Frozen | Film review - Disney gives chilly fairy tale The Snow Queen a glossy, girl-power makeover

By
( )
published
Frozen Elsa voiced by Idina Menzel
(Image credit: daram)

Disney gives Hans Christian Anderson's chilly fairy tale The Snow Queen a glossy, girl-power makeover with hit animated musical Frozen - a $1billion global blockbuster that bagged Oscars for Best Animation and Best Song.

The studio's take on the story turns it into a tale of two orphaned princesses - chirpy optimist Anna (Kristen Bell) and her tormented sister Elsa (Idina Menzel), who flees into self-imposed exile after her icy powers cast her kingdom into eternal winter.

Anna's snowy quest to save her sibling - helped by hunky ice merchant Kristoff (Jonathan Goff) and his trusty reindeer Sven - is accompanied by enchanting visuals and show-stopping tunes. Big-lunged Broadway diva Menzel claims the film's vocal honours with her rousing Oscar-winning ballad 'Let It Go', but stealing the movie outright is comic relief Josh Gad's winningly goofy talking snowman - who is too dim to realise that longing for the arrival of summer is not particularly wise for one of his kind.

starstrip4[1]

Certificate PG. Runtime 108 mins. Directors Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee.

Released on DVD, Blu-ray and Digital Download on Monday 31st March by The Walt Disney Company.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbQm5doF_Uc

 

CATEGORIES
Jason Best
Jason Best

A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.