Frozen | Film review - Disney gives chilly fairy tale a girl-power makeover

(Image credit: daram)

Disney gives Hans Christian Anderson's chilly fairy tale The Snow Queen a glossy, girl-power makeover with hit animated musical Frozen - a $1billion global blockbuster that bagged Oscars for Best Animation and Best Song.

The studio's take on the story turns it into a tale of two orphaned princesses - chirpy optimist Anna (Kristen Bell) and her tormented sister Elsa (Idina Menzel), who flees into self-imposed exile after her icy powers cast her kingdom into eternal winter.

Anna's snowy quest to save her sibling - helped by hunky ice merchant Kristoff (Jonathan Goff) and his trusty reindeer Sven - is accompanied by enchanting visuals and show-stopping tunes. Big-lunged Broadway diva Menzel claims the film's vocal honours with her rousing Oscar-winning ballad 'Let It Go', but stealing the movie outright is comic relief Josh Gad's winningly goofy talking snowman - who is too dim to realise that longing for the arrival of summer is not particularly wise for one of his kind.

Certificate PG. Runtime 108 mins. Directors Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee.

Released on DVD, Blu-ray and Digital Download on Monday 31st March by The Walt Disney Company.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbQm5doF_Uc

A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.