Disney’s Frozen Trades Happily Ever After for Sisterhood

Frozen arrived in theaters on November 27, 2013, and it does not behave like a typical Disney princess film. Its hero, Anna of Arendelle, spends most of the movie chasing her sister, not a husband. Its villain is not a monster but a man who seemed charming. And its biggest song is a declaration of isolation, not romance. That inversion is why the film still holds up.

Trailer, via Walt Disney Animation Studios.

Anna, Elsa, and a Kingdom Under Ice

The setup is a fairy tale with a cruel engine. Elsa, voiced by Idina Menzel, has magical powers that let her create ice and snow. After she accidentally injures Anna with that magic, their parents take the girls to a colony of trolls led by Grand Pabbie. He heals Anna and erases her memory of Elsa’s powers. The king and queen then close the castle gates and isolate Elsa until she can control herself.

Years of that isolation create a rift between the sisters. Their parents die in a shipwreck while the girls are adolescents. On Elsa’s coronation day, the gates open to the public for the first time. Anna, voiced by Kristen Bell, falls for Prince Hans at first sight and accepts his proposal. Elsa objects, lashes out, and accidentally reveals her powers to the court. The Duke of Weselton, voiced by Alan Tudyk, accuses her of witchcraft. Elsa flees to the North Mountain, builds an ice palace, and decides to live alone — not knowing she has plunged Arendelle into eternal winter.

Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel Built the Sisters

The casting is the film’s foundation. Bell was cast as Anna on March 5, 2012, after filmmakers heard vocal tracks she recorded as a child, including songs from The Little Mermaid. She recorded while pregnant and came back to re-record lines after her voice deepened. She has said she was called in to re-record dialogue “probably 20 times,” which she calls normal for a lead role in a Disney animated film with an evolving script.

Menzel, a Broadway veteran, was cast as Elsa after auditioning for Tangled and not getting the part. Tangled casting director Jamie Sparer Roberts kept a recording of that audition on her iPhone and later asked Menzel to read for Frozen. Before either was cast, Bell and Menzel read the script aloud at a table read and sang “Wind Beneath My Wings” as a duet, since no music had been written yet. Bell suggested the duet when she visited Menzel at her California home to prepare.

A Snowman, an Iceman, and a Reindeer

Anna’s journey out of the castle pairs her with Kristoff, an ice courier voiced by Jonathan Groff, and his reindeer Sven. They meet Olaf, a living snowman created by Elsa’s magic and voiced by Josh Gad, who agrees to guide them to the North Mountain. At the ice palace, Elsa’s fear makes her strike Anna with ice again, freezing her heart. Elsa creates a giant snow monster in desperation and casts Anna out to keep her safe.

With Anna slowly freezing to death, Kristoff takes her to the trolls. Grand Pabbie says only “an act of true love” can save her. That line is the film’s hinge, and Frozen spends its final act refusing the easy answer. The act of true love is not a kiss from a prince. It is Anna stepping between Hans’s sword and Elsa.

What Frozen Gets Right

The film’s craft is not the point; its structure is. Frozen sets up a romantic rescue and then discards it. Hans, voiced by Santino Fontana, is the handsome prince who proposes within hours of meeting Anna. The Duke is the obvious suspect, a scheming dignitary who calls Elsa a witch. Frozen lets the audience watch the wrong man while the real threat smiles and takes command of the kingdom.

The songs, written by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, carry the film’s emotional argument. Christophe Beck composed the orchestral score. Menzel’s big number is the obvious showstopper, but Bell’s work is the harder job. She plays Anna as awkward and excitable, and she has said she wanted the character to feel attainable in a way Disney heroines had not been for her. “I feel like I really made this girl much more relatable and weirder and scrappier and more excitable and awkward,” Bell said. “I’m really proud of that.”

The Box Office and the Legacy

Frozen premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on November 19, 2013, before its general release eight days later. It grossed over $1.280 billion worldwide, finishing its theatrical run as the highest-grossing film of 2013 and the fifth-highest-grossing film of all time. It held the title of highest-grossing animated film until the remake of The Lion King passed it in August 2019.

The film was praised for its visuals, screenplay, themes, music, and voice acting. Some critics consider it Disney’s best animated film since the Disney Renaissance. That claim is arguable, and the film’s middle section sags. The trolls are a narrative errand, and the Duke is a thin villain compared to Hans. But the central relationship — two sisters who cannot touch, cannot explain themselves, and cannot stop hurting each other — is the strongest thing Disney Animation had built in decades.

Frozen earns its reputation. It is a musical that understands the musical is the point, a fairy tale that understands the fairy tale is the trap, and a blockbuster that made its fortune on a snowman and a reindeer without ever losing sight of the two women at its center. The film is not flawless. It is, however, the rare animated hit whose structure rewards a second look as much as its songs do.

Animated Musicals · Disney Animation · Frozen · Idina Menzel · Kristen Bell · movie review