Reviewed by: Kirsten Palmer
CONTRIBUTOR
Moral Rating: | Average |
Moviemaking Quality: |
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Primary Audience: | • Kids • Teens • Family |
Genre: | Animation Adventure Fantasy Music Family Comedy Adaptation 3D |
Length: | 1 hr. 48 min. |
Year of Release: | 2013 |
USA Release: |
November 27, 2013 (wide) DVD: March 18, 2014 |
FEAR, Anxiety and Worry—What does the Bible say? Answer
What is LOVE, for a follower of Christ? Answer
Ice in the Bible
Snow in the Bible
What causes the seasons? Answer—an illustrated explanation
Courage / bravery
Featuring |
Kristen Bell … Anna (voice) Idina Menzel … Elsa—Snow Queen (voice) Ciarán Hinds … (voice) Alan Tudyk … Duke of Weselton (voice) Josh Gad … Olaf (voice) Jonathan Groff … Kristoff (voice) Maia Mitchell … Teenage Elsa (voice) Edie McClurg … (voice) Robert Pine … (voice) See all » |
Director |
Chris Buck Jennifer Lee |
Producer |
John Lasseter … executive producer Walt Disney Animation Studios See all » |
Distributor |
Sequel: “Frozen II” (2019)
Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen” has been given the Disney treatment. “Frozen” is a tale of two princess sisters who are also best friends. They have a special gift of ice and snow, but with all magical gifts comes the need for caution. When Elsa (Idina Menzel) accidentally freezes her sister Anna’s (Kristen Bell) head as a young child, the king and queen go to the trolls to save her. The troll leader says since the ice hit her in the head, she’s fine, because it wasn’t her heart. So he removes her magic and her memory of her sister’s magic. This whole magical transaction is witnessed by a young Kristoff. Elsa is then kept behind closed doors in order to keep the outside world, her sister included, safe from Elsa’s icy powers. The gates of the palace are closed, and both girls become prisoners in their own home. Anna still tries to see her sister, but doesn’t understand why Elsa locks her out.
Years go by, the girls are growing up when the Disney tragedy hits, and the ship their parents were on sinks. The gates of the palace are finally reopened for Elsa’s coronation as the new queen of Arendelle. Anna’s excited, but Elsa is anxious and ready for the coronation and the ball to be over with, so the gates can be shut before anyone finds out her secret. Because she still hasn’t learned how to control it, she wears gloves to hopefully keep the power contained.
When Anna meets Prince Hans (Santino Fontana), and they have everything in common, she eagerly accepts his marriage proposal and naturally seeks her sister Queen Elsa’s blessing. However, Queen Elsa is skeptical that her sister and Prince Hans can be in love, having just met that day and refuses to give her blessing. Anna wants to know why, and grabs at her sister, accidentally removing one of her gloves. Elsa continues to try to walk away, but Anna won’t let it be and pushes her sister… asking why she locks her out, why does she lock the whole world out, and Elsa finally snaps and accidentally unleashes her power and throws up a wall of ice. She runs away, not knowing that she has released a wintry storm that buries Arendelle.
***SPOILERS*** A Duke (Alan Tudyk) from a neighboring town, who is attending the ball, accuses the queen of sorcery and wants to know if Princess Anna also has magic. She says she does not and takes Prince Hans’ horse to go after her sister, leaving Prince Hans in charge. On her way to find her sister, the horse gets spooked and runs back to Arendelle. Princess Anna loses her cloak, falls into some water and begins freezing.
She wanders to a trading post where she meets Kristoff (Jonathan Groff). She convinces Kristoff to help her find her sister. Meanwhile, Elsa has run to the northern mountain where she finally feels free to let loose, and uses her icy powers to build herself an ice castle. When Princess Anna arrives and tries to convince her sister Elsa to return and thaw the town, Elsa admits she doesn’t know how—and can’t. They argue, and, once again, Elsa accidentally, and unknowingly, hits her sister Anna with ice. However, this time, she is hit in the heart. Elsa throws Anna and Kristoff out, creating a huge snow monster to keep them out. Kristoff takes Anna to the trolls to save her.
When Prince Hans’ horse returns without Anna, he puts together a search party to go find Anna and the queen with instructions not to harm the queen. The Duke volunteers his two menservants to go, quietly instructing them to find the queen and end this winter. They find the ice palace and fight with the giant snow monster, the Duke’s menservants finding their way to the queen. They have her cornered, but she is able to defend herself with ice. She has trapped one with ice and is using an ice wall to push the other towards a cliff. Prince Hans stops her, telling her not to be the monster everyone is calling her. The man who nearly went over the cliff then points his weapon towards the queen and shoots his arrow, but Prince Hans saves her. We then see the queen in a dungeon cell in Arendelle with her hands restrained.
The trolls think Kristoff has brought Anna to marry her, but she collapses. The troll leader shows up and says her heart has ice in it. The only way to melt it is an act of true love. Kristoff then races to return Anna to Arendelle where Prince Hans is. He leaves her with the palace servants and starts his journey home. ***END SPOILERS***
Will Anna be saved by her fiancé Prince Hans? Will Elsa learn how to control her icy power and thaw out Arendelle?
Offensive Material
The word butt is used several times by Olaf (Josh Gad) the snowman. The phrase “what the…” is used, but never completed. There are references to gas, yellow snow, nose picking and tinkling in the woods. There’s an adult innuendo that will most likely go over children’s heads when Kristoff asks Anna if she knows Prince Hans’ shoe size. This movie does have magic, but the only magic is Elsa’s icy powers to cause wintry weather (ice, snow, sleet) and the troll’s healing at the beginning. There is some minor violence that may frighten sensitive children. The snow monster itself can be somewhat scary. There’s a sword fight between Prince Hans’ rescue party and the snow monster, as well as a battle between Queen Elsa and the Duke’s menservants.
Positives
It’s nice to have a princess movie that isn’t the typical princess meets the prince, falls in love, and overcomes evil to have their happily-ever-after. Princess Anna never doubts her sister’s love for her. She knows her sister would never hurt her intentionally; this despite having not seen her and spent time with her in years. Elsa is afraid of her powers and, after nearly killing her sister, she just wants to be alone and away from anyone because she doesn’t want to cause harm. The movie’s theme is love, plain and simple. With all the verses on love in the Bible, I would like to reference the following with this movie review.
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” (1 John 4:18, ESV)
“Let all that you do be done in love.” (1 Corinthians 16:14, ESV)
This is a Disney movie, so expect Disney-quality animation. I have to say, the icy world is beautiful. I did view this in 3D, but I do not recommend 3D viewing. It isn’t worth the extra charge. If you’re looking for family-friendly, this would be a good one.
Violence: Moderate / Profanity: None / Sex/Nudity: Minor
See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.
PLEASE share your observations and insights to be posted here.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Better than Average / Moviemaking quality: 4