lucillesball’s review published on Letterboxd:
While this isn't my first time watching this, it has been over a decade, so I will consider this was a first-watch.
After watching it over a decade later, I understand why it was so popular. It was a fun little princess story and you can tell how much many renaissance-era elements were included in this film.
I thought the plot was basic. While watching, everything I remembered about this film was within the first 30 minutes which did concerned me. However, the ending was solid and the characters saved it a bit.
On to the characters, I feel like most of them weren't THAT developed. While I liked how Anna was this dorky character, it sadly spawned a whole clone of them. I also thought Hans wasn't a terrible villain but again, he spawned a whole genre of twist villains. I also didn't like how he was just thrown in the water by Anna. It felt so anticlimatic. Kristoff and Olaf were just there but I can excuse that as they weren't that pivotal to the story. Loved Elsa's character although she could've been more developed.
While I felt a bit underwhelmed by the character, the voice acting was amazing. It felt right to cast 4 actors who had experience in theater in lead roles and Kirsten Bell did Anna well. However, the songs were fucking annoying. Maybe it's because I got sick of them a decade ago but I just wanted to chop my ears off. However, I will give them credit for getting Broadway producers to produce the soundtrack rather than pop producers.
The animation was also gorgeous although it did show its age a bit (as expected for a 2013 film).
Overall, while this is a solid Disney film, it sadly marked the beginning of a slow downfall for Disney animation.