Frozen

Frozen is an American 3D computer animated musical fantasy comedy drama film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. Contrary to popular belief, this film does not use Meander, the hybrid 2D/CGI animation tool made by Disney for the Paperman short, leading to uncertainty on when it will be used. This movie uses the same animation style as Tangled. It is loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "The Snow Queen". It is the 53rd animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. It also features the 12th and 13th members of the Disney Princess line, Anna and Elsa. The film features the voices of Kristen Bell as Anna and Idina Menzel as Elsa, in both speaking and singing roles, along with Jonathan Groff playing the role of mountain man Kristoff, Josh Gad as Olaf the Snowman and Santino Fontana as Hans. It was released on November 27, 2013.

Frozen underwent several story treatments for several years, before being commissioned in 2011, with a screenplay written by Jennifer Lee, and both Chris Buck and Lee serving as co directors. Christophe Beck, who had worked on Disney's award-winning short Paperman, was hired to compose the film's orchestral score, while husband and wife songwriting team Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez penned the songs.

Frozen premiered at the El Capitan Theatre on November 19, 2013, and went into general theatrical release on November 27. The film has so far grossed $958 million in worldwide box office revenue, $378 million of which has been earned in the United States and Canada; it was met with widespread critical acclaim, with several film critics considering it to be the best Disney animated musical since the studio's renaissance era. The film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film and two Critics' Choice Awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song for "Let It Go", and has received Academy Award, BAFTA, Annie Award, and Satellite Award nominations.

This is also WDAS's second Andersen-inspired full-length feature, the first being "The Little Mermaid" (not counting "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" from Fantasia 2000 and "The Little Match Girl").

It was later announced on January 31, 2014 that a sing along version of the movie would be in select theaters.

Plot
Late in the night, 5-year old Princess Anna (Livvy Stubenrauch - speaking; Katie Lopez - singing) wakes her elder sister, 8-year old Princess Elsa (Eva Bella) to play using Elsa's snow magic. They build a snowman, who Elsa names Olaf, and, as Elsa tells Anna, likes warm hugs. However when Elsa hits Anna with her powers in an attempt to save her little sister from falling, the royal family journeys to the legendary Valley of the Living Rock to seek the help of trolls who remove the magic from Anna, and her memory of her sister's ability. In order to protect Elsa from the world until she can learn to control her powers, she is ostracized from everyone, including Anna, leaving both sisters distraught and lonely. Their despair only escalates when their parents die 10 years later, after they go on a ship to sail somewhere when a storm erupts and a wave capsizes the ship.

Three years later, it is the day of Elsa's (Idina Menzel) coronation ceremony. Dignitaries from around the world are coming to visit, including the Duke of Weselton (Alan Tudyk), who wants to run Arendelle's profits dry. Nobody is more excited than Anna (Kristen Bell), as they are finally opening the gates to the kingdom. She is happy to see other people, and hopes for the possibility of meeting that special someone, but Elsa is still concerned about trying to control her powers. As she strolls out onto the streets, she bumps into a horse, which happens to belong to the charming and handsome Prince Hans (Santino Fontana) of The Southern Isles. Anna is instantly attracted to him. The coronation goes off without a hitch, despite Elsa's fears and she even takes time to connect with her sister at the party before Anna and Hans sneak off to spend the evening together, quickly realizing the mutual attraction between them. Hans proposes right on the spot, and Anna immediately accepts. Elsa refuses to grant her blessing on the marriage, setting off an argument between the sisters culminating in Elsa's abilities being exposed to the party guests.

Panicking, Elsa runs with Anna in hot pursuit. As she becomes more stressed and panicked, the weather starts turning colder: snow begins to fall and Elsa races across the fjord, freezing it with each step but turning the whole body of water into ice, trapping all the ships. She makes it to the North Mountain where she laments her failure at keeping the powers contained but quickly becomes more and more at ease and relaxed, free to use her powers as she pleases, (singing the song "Let It Go"  creating a snowman (she and Anna built the same one when they were young), an ice castle, and an ice dress. The next morning Anna is on a hunt for Elsa, determined to return her to Arendelle, end the winter, and mend their relationship. She finds herself at Wandering Oaken's Trading Post and Sauna where she meets Oaken (Chris Williams) and Kristoff (Jonathan Groff). Anna convinces Kristoff to take her to the North Mountain where the source of the winter is coming from. After an attack from wolves the pair meet the snowman Elsa created, who turns out to be alive, named Olaf (Josh Gad) who shares his dreams of experiencing summer and agrees to lead them to Elsa's hideout.

