Watch Frozen Online. Watch Frozen Movie Online. Ever since she was a girl, Elsa (Idina Menzel), princess of Arendelle, has had literally chilling powers. With a wave of her hand she can cover everything around her in ice and snow. However, when her frosty abilities nearly kill her sister, Anna (Kristen Bell), Elsa is confined to a room in her castle, not to emerge until she comes of age for her queenly coronation. On that day, unsurprisingly, things go very awry: Arendelle is covered in a seemingly permanent frost, Elsa runs off into the mountainous hinterlands, and Anna—with the assistance of overly friendly royal Hans (Santino Fontana), überhandsome ice vendor Kristoff (Jonathan Groff) and sentient snowman Olaf (Josh Gad)—sets out to find her estranged sister and put things right.

This colorful yet labored Walt Disney musical production (a loose adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen story “The Snow Queen”) is likewise attempting a kind of course-correct. Plasticine CG animation aside, Frozen might have been produced during the Mouse House’s early-to-mid-’90s heyday, when the studio breathed new life into its fantastical tales of lovelorn sovereigns, ethereal beauties and misunderstood beasts and, with composers like Alan Menken and Elton John on staff, gave Broadway superproductions a run for their money. Sad to say, the magic is missing here: The songs by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez are admittedly catchy, notably Menzel’s showstopping, self-actualizing ballad “Let It Go,” but the story—aside from a climax that plays like a too-knowing rebuke to Disney formula—goes tediously through the motions. It isn’t only Papa Walt’s head that’s been put on ice.
Watch Frozen Online. Watch Frozen Movie Online. Move over, Frosty. A quixotic snowman who longs to experience summer handily steals the show in “Frozen,” Disney’s 53rd in-house animated feature and one of its most classical, with a Hans Christian Andersen pedigree, a full-fledged showtune score and little of the ironic humor that has become the lingua franca of most contemporary toons. But this always enjoyable tale of mysterious magic, imperiled princesses and square-jawed men of action proves longer on striking visuals than on truly engaging or memorable characters. With the family crowd pretty much to itself this holiday season, “Frozen” should generate considerable box-office heat, if not quite the same level of critical and audience affection that attended the superior “Tangled” and “Wreck-It Ralph.”

The result of a decade-long effort by the studio to fashion an animated feature from Andersen’s classic “The Snow Queen,” “Frozen” ultimately bears only the most superficial resemblance to its source, the haunting story of a young girl’s efforts to free her true love from the mind-altering effects of a cursed mirror and the icy lair of the eponymous snow spirit. Instead, writer-directors Chris Buck (a veteran Disney animator with credits dating back to “The Fox and the Hound”) and Jennifer Lee (who co-scripted “Wreck-It Ralph”) give us a more conventional tale of two sisters, younger Anna (Kristen Bell) and elder Elsa (Idina Menzel), heirs to the enchanted Scandinavian kingdom of Arendelle (also a return of sorts to Disney tradition after the dutiful PC dues-paying of “Pocahontas,” “Mulan” and “The Princess and the Frog”).

Watch Frozen Online. Watch Frozen Movie Online. As seen in the movie’s opening moments, the girls are the closest of childhood friends, their playtime enhanced by Elsa’s unexplained ability to conjure a wonderland of ice and snow at the literal waving of her fingertips. But like Midas’ golden touch, Elsa’s powers soon seem more curse than blessing. When an errant icicle nearly proves fatal to Anna, the King and Queen seal the castle gates, while Elsa further cuts herself off from that circumscribed world, coming of age in solitude even after a shipwreck leaves her and Anna orphans.

Only as Elsa’s coronation day draws near does she emerge from her seclusion, still uncertain as to whether or not she can control her “gift” (which, like the telekinetic rage of Stephen King’s Carrie, seems to be triggered by intense surges of emotion). Meanwhile, Anna has had all memory of her childhood trauma wiped, “Men in Black”-style, by some friendly neighborhood trolls, leaving her all the more miffed by big sis’ literal and figurative cold shoulder.

Watch Frozen Online. Watch Frozen Movie Online. These early passages play out pleasantly enough, enhanced by nice detail work showing the bustle of daily Arendelle life and an amusing turn by Alan Tudyk (last seen as “Ralph’s” megalomaniacal Turbo) as the nosy, diminutive Duke of neighboring Weselton (which, to his great consternation, everyone mispronounces as Weaseltown). But the narrative of “Frozen” only really kicks into gear with the palace ball following the coronation, where everything seems to be going hunky-dory until Anna makes the mistake of asking her sister’s permission to marry the dashing Prince Hans of the Southern Isles (Santino Fontana) — whom, admittedly, she only met earlier that same day. To say that Elsa’s reaction puts a chill in the air would be an arctic understatement. (Think Carrie’s prom crossed with the Ice Capades.)

With her secret laid bare for all to see, a devastated Elsa flees into the surrounding mountains, enveloping all of summertime Arendelle in a thick permafrost as she does. Anna gives chase, but proves ill equipped for the rugged and frigid terrain, eventually stumbling upon a small trading post (run by a hulking Swede named Oaken, voiced by “Bolt” co-director Chris Williams) that has wasted no time in jacking up prices on its minimal supply of off-season winter provisions. It’s there that she crosses paths with Kristoff (Jonathan Groff), a flaxen-haired ice seller somewhat lacking in social graces (his best, and possibly only, friend is his trusty, sleigh-pulling reindeer, Sven). But with his own bottom line taking a sizable hit from the sudden climate change, he agrees to help Anna search for Elsa in the hope of once again bringing sunshine to the land.

