Frozen

Have you not already seen this movie?  It made over a billion dollars.  Everyone has seen it.  Everyone has made a terrible YouTube video involving some song from the soundtrack.  Get with it!  In all seriousness, Frozen is actually a brilliant film. 

One of the greatest missteps that Disney ever took was doing away with traditional cel animation in favor of computer animated films.  The company looked at the success of Pixar and came to the conclusion that people loved those movies because they were made on computers.  Audiences weren't responding to the incredible stories, profound themes, or lovable characters.  No, they only liked computer animation.  This mentality would fuel some of Disney's worst films.  The company looked at the lackluster response to their Treasure Planet or Brother Bear or Home on the Range and, instead of seeing how awful the storytelling was, they saw an outmoded form of animation.  So, Disney scrapped their animation department and installed a corps of computer technicians.  This immediately lead to a new golden age of animated films from Disney, including such classics as Meet the Robinsons, Chicken Little, and Bolt.  Oh, wait.  Those are garbage.  When people complained about the lack of quality and the loss of traditional hand-drawn animation, Disney responded by making The Princess and the Frog.  They animated the hell out of it.  It looks incredible.  Trouble is that they never bothered to make it a good or interesting story.  It's relative failure was the final justification that Disney needed to declare cel animation dead.

What's the point of all this?  Well, Disney came to the conclusion that since people didn't like their computer movies either, it must be the Pixar brand that people liked.  So they bought Pixar.  Once this happened, the Disney animation department suddenly had access to Pixar's "brain trust," a pool of writers and storytellers who are responsible for assembling Pixar's stories.  Disney took another shot at animation.  The result was Tangled, a movie that remains wonderful despite mostly forgettable songs.  Then came Wreck-It Ralph, a movie so funny and likable and emotional that it feels like classic Pixar.  With a couple solid warm-ups under their belt, Disney took the princess-centric storyline and look of Tangled, added the flawless storytelling of Wreck-It Ralph, and (as if to show off) hired some great songwriters.  What followed is the best Disney film in at least 15 years (but I'd say 20 years).

Frozen is the story of a non-specifically Scandinavian princess, Anna, who lives in a far off, non-specifically Scandinavian country.  Her older sister, Elsa, has the power to control cold or ice or something (it's also pretty non-specific).  Out of fear, her parents hold the sisters up in the castle.  Upon the death of the parents, Elsa becomes queen.  During her coronation, Elsa's powers get out of control and she flees into the mountains leaving her kingdom shrouded in ice.  Anna joins up with an ice vendor, a reindeer, and a living snowman to find Elsa and convince her to thaw out the kingdom.

It's been a long time since I really loved Disney princesses and Frozen introduces two phenomenal ones (well, one becomes queen).  Any concern that studios have that boys won't watch movies with girls as the heroes goes right out the window.  Anna and Elsa are incredible characters and viewers, regardless of gender, can connect with them.  Disney princesses are iconic (except Tiana) and lovable.  They are written specifically to carry an entire film.  They have to be so wonderful that all the awesome side characters will do anything to help them.  This is why Disney princesses are a multi-billion dollar industry.  When was the last time you saw merchandise for Mowgli or Arthur or Robin Hood or Basil of Baker Street?  Those are awesome male heroes for awesome Disney movies.  But they don't connect the way that the fairy tales do.  Frozen is a new classic fairy tale.

This is a nearly flawless example of children's entertainment.  As annoying as I find the intense obsession that people seem to have for this movie, it's all completely justified.  Frozen is a movie that we'll all be watching for decades.  It'll go up on the shelf next to Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty (the best Disney animated film).  Kids will grow up with the adventures of Anna and Elsa.  It's really exciting to see a film like that.

9 out of 10