Frozen- 4 Stars

Theatrical Release Poster

There are various different verdicts on Frozen. Some people think it is 'the bestest film ever' (mostly 6 year old girls), some people think it's good but by no means brilliant and others think it is the most overrated film of 2013.This post is going to be a little different than the others as instead of doing a straightforward review I will instead analyse how a fairly good but by no means outstanding film has managed to become the highest grossing animated film ever and the fifth highest grossing film of all time. I will compare it to other Disney films in attempt to explore why Frozen has proved so much more popular than other similar Disney films such as Tangled or Beauty and the Beast.

For those few of you who haven't seen Frozen the basic plot is that the princess/queen of Arendelle, Elsa (Idina Menzel), has magic ice powers which she can't control which results in her accidentally causing an eternal winter on the kingdom. Her sister Anna (Kristen Bell) then sets out to go and find her joined by a nutcase mountain man, Kristoff (Jonathon Groff) who talks to his reindeer Sven and a talking snowman called Olaf (Josh Gad).

First of all- what makes a film successful? Well the main factors are plot, character and whether it looks good or not. To back this up I invite you to take a look at the list of highest grossing films of all time- 1st is Avatar, 2nd Titanic, 3rd the Avengers and 4th the final Harry Potter. What are the major reasons for the success of these films? Well let's go through the list again-
 1) Avatar- people got caught up in the wonderful looking world and all the amazing images, they wanted to revisit the world of Pandora time after time- special effects
 2) Titanic- the love story was the major reason for success here, with millions (not sure if that's an exaggeration or not) of teenage girls going to see the tragic young lovers again, and again...and again- characters
 3) The Avengers- characters. That's got to be obvious right? People went to go and see their favourite comic book heroes form an epic team. The plot was nothing special and neither were the effects but people went to see it because of the characters and the interaction between them- characters
 4) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2- as the climax and resolution of the Harry Potter franchise I would argue that it was the plot that brought people to see this film as they wanted to know the ending to the saga. There is an argument for characters but then why did the other films in the series make less money despite having the same characters- especially as the final film was more action than character orientated as compared to, say, the Half Blood Prince- plot

Elsa performing Let it Go- the award winning music
 is another reason for the film's success

Frozen was made on a budget of $150 million budget by a major, specialist-animation studio so of course it is going to pass the technical aspect with flying colours and truly, it does look amazing (just look at the snow). But as so many films now look amazing there must be something else in Frozen other than its look that makes it so popular. A film must have truly special special effects to make it successful based solely upon that (*cough* Avatar and Gravity *cough*) In fact the secret to making a successful film is by getting people to want to see it over and over again. You hear stories about people who fell so in love with the world in Avatar that they went to see about 100 different times. A survey of several different viewings of Frozen found that over 50% of viewers had already seen Frozen once and that about a third had already seen it twice. So what is it about Frozen that makes people want to see it over and over again? To my mind there are two reasons- the characters and the story.

 In my opinion it is the characters that have made Frozen as successful as it is. The winning combination that they have found is actually a fairly standard Disney formula with a slight twist. Let's break it down into individual characters shall we:

Anna- quirky, pretty standard female hero. Feels trapped in the palace and wants to escape/'open up the gates'. There is nothing very original about her and she can be compared to several other classic Disney movie feminine heroes- Belle from Beauty and the Beast (wants to escape her boring provincial life), Jasmine from Aladdin (wants to escape her palace) and Ariel from the Little Mermaid (wants to leave the sea to explore the land/find her handsome prince) to name a few famous ones. However, despite her lack of originality she is likable and appeals to a wide audience from little girls to parents watching with their kids.

Elsa- Elsa is the more intriguing character here and certainly the most original. Whilst Anna, Kristoff and Olaf have all been done before Elsa is the first majorly conflicted and possibly depressed Disney princess. She appeals not only to a teenage audience who can relate to her struggle of being misunderstood but also to adults who may enjoy the increased complexity of the character. Oh and to little kids because of her cool ice powers (get the joke? 'cool ice powers' yeah okay I won't become a comedian any time soon).

Kristoff- typical male hunk. Relationship with Anna is almost a cut and paste job of Rapunzel and Flynn from Tangled. Does anyone like really love this character? I don't think so... Basically he isn't the reason this film was so loved.

'I'm Olaf and I like warm hugs'
- Olaf the talking Snowman

Olaf- Okay I have a bit of a confession to make- I like Olaf and I find him funny. Right now I've got that out of the way I can say how completely unoriginal he is and how his presence is basically there to sell cuddly Olaf toys (apparently they're very good for warm hugs). That said, in Josh Gad Disney have found a star. Without his voice acting I think Olaf would be unbearably annoying and that seriously could have tipped the film into the category of bad and irritating quite quickly. Seriously, Olaf was a big risk because if he had become annoying rather than cute the whole film could have been ruined (a little like Jar Jar Binks from Star Wars). So Olaf's cuteness is certainly a major factor in this film and, although the talking sidekick has been done before, Olaf is funny and puts a nice spin on it.

