FROZEN Review

Frozen is all about defying expectation and convention. Looking at the marketing campaign for the film you really don't get much of a sense of what the story is (very similar to Pixar's usual tactics in fact) and what we do gather from the commercials we've seen and the pictures plastered all over Wal*Mart and Target is that this is more than likely a new Princess tale from Disney looking to capitalize on the good will of both Tangled and Wreck-It Ralph as those two films have come to be revered with much more excitement than anything Pixar has produced in the past few years. Going into the film, I wasn't overly sure of what I was getting myself into, but the early word of mouth that praised it as being the best Disney animated film since Beauty & the Beast or the The Lion King was certainly something that caught my attention. If nothing else, I was now curious to see how the film would measure up against these other films that shaped my childhood and are nothing short of classics in my mind. Frozen does indeed fit nicely into the library of what Disney has brought us before in terms of beautifully realized castles and princesses with funny supporting characters to lean on and charming princes or underdogs that rise to the occasion, but as I said earlier it is also all about defying those expectations and it is those variations on the structure, those added moments where the characters within the film look at each other as if to say what every grown-up in the audience is thinking, that make this all the more delightful and all the more fulfilling than simply being another knock-off of the early princess stories that made Disney the brand that it is.  Disney animated films have always been able to transcend age groups and trends, but what makes this film work along with its past couple of efforts that differentiate it from something like Treasure Planet is that it is no longer trying to be cool or stay with the times, but is instead playing by its own rules and letting the magic flow without any caution as to what might be widely accepted and in return is being rewarded handsomely.

First Full Trailer for DISNEY'S FROZEN

Since the inception of Pixar one has had to unfortunately be rather hesitant when approaching a film strictly produced by the parent company that once ran the market of childrens animated films. As their animated feature run started to dwindle after 2002's Lilo & Stitch with Treasure Planet, Brother Bear, and Home on the Range failing to capture that once inherent magic the studio also had a hard time competing with Pixar when they began producing computer animated flicks. With the one-two punch of Tangled and Wreck-It Ralph though is seems Disney animation studios is back in the game and with their latest feature on the horizon we have finally received our first full glimpse at what we can expect from Frozen. Once again, the animation looks really impressive and the characters, who look much like the humans of Tangled, seem cute and funny enough with the comic relief and likely hot toy of the season this Christmas being Josh Gad's Snow Man named Olaf. What really excited me about the trailer though is that it seems to have the tone of a Disney film from when I was a kid. It looks to have the adventure aspect of something like Aladdin and the romance of a Beauty and the Beast or Lady & the Tramp. I'm not saying it will end up being as good as those films as the trailer is a bit more cheesy than I'd expected, but it has that kind of energy to it. This and the fact the film is directed by Chris Buck (Tarzan) and Jennifer Lee (Wreck-It Ralph) and is said to feature musical numbers that hopefully have a score to match the greats of the studios past works. Frozen features the voices of Kristen Bell, Jonathan Groff, Idina Menzel, Alan Tudyk, Santino Fontana, Chris Williams and opens in 3D on November 27th.