After the tremendous success of Disney’s animated film Frozen from 2013, Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee are trying to build on their previous accomplishment with the short film “Frozen- Fever”. The seven-minute-long animated movie is the latest masterpiece by executive producer John Lasseter, who also produced blockbusters like “Aladdin”, “Finding Nemo” or the whole “Toy Story” series.
But has “Frozen-Fever” the same potential to enchant the audience as the original?
It is princess Anna’s (Kristen Bell) birthday and her sister, the snow queen Elsa (Idina Menzel), is on a mission to make that day a perfect day with the help of all the other beloved characters from the original movie like Kristoff (Jonathan Groff), Olaf (Josh Gad). While Anna is led through the entire Kingdom by a string from present to present, Elsa has caught a cold, (although a cold has never bothered her anyway) and produces little small living snowmen every time she sneezes, who begin to destroy the birthday party decorations. Meanwhile, Kristoff and Olaf are trying to control them and to make the party as nice as Elsa had expected it to be. When Elsa nearly falls off a clock tower due to her cold, Anna convinces her to take a rest.
While Anna is actually enjoying her surprise party, Elsa is sneezing a huge final snowball overseas that hits Prince Hans, the imposter from the original movie. In the end, while Anna is taking care of Elsa, Kristoff and Olaf are deporting the snowman ‘army’ to Elsas ice palace from the original movie.
The entire spectacle is accentuated by a new song from the writers of “Let it go” called “Making Today a Perfect Day” sung by Idina Menzel. Unfortunately, this song is just not as catchy as the songs from the original just like “Do you want to build a snowman?”, “Love is an open door” or “Let it go”, which makes parents all over the world still flinch at least a little bit.
Nevertheless, the animation is still brilliant. But what else should we expect from such an experienced and successful producer like Chris Buck. The academy award for “Frozen” as the best animated feature in 2014 was just well-deserved.
In the end, it must be said that this short sequel is fun to watch and makes you want to hear and see more from Elsa, Anna and all their beloved friends in the future.
Ann-Christin Ruhm
The Rostock Review 