Frozen (2013)

This movie won best Animated Film for 2013 and the song 'Let it Go' won best song.  In addition, I heard all sorts of film people talk about just how fabulous this movie was, I real return to the old halcyon days of Disney animation with a strong plot and music that supported the plot and propelled it forward.

I heard the song writers, Bobby Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez talk with Terry Gross on Fresh Air and I really liked them.  They were writing songs that break free of the princess waiting to be rescued by a prince and into the realm of controlling your own destiny.  Bobby did songs for 'The Book of Mormon', so they are not mono dimensional composers, and they had a good sense of humor about the whole Oscar event, describing in hilarious detail what it is like to be walking behind a big name star on the red carpet, like Sandra Bullock, and when she stops at the appointed 'X' stops the cameras  are going crazy for her, and then you stop, and one guy takes pity on you and clicks one photo.

The problem I had with the movie was the parents.  They have a daughter who has special winterizing talents which she is ill equipped to control and one night while playing with her sister, she almost gets her killed.  So the parents decide that the family should hide themselves away from the world and that the sisters should have no contact with each other.  Not a very empowering approach to a problem, and not one that teaches the sisters how to deal with life once their parents die.  So as a parent I thought it was a terrible story, and even good music and an exotic setting could rescue it for me.