For decades, Disney has been really good at producing the same basic story with the same, basic characters.  A beautiful girl, with a great singing voice, is a misunderstood princess who meets a handsome, but also misunderstood, prince who rescues her from calamity and an evil magic wielder, and they get married.  There’s been the various elements added for flavor, but ultimately, it’s the same story.

FrozenFrozen (currently in first run theatres) is to other Disney princess movies what Wicked is to The Wizard of Oz—cute, fun, funny, and more enjoyable.  The “evil” sorceress queen is the misunderstood one, and her greatest defender and champion is her sister, the crown princess.  Watching this film, I was struck by the many similarities between it and the Broadway musical.  They even cast Idina Menzel as Elphaba—er, Elsa.  Look her up; she has a great singing voice.

Frozen is a really good film for young audiences.  It has fantastic visuals, and some clever ideas about magic and magical worlds.  It also doesn’t slow down, really.  There are thematic jumps in the story, which, to an adult, feels like something is missing or happening too quickly.  This is on purpose.  They simply skipped over the boring stuff that kids don’t care about, and adults don’t need explained.  There is a lot of stuff about royalty and ascension that just isn’t there.  It seems like a plot hole that no one has seen either of the princesses for over a decade, but everyone still loves them and knows what they look like.  What’s the relationship between these kingdoms?  Why do they all accept her as queen?

Who cares?  Alan Tudyk is the duke of “Weasel-Town.”

“It’s Weselton!”

It’s a joke everyone gets.  There is no need to give a class on the politics of a made up place.

The music is similarly punched in.  No story is conveyed by song, and the plot works without it.  What is conveyed by music is the emotional state of the characters.  It is a good way to deal with what are complicated psychologies without boring anybody with hours of brooding and seeming cruel.  Unfortunately, none of the songs really stands out individually, and I can’t say that twenty-four hours later I remember any of the tunes or lyrics.  Though I remember, one of them reminded me of “Defy Gravity.”

This might be the sort of film where I would say Olaf the snowman (Josh Gad) was its saving grace, but everybody had shining moments.  Every character contributed to the film.  Even the shockingly non-vocal caribou, Sven the Reindeer, really added to the film.

I won’t give away the ending, but it is a twist on the classic Disney way.  The act of true love, which has the power to right all wrongs, is not what you would expect from Disney.  It should have been obvious, and with any other studio it would have been.

Disney’s proving you can tell a mature story in a way appropriate for children.