Frozen

Directed by Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee

(PG)

***

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Disney’s latest princess movie proves to be “a great big snowy pleasure,” said Kyle Smith in the New York Post. The story of sisters whose bond survives an unequal allocation of magical powers, it overcomes an insipid middle section with “an emotionally gripping core” and several “brilliant Broadway-style songs.” Raised in a picturesque kingdom, sisters Elsa and Anna seem separated for good when Elsa inherits the throne and accidentally reveals a terrifying ability to conjure ice and snow with the wave of a hand. But “this is where Frozen descends all too willingly into conventional territory,” sending spunky Anna out to retrieve her older sibling from self-imposed exile, said Geoff Berkshire in PasteMagazine.com. For a while, we’re locked in a “standard hero’s quest,” complete with a wacky snowman sidekick. The animated short that precedes Frozen turns out to be far wittier and inventive than the main attraction, said Todd McCarthy in The Hollywood Reporter. Even so, Disney has achieved what it aimed for here: “You can practically see the Broadway musical Frozen is destined to become.”