I watched the Disney film Frozen last night and, frankly, was rather disappointed. Beautiful graphics, which we’ve learned to take for granted and plenty of emotional moments, because the film guys have learned how to combine words, images and music to play on our heart strings but I felt that the story snapped in the middle, then shattered like a carrot dropped in liquid nitrogen.

I’m sure that not many of the main audience are bothered about the conventions of emplotment but I was let down when a character (lets call him or her X to avoid spoilers for anyone who hasn’t seen the film) switched halfway through from selfless hero to heartless villain. I was on my guard because of how quickly good things tended to happen in the first part of the film but that was fulfilled by the argument that led to the magical onset of winter across the land. Maybe I missed a vital prefiguring but I felt very let down by the story when the character I had in mind switched from good to evil without warning and without need.

Of course, its a children’s story but does that constitute an excuse. If children don’t learn the rules of a traditional story when they are young, how are they going to judge the huge range of stories they will experience later life. The film has been phenomenonally successful but I think others of its ilk have been much more deserving.

Frozen just left me cold.