unimaginative, one can hardly blame Frozen for copying Tangled’s style, it is such a visually appealing one, after all; where it cannot be forgiven is in the corners it cuts. The big picture of Frozen’s visuals and animation is solid, but it is the finer details where we can see a lack of attention; the quality of the lighting and textures are nowhere near up to the same level as Tangled, things look much more simplistic in comparison and thus, not nearly as alive. The character animations are also weaker – with the exception of Anna, who is animated very well – by the standards of most Disney movies, they’re still pretty good, but compared to the incredibly expressive characters of Tangled, it’s not up to snuff. The backgrounds are good, but too samey, every scene is set in only a couple of locations and almost always in the snow; while the winter colours are beautiful, there’s only so much white and blue you can look at before you get bored, unlike Tangled’s wider range of environments and varied colour palette. It might seem unfair to constantly compare Frozen to Tangled, but the former obviously owes so much of its visual style to the latter that it not only justifies but necessitates the comparison; by all means, Frozen is still a very good looking movie, but it’s a little disappointing that it doesn’t look nearly as good as its predecessor from three years prior.

Our gallant heroes

Frozen also owes a great deal of its narrative and tone to Tangled, right down to the very fact that it was renamed from a traditional fairy tale title to a single, punchy adjective for marketing purposes. The story follows – and stop me if you’ve heard this one – a naive and optimistic young girl who spends her childhood locked away, with very little human contact. As she approaches adulthood, she finally leaves the confines of her home and goes on an adventure, teaming up with a surly, self-involved man who is begrudgingly forced to help her on her journey. Along the way they get into a bunch of wacky situations and slowly fall for one another SOUND FAMILIAR YET? Yes, in both style and substance, Frozen is, effectively, Tangled in the snow; the story does eventually take some different turns, of course, but it’s obvious that the writers took inspiration from Tangled while crafting the core of this narrative, as well as the film’s tone, characters and sense of humour.  Frozen does try to be a little ambitious with some aspects, but finds itself out of its depth; for example, the writers seems to think that Anna and Hans’ “relationship” serves as a clever deconstruction of the weak and rushed romances of early Disney movies, such as those between Cinderella and Prince Charming, by repeatedly noting how ridiculous it is for Anna to get engaged to Hans after only knowing him for a day and in the end, having her discover that he’s not the man she thought he was after all. 

There are a number of reasons why this doesn’t really work: firstly, this simply isn’t something which actually needs to be addressed or deconstructed anymore, the old cliché of princesses and princes falling in love at first sight and getting engaged the day they meet is something that only really existed in very early Disney films, before dying out completely in The Little Mermaid, a film released almost thirty years before Frozen; consequently, Frozen’s subversion of the idea seems utterly irrelevant, considering this isn’t a problem that’s around anymore. Secondly, other Disney films, particularly those of the Renaissance such as Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin, had already acknowledged the problems of this cliché and rectified them in their own, much more subtle and effective way; other than that, plenty of other films and TV shows have mocked, subverted and deconstructed it, so Frozen’s efforts just feel wasted, being neither timely nor strong enough to excuse this fact. Thirdly and perhaps the biggest fumble of them all is the fact that, by the end of the film, Anna and Kristoff get together, also after only knowing each other for a day; no they’re not engaged, but it’s made clear that they share “true love” despite barely knowing each other, so the movie completely nullifies its own point that you can’t be in love with someone you just met. What’s even stranger is that this whole idea barely ties into the central story or themes of the film, making it baffling as to why it was even included at all, considering its lack of timeliness, relevance, effectiveness, or consistency with the rest of the film’s themes and plot points. 

The film also stumbles in its attempts to subvert the classic scenario of a hero saving a princess with an act of true love (again, something that isn’t really relevant in Disney movies anymore) by having it be the love between two sisters which saves the day, not lovers; a perfectly fine idea, but not only have we already seen the strength of love between family and friends and not just lovers many times in Disney movies, but the issues with the film’s pacing – which I’ll get to momentarily – mean that it doesn’t ring true. Anna and Kristoff spend about as much of the film together as Anna and Elsa and they are the ones who go through conflict together, who help each other, get to know one another and learn things about one another; to the characters in the world of the film, maybe Anna and Elsa know each other a little better having shared years in the castle together, but to the audience, the relationship that WE see develop is the one between Anna and Kristoff, not Anna and Elsa, so to us this makes no sense. This makes this last minute switch not a satisfying resolution to Anna and Elsa’s relationship, so much as an arbitrary attempt for the film to have its cake and eat it too, keeping a traditional Disney romance, but also making a point about feminism and sisterly love or something and how that’s more important than romance. These things just seem to be there to try and make it look like Frozen is doing something smart and innovative, but instead it just makes it look amateurish.

