ANIMATION; 1hr 42min
VOICES BY: Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, Josh Gad, Santino Fontana
Chilled atmosphere: Kristoff and Anna
Princess Elsa (voiced by Menzel) is born with a gift-curse of terrible beauty in Disney’s take on The Snow Queen : the uncontrollable talent of generating grand-scale snow and ice. It isolates her from her adoring younger sister, Anna (Bell, working it off the pep charts), imprisoning her in her frosted-castle boudoir. In time, Elsa is crowned queen and Anna falls for prince-perfect Hans (Fontana), which they celebrate, naturally, with a blazing torch song. Elsa, terrified of the harm she can do, is still keeping everyone arm’s length, which culminates with the icing over of her Nordic kingdom and her mortified flight to a freezing destination. (This is not a movie you want to see in the depths of winter.)
So off Anna gallops into a lustrously animated wonderland, to save her depressed sister from herself. Her companions are stalwart ice carrier Kristoff (Groff), his hammy reindeer, Sven, and buck-toothed, pull-apart snowman Olaf (Gad), who just about trundles off with the whole glacial deal. He’s an irrepressible rare bird, and so is co-directors Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee’s sparkle-coated flight of fancy, its rip-roaring highs and teary lows as wild and titanic as the most ardent soap.
