Frozen

Movie Title--  Frozen

Release Year--  2013

Running Time--  1 Hour and 42 Minutes  

Director--  Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee

Cast--  Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Josh Gad, Jonathon Groff, Santino Fontana, Alan Tudyk, Ciaran Hinds

After Princess Elsa freezes the city of Arendelle with her magical and mysterious cryokinetic powers, her younger sister Princess Anna races to find Elsa and bring her home to bring back summer.

As children, Princesses Elsa (Idina Menzel) and Anna (Kristen Bell) sneak into a large, empty room to play with Elsa's magical power of ice and snow.  Elsa uses magic to conjure snow and the girls build a snowman they name Olaf (Josh Gad) and she ices the floor so they can ice skate.  While they are playing, Elsa accidentally strikes Anna with her powers and their parents race them to see the troll king.  He heals Anna by removing the memories of Elsa's powers and warns that Elsa's  powers can be wonderful and dangerous at the same time and advises that it is best that she learns how to control her powers so that they do not cause anymore harm.

Not knowing how to help their daughter, the king and queen move Elsa into a room by herself and as the girls grow, Elsa keeps to her room so that she doesn't hurt her sister again.  The king and queen keep the castle closed off to everyone and reduce the staff they keep inside the castle.  The king gives Elsa a pair of gloves, saying they will help her conceal her powers and advises her to "Conceal, don't feel, don't let it show".  When the princesses are teenagers their parents die when they are caught in a storm at sea.

When Elsa comes of age the kingdom begins to prepare for her coronation and for the first time since they were children, the castle gates will be opened up to the outside world.  Elsa is nervous that when she takes her gloves off to take her vow that her nervousness will bring her powers out while Anna is excited that she will be free from being hidden away.  As Anna is exploring she bumps into Prince Hans of the Southern Isles (Santino Fantana) and there is an immediate and mutual attraction between the two.  

Despite Elsa's fears the coronation goes off without any problems.  During the reception they princesses meet the Duke of Weselton (Alan Tudyk) who's main reasons for attending the coronation is to find out why the gates have been closes for so long and to try to exploit Arenedell for his own personal gain.  Anna is swept off her feet by Hans, who proposes to her and Anna quickly says yes, declaring that he is her "true love".  They go to Elsa for her blessing but Elsa refuses to give her blessing and forbids the marriage.  The sisters argue and after an emotional outburst, Elsa's powers are revealed.   

Elsa flees the city, freezing it into an eternal winter.  Anna, finally understanding why her sister has kept herself locked away, decides to go after her and bring her back to bring back summer, designating Hans to stay and lead the city in their absence.

As Elsa heads up the North Mountain, she starts to play with her powers, seeing now that she is no longer scared, can control her powers.  In the process she inadvertently builds her and Anna's childhood snowman Olaf and brings him to life.  She builds herself an ice palace so that she can be alone.

In Anna's search to find her sister she meets Kristoff (Jonathon Groff) and his reindeer Sven who she gets to take her up the North Mountain.  They soon run into Olaf and together the four of them travel to find Elsa and bring back summer.

I am almost 100% sure that everyone reading this has seen this film.  I won't lie, when I first heard about it coming out, I wasn't thrilled.  The trailer I saw had Olaf and Sven fighting over a carrot and to me it did not look interesting at all.  It wasn't until my friend took her children to see it and then told me how good she thought it was did I ever consider seeing it.  I was not disappointed when I did go see it.

This film is one of the best Disney animated films that have come out recently.  Although it isn't the first Disney animated film that has come out in recent years that showed that a princess doesn't always need a prince to save them, I think this is one of the better ones in portraying that.  The characters all have their own personal strengths that help them work together to focus on a single goal.  It is a great film that showcases the importance of trust, friendship and love.

Be prepared to put this one on repeat if you have little ones because the songs are catchy and the story is easy to follow.  Beware (if you don't already know), the songs do tend to stick in your head.  This one is good enough to watch with the family or on your own just Don't Forget the Popcorn!