Cold as ice

Pacing is another big problem for the movie, as while the central concept and the parts which focus on Anna’s adventure (that is to say, the parts taken from Tangled) are fun, the film struggles to find an identity outside of that and throws out far too many ideas, none of which are given the time they need. The story jumps around so much that it almost feels like three or four different movies in one and each one feels far too rushed; one minute it’s about two very different sisters and their deteriorating relationship, the next it’s about a young girl’s adventure and how she finds love along the way, the next it’s about an outcast trying to come to terms with her place in a society, then it’s about political rivals scheming to take control of another land, there is simply way too much going on here. Ostensibly, the movie is about Anna and her journey to find Elsa, but when you look closely this doesn’t comprise much of the story at all, no more than any of the other numerous plots, anyway. Characters and stories drop in and out of being important constantly – Elsa is effectively the deuteragonist  in the first act, before disappearing almost completely in the second act and being replaced by Kristoff; then, in the third act, Kristoff falls completely out of focus while Elsa practically becomes the movie’s protagonist out of nowhere, at Anna’s expense. 

This means that, with the exception of Anna, who only really falls out of focus a little towards the end, we never really get to know these characters very well and, more importantly, they don’t get to know each other very well, which becomes a problem when the film acts as if they do. After spending barely fifteen minutes together, Kristoff is already so determined to save Anna’s life that he’ll risk his own for her and after another ten minutes, he’s fallen deeply in love with her; though we’ve seen Disney characters fall in love in short spaces of time, when the film is paced properly, it can still make us believe in these relationships. Rapunzel and Flynn, for example, fall in love after only a couple of days, but it’s because these characters are so well defined and because we spend so much time with them together that we believe in their relationship, because we truly see it unfold before our eyes; Anna and Kristoff simply aren’t given the time or focus, due to the film’s inability to decide what it wants its main story to be. I don’t believe that Anna and Kristoff are in love when I’ve barely seen them share any time together, nor do I feel especially close to Elsa or Olaf; the characters are just thrown together and expected to work, but it simply doesn’t – you can’t fake these kinds of bonds, they need to be earned.

Frozen should’ve just followed one plot, namely, Anna’s quest to find Elsa, where we watch her grow into a more confident and mature young woman and develop a legitimate relationship with Kristoff, while occasionally cutting away to Elsa, who should have served as the villain (more about that later) before being redeemed in the end. Instead, we have to deal with a whole subplot about Hans secretly being a villain as well as another tedious subplot about political subterfuge with the Duke of Weselton, whose character is COMPLETELY POINTLESS. This has a two-fold effect: firstly, it renders Elsa’s story arc meaningless, as despite the first act building her up as the villain, with her finally accepting her role as the monster and the outcast in “Let it Go”, this never goes anywhere because there isn’t enough time to have both her and Hans develop as villains, leaving her without a role to play for the majority of the film. Secondly, it means we have to keep cutting back to Arendelle to see Hans, the Duke and the townspeople, characters we don’t care about at all in a situation that isn’t interesting; this entire subplot is boring and harms the movie in more ways than one. Again, the film should’ve just stuck with the central idea of Anna’s journey to find and redeem Elsa, it wouldn’t have been anything all that original but at least it might have worked; instead, the film’s attempts to be clever backfire and it loses the opportunity to have a sympathetic and morally ambiguous villain, additionally rendering Elsa’s character and Anna’s brief journey to find her utterly inconsequential.

The best shot in the movie

The film’s characters are likeable, if, as said before, not well developed. The main couple is once again, taken from Tangled, Anna is like Rapunzel in almost every way, sweet, optimistic, isolated and a little socially inept but somehow she manages to charm everyone she meets. Anna is clearly an attempt to recapture Rapunzel’s endearing awkwardness, but at times it comes off as a little too forced; you can definitely tell that this was an outside decision rather than something inherent to the character and her awkwardness is initially played up to the point where, instead of being sweet, it becomes excessive and distracting. This is only really the case in the first act, however, after which things fall into a nice groove and the writers seem to get a better grip on Anna’s character; she still shares a lot with Rapunzel, but does manage to forge somewhat of an identity, her ditzy clumsiness being her most unique and endearing trait. Despite a few hiccups early on, Anna is sweet, charming (you can’t take this much from Rapunzel and not be) and is allowed to engage in a style of comedy that few other Disney princesses are; she’s definitely the best thing about the film. Appropriately enough, Kristoff is basically just Flynn, the only noticeable difference being his character design, and that he’s a little more negative and less fun-loving. Like Flynn he is a selfish, sarcastic loner who finds other people troublesome and is annoyed by the perky, naive protagonist but ultimately his heart is warmed by them; the foundation of Kristoff’s character is perfectly solid, but sadly he’s not given enough time to develop anything on top of that to distinguish him from Flynn in any way, a shame, because I think the idea of him being an isolated loner unused to human interaction could’ve made for some strong characterisation, as seen when he first meets Anna in the store. Unfortunately, this aspect of his character is quickly skipped over to make him friendly to Anna as soon as possible; if the film had focused more squarely on Anna and Kristoff’s adventures, this development could’ve been slower and more natural, allowing us to see more of Kristoff’s “Mountain Man” personality as well as a more believable growth of their romance, but as it is, he’s just okay.