The gang makes it to Elsa's castle. Anna and Elsa reunite, and while both are happy to see each other, Elsa still harbors fears of wounding Anna once again. Despite Anna's promising to stand by her sister and help her, Elsa only grows more agitated and nervous resulting in her magic flaring, this time striking Anna in the heart. Elsa, in desperation to get her sister to safety, creates a giant snow creature (that Olaf calls "Marshmallow") to throw them out. After they outrun the snow monster, Kristoff notices that Anna's hair is turning white, and he takes them to seek help. Kristoff leads Anna (who is slowly freezing) to the trolls. A mix-up occurs, and the trolls insist Anna and Kristoff get married. Before the two can be wed by Gothi The Troll Priest, Anna collapses and Grand Pabbie appears. According to him, only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart or else Anna will freeze solid. Kristoff races back to Arendelle to get Anna to Hans, believing true love's kiss will save her.

Meanwhile, Hans, on a search for Anna after her horse returns to the kingdom without her, and the guards find the ice castle. While Hans battles Marshmallow the duke's men attack Elsa who fights back, nearly killing them both much to her own horror. At the end of the altercation Elsa's chandelier comes crashing down, knocking her unconscious. She wakes up shackled in a cell back in Arendelle. Hans pleads with her to undo the winter but Elsa replies that she can't due to the fact that she is unable to control her powers. Anna is returned to Hans, freezing more and more cold and sick by the minute. She begs Hans to kiss her and break the curse but he refuses, revealing his plan all along was to marry into Arendelle's throne, because he is the youngest of thirteen brothers and will never reach the throne. He leaves Anna to freeze to death and goes to kill Elsa. Also, he puts the fire out to prevent Anna from getting any heat and warmth.

Elsa escapes from prison when she learns Hans means to have her executed for treason and heads out into the blizzard on the fjord. In the castle, Olaf comes to Anna's rescue and reveals Kristoff is in love with her. The two then travel together out on the fjord to find him, where he is racing back to the kingdom. Hans cuts Elsa off and tells her Anna is dead because of her. In Elsa's despair, the storm immediately stops, giving Kristoff and Anna the chance to reach each other. But when Anna sees Hans is about to kill her sister, she chooses instead to save Elsa, throwing herself between Elsa and Hans; she freezes solid just as Hans' sword hits her instead of Elsa. After a few moments of despair, Elsa sees her sister has thawed and come back to life because she sacrificed herself to save her sister, constituting an act of true love.

Elsa realizes love is the key to controlling her powers and thaws the kingdom. Sometime later, Anna gifts Kristoff a new sled and reveals Elsa has named him the Official Ice Master for the kingdom and the two share a kiss. Hans is deported back to his own kingdom in chains where he will have to deal with his 12 older brothers for his deeds and Elsa cuts off trade with Weselton. Elsa creates an ice rink in one of the castle courtyards and promises to never shut the castle gates again, while gifting Anna with a pair of ice skates (made out of ice). Anna is delighted but tells Elsa she can't skate. Elsa helps her, who is later joined by Olaf. The movie ends with everyone in Arendelle skating, making the most of Elsa's ice rink.

Origins
In 1943, Walt Disney and Samuel Goldwyn had considered the possibility of collaborating together to produce a biography film of author and poet Hans Christian Andersen, where Goldwyn's studio would shoot the live-action sequences and Disney would create the animated sequences. The animated sequences were to include stories of Andersen's works, such as "The Little Mermaid", "The Little Match Girl", "The Snow Queen", "Thumbelina", "The Ugly Duckling", "The Red Shoes" and "The Emperor's New Clothes". Walt and his animators were having hard troubles about The Snow Queen, as they couldn't find a way to adapt and relate the Snow Queen character to modern audiences. Even as far back as the 1940s, Disney's animation department saw great cinematic possibilities with the source material, but the Snow Queen character herself, proved to be too problematic. This, among other things, led to the cancellation of the Disney-Goldwyn project. Goldwyn went on to produce his own live action film version in 1952, entitled Hans Christian Andersen, with Danny Kaye as Andersen, Charles Vidor directing, Moss Hart writing, and Frank Loesser (Guys and Dolls, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying) penning the songs. All of Andersen's fairy tales were, instead, told in song and ballet in live action, like the rest of the film. It went on to receive six Academy Award nominations the following year. Back at Disney, The Snow Queen, along with other Andersen fairy tales (including The Little Mermaid), were shelved.

