Frozen (2013)

Inspired by 'The Snow Queen' by Hans Christian Andersen, this film follows the lives of two sisters, and tells the story of how far someone will go to protect someone they love.

Set in the land of Arendelle - modelled loosely on the country of Norway - princesses Elsa and Anna live with their parents. Elsa hides a terrible secret - she has a magical power that allows her to create and control ice and snow.

When the two princesses are children, this provides hours of amusement for younger sister Anna, but following an accident, the king and queen keep Elsa shut away from the world, and tell her she needs to learn to control her powers or someone else will get hurt.

Tragically, the king and queen are killed at sea in a terrible storm, and the two girls live alone - and separately - in the castle until Elsa comes of age.

Anna (Kristen Bell) and Elsa (Idina Menzel).

When the day of Elsa's coronation arrives, the gates of the castle are thrown open for the first time in years. Anna (Kristen Bell) also meets her sister for the first time in years.

At the party that night, Elsa's powers again rear their ugly head, and Elsa (Idina Menzel) flees in fear. As she runs, an endless winter falls over the entire kingdom of Arendelle.

Anna leaves her new fiancee Hans (Santino Fontana) in charge of the castle and kingdom and heads out into the wilderness to find Elsa, bring her back, and restore Arendelle to its former splendour.

Along the way, she is joined by Kristoff (Jonathan Groff) and his trusty reindeer sidekick Sven. They also meet snowman Olaf (Josh Gad), who was made by Elsa and has magically come to life.

Elsa meanwhile has shut herself off from the world in an enormous ice castle of her own making, vowing to never again return, as her powers are just too strong and too dangerous for her to be around other people.

Elsa (Idina Menzel) building her ice castle to shut herself off from the world.

The screenplay - written by Jennifer Lee - is absolutely fantastic, filled with great characters that audiences will love. Girls worldwide flocked to experience the story of the two princesses, princesses very different from the traditional Disney princesses of earlier films: Elsa with her flaws and dark secrets, and Anna as an otherwise normal young girl. The character of Olaf (the snowman) is one of the cutest, most loveable, adorable characters in any Disney film of recent years. And the story, very loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen's classic story, is filled with twists and turns that keep audiences guessing until the very end.

This film, however, is primarily defined by its incredible songs, written by married couple Kristen Anderson-Lopez & Robert Lopez. Every single song in this film is magnificent, and the voice cast who sing them do an incredible job bringing them to life. It didn't take long for this film to make the transition to the Broadway stage, with the addition of a few more songs; the Broadway show is also fantastic, but I should get back to the film.

I appreciate there may be many people out there who found the near-endless repeating of 'Let It Go' - the Oscar-winning song that added to the film's popularity - at the time a little wearing, but one cannot deny that the song is well written and the music well composed, or that Menzel's performance is absolutely breathtaking (this should come as no surprise, as Menzel is first and foremost a Broadway performer, and an amazing one at that).

Olaf (Josh Gad) dreams of what life will be like for him in summer.

Christophe Beck's original score is also well written, occasionally using themes from the songs to tie different scenes together, though usually going in a direction all its own.

The voice cast - who, incidentally, all sing their own songs - are all fabulous, in particular Idina Menzel, as already mentioned. I have to say, my favourite character in this film has got to be the snowman Olaf; Josh Gad is an amazing performer, and brings so much life to this wonderful character.

Directors Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee have made an incredible film here, as recognised by the wider community when the film won an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. I must say, this is one of the best Disney films I have seen in a long time, and I have seen this several times now.

All that being said, I have no alternative but to award this film a 10 out of 10.