Elsa is BORING, all she does is frown and whine, she’s barely any fun at all. What’s most disappointing about her is that the way things are set up, it looks like she’s going to be the film’s villain and an interesting one at that – an emotionally stunted outcast who, after being rejected for something she has no control over, turns against the world who shunned her. However, none of this build-up ever goes anywhere and Elsa spends most of the film out of focus or, in the few moments she’s actually onscreen, pacing around and moaning about how she can’t control her powers over and over again. This is especially weird considering how much focus is placed on this build-up, culminating in the very big and showy “Let it Go”, which kind of acts as her villain song, establishing that she’s going to use her powers however she wants and doesn’t care who gets in the way anymore, instilling her with a new sense of confidence; she even gets a costume change to highlight this! But when we next see her, she’s suddenly meek and unsure of herself again; this reflects the original intent to have Elsa be the film’s antagonist and doesn’t work for what she eventually became. Ultimately, I think Elsa is disappointing, she could’ve been an interesting and relatable antagonist with a strong connection to the protagonist, but instead she’s just a dull plot device to get the story moving; honestly, she doesn’t need to be there at all, the eternal winter could’ve easily been spawned by some kind of monster or natural magic and if you take that away from her, she doesn’t really have anything else to her. Elsa’s character is actually pretty pointless when you think about it. Olaf is appropriately cute and cuddly, despite his rather... unappealing design; he could have very easily been “The Hooter” of this movie and I certainly expected him to be, another goofy, magical creature sidekick who acts as the comic relief, he ticks pretty much all the boxes. Yet I was surprised by how little he got on my nerves, perhaps because of the fact that, instead of being loud and obnoxious, as so many of these types of characters are, Olaf is actually rather quiet and subdued, which lends itself better to some of his strange and scatterbrained behaviour; he’s hardly a laugh riot, but he’s fun enough and certainly could’ve been a lot worse. 

Hans is a bit of a mixed case, on the one hand the reveal of him as the villain is actually genuinely surprising and effective and he proves himself to be appropriately devious and cold, but on the other hand he spends most of the film faking a generic heroic role which is very boring to watch; the twist just comes a little too late in the game to really take full advantage of it, as the scene where Hans reveals his intentions to Anna and cruelly taunts her is a strong one, but after that he doesn’t really get much to do. Ultimately, I think Elsa should’ve been the film’s villain or, if they had to go with Hans, they should have tied him into the rest of the story better and had him be more directly behind the bad things that had been happening to the heroes, rather than having him be a selfish opportunist who just happened to get lucky and ran with it. The Trolls are insanely annoying, in the same way as the Gargoyles in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, only far, far worse; they feel like they’re out of a completely different movie, their designs don’t match the rest of the film’s, nor does their sense of humour or even the song they sing, I really don’t know what Disney were thinking when they put these guys in here. Even though they’re only in one scene, they’re so incredibly irritating that it really does a lot more damage than it should; an entire legion of little “Hooters”, one can only be grateful that these cretins aren’t around for long.

Elsa in a typically good mood

Frozen is another traditional musical, with a large selection of songs, mostly good, some not so good. The film opens with “Frozen Heart”, a rather dull number which feels a little out of place; it puzzles me that such a mediocre song was included at any point in the film, let alone the beginning, as it doesn’t do anything a good opening number should, quite the opposite, dulling enthusiasm from the very start and not setting a good tone for the rest of the film. “Do You Want to Build a Snowman” is a nice song with a good rhythm; it’s nothing special, but certainly acts as a much better opening number that helps get you into the world of the film and its characters. Soon afterward we have “For the First Time in Forever”, which is so similar to “When Will My Life Begin” from Tangled that it’s almost laughable, but it’s not a bad song, though it does feel like yet another opening number, which makes the film’s first fifteen minutes seem overstuffed. “Love is an Open Door” is a fun, if simple song; it’s nothing spectacular, but it’s got a good rhythm and some clever rhymes, I like it a lot. 

