dvd of the week
While I laud Disney for going back to basics with Frozen, for hiring Broadway stars to voice musical roles rather than stunt-casting them with super famous names, and I laud Disney for continuing their mission to give us stories about almost-feminist princesses who need their mothers or sisters more than they need a man, I was a underwhelmed by the two-time Oscar winner than everyone else loves. The film focuses on two princesses in a small northern kingdom. Elsa (Idina Menzel) has a strange magical power to turn everything icy and she can’t control it, so she hides from everyone, including her sweet sister Anna (Kristen Bell). After a particularly disastrous crowning ceremony, Elsa accidently freezes all of their kingdom and flees to an icy mountain far away. Anna, with the help of talking snowman (Josh Gad) and a mountain man (Jonathan Groff), must save her sister and the kingdom. There is a romantic subplot, but the real story is focused on the love between the two sisters and Elsa’s shame about her difference, splendidly communicated by the now ubiquitous song “Let It Go.” The story and the visuals are quite nice, but I found the music a bit clichéd. Others disagree, particularly most children alive.
