I thought that I would start the Once Upon a Time challenge with a book review but I’m not yet done with The Golem and the Djinni, so I thought I’d watch and write about a movie instead.
Frozen follows the story of two sisters, Anna and Elsa, the daughters of the king and queen of Arendelle. Elsa, who is older, can create ice and snow, a magic ability she finds increasingly difficult to control as she grows older. No locked rooms or gloves can stop this magic ability from bursting through and on one fateful day Elsa can no longer control her powers and brings winter to the kingdom of Arendelle. Scared by what she has done, she runs and hides high up in the mountains, but her sister Anna is determined to bring Elsa back and put an end to the winter. On her quest she receives help from Kristoff, a young man who earns his living from cutting and delivering ice, his loyal reindeer Sven, and Olaf, a talking snowman.
This is roughly the plot of the story and even though there are a multitude of other tangents, to say more would spoil the surprise. While the story employs the classic fairy tale elements, with a prince and a princess falling in love at first sight and planning to marry, the dreamy beginning punctuated by a few songs gives way to a harsher reality as things are not what they appear to be. The heroine is not a helpless damsel in distress waiting to be rescued by prince charming. She is strong, determined (even if a little clueless at first) and possesses the ability to save herself and others if need be. Olaf provides most of the funny and heart-warming scenes, as he is a most unusual snowman and a true, loyal friend. The men play secondary roles. The Duke of Weselton (just wait until you actually hear his name) and Prince Hans of the Southern Isles are interesting characters whose true nature is revealed as the story nears its climax. 
The visuals are stunning – there’s a whole battalion of trolls who can change shape, a giant snow creature that looks quite scary, and beautiful snow and ice artwork that almost made me wish for winter. And even if the story seemed a bit predictable at first, there were two quite shocking moments that quickly turned it on its head and gave it a fresh new direction that was gratifying, sad, and happy at the same time. Love does conquer in the end, but it’s not the kind of love you would expect. A very good retelling of a famous fairy tale that manages to be surprisingly charming and touching without being shallow. If you haven’t figured out which one I’m not going to spoil it for you – I didn’t know it either until the very end. A pleasure to watch and highly recommended.
Click on the link below for a little preview and a great song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moSFlvxnbgk
My rating: 5/5 stars
I’ve been meaning to watch this. I’ve heard so many good things about it.
It’s a very nice movie, TBM, I hope you get to watch it.
I loved this movie. It was so adorable! 🙂
It was, wasn’t it? That snowman alone was so much fun!
I just watched this at weekend! Not for this challenge particularly just because…
It was good. The snowman was my favourite character and the ice and snow artwork, as you said, were excellent.
Lynn 😀
Hi Lynn,
I loved that snowman, he was my favourite character as well. So glad you enjoyed it, too. I think this is a kind of movie that is hard not to like. 🙂
Disney has done a wonderful job with this one! I loved the movies even before I saw it from the previews; the imagery, the detailing in the ice, it looked amazing. But when I did watch it, it was so different from your usual fairy tales. How much emotional depth it had really surprised me, as did the ending. Let it Go is fabulous, but I am always going to be partial to “Reindeer are better than people”!
It is different from the usual fairy tale and I’ve noticed a trend that was also present in ‘Tangled’ and ‘Brave’ – girls are so much more in control now. 😉
‘Let it Go’ is a great song, I agree, I seem to hear it everywhere these days.
Oh, you’re right, it’s kind of becoming their new signature. Anna did actually remind me a lot of the Rapunzel from Tangled!
Nice review, Delia! ‘Frozen’ looks like a beautiful movie and your description of it – the beautiful snow and the ice artwork, the strong heroine, the surprising ending – make me want to watch it. Thanks for this beautiful review!
I hope you do get to watch it, Vishy, it’s a really beautiful movie. And that snowman is a lot of fun. 😉
Oh, I loved this movie! And I think you hit on all the best parts–especially the strong heroine(s)!
Hi Cheryl,
I’m happy to see you liked it too. I didn’t want to give too much away, it’s so much more fun when you can discover things on your own.
Yep, this movie was pretty fun. I concur with the comments about strong girls. Yay!
No one has mentioned my favorite character–Sven the reindeer. He was adorable!
Sven and his love for carrots. 🙂 He was a great sidekick.