FROZEN (Disney Cruise Lines)***

 

By Emma

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgL3vp8bEK0

Available until: Unknown

I don’t want to be mean but Frozen leaves me a bit cold. I don’t really enjoy the story and I don’t especially like either of the princesses. This is a problem when it comes to enjoying the story but I think Disney Cruise Lines has adapted the musical really well for a cruise audience and there are lots of good things about their production.

Unfortunately for me Frozen doesn’t have the magic of Disney. It’s like Disney really tried hard to update their films to the present days and have more modern heroines but that’s just not what Disney is. It’s not like their more recent heroines of the 1990s and 2000s like Jasmine and Rapunzel are shy and retiring, they’re intelligent and fun and a lot more interesting than some of the very early princesses. But they are also fairy tale princesses and it’s difficult not to have certain expectations where fairy tale princesses are concerned. We know not to get engaged to men we’ve only known for a day but it’s normal in Disney. If the story criticises Anna for this, it's also criticising most of the princesses in the Disney franchise.

The special effects are brilliant. The stage is really beautiful, especially once Arendelle is turned to ice. There is also a really good snow effect and Anna and Kristoff’s sleigh ride is really well done.

As always Disney has done a great job at recreating their animal characters for the stage. Sven the reindeer is really brilliant. He looks cute and he has been very cleverly put together. Olaf the snowman is also good.

There are also some good dance sequences which I enjoyed watching. Fixer Upper is my favourite song in Frozen and it had a really good dance sequence.

All the characters sing very well, especially Elsa and Anna. I don’t especially like the music in Frozen and I don’t think it is as varied as songs in other Disney musicals but I think it is very challenging to sing and the actors playing Elsa and Anna (there isn’t a cast list so I don’t know the actors’ real names) both sing really well. They have very beautiful voices and they hit the high notes really easily.

The small Elsa and Anna and the snowman are played by puppets which are worked by adult singers who are dressed the same and provide the voice. I kind of wonder what the point in the puppet is if the adult singer is going to be there anyway. In musicals, it’s not unusual to find adults playing children and it’s not that difficult to accept. I would say it is less difficult to accept than an adult version clinging on to the puppet which is quite distracting.

Elsa and Anna are good singers as I said and they act in the conventional Disney style. Hans is an interesting character and I don’t think you would guess the situation he is in based on the way he presents himself at the start which is really good. Kristoff is mostly lovely but he is a bit rude to people who don’t know the things he knows. It’s not the actor’s fault, it’s in the script but I don’t think he needed to be quite that rude.

There are lots of good things about this production and I’m sure Frozen fans will love it but it isn’t for everyone.