Frozen; 1, 2, Review!

You see dark. You hear quiet. Suddenly, a voice picks up an ethereal chant. You see the signature Disney castle come to view. You see yellow pages flip, bringing Mickey Mouse to life. You watch Mickey whistle and steer his helm. Suddenly, dozens of beautiful crystal snowflakes appear. As the song rises to a crescendo, a single flake remains, and when the word "Frozen" appears in cold blue ice, you just know that you're up for a magical Disney treat.

Set in the little kingdom of Arendelle, Frozen is the story of two sisters, Elsa and Anna. They... Hang on. Is this necessary? My dear reader might have watched it a billion times. Like me, you might even be able to retell the soundtrack flawlessly. If so, we probably agree on one thing; it never gets old.

Frozen begins with a short musical documentary on the life of an iceman in ancient Scandinavia. Here, we get a look at Sven and Kristoff as little pals. The scene leaves the cold and dangerous icefield to a warm castle bedroom where little princess Elsa is asleep. Anna coaxes her to play with her with an irresistible question; "Do you wanna build a snowman?"

They build a snowman, name him Olaf, go ice-skating and snow sliding, in the palace ballroom. They frolick and laugh with the guilty pleasure of children who stay up way past their bedtime.

Suddenly, things go wrong. Elsa's magical powers are great for conjuring snow and freezing fountains but they aren't exactly safe for one's head. Anna is lucky to escape serious harm. Grand Pabbie, an ancient troll, heals her. He also reveals to Elsa and her parents a pretty ugly prophecy concerning her powers.

"Fear will be your enemy."

To protect Anna and help Elsa, the king gives orders that leave the castle and Elsa isolated. Anna, who has been rid of all memories of Elsa's powers doesn't understand why she is suddenly shut out by her sister. Defiant, persistent and longing for company, Anna calls her sister through the keyhole. She hopes they can return to the loving sisters they used to be. She makes one final attempt and gives up hope after the king and queen lose their lives in a shipwreck.

Three gloomy years pass. Finally, Elsa has come of age. Her coronation throws open the gates of the castle. Indigens and foreigners journey from far and near. Among them are the Duke of Weasleto... Weselton, I mean, and the charming (and single) Prince Hans.

Anna watches the preparations in a rapture of ecstasy. For the first time in forever, the palace will have music, lights and a ball in its ballroom. The feeling is not mutual for Elsa who resolves to pass the agonizing day as quickly and perfectly as possible.

Anna gets all she bargained for in the party. She even talks with her sister, after many years. Could the night get any better? Yes, it could, and it does when love at first sight comes to play. Hans is "a beautiful stranger, tall and fair." Love becomes an open door, and she is so enamored by him that when he "impulsively" proposes, she outrageously accepts!

The night takes a turn when Elsa refuses to bless the sudden union and Anna makes an outburst that spoils Elsa's game. Elsa's powers are discovered. The Duke declares her a monster, and in her confusion and fear, she flees her kingdom, "running on water."

There's no end of surprises from Anna who leaves a stranger in charge and sets out to find her sister. With Kristoff (whom she owes a new sled) and Sven, she journeys north to the mountain on which her sister has "let it go" and embraced a life of cold solitude. They are joined by Olaf, Elsa's magical snowman come to life. Fun fact about Olaf; he's a summer loving lump of snow.

The mission takes a turn when Elsa refuses to return, and in another moment of confusion, strikes Anna. This time, the blow is mortal. Kristoff seeks help from his Troll family (who nearly marry them off.) The leader, Grand Pabbie is older than when we first saw him. He also breaks the fixer upper mood with this chiller, "Only an act of true love will thaw a frozen heart."

Frozen is the 53rd animated film by the fabulous Walt Disney Animation Studio. It broke icebergs when it premiered on November 19, 2013 in Los Angeles. It was generally released on November 27. Till this day, it continues to marvel its audience.

Frozen has to be Walt's greatest animation. Much care and attention was given to every detail. The landscape of the kingdom, the costumes, the ice glaciers, the magic! The climax of the animation genius was when Elsa unleashed her powers and created a giant castle and a stairway out of pure ice. We may not know much about ice architecturing but we can take Kristoff's word for it that it was "flawless."

Disney is notorious for its musical fantasy films because its music always gets into the Billboard Top 100. We have Anderson and Robert Lopez to thank for songs like "Let it go," "For the first time in forever" and basically every song in the movie. Those dudes are geniuses. When they were interviewed, they said that they were "...just trying to tell a story that resonated," and "did not suck."

Mission accomplished. Not only are frozen songs perfect, they are also relatable. Are you tired of trying to fit in? Let it go. Is the winter season unbearably cold and white? Dream of all the things you'll do in summer. Also, don't forget to fix up a bad mood with a little fixer upper.

Besides being relatable, frozen songs are catchy, addictive and classic. Like, I'm still singing them and will be doing so ten years from now.

