Disney's Frozen [DVD]

I wasn't sure what all the hype was about but everyone seemed to be comparing it with the lion king so I was like...ok psh come on, not a chance. I sat and watched this with just having watched the let it go vid on YouTube. At first I started to become impressed with the animation. The visuals are so stunning I was very much taken back. There are a lot of " wow that looks so cool" moments. I loved the sunset on the scene where they are being chased by that huge snowman thing.The "let it go" sequence for me almost beats the lion kings circle of life. It is such an addictive and catchy tune I simply couldn't get it out of my head and still cant. it starts off slow and builds to a point where you have your jaw on the floor.Its a very powerful song and I am sure most should identify with her need for freedom and escaping the fear she is feeling. I loved her subtle facial expressions when she raises the castle up from the ground that really got me. she is almost saying, this is so easy, look what I can do with ice.The lyrics are also brilliant and relatable. Insanely good singing voice that goes WAY up past the clouds with amazing energy, there is a really powerful "YEAH LETS DO THIS" feel to it. She lifts her dress up and stomps her foot down on the floor creating a huge snow flake stating that this is where she wants to stay. Then the final part where she looks at you saying "the cold never bothered me anyway" and spins around, slamming the door shut in your face. that got me more then anything in the whole movie. Its like she just gained total control and all her fear is gone. you feel relieved for her after all the insane pressure she was put under, looking after not just her baby sister but the entire realm. I love how giddy she gets and just lets it all rip. Who wouldn't want to feel like that. Both thumbs up for that song.The ending surprised me and stirred up quite a bit of emotion for me. I'm not going to say what happens but it was a very nice little twist and refreshing from the usual story. It was a very moving part and I watched it a few times in a row. Elsa's "cry" moved me deeply, though its brief it sounds so deep and real.the more I watch this movie the closer it gets to passing the Lion Kings position at No.1 position.update 18/6/14 - a few MONTHS later!OK I am now totally obsessed with this movie and it has BLASTED the lion king right off my No1 top fav Disney movie. I have tried everything to get this movie out of my veins its making me pure nuts. The thing is that there are so many different ways to see the same story. There is Anna's funny side and adventures as well as her struggle to get through to Elsa, who is just so terrified of hurting her. Elsa is so complex you could write a freakin novel about her.Elsa's relationship with her parents is very disturbing. Besides being totally repressed and told not to be who she is or love who she is, one scene comes to mind. Anna runs up to her parents and wraps her arms around them and is embraced back. Elsa is kept at a distance in the next scene and she actually Curtsey's in front of them. No hug no nothing. I can only imagine how many big sisters feel like this, that they have to be the responsible ones and take on all the pressure. It was painful to notice that and you can see in her face how scared she is.Has this girl ever been hugged in her life? I think that is why I think the very last hug is so important, it could be her very first one so its not surprising when she looks for more after that one. She touches Anna all the time after that and almost cant keep her hands off her. Anna is the very same with Elsa, its sweet.The number done on her head by her parents was unbelievable. Who is so terrified of hurting others that they don't even attend their own parents funeral? That is how messed up and scared of herself Elsa is. And she never asks for thanks, you know, for giving up her entire childhood for the sake of everyone else. she doesn't get thanked either. She just gets thrown into a room and locked away from her only friend.Another thing I noticed when she woke up, after being taken back to Arendelle, She is CHAINED to the floor?!! Who put those chains there? Did her parents actually construct those for their own daughter? that is just the darkest, creepiest thought of child abuse I have ever seen in a Disney feature. They are not your usual criminal chained cuffs, they are specifically designed to cover the entire hand. It was simply heart breaking to see her trying to get out of them when you know she terrified and needs to find Anna, or just get away from Arendelle to keep everyone safe.Spoiler Ahead!!!!As much as I adore Elsa's character, and oh my god I do, especially during the reuniting of the two girls (a rare occasion you see her laughing and smiling with her sister), Anna is my favourite character. She is so damn funny in some scenes and reminds me of myself a lot. I can totally relate to how frustrating and hard it is to try to help someone who just keeps shutting you out and pushing you away. I have been there myself and it takes its toll.You don't understand why they are doing it so you just keep getting hurt over and over again, sometimes enough to keep you away for a while. But we love them so much we just keep going back to try again. We know they don't mean it. Its scary to think that it takes Anna getting killed for her to get through to Elsa. Though I have thought about this and if Elsa had not have blasted Anna in the heart she would not have froze solid and that sword would have gone straight through her and her sister.Anna is clumsy and awkward but when it comes down to it she puts all her own needs aside and fights to reach her sister when no one else will. Tragically she seemed to have zero awareness of the feelings of her sister either. This is the reason she gets blasted the 1st (told to slow down) and 2nd time (told to leave)and gets herself killed. She is almost like the fool in the tarot deck, blinded by emotion and enthusiasm to get through to her Big