Fearless optimist Anna teams up with Kristoff in an epic journey, encountering Everest-like conditions, and a hilarious snowman named Olaf in a race to find Anna's sister Elsa, whose icy powers have trapped the kingdom in eternal winter. From: IMDb.com

This movie definitely feels like 'old' Disney again. Songs, princesses, cute characters, snappy comedy, far off places, adventure. Everything that made a lot of the. for instance, Disney animated movies from the '90's so great and timeless are all present in this movie as well. Having said that, this is one is not among the best Disney movies of all time in my opinion but it's good to see the studio returning to old form.

And all criticism aside; I genuinely enjoyed watching this movie. It's some perfectly enjoyable, simple, quick, entertainment but that at the same time is also still my main problem with it; it's a very basic and simple movie really.

It's a movie with a very straightforward story, that doesn't feature that many distractions in it. There for instance are no real side-plots and it's spending all of its time with either the Anna or Elsa character. There is no time and room for anything or anyone else to ever fully develop. It makes the story a pretty simplistic and also shallow one, though at the same time it still manages to be engaging enough with its main story and characters.

The story also does still have some nice touches in it. I for instance liked that the movie showed that a very feminine and girl like character such as a princes can be an heroic, adventurous and strong character, without having to toughen her up first, by giving her a warrior outfit or weapons for instance, like lots of animated movies that want to feature a strong female lead in it often tend to do.

I also liked how the love story was slightly different from usual and it handled themes such as true love and giving your heart to a person pretty well. Definitely better and more sensible than usual is the case with animated movies, aimed toward young kids.

The movie also features some pretty good songs in it. A bit too simple for my taste perhaps at times but I guess that's also why most of them are catchy ones. It's not exactly Alan Menken and Tim Rice type of material so to speak but it's definitely good to hear some original, good 'old fashioned', songs in a Disney movie again, without feeling forced and actually old fashioned.

Also good to see a genuinely good, fun and cute, comical sidekick in an animated movie again. There's always the danger with these sort of characters that they work out as annoying and forced one but Olaf the snowman, voiced by Josh Gad, actually definitely was my favorite character of the movie. His name alone is already enough to make me smile and he has a great, cute, personality and some funny one liners, throughout the entire movie.

Even though the movie as a whole feels a bit too simplistic and also certainly predictable, it still is one enjoyable animated movie to watch, of course especially for the young ones.

7/10

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Fearless optimist Anna teams up with Kristoff in an epic journey, encountering Everest-like conditions, and a hilarious snowman named Olaf in a race to find Anna's sister Elsa, whose icy powers have trapped the kingdom in eternal winter. From: IMDb.com

Fearless optimist Anna teams up with Kristoff in an epic journey, encountering Everest-like conditions, and a hilarious snowman named Olaf in a race to find Anna's sister Elsa, whose icy powers have trapped the kingdom in eternal winter. From: IMDb.com

Fearless optimist Anna teams up with Kristoff in an epic journey, encountering Everest-like conditions, and a hilarious snowman named Olaf in a race to find Anna's sister Elsa, whose icy powers have trapped the kingdom in eternal winter. From: IMDb.com

Fearless optimist Anna teams up with Kristoff in an epic journey, encountering Everest-like conditions, and a hilarious snowman named Olaf in a race to find Anna's sister Elsa, whose icy powers have trapped the kingdom in eternal winter. From: IMDb.com

Fearless optimist Anna teams up with Kristoff in an epic journey, encountering Everest-like conditions, and a hilarious snowman named Olaf in a race to find Anna's sister Elsa, whose icy powers have trapped the kingdom in eternal winter. From: IMDb.com

Directed by: Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee

Starring: Kristen Bell, Josh Gad, Idina Menzel and others

Current release date:  November 27, 2013

Fearless optimist Anna teams up with Kristoff in an epic journey, encountering Everest-like conditions, and a hilarious snowman named Olaf in a race to find Anna's sister Elsa, whose icy powers have trapped the kingdom in eternal winter. From: IMDb.com

Directed by: Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee

Starring: Kristen Bell, Josh Gad, Idina Menzel and others

Current release date: November 27, 2013

Nothing wrong with an indie flick, as long is it's telling a good and compelling story. I just can't see what this movie was trying to tell or achieve with its story though, making this a shallow and pointless experience.

Biggest reason why this never became a very interesting or effective movie to watch was because of its main characters. He's actually pretty much a mystery all throughout and it never feels like we truly get to know him. This already creates a sort of distance between the movie and its viewers, making it hard to ever feel involved with anything that's happening on the screen. He besides isn't all that likable in my opinion. He makes some pretty weird and illogical decisions at times, if you would ask me. But again, this also comes across that way because we never really get to know the main character in the first place.

And how about his journey/story? Is he learning about life? Is he progressing as a human being? Well, kind of but not really in the way I liked it. The only time he seems to be progressing is when he finds religion but all of it comes pretty much out of the blue and also in the long run isn't adding all that much to either the movie its story or that of its main character. The movie is lacking a good clear point and it's not interesting or convincing enough as a random slice of life type of movie.

Positive thing I can say about this movie is that it's never really a bad or boring one. While watching it, it never felt like I was wasting my time with it, though afterward I simply had to conclude that this movie gave far too little. It's lacking in the story and character department and the humor and some of its situations are a bit too far fetched, in my opinion. You should either make a movie like this an entirely realistic and convincing one or you should play play things completely comically. This movie is trying to do both, which causes neither of it to ever fully work out as something effective.

This really still is a watchable movie, especially if you're into this kind of independent stuff. It's good looking, well directed and it features some good acting in it but story- and character-wise, this never becomes a very interesting movie to watch. At least not for me.

5/10

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A cocky young man travels to Oregon to work on an apple farm. Out of his element, he finds his lifestyle and notions being picked apart by everyone who crosses his path. From: IMDb.com

Directed by: Kyle Patrick Alvarez

Starring: Troian Bellisario, Corey Stoll, Dale Dickey and others

Current release date: September 20, 2013

Fearless optimist Anna teams up with Kristoff in an epic journey, encountering Everest-like conditions, and a hilarious snowman named Olaf in a race to find Anna's sister Elsa, whose icy powers have trapped the kingdom in eternal winter. From: IMDb.com

Directed by: Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee

Starring: Kristen Bell, Josh Gad, Idina Menzel and others

Current release date: November 27, 2013