With temperatures in Queensland soaring past the 30-degree mark, one of the few refuges for people to spend their time comfortably in air-conditioning is the cinema. A few days ago the heat was so intolerable that a costly trip to the cinema became the only option – and on a whim I decided to take myself to see Frozen which began airing in Australia on Boxing Day. Despite some entertaining trailers, I entered with low expectations – however I left pleasantly surprised with the end result.
For a film running at just under two hours in length the plot was well handled, although would have been more appealing if they didn’t get sidetracked by a few pointless musical numbers and perhaps had more time dedicated to expanding its conclusion which abruptly climaxed. Frozen comes with a storyline that meets the standards one would expect from a Disney film, but despite being another film portraying “Princesses” does not fall into any of the generic cliches one would expect from the genre – and even toys with the concept of “Love at First Sight”. I would be very interested in seeing how Square Enix would handle Frozen if the chose to include in in Kingdom Hearts III on the Playstation 4 and Xbox One.
On the note of musical numbers, in not seeing a Disney film in a number of years I forgot that they loved to incorporate them into their films. While some were entertaining (Such as a quirky one involving Olaf singing about his love of summer), others felt like they were placed in the film for the sake of having them in the film, rather than contributing to the experience or storyline. This was far from the musical placements in 90’s Disney films such as Aladdin and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Featuring a memorable cast of five key characters, adequate storytelling and some fantastic visuals throughout – Frozen should be more than an adequate experience for younger and older audiences alike.
Note: This review covers the 2D version and not the 3D release which is also available in cinemas