Later efforts
In the late 1990s, Walt Disney Feature Animation started on their own adaptation of The Snow Queen after the tremendous success of the Disney Renaissance films, until the project was scrapped completely in late 2002, when Glen Keane notoriously quit the project. Even before then, Harvey Fierstein pitched his version of the story to the Disney executives, but was turned down. Dick Zondag (We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story), and Dave Goetz (An American Tail, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Tangled) all had their try on it, but failed. Disney shelved the project again. Michael Eisner, then-CEO and Chairman of The Walt Disney Company, offered his support to the project and suggested doing it with John Lasseter at Pixar Animation Studios, when the studios would get their contracts renewed. However, in March 2010, four years after the Pixar acquisition, Disney commissioned the project instead at Walt Disney Animation Studios, with Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale directing, along with Don Hahn to produce, John Lasseter to executive produce, Linda Woolverton to write the script, and Alan Menken and Glenn Slater to write the songs. By June 2010, the project entered development once again, when the studio failed to find a way to make the story and the Snow Queen character work.

Revitalization
On December 22, 2011, following the success of Tangled (formerly Rapunzel), Disney announced a new title for the film, Frozen, and a release date, November 27, 2013, and a different crew from the previous attempt. A month later, it was confirmed that the film would be a computer animated feature in stereoscopic 3D, instead of the intended hand drawn animation. On March 5, 2012, it was announced that Chris Buck (Tarzan, Surf's Up) would be directing, with John Lasseter and Peter Del Vecho (The Princess and the Frog) producing.

When Disney decided to start up The Snow Queen again, one of the main challenges Buck and Del Vecho faced was the character of the Snow Queen, which in that earlier version of the story, was a villain. Buck and Del Vecho presented their storyboards to John Lasseter, with the entire production team adjourned to a conference to hear John's thoughts on this work-in-progress. Production designer Michael Giaimo, recalled; "That was the game changer...I remember John saying that the latest version of The Snow Queen story that Chris Buck and his team had come up with was fun, very light-hearted. But the characters didn't resonate. They aren't multi-faceted. Which why John felt that audiences wouldn't really be able to connect with them." The production team then addressed the film's problems, drafting several different variations on the Snow Queen story until the characters and story felt relevant. The film's protagonist, Anna, was based on the Gerda character from The Snow Queen, whereas Kristoff was loosely based on the Robber Girl character. The production team decided to have Anna and Elsa (the Snow Queen) as sisters. "From that moment forward, the project began to jell in some very exciting ways. Once we realized that these characters could be siblings and have a relationship, everything changed," Del Vecho enthused. Columnist Jim Hill wrote on the film's production back-story, "Lasseter also immediately saw the wisdom in taking the approach to adapting the story of The Snow Queen to the big screen. That a sibling dynamic like this had never been explored in an animated feature before. Which is why making this particular story change would definitely bring new to that table."

Production
On March 5, 2012, it was announced that actress Kristen Bell would provide her voice to the lead character, Anna. "Since I was 4 years old, I dreamed of being in a Disney animated film," Bell said. "It was the first goal I ever set for myself. It seemed like it would be a very unrealistic one." When Bell was a little girl, she she recorded a voice box where she sang a couple of songs from The Little Mermaid, including "Part of Your World", after growing much fascination of wanting to appear in a Disney animated film from The Little Mermaid and Aladdin. Her Little Mermaid vocal tracks were part of the reason why she got the part of Anna, as director Jennifer Lee said to her that if she hadn't recorded her own vocal tracks from Mermaid, it would've been very difficult to the find the right one to play Anna. She did the recording sessions while she was pregnant. After she gave birth, she re-recorded some lines as her voice had deepened, and there were "more womanly tones." In addition to Bell's casting, Disney cast Idina Menzel as Elsa the Snow Queen on June 23, 2012.

On December 19, 2012, it was announced that Jonathan Groff would voice the role of Kristoff. In June 2013, It was also announced that Alan Tudyk, who voiced King Candy in Wreck-It Ralph, would voice the role of the Duke of Weselton, along with Santino Fontana as Prince Hans, and Josh Gad as Olaf the snowman. When asked on her approach to Anna, Kristen Bell replied, "I'm really excited to show it to people. I became a part of the kind of movie I wanted to see as a kid," she said. "I always loved Disney animation, but there was something about the females that was unattainable to me. Their posture was too good and they were too well-spoken, and I feel like I really made this girl much more relatable and weirder and scrappier and more excitable and awkward. I'm really proud of that."

