After Queen Elsa’s (Idina Menzel) icy powers inadvertently trap the town of Arendelle in an eternal winter, Elsa’s sister Anna (Kristen Bell) teams up with man of the mountain Kristoff (Jonathon Groff) and snowman Olaf (Josh Gad) to track down Elsa and return summer to Arendelle.
With the huge success of Disney Pixar films over the past two decades, it can be easy to forget that Disney are capable of creating some pretty great films on their own, and Frozen is a perfect case in point.
The Mouse House has made a concerted effort to include strong female protagonists in recent years and Frozen continues this trend. Elsa and Anna have very different personalities but are both very headstrong and perfect for young girls to look up to.
In terms of the other characters, the only other real standout is Olaf the snowman. Whilst largely incidental to the film’s plot, Olaf provides much of the film’s humour and it’s impossible to imagine the film being as successful without him.
As you’d expect, Frozen is sprinkled with some fantastic musical numbers with highlight ‘Let It Go’ sure to have you humming away for days afterwards.
Although likely to be more seasonal than most other Disney films, Frozen is very much in the mould of other established Disney stories, such as Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. However, it feels plenty original enough to sit proudly alongside those classics.
Terry Malloy's Pigeon Coop 
I saw the trailer for this and thought it looked average, but since then everyone as raved about it, so I will definitely get round to watching this soon I think.
To be honest, I thought the exact same thing about the trailer, I really wasn’t keen. But I actually really enjoyed it, the trailer doesn’t do it justice.
Such a great movie, really enjoyed this one and can’t wait to give it a rewatch. Olaf was hilarious.
Yeah I’d like to give it another watch at some point and I agree, Olaf was great.
I’m not a big fan of animated films but this one looks really cute. Hopefully I’ll cry less than during Brave, that was really embarrassing 🙂
So. I also cried, embarrassingly so, during Brave. (I cry at any movie with a modicum of emotion in it though. What can I say? I’m an unabashed and unashamed softie.)
But. I cried more during Frozen. Hopefully you’re stronger than me. 🙂
Nothing wrong with that! I don’t think I’ve ever cried during a film, which probably means I have no heart or something 🙂
Or it means you don’t wear your emotions on your sleeve like I do, broadcasting them to the entire world. 🙂
That’s probably a good thing.
Oh God. Well, then I’ll definitely weep 🙂 i cannot imagine anything making me cry harder out of 2013 than that damn Captain Phillips’ ending.
Yeah. That ending was killer. 🙂
I haven’t seen Brave but I reckon there might be a couple of moments in Frozen that might make you tear up. I’m not a crier though so I could be wrong! 🙂
Nice review! My kiddos have been wanting to see this one. I’ve heard good things about it and it’s certainly doing well at the box office.
Thanks man. I reckon the kids will love this, plenty for them to enjoy. It lacks the ‘adult’ humour that comes with some Pixar films but I still think there’s plenty for adults to enjoy here too.
Agreed. This is a great movie.
Certainly is 🙂
I’m right with you on this one, Chris. I think I even give it the same rating on my review of it on LTBM. It reminded me a lot of Tangled, even major elements of the plot are the same. Where did you have this ranked in all animated films last year? I had it at no. 2, just behind Monsters University. Nice review!
I haven’t actually seen Tangled so can’t make the comparison but I’ll try and check it out at some point. I didn’t catch all the animated films from last year, I missed Despicable Me 2 but I’d agree with you that out of the ones I saw I reckon I’d have this just behind Monsters University.
Great review. Really want to see this one, but I think I’ll have to wait until it hits home video because every showing here in town is dubbed in Spanish. UGH.
Thanks man. That sucks, definitely worth waiting then I reckon. Hope you manage to catch it at some point.
I’ll look for it. Maybe one of these days I can go to San Diego and catch it there.
Great review Chris; you make some very sound points. I am looking forward to this 🙂
Thanks Mark. A good little flick this one, classic Disney!
Sometimes you just can’t beat an animated film.
True dat! I love an animated film and this is a really good one, especially if you’re a fan of Disney films.
Love this one too! i agree with you it has a quality of a classic at least more than Brave or Tangled in my honest opinion 😀
I haven’t actually seen Brave or Tangled but I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Reminded me of the Disney of old 🙂
Great quickie. I thought it was solid, but not as great as Tangled. And you mention the musical numbers (like everyone has lol) but one thing that bugged me was that they completely stopped after the 2/3rd mark. I wanted more songs!
Cheers Nick! You know, I did think the exact same thing about the songs in that they did just disappear. I was expecting a big musical number to finish on and was pretty surprised when it didn’t happen.
Probably the best animated-flick of the year for many reasons, but the main one being that it can entertain almost any and all people that go out to see this. Kids, parents, friends, relatives, you name it. Anybody can have a good time with this movie, and that’s what movies themselves are all about. Good review.
Thanks Dan. Yeah this definitely isn’t just a movie for kids and that’s what great about most Disney movies.
I adore this movie, which was quite a big surprise to me since I hadn’t paid much attention to it. I love Anna, I thought she was a pretty strong character, and Olaf is hilarious! It’s currently in my top 5 as I love it so much.
Really liked that this made your top 5 of 2013, it definitely deserves a lot of love. I wasn’t expecting a massive amount from it as I didn’t really think much of the trailer but I was pleasantly surprised 🙂
Well it won the Golden Globes for Best Animationlast night! I live-tweeted it as I updated my coverage post, was so happy that it won, but lost out for Best Song 😦
Can’t argue with it winning, it deserved it! I think it should have won best song though, I’m still humming that one!
Great review, this film was a very pleasant surprise for the winter and I loved the music 😀
Cheers Tim. It was a pleasant surprise for me too and I agree the music was great!
Everyone seems to be loving this – a colleague at work today was saying how much she loved it just as much as her young son did. I better check it out! Thanks for the review!
Thanks Dan, definitely worth a watch this one, particularly if you have little ones. And even if you don’t it’s still great!
I didn’t love it as much as Tangled, but it was very charming and a lot of fun.
Olaf didn’t annoy me either, which is surprising consider I usually hate Josh Gad.
Lovely review.
Thanking you! I really need to check out Tangled, there’s been lots of love for it in these comments.
Oh, you must! It’s such a charming film.
Loved the nostalgic style of this one with a modern twist. Really enjoyed the short that came before the movie ‘Get A Horse’ – it outshone the main event for me! Brilliant evidence of what Disney can do.
It was great, wasn’t it? And I really enjoyed the short too. I loved the fact it was Mickey Mouse! I thought Disney had completely forgotten about him!