Frozen Review

Disney shelved Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen more than once, and when it came back into development, its title character was still a villain. The fix came from the songwriters. Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez wrote "Let It Go" as the anthem of a frightened young woman rather than a monster, and Elsa was rebuilt around it. Jennifer Lee, who wrote the screenplay, joined Chris Buck as co-director, the first woman to direct a Walt Disney Animation Studios feature.

The animation is superb: frost spreading in lacy patterns, an ice palace raised in the space of one song, snow that moves and settles like the real thing. Idina Menzel's voice gives Elsa her power, Kristen Bell plays Anna's gawky eagerness for laughs and heart, and Josh Gad's Olaf, a snowman who dreams of summer, steals nearly every scene.

The story is thinner than the songs. The trek through the mountains marks time, and the third-act twist in the romance is more contrivance than character. The ending, which lets an act of love between sisters do what a kiss usually does, earns its tears anyway. It won Oscars for animated feature and for "Let It Go", and it became the highest-grossing animated film to that point.