On November 30, 2012, it was announced that Jennifer Lee, one of the screenwriters of Wreck-It Ralph, had joined Buck as co-director. "We brought Jen [Lee, the co-director] as a writer originally but she so quickly took to the story we were trying to tell, she worked so well with our song writers and had such a passion that it became clear she'd bring a lot of creativity to the film, was very much in sync with Chris. And given the time frame we needed two directors," Del Vecho remarked. Following the announcement, Jennifer Lee became the first woman to direct a full-length animated motion picture produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. Peter Del Vecho commented on the matter of having two directors on the project: "In story planning we're always together. That's myself, the head of story, the songwriters and Jen[nifer Lee] and Chris [Buck]; you can't do anything until you get that story working. But after that, we have the ability to keep Jen working on story while Chris is working on animation, and then they come together again in editorial. The idea of two directors is that they can come together to bounce ideas off each another when they need to but also split their duties a little bit so that, essentially, they can get more work done in a straight day."

Animation
The film's animators visited an Ice Hotel in Quebec, Canada to study how light reflects and refracts on snow and ice. For the film's setting, the animators used the landscape of Norway and the feel of the winter season of Wyoming for inspiration. "We had a very short time schedule for this film, so our main focus was really to get the story right but we knew that John Lasseter is keen on truth in the material and creating a believable world, and again that doesn't mean it's a realistic world - but a believable one. It was important to see the scope and scale of Norway, and important for our animators to know what it's like," Del Vecho remarked. "There is a real feeling of Lawrence of Arabia scope and scale to this," he finished. Back at the studio, Del Vecho explained the film's production: "On this movie we do have character leads, supervising animators on specific characters. The animators themselves may work on multiple characters but it's always under one lead. I think it was different on Tangled, for example, but we chose to do it this way as we wanted one person to fully understand and develop their own character and then be able to impart that to the crew. Hyrum Osmond, the animator on Olaf, is quiet but he has a funny, wacky personality so we knew he'd bring a lot of comedy to it; Anna's animator, Becky Bresee, it's her first time leading a character and we wanted her to lead Anna.

Regarding the look and nature of the film's cinematography, the film's art director Michael Giaimo (Pocahontas) was greatly influenced by the legendary Jack Cardiff's work in Black Narcissus, which lends a hyper-reality to Frozen: "Because this is a movie with such scale and we have the Norwegian fjords to draw from, I really wanted to explore the depth. From a design perspective, since I was stressing the horizontal and vertical aspects, and what the fjords provide, it was perfect. We encased the sibling story in scale." In fact, Ted D. McCord's work on The Sound of Music was another major influence: "The juxtaposition of character and environment and the counterpart of how they played in terms of cinematography was brilliant in that film," Giaimo added. It was also his idea that Frozen should be filmed in CinemaScope, which was warmly approved by John Lasseter. Columnist Bill Desowitz wrote about the design and majesty of the film's visual splendor: "According to Giaimo, there were three important takeaways from the research trip in making Frozen unique to the Disney canon: the fjords, which are the massive vertical rock formations, and serve as the setting for the secluded Arendelle kingdom; the medieval stave churches, whose rustic triangular roof-lines and shingles inspired the castle compound; and the rosemaling folk art, whose distinctive paneling and grid patterns informed the architecture, decor, and costumes (the most elaborate in Disney history, designed by Brittney Lee). For Giaimo, whose background is animation and got into story, character design, environment and art, definitely achieves a unity of character and environment. "Now that I look back on Frozen, that's why I'm not afraid of color. I wanted very saturated colors and I wanted to use black, which is usually a no-no in CG." A live reindeer was brought into the studio for animators to study its movements and mannerisms for the character, Sven.

When the English title for the film was officially changed from The Snow Queen to Frozen, Peter Del Vecho explains "The title Frozen came up independently of the title Tangled. It's because, to us, it represents the movie. Frozen plays on the level of ice and snow but also the frozen relationship, the frozen heart that has to be thawed. We don't think of comparisons between Tangled and Frozen, though. The decision to call the film Frozen was the filmmakers' decision. The studio's decision to then call it the Snow Queen overseas was because that just resonated stronger in some countries than Frozen. Maybe there's a richness to the Snow Queen in the country's heritage and they just wanted to emphasize that." As he continued, "We're telling a story about family and relationships and that in itself can be very complicated. A lot of times what you perceive something to be isn't what it turns out to be – Elsa has to hide for her whole life who she is, even from her sister. That clearly affected her and made her into the character she is. Hopefully, if you look at the story through Elsa's eyes you'll be able to understand what she does or if you look at it through Anna's eyes you'll be able to understand why she does what she does, but they're all complicated relationships. We don't think of it as a Princess movie. They happen to be Princesses but we don't think about it that way, so I always get a bit thrown when people talk about this. But I can say we want to make them really believable and not set them up on a pedestal. Our version of these characters should feel really real and be relatable to things you might go through in your life."