Frozen was inspired by Hans Anderson's Snow Queen (Hans Anderson. Prince Hans of the Southern Isles. Hmmm.) In Anderson's tale, the Snow Queen is an evil ice sorcerer who freezes a young boy, Kay, and imprisons him until his dear friend Gerda frees him with the magic of her tears. This story influenced the producers in the making of Frozen. Initially, Elsa was to be an evil snow queen, and Anna, the heroine. Along the line, this script was dropped and Elsa became the magical heroine she is, and Anna, the human heroine. There are still traces of Snow Queen in Frozen. Elsa's weeping on Anna's frozen figure is suggestive of Gerda weeping on Kay. The Snow Queen also lives in solitude in an ice castle plagued by eternal winter. Hans Anderson would never have imagined his story changed so much. Neither did we.

Disney has a knack for creating princesses from various nationalities. Look at Cinderella (France), Rapunzel (Germany) and Mulan (China). It was Scandinavia's turn to breed a princess, two in fact. They probably never anticipated that their princesses would become the most loved of all princesses, beating even Ariel and Sophia the first.

I'm going to be honest. I never imagined Hans as the villain of Frozen. I thought it would be one of Disney's plots where the villains aren't completely villains. Take Encanto for instance. We were probably angry when Elsa refused to bless the sudden union. Love at first sight exists, right? Besides, what bad could come out of those dreamy eyes? Suddenly, we're confused when we see the look in Kristoff's eyes as he returns Anna to Arendelle. So, Kristoff has to love Anna by letting her go? What about Anna? Will she be the first Disney princess with two Prince Charmings? (Not counting Pocahontas)

It all makes sense when Hans doesn't kiss Anna but reveals that he's the bad guy. What's worse, he attempts the murder of both sisters. Evil! But I must give Hans credit; he is one smooth actor.

Do you wanna be a Disney princess? Great! All you have to do is pass the following qualifications; be royal or marry into royalty, be beautiful and have an animal sidekick. Let's not forget that every Disney princess needs a prince Charming. Merida was an exception though, and Disney took a brave step to make Elsa another unique Disney princess that doesn't get a prince Charming. This was a great move at women  empowerment. It is being followed up with characters like Moana, Raya and Mirabel (even if she isn't actually a Disney princess).

Fans either ignored or underrated that initiative, and, being discontent with only Anna getting a love match, asked the producers for a match for Elsa. They pressed producers with their speculations on a part 2. I recall a theory that Elsa would marry a prince and Anna's daughter would have fire powers. I also recall watching a clip where a Frozen fan suggested Disney's Elsa and Dreamwork's Jack Frost would make a good match. So, ice queen plus ice guardian equals baby ice sculptures, right?

I have a question. Why did Grand Pabbie have to remove the memories of magic Anna had? Was it necessary? Couldn't he have stopped at removing all magic? That's one flaw (can I call it that?) I can't seem to understand in the movie.

Heads up! (Watch out for Olaf's butt.) Frozen has an Easter egg! Disney loves to link different animation with subtle clues. You can find Frozen's Easter egg when Anna escapes the open gates singing. As she holds on to the lamppost, there are two guests making an entrance. Can you guess? It's Rapunzel and Eugene from Tangled. Fans theorized that Elsa's parents were on their way to Rapunzel's wedding when their ship capsized. Could this be true?

The summary of Frozen by Wikipedia really stunned me. According to Wikipedia, "Marshmallow, having survived the fall, finds Elsa's discarded crown and places it on top of its head." Now, I've watched this cartoon a number of times but never noticed that post credit scene. Did you? Let me know in the comment section.

Hats off to Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee, the directors of Frozen. Their production won coveted accolades; highest grossing animated film in 2013 and highest grossing animated film of all time until the Lion King remake (talk about beating your own record). Frozen also won best animated feature. It is the first to do so. It also beat Toy Story 3 in box office revenue; 1.285bn dollars against a production cost of 150m dollars.

Besides accolades, Frozen also influenced, to a great extent, contemporary culture. There was an increase in the rate of children named Elsa. Most parents explained that the babies' siblings had suggested the name. The Frozen brand also grew, and nearly every school bag, shoe, dress and hair clip had Elsa's face on them. Kids so loved Frozen that an epidemic called Frozen Fever broke out. Frozen was downloaded and played multiple times. Children mastered and repeated the soundtracks like broken records. Every minute, a child was singing a Frozen musical. This obsession turned into frustration for parents who told the producers, "My child is still singing that song."

In response to one of such calls, Kristen Bell (Anna) replied, "I didn't know that people would not let it (Frozen) go." Well, they didn't, and the Frozen Fever still grips the world, although less than before. Parents may agree that it's worse than when kids were diagnosed of salmonella after Disney's Princess and the Frog.

There are some movies that if you haven't watched them or heard about them at least once in your life time, you probably didn't live. Frozen is one of them. It's ground breaking success confirms it as a good, if not the best Disney blockbuster.

Frozen remains unrivaled in terms of public administration and positive criticisms. It is an "ever-white" classic and will be so for generations to come. It's countless accolades led to it's anticipated sequel. Just one question. Was Frozen 2 worth it?

Watch out for our next review. The second part of Frozen: 1, 2, Review! Thanks for reading.

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