Frozen

If Tangled was Disney establishing that it could translate its previous successes into 3D, Frozen was a subversion of what everyone believed a Princess movie to be. The 2013 adaptation of “The Snow Queen” is built upon pulling the rug out from under you. For most of its run, it’s an endlessly charming story about two sisters who have been driven apart by fear, to the point that when they grow up, they barely know each other. One has been taught to fear the other, and the other has been made to fear herself. It puts them at a standstill, desiring closeness but unable to facilitate it. But this is a Disney movie, and as far as popular culture believes, Princess Anna doesn’t need her sister, she just needs to find a man and then her life will begin. First leaning into most people’s expectations of the Disney formula, Frozen then stabs viewers in the back, twists the knife, and kicks them down a stairwell. It’s both a pointed commentary on the blind spots in the company’s earlier work and a declaration of the studio’s ethos moving forward. That on its own makes Frozen one of the best films Disney has ever put in a theater, but the pitch-perfect casting of Idina Menzel and Kristen Bell helped shape two of the most recognizable pop culture characters of the past decade. The two leads give voice to some of the best songs in Disney’s catalog, tying together what remains the best example of a modern classic Disney has to its name. Frozen II’s exploration of Anna and Elsa builds beautifully on top of the original’s foundation, but even if it hadn’t, the story of two sisters reuniting without fear still exemplifies the best that Disney has to offer.