Watch Frozen Online. Watch Frozen Movie Online. Which is around the time Olaf enters the picture. An anthropomorphic snowman brought to life by Elsa’s magic, with a row of buck teeth and a few twigs of would-be hair atop his head, this irrepressible optimist (marvelously voiced by “Book of Mormon” alum Josh Gad) likes “warm hugs” and possesses a most unhealthy fascination with the summer — a season he’s never experienced, and whose dangers to his person he seems blithely unaware of. This leads to “Frozen’s” most inspired musical number, “In Summer,” as Olaf imagines himself bounding through blooming meadows, soaking up the sun and engaging in other flights of seasonal fancy, all wryly visualized by Buck and Lee and expressed in playful lyrics by the husband-and-wife songwriting team of Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez (the latter a Tony winner for his work on “Avenue Q” and “Book of Mormon”).

The tactile, snow-capped Arendelle landscape, including Elsa’s ice-castle retreat (imagine Superman’s Fortress of Solitude with a more feminine touch), is “Frozen’s” other true marvel, enhanced by 3D and the decision to shoot in widescreen — a nod to the CinemaScope richness of “Sleeping Beauty” and “Lady and the Tramp.” That’s almost but not quite enough to make up for the somewhat slack plotting and the generic nature of the main characters. Neither princess here is a patch on “Tangled’s” babe-in-the-woods Rapunzel, while both Hans and Kristoff are cut from pretty standard-issue hero cloth until a reasonably surprising third-act twist somewhat ups the ante. Only Olaf is unimpeachable: Get this snowman a spinoff feature to call his own.

Watch Frozen Online. Watch Frozen Movie Online. “Frozen” goes out accompanied by “Get a Horse!”, director Lauren MacMullan’s utterly dazzling five-minute short starring Mickey Mouse, Minnie, Peg-Leg Pete and other vintage Disney characters in a “Sherlock Jr.”-style adventure that finds their hand-drawn 1930s avatars bursting through a movie screen and into the 3D/CG era. Though the animation is all new (including impeccable re-creations of the black-and-white Disney/Ub Iwerks style), the sound is predominately archival, including Uncle Walt himself as the voice of his iconic alter ego.

The most amusing ingredient of Disney’s formula on ice in Frozen doesn’t belong there. He’s the adorably dumb sidekick named Olaf – the Tow Mater of the piece, if you will – voiced with exuberant stupidity by Josh Gad. Olaf is a snowman, suiting the frigid setting, with a naive hankering to live in tropical climes, prompting this musical’s liveliest song. His magically detachable body parts – and a cherished new carrot nose – make Olaf a continuous sight gag after his arrival halfway through. He’s fun and energetic, which doesn’t fit much of what came before. Frozen is a throwback to serious Disney musicals like The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Princess and the Frog. Olaf is flatulence at a formal dinner party, too boisterous for the table set before him.

Watch Frozen Online. Watch Frozen Movie Online. Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale The Snow Queen, directors Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee present a wintry spectacle with 3-D tricks a cut above most ‘toons. Frozen impresses by conveying coldness in all its frostbitten beauty, from northern lights and blizzards, to ice magnifying, refracting and reflecting light. The movie is a lovely example for animation enthusiasts to study. The drama of Lee’s screenplay is equally chilled, focused on two princesses apparently not meriting that official Disney merchandising status. Elsa is the eldest, cursed/blessed with the ability to conjure cold in any form. These icy powers are fun and games until younger Anna gets hurt by an arctic bullet. Their royal parents ground the girls for years, isolated even from each other, until Elsa’s coronation day. That event doesn’t go well for Elsa (now voiced by Idina Menzel), who plunges the kingdom into deep freeze then high tails it into the wilderness. Anna (Kristen Bell) must convince Elsa to return and thaw out the kingdom. Aided by the smitten mountaineer Kristoff (Jonathan Groff) and later Olaf, Anna’s quest to connect with her sister is the underwhelming gist of the movie.

There’s a distinct lack of conflict, since Elsa isn’t a bad person, only misunderstood and neurotic about her cryo-kinetic condition. Even when unleashing an abominable snow-bouncer, there’s no peril from her taken seriously. Lee introduces a pompous royal (Alan Tudyk) with ulterior motives who never materializes as much of a threat. Songs composed by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez employ the yearnings and assertions of quasi-Broadway show tunes. The theatrical camaraderie of Bell and Menzel’s duet For the First Time in Forever, and later Elsa’s breakdown song Let It Go, nakedly mimic the supernatural sibling chemistry of Wicked. Neither is as playful as Olaf’s showstopping daydream In Summer, and Gad’s giddy performance. Making even better use of 3-D technology – earning the “plus” in this B+ review – is a short masterpiece preceding Frozen, an ingeniously retro Mickey Mouse cartoon titled Get a Horse. For six indescribable minutes, Disney’s original spark of animation genius melds with modern capabilities, with Uncle Walt himself voicing Mickey. It’s the only thing your ticket’s buying that’ll be revered 20 years from now.