Frozen

What would the Christmas season be without at least one animated film? The warm, fuzzy, fun feel of an animated flick just puts one in the spirit, and subsequently ends up putting a smile on one's face. Not only is "Frozen" an animated feature, it's one which has snow and ice, which is connected to the holiday itself.

Anna (Kristen Bell), a fearless optimist, sets off on an epic journey to find her sister, Elsa (Idina Menzel) who has fearfully run away. Along Anna's journey, she comes across a rugged mountain man Kristoff (Jonathan Groff) and his loyal reindeer Sven, and subsequently convinces him into helping her find her sister. Elsa's icy powers have trapped the Kingdom of Arendelle in an eternal winter creating Everest-like conditions.
In their travels, they come across mystical trolls and a hilarious snowman Olaf (Josh Gad) as Anna and Kristoff battle the elements in a race to save the kingdom. If Elsa doesn't stay away, she fears she will not be able to control her powers of creating ice and snow. It's a beautiful ability, but also extremely dangerous. Haunted by the moment her magic nearly killed her younger sister Anna, Elsa has isolated herself, spending every waking minute trying to suppress her growing powers. Her mounting emotions trigger the magic, accidentally setting off an eternal winter that she can't stop. She fears she's becoming a monster and that no one, not even her sister, can help her.

Others to round out the cast are Santino Fontana as Hans, Alan Tudyk as Duke, Ciaran Hinds as Pabbie/Grandpa, Chris Williams as Oaken, Stephen J. Anderson as Kai, Maia Wilson as Bulda, Edie McClurg as Gerda, Robert Pine as Bishop, Maurice LaMarche as King, father of Anna and Elsa, Livvy Stubenrauch as Young Anna, Eva Bella as Young Elsa, and Spencer Ganus as Teen Elsa.

This was adequately directed with just the right amount of emotion one would expect from Disney by Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee. They give us all the gasps, action, and sweetness in the appropriate places that makes this production like the well oiled machine that Disney knows so well and gives us in spades. This was written well by Lee, based on a story by Buck, Lee and Shane Morris, which was inspired by "The Snow Queen" by Hans Christian Andersen. Since the writing was based on an Andersen story, it couldn't have been written too badly considering the awesomeness of Andersen's children's stories. He was an amazing storyteller.

Other than this being fairly predictable, and the directing being a bit stagy, this was a great story, and Disney Animation Studios' animation was amazing, not to mention families will love this and is all rolled into a 3D process. Have fun folks.

Out of 4 Stars: 3                           Rated: PG                          108mins.