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“Frozen” is still fresh in January

Matthew Sychantha
Connector Editor

“Frozen” has been a long time in the making. Legend has it that decades ago, Walt Disney put a considerable effort into realizing its origin story, “The Snow Queen,” but left the project unfinished on his deathbed, not to be picked up for decades. Over time, it would get touched by a multitude of filmmakers, but for one reason or another it got a pass.

This modern adaptation was probably not based off Walt’s or those other filmmaker’s notes. Instead, the beginning of this production began before Tangled. As it started, the script of “Frozen” was nearly finished when Idina Menzel, famous for her Broadway role in Wicked, sang her villain song in such a sympathetic way that the script was rewritten to unmake her character the villain and focus more on a character driven plot.

What remains is a tight character-driven story that uses it’s ensemble pieces to their fullest. Exposition is kept to a minimum to allow breathing room for the cast to interact, and not a moment is wasted in story telling details, with traditional Disney musical numbers serving to both drive and foreshadow the plot.

But what about the musical numbers? Menzel bursts out like a star in her first song, and the movie is apt to let her by giving her three songs.

It’s Kristen Bell that’s the musical surprise, however. Holding her own against Menzel in duets, she belts out numbers with such power, you might actually believe she is the sister of a Broadway legend.

The rest of the cast doesn’t let down either, as the movie lets character shine through in their performances both vocally and acting wise. So subtle are the actual performances that rewatching adds bonus realizations, especially for the actual villain.

In traditional Disney movie style, the visuals are well done, imaginative and full of life. Ice structures rise and look like real magic, and when seen in 3D, it looks like a symphony sounds.

Also of note is the level of detail that went into the film. Ice harvesting techniques and other traditional workarounds common to the period are done correctly. Facial expressions and characters are well designed and every frame feels lovingly designed by animators by hand.

That said, the movie is not all traditional Disney bells and whistles. Like all recent Disney movies since “Princess and the Frog,” “Frozen” takes traditional Disney elements and turns them on their heads to surprise viewers who grew up on Disney movies. I won’t get into that here, but the biggest element at play is the value of listening closer to what’s being said and pondering it.

In all, “Frozen” is a fun, rewarding rollercoaster of an adventure with added bonuses to repeated watchings. If you get nothing else, you’ll end up singing about half the soundtrack when you leave.