Music
The original songs for Frozen were written and composed by the husband-and-wife songwriting team of Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, both of whom had previously worked with Walt Disney Animation Studios on Winnie the Pooh. At D23's Destination D event in August 2013, a song called "Let it Go" was performed as a preview. The song is to be performed by Idina Menzel as Elsa, when she leaves the kingdom and creates her own ice castle. In February 2013, it was reported that Christophe Beck. had been hired to score the film, following his highly acclaimed work on a Disney animated short film Paperman, the year prior to Frozen. Kristen Bell also confirmed that there will be a duet between her and Menzel. On August 8, 2013, "Let It Go" and "In Summer," Olaf's song, were revealed at the Disney D23 Expo. It was also revealed on September 14, 2013 that Frode Fjellheim's Eatnemen Vuelie will be the film's opening song.

For the orchestral film score, composer Christophe Beck gave homage to the Norway- and Sápmi-inspired setting, employing regional instruments such as the bukkehorn and traditional vocal techniques, such as kulning. The music producers recruited a Norwegian linguist to assist with the lyrics for an Old Norse song written for Elsa's coronation, and also traveled to Norway to record the all-female choir Cantus, for a piece inspired by traditional Norwegian music. The score was recorded by an 80-piece orchestra, featuring 32 vocalists, including native Norwegian Christine Hals. Beck worked with Lopez and Anderson-Lopez on incorporating their songs into arrangements in the score. The trio's goal "was to create a cohesive musical journey from beginning to end."

Box office
Frozen has earned $384,061,000 in North America, as of February 23, 2014, and $596,300,000 in other countries as of February 16, 2014, for a worldwide total of $980,361,000 and it's expected to gross over $1 Billion before opening in Japan. It is the 19th highest-grossing film, the third highest-grossing animated film, the second highest-grossing 2013 film, the second highest-grossing 2013 animated film, the second highest-grossing non-sequel animated film, and the second highest-grossing animated film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, behind only The Lion King.

The film earned $110.6 million worldwide on its opening weekend. Excluding re-releases, it is the highest-grossing non-sequel animated film in North America, outside North America and worldwide.

North America
Frozen became Fandango's top advance ticket-seller among original animated films, outselling previous record-holder Brave. The film opened on Friday, November 22, 2013, exclusively at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood for a five-day limited release and earned $342,839 before its wide opening on Wednesday, November 27, 2013. During the three-day weekend it earned $243,390, scoring the seventh largest per-theater average. On the opening day of its wide release, the film earned $15.2 million (including $800,000 from Tuesday previews) and set a record for the highest pre-Thanksgiving Wednesday opening, ahead of Tangled ($11.9 million). It was also the second largest pre-Thanksgiving Wednesday among all films, behind Catching Fire ($20.8 million). The film finished in second place over the traditional three-day weekend (Friday-to-Sunday) with $67.4 million, setting an opening weekend record among Walt Disney Animation Studios films. It also scored the second largest opening weekend among films that did not debut at #1. Among films that opened during Thanksgiving, it set new records; three-day ($67.4 million from Friday to Sunday) and five-day ($93.6 million from Wednesday to Sunday). It also achieved the second largest three-day and five-day Thanksgiving gross among all films, behind Catching Fire. During its second weekend of wide release, Frozen declined 53% to $31.6 million, but jumped to first place, setting a record for the largest post-Thanksgiving weekend, ahead of Toy Story 2 ($27.8 million). It became the first film since Avatar to reach first place on its sixth weekend of wide release (January 3–5, 2014) with $19.6 million. Frozen also achieved the third largest fifth and sixth weekends of wide release, behind Avatar and Titanic.

In North America, Frozen is the twenty-second highest-grossing film, the third highest-grossing 2013 film, the fifth highest-grossing animated film, the highest-grossing 2013 animated film, and the second highest-grossing Walt Disney Animation Studios film (after The Lion King). Excluding re-releases, it has achieved the highest-grossing initial run among non-sequel animated films (a record previously held by Finding Nemo) and among Walt Disney Animation Studios films (a record previously held by The Lion King). However, due to ticket price inflation and 3-D surcharges, The Lion King still has a higher attendance. It is also the seventh animated film to reach $300 million, and the third original animated film to reach that milestone.

