Review of "Frozen"

I don't intend for movie reviews to be a big part of this blog, but now and then, as I run across something noteworthy, sure I'll write a review. Why not?

So, I took the kids to see Frozen a couple of weekends ago. The verdict? Thumbs up - we all liked it a lot.

Frozen fits nicely into the Disney canon of Princess Movies. The setting is some vague, unspecified Scandinavian country during some vague, unspecified Napoleanic-ish era. Against this sort of generic Northern European backdrop a simple tale of family - namely, sisterly - love unfolds.

It's a pretty straightforward storyline. It goes from A to B to C with not much in the way of twists, turns, or surprises. The Princess and the Frog, Tangled, and Brave are all more complex in comparison, but what Frozen may be lacking in terms of a complex storyline it most surely has in extraordinary visuals and in great musical numbers.

That's right, Frozen has songs - and great songs too! Me and my kids found ourselves going on YouTube to hear the tunes over again, and then, having the songs lodged in our heads, spontaneously breaking out into song, singing them over and over together throughout the day. Several of them are quite catchy, and as you would expect from Disney, the lyrics are irresistibly and relentlessly positive and uplifiting.

As I also mentioned, the visuals are wonderful. So many films aren't worth the ticket price of seeing them in theaters, especially when so many movies can be found online for free, but Frozen is an example of a flick worth seeing in its natural habitat - the theater. We did the whole thing up properly - going to a nice theater with reserved seating, splurging on snacks, and then taking the whole thing happily and with wide eyes. I've never seen snow and winter rendered so beautifully. No detail was neglected, and the entire visual experience was rich and deligthful to take in.

Criticisms? Well, as I said before, the story is quite simple with not much in the way of complexity or surprises. Brave and Tangled feel more developed in comparison, and they're not exactly complicated stories either.

But I obviously liked the movie and I recommend it. In fact, I liked it enough to go out and buy my youngest a Frozen figurine playset - a topic definitely under the purview of this site!