Frozen

Disney and their princess. This time there are two more to add to this season's gift giving for the young girls in the family. Directed by Chris Buck who wrote the story with Shane Morris and Jennifer Lee who wrote the screenplay, it's loosely inspired by the Hans Christian Andersen story “The Snow Queen”. The computer animated adventure in 3D with music by Christophe Beck offers the classic Disney holiday movie for the whole family.

Anna (Kristen Bell) and her older sister Elsa (Idina Menzel) were best friends and playmates when they were young. But an unfortunate accident involving the magical powers manipulating ice from Elsa's hand injures her younger sister. The king and queen take their children to the trolls who look like rocks when at rest, who remove Anna's magic and her memories. The king tries to teach Elsa to control her powers, but she is wracked with guilt and the girls are forced to stay away from each other as well as from the other people in their kingdom of Arendelle. When their parents are lost at sea, Elsa must be crowned queen when she turns of age. That means the gates of the castle will be open to everyone. Anna, a happy go lucky young woman is thrilled with her new freedom and the prospects of a party. She sings a song about maybe finding Mr. Right. (Really in this day and age, why do the female characters in Disney movies seem obsessed in finding a man?) She cute meets Hans (Santino Fontana), a prince of the southern seas and the youngest of 12 brothers. He proposes to Anna and her sister opposes it, because it doesn't make sense. Plus she is freaked out thinking any minute her out of control powers will scare the populace. But Anna, upset with not being able to understand the reason for the separation from her sibling pushes Elsa's buttons, and Elsa's temper gets the better of her, bringing down winter to the summer lands. Frightened when she's accused of being a sorcerer, she escapes and creates an ice castle in the mountains. She also decides to embrace her icy self. Her transformation turns her into a sexy Snow Queen. (Really the swaying hips was a bit much).

Anna decides to go after her leaving Prince Hans to watch the kingdom. She runs into Kristoff (Jonathan Groff) a mountain man who sells ice with the help of his reindeer Sven. She gets him to help her find the ice castle. They also team up with what will be everyone's favorite character, Olaf a snowman (Josh Gad). Elsa had unwittingly created him. He's a huge source of funny bits and imaginative songs. Meanwhile the Duke of Weselton (Alan Tudyk) wants to get rid of the queen.

The music is very catching with really amazing voices, especially Broadway vet Idina Menzel, The songs are very clever and convey the situations and the angst of the estranged sisters. There's some nice action sequences at the end which doesn't really follow what would be normally expected with the male character swooping in at the last minute to save the day. That was a nice change of pace. The animation is outstanding and for once the 3D effects is worth the extra price theaters tack on the ticket prices.
(Review by reesa)