★★★½
"The Snow Queen", aka what this movie should have been called, is another hit for Disney, which went through a little slump there for a while but has been in fine form lately with Tangled and Wreck-It-Ralph. Now comes Frozen.
It also returns to its full-fledged musical roots. Tangled had, what, five songs? This one has seven, and the voice-cast is populated largely with Broadway vets. The movie ends about how I thought it would, but it takes some unexpected twists on the way there that make it exciting.
The first 20 minutes speed through plot that most movies would take an hour to unfold, as we see two sisters, Elsa and Anna, grow, and Elsa has the power to create instant snow. They grow distant as they get older, which is Elsa's way of keeping Anna safe, as she's finding it harder to control it.
There's no demonic villain this time around, and it takes some feminist turns without being patronizing about it. They've broken the mold and are taking the "princess" formula in new directions. Good for them.
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