Frozen
Ok, I saw Disney's Frozen* the day before yesterday, and when I came out of the theater- incidentally, when there was a light rain falling that sounded like ice, very fitting- I felt it was a pretty good movie.
And then for the next few days, when I think back to it I keep remembering good bits, and other people keep mentioning little touches that make me go, "oh, oh yea! They did do that!". So I'm going to upgrade it to a very good movie :)
This is going to be a spoiler-free review, btw, so be not afraid :)
To begin with, it stars two sisters, Princesses, in what's basically 17th century Norway. One of them, Elsa, has ice powers, born with them, weak at first, but getting stronger with age and hard to control, and the other is our protagonist, Anna. I've heard it called the first truly feminist Disney Princess movie, and the two female leads definitely are the core of that argument. Anna herself is a very driven character who leads the action in most of the scenes she's in with the male characters.
The two sisters and their relationship is the core of the movie, and what a strong core it was. The other characters are well done as well, but Elsa and Anna are both great characters who carry the film with their personalities and conflict. Elsa also has the honor of being that very rare thing, a Disney *Queen*!
I do feel some of the background characters could've been expanded into bit parts, just to flesh the cast out a bit, but that's not much of a complaint all in all.
Oh, and speaking of complaints, or specifically lack thereof, many people who saw the trailers went in expecting to hate the talking snowman. And, just like most of these people, I didn't :) I mean, he's not my favorite character, but he does have some good jokes, and the kids in the theater clearly loved him. So, kudos.
The other sidekick? A reindeer, who [i]doesn't[/i] talk. He just has a human who's on his own enough to talk for him. Which is in itself, a pretty great skewering of the 'talking animal sidekick' thing. There's a surprising amount of subtle subversion of things like that in this film all around. Some of which is spoilery, and some of which is bigger spoilery and *great*!
The visuals are spectacular. As one person put it, the movie's more creative with ice in one musical number than Legend of Korra is the entire show. And ice aside, the colors and setting are well done, with snow it'd be all too easy to make things boring and same-y but even with the white places stood out and there was a variety in the terrain. The costume color choices show a lot of thought as well.
Finally, the music. "Let It Go," the main song of the film, is fantastic, I bought it on iTunes after seeing the film, and have played it quite a few times since. There's also a couple other good songs in there, and no clunkers.
My rating: A. It and Wreck-it Ralph are my two favorite Disney animated movies at the moment, and it's supplanted Mulan as my favorite Disney Princess movie. I recoomend it!
*Not to be confused with the five other films named Frozen, including two in 2010 alone, and no two on the same subject! In order, they are Chinese Performance Artist Frozen, Psychological Thriller/Murder Mystery Frozen, Indian Drama Frozen, 'Caught on a Ski Chairlift' Frozen, and Hong Kong Romance Frozen. Surprisingly, Disney's Frozen is the first to take the fairy tail theme or throw someone with ice powers into the mix!
And then for the next few days, when I think back to it I keep remembering good bits, and other people keep mentioning little touches that make me go, "oh, oh yea! They did do that!". So I'm going to upgrade it to a very good movie :)
This is going to be a spoiler-free review, btw, so be not afraid :)
To begin with, it stars two sisters, Princesses, in what's basically 17th century Norway. One of them, Elsa, has ice powers, born with them, weak at first, but getting stronger with age and hard to control, and the other is our protagonist, Anna. I've heard it called the first truly feminist Disney Princess movie, and the two female leads definitely are the core of that argument. Anna herself is a very driven character who leads the action in most of the scenes she's in with the male characters.
The two sisters and their relationship is the core of the movie, and what a strong core it was. The other characters are well done as well, but Elsa and Anna are both great characters who carry the film with their personalities and conflict. Elsa also has the honor of being that very rare thing, a Disney *Queen*!
I do feel some of the background characters could've been expanded into bit parts, just to flesh the cast out a bit, but that's not much of a complaint all in all.
Oh, and speaking of complaints, or specifically lack thereof, many people who saw the trailers went in expecting to hate the talking snowman. And, just like most of these people, I didn't :) I mean, he's not my favorite character, but he does have some good jokes, and the kids in the theater clearly loved him. So, kudos.
The other sidekick? A reindeer, who [i]doesn't[/i] talk. He just has a human who's on his own enough to talk for him. Which is in itself, a pretty great skewering of the 'talking animal sidekick' thing. There's a surprising amount of subtle subversion of things like that in this film all around. Some of which is spoilery, and some of which is bigger spoilery and *great*!
The visuals are spectacular. As one person put it, the movie's more creative with ice in one musical number than Legend of Korra is the entire show. And ice aside, the colors and setting are well done, with snow it'd be all too easy to make things boring and same-y but even with the white places stood out and there was a variety in the terrain. The costume color choices show a lot of thought as well.
Finally, the music. "Let It Go," the main song of the film, is fantastic, I bought it on iTunes after seeing the film, and have played it quite a few times since. There's also a couple other good songs in there, and no clunkers.
My rating: A. It and Wreck-it Ralph are my two favorite Disney animated movies at the moment, and it's supplanted Mulan as my favorite Disney Princess movie. I recoomend it!
*Not to be confused with the five other films named Frozen, including two in 2010 alone, and no two on the same subject! In order, they are Chinese Performance Artist Frozen, Psychological Thriller/Murder Mystery Frozen, Indian Drama Frozen, 'Caught on a Ski Chairlift' Frozen, and Hong Kong Romance Frozen. Surprisingly, Disney's Frozen is the first to take the fairy tail theme or throw someone with ice powers into the mix!