sister and almost walking off a cliff, she doesn't really pay attention to what is happening around her in a realistic manner. She is too stubborn and simply wont listen to Elsa's desperate pleas, she keeps pushing and doesn't realise how stressed out Elsa is. The lack of awareness or control makes the situation so much harder for Elsa, resulting in Elsa going out of her mind and losing control. it would almost be like someone poking you in the arm and telling you to stop being who you are, over and over again. you try to tell them you cant but they just wont listen and keep poking at your arm. I would lose it too.During the reprise scene Elsa is so desperate to get her sister out of harms way that she constructs a huge snow monster to "escort" her out the door/area and to make sure she never comes back. The reprise duet is beyond amazing, the emotion that the animators manage to put into Elsa's character for this particular part is frightening. She actually grabs her own head trying to hold on to her own sanity but ultimately ends up failing due to Anna's pestering mannerisms. You can really feel her start to lose her mind and "explode" when it becomes too much for her. I am sure everyone on the planet knows just what that feels like. Someone pressing your buttons unknowingly while you are fighting to figure out what is going on. You want to make it all stop but you cant and start to feel so crazy. Its scary, especially when others expect you to just get on with it.Then she finally gets Anna to leave.Its so sad to see her have to do that when everyone knows all she wants is for her sister to be by her side. You remember how well they get on at the party before Elsa runs off and when they were kids. You have two best friends here that have been separated since they were kids, no explanation no nothing. They will truly do anything for each other and that's how deep their bond is.The top subject for me in this movie is the sheer damage that can be done to kids if they are told that they are dangerous and almost punished for being who they are by being locked away from everyone with no support. Why don't they just talk to them and let them know what is going on. Don't scare the absolute sh&*e out of them and take their only friend away. Hello like?I am very aware that this is just an animated feature for kids and these characters are fictional but I immediately related to BOTH girls and their situations and not in a small way. This was my movie, animated or not I have never felt so connected to characters like this. It actually scared me a little as to how someone could know my life so well and not even have met me I was truly blown away. I couldn't believe it when this movie came along when I was in the very same situation as Anna. Its one of those movies that when you watch it you don't feel so misunderstood and that someone out there knows the truth. No matter how many times I watch this movie (getting ridiculous at this stage)I find little extra things every time. I also feel a little less crazy and more understood.If this same crew ever bring out a sequel I would really love to see a huge development on Elsa's character and her relationship with her sister. Elsa still has a kingdom to run and should probably be given a new friend that has similar problems. Either that or give her a nemesis that she can defend her kingdom from. Kidnap Anna and lets see how Elsa goes about it.Best movie I have EVER SEEN animated or not. Huge two thumbs up to all involved.

Frozen had pretty much passed me by until I started to look for Christmas presents for my cousin’s two little girls aged four and six. I ordered a Blu-ray version, just to see what all the fuss was about, and having now seen the film I must say I am impressed.The plot is refreshingly different to the usual princess story lines: it follows the adventures of Princess Anna, sister to Queen Elsa of Arendelle. She undertakes an epic journey to find and then reconcile with her estranged sister, who fled when her icy powers inadvertently trapped the kingdom in an eternal winter. Anna is accompanied by a down to earth iceman named Kristoff, his loyal pet reindeer, Sven, and Olaf, a living snowman. The sisters are eventually reconciled and the icy spell broken via a sacrificial act of true love from Anna. I haven’t enjoyed a Disney film like this in ages. There is a clear moral message and the powerful emotional highs and lows that the film provided took me straight back to the Disney films that I watched in my childhood. Olaf’s character as a comic sidekick is spot on, very funny but never annoying, and actually quite touching in places.Visually, this one of the most beautiful animated films that I've ever seen. The quality of the cinematography is outstanding: the characters are rendered in hyper-realistic detail. Both Anna and Elsa are beautiful as you would expect. You can even see the freckles in Anna's face. Some of the snowy shots were so realistic they made me wonder whether I was looking at animation at all. I have to mention in particular the scenes which feature the blue ice palace created by Elsa. They are just stunning to look at. Kristoff speaks for perhaps all of us when he says “Now that’s ice…I might cry…flawless”. The scene where Anna enters the ice palace and Queen Elsa makes her appearance was breath taking and had me reaching for the rewind button just to take in the sheer beauty of it all. It was really quite dazzling.The musical score is a lovely mixture of full on orchestral background combined with catchy songs such as ‘Do You Want to Build a Snowman?’ and ‘In Summer’. The song ‘Let it Go’ has my vote for the most insistent ear worm song of 2014.It is clear that the Disney crew have put a considerable amount of resource into this film and it shows: the production values are sky high and the film has a peculiarly enchanting, majestic grace about it. When it finished I wanted to see more. It gave me the sort of buzzing high that only a good Disney movie can provide. Recommendations don’t come any higher than that.