“Let it Go” is of course ridiculously overplayed, but it is still a genuinely a good song; I do think it feels a bit out of place with the rest of the soundtrack, being more of a big Broadway number that would be more at home in something like The Hunchback of Notre Dame – you can definitely tell it was written with Idina Menzel in mind, as it very much resembles the kind of songs she is famous for singing, particularly “Defying Gravity” from Wicked, with which it shares lyrical themes, as well as a similar sound. Ultimately, however, this proves to be a strength more than a weakness; “Let it Go” is the film’s showstopper and a great one at that. “Summer” is one of the more clever songs, with some delightfully playful lyrics and genuinely funny imagery, it’s short, but sweet. “Fixer Upper”, on the other hand, is painfully bad; it’s completely unnecessary, adding nothing to the film’s story or characterisation and is then totally brushed off literally the second it ends so I don’t even know why it’s here in the first place. The tune is admittedly a little catchy, but the lyrics are so repulsively bad it makes the song hard to enjoy; the songwriters obviously thought they were being very witty and clever with these line choices, but they reek of smug self-satisfaction and just aren’t funny at all. Add to that the fact that it’s sung by the awful Troll characters and you have a pretty bad song. Frozen has a few too many songs for its own good, shoehorning them in where they aren’t necessary, seemingly just for the sake of it and they’re very badly spread out, almost all clustered in the first act, rather than spaced evenly throughout the film. Even so, the songs that are good are very good and it’s clear that the songwriters put a lot of effort and love into writing these songs, even if they aren’t all winners.

DIE

Frozen is a movie I have mixed feelings about; on the one hand, I did enjoy it a lot and had a good time watching it, but on the other I couldn’t help but see the film’s many flaws and missed opportunities and at times it took me out of the movie. I’m pleased that this has been such a success for Disney and that’s it’s bringing in critical respect and a wider audience that had lost interest in Disney films, but it frustrates and disappoints me that this film’s huge surge in popularity hasn’t led to people looking back to older or more obscure Disney films they might have missed, which they’re now willing to give a shot because of how much they enjoyed this one, but instead, there has emerged this strange and false attitude that this is the only Disney film that’s been any good in a long time. I have seen phrases like ‘best Disney movie in twenty years’ or ‘first good Disney movie since The Lion King’ bandied about in reviews and around the internet and it puzzles me, Frozen isn’t even the best Disney movie in three years; of course this is subjective, but to make such sweeping, ill-informed statements means that a lot of good Disney movies that were released after a certain point are going to fade even further into obscurity and considered no good – the world at large seems to have decided that between The Lion King and Frozen, there’s nothing worth watching. This encourages people not to look into Disney films they might’ve missed, or misjudged on the first viewing, films like the majestic and grandiose The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the unique and exciting Atlantis: The Lost Empire, the refreshingly stereotype-free Lilo & Stitch and, perhaps most of all, the wonderful Tangled. Tangled is still a relatively new Disney movie, only a few years old and while people seemed to like it when it came out, it has been all but forgotten; Frozen has stolen its thunder, by being so similar in so many ways and being seen by such a wider audience, Frozen has displaced Tangled in people’s minds, compounded with claims that if it came out three years before Frozen, it probably wasn’t very good. I worry that Tangled will be forgotten, or remembered only as “worse Frozen”, which couldn’t be further from the truth. 

Frozen IS a good movie, the animation is nice, the songs are mostly good and the characters are decent, but it owes so much to Tanged and succeeds in spite of its messy and poorly plotted story because of this. I’m happy to say Frozen’s a good film, I’m happy to sing “Let it Go” with everyone else, I’m glad people enjoy it so much and I even I must admit that, despite finding most of the film good, but not great, I did find myself charmed by the immensely likeable character of Anna, who really is the heart of the film, but let’s not pretend it’s anything that it isn’t and let’s not make sweeping statements like ‘it’s the first good Disney movie for 20 years’. It’s reductive and it’s hurtful. Disney has a wide and wonderful history of films, don’t let hyperbole and misinformation stop you from discovering them; for every Chicken Little, there’s a The Princess and the Frog, for every Home on the Range, a The Emperor’s New Groove, don’t let the few bad seeds ruin years of film. When all is said and done, Frozen is hardly the best Disney movie and not even the best in a few years, but it’s hardly a bad one either; I might not be happy about the culture that’s sprung up around it, but I can’t deny that I really do like it. 

7/10


Next time: Big Hero 6!

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