Frozen

My Advice:  See

General Cautions:

Not much, there is some violence but it’s minimal.  A few cases of self defense (almost all of which are shown in the trailer).  Threatened violence from bad guys.  Some comic violence to the snowman (also mostly in the trailer).

There is a tragedy at the beginning that younger children might not pick up on (I’m not sure if my four year old did or not).  It’s the same sort of tragedy as the beginning of Finding Nemo or Up.

My Kind of Synopsis:

Frozen is the newest Disney Princess movie, in a sense.  It is about a princess.  It does involve the princess falling in love.  It did have some wonderful surprises though.

I knew from the start of the movie that it would be good.  How?  There are a few reasons.  The first was the music.  That doesn’t always mean anything but in this case it gave me a good feeling.  The second was the backstories.  It doesn’t just have the backstory of the princesses but of Kristoff too.  His is shorter, and slightly intertwines with that of the princesses, but it’s there.  Then there’s the backstory of the princesses.  I’ll try not to spoil anything but it involves tragedy.  Tragedy that tears the once inseparable sisters apart.  Tragedy that keeps both girls from seeing the world outside their castle.

This story is centered mainly on the characters of the two sisters.  Elsa lives in fear of anyone, even her sister, discovering she has magic.  Anna is lonely and wants more than anything to be loved.  Even though they haven’t interacted since early childhood they still share a very special bond.  It is this bond that sends Elsa away and this bond that sends Anna after her.

It is the bond between sisters that sets this movie apart from other Disney Princess stories.  It has the romance, but that’s not the center.  It’s about a princess, but more than that it’s about princess sisters.  There are a few amazing things about this movie that come from this, but if I put them in here they’d be spoilers.  You’ll just have to watch the movie to figure it out.

What the Kids Say:

PonyGirl – she sat through the whole movie, entranced.  Afterwards she was stomping her heel on the floor and when I asked her what she was doing she said: “I’m making ice.”  When asked if she liked the movie she jumped up and down and said, loudly, “Yes!” What was her favorite part? “The part that…Frozen!”

MotionGirl – she’s the one that wanted to take me and PonyGirl to see this film.  She had already seen it when we went.  She said it was really good and this was the second time in a week she’d seen it.  (Didn’t get much more out of her except a few laughs and glances at me or PonyGirl during the film.)

Recommendations and Why:

I think all kids would love this.  It’s action packed but not scary (there are a couple scenes that could be but they’re quick and the scare doesn’t stick with you; I also didn’t hear any screams or crying in the theater full of young children).  It’s a good movie for both girls and boys.  Girls because it’s about two completely different girls both of whom make themselves better.  Boys because there are also two completely different boys in this movie and by the end you know which one is the better one and know it would be better to be like him.

It’s also an entertaining movie for parents.  There were several parts where I laughed or raised my eyebrows at/with the other adults with me.  Some of these I also knew my daughter had no idea.  I wanted to know what happens next.  I was taken by surprise a few times.