Outside North America
Frozen is the twenty-ninth highest-grossing film, the fifth highest-grossing animated film, the fourth highest-grossing 2013 film, the highest-grossing original animated film, and the highest-grossing Walt Disney Animation Studios film. It had its debut on the same weekend as its wide North American release and earned $16.7 million from sixteen foreign markets. Overall, its largest opening weekends occurred in China (Wednesday-to-Sunday opening of $14.1 million), Russia and the CIS ($11.9 million, including previews from previous weekend), where the film set an opening-weekend record among Disney animated films (ahead of Tangled) and non-sequel animated films, and France and the Maghreb region (Wednesday-to-Sunday opening of $9.16 million). It set an opening-weekend record among animated films in Sweden. In total earnings, it is the highest-grossing animated film of all time in South Korea and Denmark. Additionally in South Korea, Frozen is the second-highest foreign film in terms of attendance, behind only Avatar. It is also the highest-grossing Walt Disney Animation Studios film in at least 45 territories, including the Latin America region (as well as specifically in Mexico and Brazil), the UK, Ireland and Malta, Russia and the CIS, Ukraine, Norway, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, and China. Frozen topped the box office outside North America in its seventh weekend (January 10–12, 2014), with $27.8 million.

Critical response
Frozen received widespread critical acclaim, with several critics have compared the film favorably to the films of the Disney Renaissance, particularly The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and The Lion King. The film was praised for its visuals, messages, musical numbers, and voice acting, especially of Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, and Josh Gad. The "Let it Go" musical sequence was repeatedly singled out for praise, with some critics calling it one of the best film sequences of the year. The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 89% of critics gave the film a positive review based on 133 reviews, with an average score of 7.8/10, making it the highest rated family film in 2013. The site's consensus reads: "Beautifully animated, smartly written, and stocked with singalong songs, Frozen adds another worthy entry to the Disney canon." At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a score of 75 based on 37 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews." CinemaScore polls conducted during the opening weekend revealed the average grade cinemagoers gave Frozen was an A+ on an A+ to F scale.

Alonso Duralde of The Wrap hailed the film as "the best animated musical to come out of Disney since the tragic death of lyricist Howard Ashman, whose work on The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast helped build the studio's modern animated division into what it is today." He also elaborated that "while it lags the tiniest bit on its way to the conclusion, the script...really delivers; it offers characters to care about, along with some nifty twists and surprises along the way." Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter observes Frozen as a true musical and wrote "You can practically see the Broadway musical Frozen is destined to become while watching Disney's 3D animated princess tale." McCarthy described the film as "energetic, humorous and not too cloying, as well as the first Hollywood film in many years to warn of global cooling rather than warming, this tuneful toon upgrades what has been a lackluster year for big studio animated fare and, beginning with its Thanksgiving opening, should live up to box office expectations as one of the studio's hoped-for holiday-spanning blockbusters." Kyle Smith of the New York Post awarded the film 3.5 out of 4 stars and praised the film as "a great big snowy pleasure with an emotionally gripping core, brilliant Broadway-style songs and a crafty plot. Its first and third acts are better than the jokey middle, but this is the rare example of a Walt Disney Animation Studios effort that reaches as deep as a Pixar film." Scott Mendelson of Forbes enthused; "Frozen is both a declaration of Disney's renewed cultural relevance and a reaffirmation of Disney coming to terms with its own legacy and its own identity. It's also a just plain terrific bit of family entertainment."

The Los Angeles Times extolled the film's ensemble voice talent and elaborate musical sequences, and declared Frozen as "a welcome return to greatness for Walt Disney Animation Studios." Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman gave the film a "B+" grade and labeled it as a "squarely enchanting fairy tale that shows you how the definition of what's fresh in animation can shift." Richard Corliss of Time also lauded the film, writing that, "It's great to see Disney returning to its roots and blooming anew: creating superior musical entertainment that draws on the Walt tradition of animation splendor and the verve of Broadway present." Richard Roeper acclaimed the film as an "absolute delight from start to finish." Both Michael Phillips of Chicago Tribune and Stephen Holden of The New York Times praised the film's characters and musical sequences, which also drew comparisons to the theatrics found in Wicked. Emma Dibdin of Digital Spy awarded the film five out of five stars and called the film "a new Disney classic" and "an exhilarating, joyous, human story that's as frequently laugh out loud funny as it is startling and daring and poignant." Hot on the heels of the 90th anniversary, it's impossible to imagine a more perfect celebration of everything Disney is at its best."

