Ryan_Barbakins Review of Frozen

Frozen (I) (2013)

Nostalgic Disney film with questionable characters

[7/10 · 20 November 2019]

Frozen is a good film. Not amazing, and defiantly not the best since the Lion King, but it is a good film. The story is quite obviously reminiscent of the Renaissance era of Disney, and it does a great job at reviving that energy. However, of course with Disney trying to stay fresh, the film challenges some of the ideologies of the 90s Disney films. Some work, some don't. Anna, Christoff and Olaf are a great comedic trio. They all have their own set of goals (other than olaf who is quite obviously just there for comic relief) and their disagreements become amusing because of this. That's probably the best I can say about the characters, because the other two main characters of the film aren't all that great. Let's start with Elsa: At a young age, she was locked into isolation by her parents to keep Anna away from her dangerous powers. Once their parents died, or better yet, once Anna was no longer a child, Elsa should reveal her powers to Anna, because keeping it a secret is no longer going to help her. But instead she waits until the worst time possible, causing her to run away from her problems, and everyone who is willing to help her. If Elsa had just revealed her powers, then Anna and Elsa's relationship could have been built up stronger, causing the "act of true love" scene at the end to be much more powerful. As Olaf describes true love, it is "putting someone else's needs before theirs." Elsa NEVER does this in the movie. Also how on earth did hugging Anna stop the frozen summer? It was made quite obvious that Elsa's powers are controlled by her anxiety, but loving your sister does not kill your anxiety. However, Elsa is not the worst character in the film. That goes to the villain of this film. Hans. So for the entire movie, Hans is, and therefore acts, as if he is Anna's humble boyfriend who wants to protect her. However in the last 15 minutes of the film, it is revealed that he is actually an evil psychopathic murderer who is trying to commit treason. Literally every action before this reveal presents Hans as a very different character. And yes, I know it is because he is acting, but in the times he isn't acting, like when he smiles at Anna after falling in the water, he is still being the "nice" Hans. Also, if his plan was to eventually kill Elsa, then why did he save her life from those two guys trying to murder her? All he had to do was let them kill her, and then deal with Anna when he gets back to the Castle. Despite all of this criticism, I still think this movie is good. The story is compelling, the good characters are cute, even some of the comedy is pretty good. I like what they were trying to do, with making the villain the man Anna had just fallen in love with, and with Anna having her sister break the ice spell, but in the context of the story, it doesn't necessarily work well. Which is a shame since it could have easily been fixed with a better script and character writing. Frozen 2 is coming out this Friday, and I judging by the trailers, it looks much more mature and will deal more with Elsa's character. It honestly looks great, and I'm excited to see it. Let's just hope it isn't ruined with questionable character writing.