By SIERRA DELOACH
Disney’s Frozen captured the hearts of millions in November of 2013, and continues to hold a slot as the most talked about movie of 2014. The icy humor and underlying tale of two sisters continues to be the talk of America, and has even been nominated and won awards for the best soundtrack and best animated feature. But does it deserve the praise it has received?
Upon asking the student body why they loved Frozen, I received one answer: “Because it’s funny.” Just what is funny about a relationship of two sisters that was torn apart both by necessity and the death of their parents? Absolutely nothing. This leaves only Olaf, a novelty secondary character, to fill in the humor. In fact, even on the official posters for Frozen it was either Olaf or Sven in the spotlight—Anna and Elsa’s story was merely a means of delivering poorly timed humor. Disney had every possibility for an amazing story of sibling bonding, rivalry, unrequited love, or even delivering a message about broken families, and instead they chose to gloss over the true story with unnecessary characters and songs.
The soundtrack and animation, as well, was amateur at best. Very few of the songs correlate to the plot or the development of a character, with the exception of “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” and “Let It Go”. The introductory song, “Frozen Heart”, was a lie. It set up the film to be more serious, and warrant more of the praise it was given, but in the end this fantastic song was wasted, seeing as it was unnecessary and helped the plot exactly none.
The animation, though mostly well done, had some flaws as well. Anyone that has experience with snow knows that its physical properties are quite strange. I will admit that taking on the challenge of realistic snow would have been intimidating, but either way it was executed poorly. This goes for the ice as well—a toy-like testament to the lack of research that went into the film. The “ice” in Frozen looked more like plastic or blown glass than anything real.
Though by the commercials Frozen looked to live up to its expectations, the reality is that it was for nothing but profit. The scattered plot is intended for the short attention span of small children, and holds no particular topic for more than a few measly minutes. The poorly written and excessive music as well as the unrealistic and ill researched animation left the movie in its own personal wasteland with the other misnomers of Disney history.