However, the film was not without its criticisms. Scott Foundas of Variety, wasn't as equally impressed with the film, but nevertheless commended the film's voice acting and technical artistry: "The tactile, snow-capped Arendelle landscape, including Elsa's ice castle retreat is Frozen's other true marvel, enhanced by 3D and the decision to shoot in widescreen – a nod to the CinemaScope richness of Sleeping Beauty and Lady and the Tramp." The Seattle Times gave the film two out of four stars, stating that "While it is an often gorgeous film with computer-generated fjords and ice sculptures and castle interiors, the important thing that glues all this stuff together — story — is sadly lacking." Joe Williams of St. Louis Post-Dispatch also criticized the story as the film's weakest point.

Controversy
Allegations of sexism occurred, after head of animation for Frozen, Lino DiSalvo, said:

"Historically speaking, animating female characters are really, really difficult, because they have to go through these range of emotions, but you have to keep them pretty and they're very sensitive too — you can get them off a model very quickly. So, having a film with two hero female characters was really tough, and having them both in the scene and look very different if they're echoing the same expression; that Elsa looking angry looks different from Anna being angry."

Thus suggesting a difficulty exists due to a limit range of facial variation for recent Disney female cartoon characters because of the need to keep them "pretty". A Disney spokesperson told Time that DiSalvo's quote was widely misinterpreted. In reality he was speaking of how easy it is to distort female characters faces when getting them to express them selves. That keeping their facial features intact, while still having them express many emotions, is always a fairly difficult thing to do. And that having two female protagonists doubled the already high levels of difficulty.

In addition, on December 3, one of the showings of the film at a Regal Entertainment theater in Pinellas Park, Florida, received a complaint from several parents, including Lynn Greene of Largo, regarding briefly showing a sexually explicit scene from an R-rated film. According to Greene, the scene in question briefly featured "filler" resembling something akin to Steamboat Willie before transitioning.

Home media
Frozen will be released on a 1-disc DVD and a 2-disc Blu-ray/DVD combo pack on March 18, 2014. However, there will not be a Blu-ray 3D release. Frozen will be released on Digital download and Digital 3D download on Febuary 25, 2014.

