I resisted falling into the Frozen rabbit hole for as long as I could. I’m a huge, traditional Disney girl, but when Frozen came out late in 2013, I did not rush to theaters to see it. In fact, I stayed far, far away from it.
My childhood was full of what I call “traditional” Disney movies. I loved The Jungle Book, Aladdin, The Aristocats, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Cinderella, and so many more from Disney’s “golden age.” I loved Hercules and Mulan when they came out in the late 90s. As far as recent Disney goes, Brave was great, and I thought Tangled was cute, too.
Aside from those, I got picky. I’ve never seen Up!, and I absolutely despise Finding Nemo. Never seen The Princess and the Frog, either, now that I think about it.
Since Frozen was so successful and everyone raved about it, after the holidays, my mom and I decided, “Maybe if it’s one of Disney’s best and biggest productions, maybe if they’re already working on a Broadway adaptation, maybe we should watch it.” So we bought a DVD copy at Target and watched it.
The verdict is… I wasn’t blown away.
I know, I know.
It took way too long to get to the point in the beginning. I found myself asking, “Okay, so…when does the real story start?” several times within the first 20 minutes. I understand needing the back story, but the movie started a little slow for my taste.
As far as characters go, I had an icky feeling about Hans from the instant he appeared. He was sketchy from the start. Also, I really did not like Elsa. While I knew she was just trying to protect Anna from her powers, at times I felt like she was too cold to her. I had to wonder if Elsa and Anna’s parents ever tried to help Elsa control her powers, or if Elsa ever got help from anyone else. She got the gloves, but nothing more? It seemed like she was just left to fend for herself and not freeze the kingdom. But that happened anyway.
And Anna…well, I didn’t love her, but I didn’t dislike her. I admired her passion. So… I think the only character I really liked was Olaf. And Kristoff, he was cool.
However, I did consider that my generation has Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, etc. The younger generations of today have this, Tangled, and Brave. Frozen is “the” princess movie craze for today’s Disney kids.
Maybe I’m biased because I grew up with the classics, and I don’t think anything will ever beat Aladdin or The Little Mermaid or Beauty and the Beast. But Frozen just didn’t do it for me. A slow start and no real “likable” character that I could really get behind was not a winning combo for me. I guess all the hype had me excited for a huge masterpiece, and I just didn’t get that experience.
NOTE: I do not think Frozen is a bad or poorly done film by any stretch. I just personally wasn’t blown away. If you get that impression from this post, that was not my intended point in writing this. I just wanted to share why I didn’t get the “oh my goodness this movie is amazing” experience.
Have you seen Frozen? What did you think?
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