Frozen (2013, Disney)

Frozen is a huge hit for Disney. It has currently made a billion dollars. Recent Disney films Tangled and Wreck-It-Ralph were better in my opinion. I'm not saying it's horrible. It just lacked that special wonder of the great Disney films. Because Frozen is focused more on being what it's not, a princess film.

Frozen, of course, is a go-girl, self- rescuing princess film. It stands in rebuke of all those waiting on a male savoir Disney princess films. It could have been ground breaking. 40 years ago. My biggest fault with the film is that it was so focused on being pro-girl that it failed to do justice to the story.

The relationship between the two princesses, Elsa and Anna, is the heart of the story. And the only part of the story with any real emotional component. All the other characters are cut outs who lack souls or imagination. And in the rush to be pro-girl, Disney did to the males exactly what they used to do to females: it relied on negative stereotypes.  

Hans is the evil man out to take away all the princess holds dear. He's your basic frat boy rape culture cliché. Kristoff is a loser who will do anything a pretty girl asks of him. The comic relief Olaf snowman is a stoner. And the Duke of Weselton is your basic Jewish miser. The only positive male in the story is the King and he's killed off early on.

The basic lesson to girls watching Frozen is that men are evil and out to get your stuff or they're tools that can be used to get what you want just by giving them a big smile. I contrast that to the Hunger Game films which show how men and women can work together based upon their strengths and weakness as individuals.  

As for the plot it is clearly written to spec. The spec being "Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need" by Blake Snyder. The person most responsible for the boring predictable blockbuster action films. In Frozen they just replaced the males with females and added a veneer of male bashing.   

As for the visuals, it was stunning. It shifted between cartoonish and hyper real seamlessly. Disney has internalized all the work that went into Tangled and managed to recreate the same feel for about half the price. But  visuals can't save a cut-out action flick sexist musical from itself. 

2/4 stars.