Disney, traditionally, has been able to charm its audiences with great music, great characters, and great animation --
While one could nitpick about what they didn't like, I want to address one element of FROZEN that completely unengaged me: the animation itself.
I have no issue with computer-generated animation. But the design and even execution in FROZEN is so off-putting that instead of helping to draw me in to the story, it was distracting. I felt no connection to the human characters whatsoever. They looked like living barbie dolls. Their eyes were too bulging, their lips were too disconnected to the words, and the hair was poorly crafted.
The background animation and the special effects were great, and at moments spectacular. The character animation, however, nearly ruined the film for me. The most successful characters were the non-human ones: Olaf and the reindeer.
Aside from my qualms with the character animation, I want to mention one other distinct issue I have in FROZEN: the songs. In each song, the setup is rather smart and the songwriting is phenomenal...with the exception of the closing. They don't let the songs land and instead choose to jump right into the next moment. I felt that this choice didn't allow the music to stand above the moment, as it was building up to do. The ending of an Alan Menken song has a button to it, which allows the audience to appreciate the moment that just occurred. The Lopez's songs choose not to do that, and instead we jump into what is next. After each song, I thought "Wow, that was great-ohwaitwhat'shappeningnow?"
FROZEN was a nice film, but I liked THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG better.
"The Spectacle has, indeed, an emotional attraction of its own, but, of all the parts, it is the least artistic, and connected least with the art of poetry. For the power of Tragedy, we may be sure, is felt even apart from representation and actors. Besides, the production of spectacular effects depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet."
--Aristotle