Prince Hans- Okay so to write about this character I'm going to have to spoil the ending so if you're one of the few people left on the planet who haven't seen Frozen and may possibly want to, skip to the next paragraph. SPOILER ALERT. So Hans turns out to be the movie's bad guy. I love this twist because it really satirises the whole 'love at first sight' crap which Disney have been churning out since the dawn of time. But is it a popular decision? I think it is for two reasons. Firstly, the shock of the twist makes the audience go 'dayum, I did not see that coming' That reaction should usually draw the audience more into the film- unpredictability is a good thing. Secondly, I think most people would agree with me about the love at first sight thing. When I first watched I was like 'no that's so stupid' when they both agreed to get married after like a day. The fact that Anna develops a convincing relationship with Kristoff is ultimately a more realistic and satisfying than a love at first sight thing. People can relate to it more. I don't know- maybe I'm just being an old cynic but I liked the way they rubbished the whole 'love at first sight' thing.

Elsa and Anna- is sisterhood the key
to this film's success?

So I've gone through the characters one by one but I still haven't touched what I believe is the biggest factor in the film's success. Pretty much every Disney film ever has two core relationships within the film, one major and one minor. Usually the major one is a romance between the lead and a love interest. The other is usually a friend or family member. A good example of this is Aladdin. The main relationship is the one between Aladdin and Jasmine and the minor one Aladdin and the Genie. Other examples include Beauty and the Beast (Belle/Beast, Belle/her father), The Little Mermaid (Ariel/Prince Eric, Ariel/her father) and The Hunchback of Notre Damme (Esmerelda/Quasimodo, Esmerelda/Phoebus). Tangled already broke this pattern slightly by having the minor relationship, that of Rapunzel and her mother, a negative one (Rapunzel's 'mother' is actually the film's antagonist). In Frozen the formula is switched round. Instead of the romantic interest being the major relationship in the film it becomes the relationship between the two sisters. Not only does this break the usual Disney formula but it also is quite unique in that there are very few major sibling relationships in Disney films. This sibling relationship is also appealing to a whole range of people, from angsty teens to excited toddlers. I would say, therefore, that the way the relationships are presented, as well as the characters, are a major factor in the film's success.

Moving onto the plot- I feel this part of the film is probably its weakest. It feels a little contrived, especially the conclusion. I cringed unbearably at the end when Elsa says 'Love thaws, of course love!'. Really? Now when I pointed this out to my mum, her response was 'Well it's a Disney movie- of course it's going to be cheesey'. Well to that dear mother I have 2 responses (as always): firstly, as we've already seen throughout the film, the Disney formula has been twisted and manipulated in so many different ways that saying it's a Disney film is a fairly void expression now. Secondly, there are actually Disney films out there which don't have cringe inducing endings, like Tangled or Beauty and the Beast (on that note can I just point out the fantastic screen writing in Tangled: in the scene where she is reunited with her parents there is no dialogue. That is brilliant. We don't need her parents to say 'I've missed you' or whatever to understand that they've missed her. It treats the audience with respect and doesn't come out with any cringe inducing dialogue. Well done Tangled).

Why was Frozen more successful than Tangled?

Anyway back to Frozen (sorry I got sidetracked). My other problem with the ending of the film is that it's so predictable. Like everyone could guess Anna was going to save Elsa and that would be the act of true love. This makes for unsatisfying viewing, or does for me anyway. Disney has a mixed track record with this. On the one hand, at the end of Beauty and the Beast, it's so completely predictable that Beast will survive (spoilers soz). But in Aladdin, who could predict the way that Jafar would be defeated until it was happening? So with that in mind I think that nulls the 'but it's a Disney thing to be predictable' argument because as we can see that is not always the case. Besides, this movie has already shown that it wants to be a little outside the box with its antagonist (don't want to spoil anything but those who have watched it will know what I mean).

So, in conclusion, it is the relatable nature of the characters, combined with the shift in focus from romance to sisterhood that has made Frozen so successful. Oh yeah and a certain cute snowman might have something to do with it as well...

I will rate the film despite not really analysing how good it is in a critical sense-

Ratings: Entertainment: 9 Technical: 5 Intelligence: 3= 17/20 ****

Note: I have given it intelligence 3 relative to a Disney film. I just think that it does reuse some similar themes from other Disney films (feeling trapped, love etc) it does put its own spin on them and Elsa's character is one of the most unique and complex characters Disney has created in a long time.







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