Trivia

 * Frozen features several nods to Disney's other feature-length Hans Christian Anderson tale, The Little Mermaid, sometimes for the purpose of altering its elements rather starkly:
 * While The Little Mermaid begins with a view from the sky and later descends into the sea, Frozen begins with a view from under the sea and later ascends into the sky.
 * Both films begin with a pinch of backstory/foreshadowing delivered by men at work. In The Little Mermaid, sailors sing of Triton and Ursula in "Fathoms Below". In Frozen, ice harvesters give more vague foreshadowing in "Frozen Heart", but this time Elsa is not the villain like Ursula was.
 * While fantasizing about Prince Eric, Ariel speaks to and caresses the face of his statue. Anna does this also, yet in her case her affections are given to the handsome bust of an unknown dream prince...which ends up on top of a wedding-like cake.
 * The appearance and mannerisms of the Duke of Weselton invite comparison to those of Grimsby from The Little Mermaid. However, only one of them can be trusted.
 * Both Ariel and Anna fall in love at first sight (though Anna only think she does) with a handsome prince whom they have never met before. However, only Ariel can hope to gain with them a "happily ever after" with that specific prince.
 * Both Ariel and Elsa are forced to keep deep secrets locked away even from their own siblings. Once these secrets are revealed, both are greeted with destructive rejection, run away from their homes, and do something reckless involving dangerous magic. In both cases, the character can at this point be redeemed only by love (as it turns out, the self-sacrifice of a family member), yet in Elsa's case the magic comes from within.
 * Both Ariel and Anna enjoy the companionship of a silly sidekick who has little understanding of the world. Scuttle is a natural creature while Olaf is a magical one, but both give their heroine hope of survival in the 11th hour.
 * Although some Disney Princess characters appear in films outside their franchise, such as in a non-related film (ie, Belle's cameo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame) or as a storybook/painting (such as the reference to Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty in Beauty and the Beast as well as Aurora's painting in The Little Mermaid), Frozen is the first film within the Disney Princess franchise to have two separate representatives in the Disney Princess series directly appear alongside each other (Rapunzel appears as a cameo during Elsa's coronation in the beginning of the film, as one of the attendees).
 * Frozen's love story is similar to that of Enchanted: The main heroine falls in love with the prince, and after a disaster, has to spend time with someone else, and finds out out at the end that her true love is actually not the prince, but the person whom she spent more time with. Both heroines also have a duet with the prince, and want to marry as soon as possible.
 * The names of four of the main characters were inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's name; Hans, Kristoff, Anna, & Sven.
 * The name Hans is also commonly used in Norway, Sweden and Denmark; these are the same places that Hans' home might be located.
 * In the original fairy tale, The Snow Queen promised Kai a pair of skates if he solved a puzzle for her. As a reference to this, Elsa gives Anna a pair of skates at the end.
 * Gloves are used as major symbolism throughout the movie, but most noticeably with the characters, Elsa and Hans; both characters wear gloves when attempting to conceal their true selves, and their true identities are revealed when the characters remove their gloves (and Hans goes back into hiding his true self when he puts his gloves back on).
 * The only time Anna speaks with authority in a serious manner is when she says: "Bring me my horse" and "I leave Prince Hans in charge."
 * The phrase "Hang in there" is used at multiple points in the movie. As seen in the trailer, it is used by Olaf as he is falling to his possible-doom off of a cliff outside Elsa's ice castle, and it is also used inside Arendelle's castle, where it is offered as encouragement by 9-year-old Anna to (a painting of) Joan of Arc. Kristoff says "Hang in there" to Anna while they're riding on Sven back to the castle. Elsa also offers similar encouragement to an emperiled Olaf.
 * Frozen is the second film based on a fairytale to not be named after the original title, Tangled was the first.
 * There were many changes in the script StitchKingdom gave on their website in October 2013 before the final one. One example is Kristoff's line, featured in the the first trailer: "You wanna talk about a problem? I sell ice for a living." In the film, he says: "You want to talk about a supply and demand problem? I sell ice for a living."
 * The words "anymore" and "door" is used as a rhyme in 5 songs, chronologically ordered.
 * In "Do You Want to Build a Snowman", 5-year old Anna sings: "I never see you anymore, come out the door."
 * In "For the First Time in Forever", Anna sings: "The window is open, so's that door. I didn't know they did that anymore."
 * In "Love is an Open Door", Hans and Anna sing: "Say goodbye (say goodbye) to the pain of the past. We don't have to feel it anymore. Love is an open door."
 * In "Let it Go", Elsa sings: "Let it go, let it go. Can't hold it back anymore. Let it go, let it go. Turn away and slam the door."
 * In "For the First Time in Forever (Reprise)", Anna sings: "Please don't slam the door, you don't have to keep your distance anymore."
 * In For the First Time in Forever (Reprise), Elsa's line "What do I not know?" sounds very much like the line Cinderella sings in Rodgers and Hammerstein's production: "I do not know that this is so." Santino Fontana, who voices Hans, is Prince Topher in the Broadway version.
 * Only 5 characters, plus the trolls, sing.
 * Anna sings only 4 times: "Do You Want to Build a Snowman", "For the First Time in Forever", "Love Is An Open Door" and "For the First in Forever (Reprise)".
 * Elsa sings only three times: "For the First Time in Forever" ( She sings a few lines during the song ), "Let it Go" and "For the First Time in Forever (Reprise)".
 * Hans only sings once, which is "Love Is An Open Door".
 * Kristoff only sings once, which is "Reindeer(s) Are Better Than People".
 * Olaf only sings once, which is "In Summer".
 * The trolls only sing once, which is "Fixer Upper".
 * Frozen marks the third use of ultra widescreen (Super Technirama 70) in a Disney animated film since and Sleeping Beauty and The Black Cauldron.
 * When Elsa is holding the scepter and orb, the bishop proclaims: "Sem hon heldr inum helgum eignum ok krýnd í þessum helga stað ek té fram fyrir yðr…" In English this means: "As she holds the holy properties, and is crowned in this holy place, I present to you… Queen Elsa of Arendelle".
 * In the script, it reads: "Sehm hon HELL-drr IN-um HELL-gum AYG-num ok krund ee THES-um HELL- gah STAHTH, ehk teh frahm FUR-ear U- thear...

Notes and references

 * One of the paintings in the gallery is based on the painting "The Swing," by the French Rococo artist Jean-Honoré Fragonard, which was used as inspiration for the visual style of Tangled.