Frozen

Trivia Time! By jointly directing this film Jennifer Lee became the first female director of a Disney animation feature film. Irony Time! The head of animation for the film is accused of sexism for comments he made about the difficulties of animating “pretty” female characters. Very loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen, Frozen bares quite a resemblance to Disney’s Tangled. The visual approach is the same (the blend of CGI and hand-drawn animation), one of the main characters is afflicted with a condition that causes as many problems as it does delights, there’s a comedy horse (er, in the form of a reindeer) and, of course, a love story involving a square jawed manly hero. But hey, if it isn’t broken it doesn’t need to be fixed, right? Andersen’s original tale is a dark concoction which, unsurprisingly, Disney have tweaked to make more family orientated fare. Princess Elsa (Idina Menzel) does a runner from her Kingdom when her powers of being able to create ice and snow overcome her and she accidentally leaves her home town in eternal winter. Her sister (Kristen Bell) sets off to find her and along the way discovers, well, see above. The relationship between the two sisters is excellently portrayed, there's some decent laughs (kids will love Olaf, a snowman who yearns for warmer climes) and a couple of decent musical numbers. However the screenplay is a bit uneven in its tone in regard of deciding who the target audience is and the side storyline involving Trolls is a bit odd (though the film is principally based on Norway and Norwegian culture). An enjoyable film, but there really isn't anything overly memorable. Though any film that takes us a step further away from Home on The Range has to be seen as worthwhile. Rating: 7/10.