Screened Out – Frozen

[three-star-rating]Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, Josh Gad, Santino Fontana[/three-star-rating]

There were high hopes that, when John Lassiter took over Disney Animation, he’d bring some Pixar originality to the studio. He has had some success (Wreck-It Ralph). Frozen, though often very beautiful, misses that magical creativity that birthed Toy Story and Finding Nemo.

Instead, it’s just Disney’s maniacal marketing of princess paraphernalia – costumes, stuffed toys, and other cheap flotsam overpriced and sold at theme parks and stores. Any chance of making a timeless tale was supplanted by the lust to haul in more cash.

Hans Christian Andersen’s original story The Snow Queen was strange, full of demons and snow bees. So this story has been Disneyfied – two princess sisters, one who can bring winter to everything around her (Menzel). This sister’s magic seems dangerous and shameful; her parents lock her away. Her younger sister (Bell) misses her, hoping that when Menzel becomes queen of the Nordic kingdom, the sisters can reopen the palace and refresh their bond. That doesn’t quite work out, as Menzel brings an eternal winter to the land and then exiles herself, feeling she is a freak.

So, you have two princesses – twice the costuming merchandise revenue!

Of course, you cannot have a film by the Mouse without extraneous characters meant merely to be cute and funny, to sell toys to toddlers. Frozen has a snowman, Olaf (Gad of Book of Mormon), and a reindeer, Sven.

It’s also a musical. (Buy it on iTunes!) Robert Lopez (Book of Mormon, Avenue Q) and his wife wrote these forgetable ditties. Some numbers attempt to be the sung-through narratives, like what Menken and Ashman achieved with The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. The rhymes here, though, are crushingly banal, and the scoring is uneven. Certain songs don’t even try to be Norwegian in nature; the first love song is actually reggae pop (reminiscent of “Kiss the Girl” from Mermaid.)

In fact, way too much here is derivative. Even Idina Menzel – whose acting and vocals are powerful – will remind you of her previous turn as an ostracized sorceress in the Broadway musical Wicked.

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One gets the feeling that the Norway pavilion at Disney’s EPCOT is looking forward to selling lots of new junk. (Before the film, there’s even a commercial for a new Disney travel company that’ll take you to Norway.)

Still Bell, Menzel, and Groff (as the handsome oaf who helps the sisters) are wonderful. Disney’s art direction is also always exquisite. (Though, don’t see it in 3D; there’s no point.)

The problem is that this is just another Disney princess film with not enough wild originality or magic to recommend it. Sure, one could nitpick that the “villain” is rare and that it has a solid plot twist, but those aren’t enough to wipe out the fact that Frozen’s primary objective is upselling. In the frigid face of such cold consumerism, you’ll be left longing for the warmth of genuine tales told simply for the love of great storytelling.