I was raised on Disney animated movies, but I checked out around the time of The Lion King. I'm still not sure why The Lion King is as popular as it is. The only part I enjoyed was when Rafiki went kung-fu on some punks. But I digress. Since Pixar took over Disney, I've been more inclined to see Disney animated movies. Pixar has a better history of written material, though they have been slipping recently. Let's all hope Diseny hasn't negatively infected Pixar.
I can't remember exactly why I was originally interested in seeing Frozen. Might have been the involvement of Josh Gad. I know that "Let It Go" hadn't gotten popular yet. (I could go the rest of my life without hearing "Let It Go" again and be happy. There hasn't been a more overrated Disney song since The Lion King. On the other hand, "Do You Wanna Build a Snowman" brings tears every time.)
Frozen is a bit of a strange movie. Parts of it seem like it is set in a normal world, but then there's the random princess with unlimited ice powers and a village of sage rock trolls. The princess in question, Elsa, has trouble controlling her powers and hurts her younger sister, Anna, causing their parents to lock Elsa away so the sisters grow up with little contact. Unfortunately the parents die in a shipwreck, leaving Elsa as queen. But Elsa's coronation, the first interaction with the outside world for both sisters, goes horribly wrong, causing Elsa to freak out and plunge the kingdom into eternal winter.
I am not a huge musical fan, as such I thought there were too many songs here. That said, some songs were emotionally charged and effective, such as "Snowman." In all honesty, "Let It Go" is good in context, but it gets really tiresome when every person in the world thinks they have license to sing it.
For the plot, I did not like the turn in Hans' character. It comes out of nowhere, is a cliche turn, and makes little sense when looking at other parts of the plot. If he really wanted Elsa out of the way, he should have let the two guys kill her. Bringing her back to the castle alive only to have her stand trial and die makes little sense to me.
Likewise, I hate when Anna into ice only to have her thaw out once the audience thinks it is too late. It's a dirty filmmaking trick, used entirely too often. I remember it being used in Brave as well. Oh, spoiler alert, everyone lives happily ever after. I know I just ruined it for you.
Josh Gad is great. Wish I had seen him in Book of Mormon. I've been watching this guy since he was in the show Back to You on Fox with Kelsey Grammar. He's been in a bunch of mediocre stuff. Enjoyed The Rocker, not sure what he was doing in Love and Other Drugs (that's the writer's fault, not Gad's).
First Viewing: 3+2+2+3+2 = 12