Frozen: The Hit Broadway Musical is an adaptation of the hit 2013 movie. Directed by Michael Grandage & Brett Sullivan, the film stars Samantha Barks, Laura Dawkes, Craig Gallivan, Jammy Kasongo, Oliver Ormson, and Richard Frame. When Queen Elsa’s hidden powers plunge Arendelle into an eternal winter, her sister Anna sets out to find her and save the kingdom. As the storm rages on, both sisters must learn only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart. This is the story you know and love as you’ve never seen it before. The Broadway musical is now streaming on Disney+.

To my surprise, I received an email in my inbox saying I got immediate access to Frozen: The Hit Broadway Musical. I had no intentions of watching it, and to be quite honest, I didn’t even know it was coming out, which may say a lot since I have a safe of release dates locked into my brain. I entertained the idea of watching it by setting a poll on my Instagram only for majority of my followers to vote that they wanted me to watch & review for the film, so here we are…. and you know what? This is actually pretty good!

The film’s embargo for critics dropped around the same time that I was planning on dropping my review for 28 Years Later, so forgive me for this being a little late. It’s too bad that we couldn’t say much before, because I think this would have helped other seek it out, especially since I didn’t even know about it.

I have a very lukewarm response to Frozen as it is. The songs in each film trigger my OCD where it’s hard to get the tunes out of my head, even though I don’t quite care for them. I love plays. I’ve never been to a Broadway musical, but I would like to one of these days. Disney+ released Hamilton five years ago to great success and you can tell where Disney is trying to replicate the same success here. The problem here is that this is something we have already seen through a movie. While there are different songs throughout, it differs from something like Hamilton where a large majority of people like myself had not yet seen it.

The reason why I love plays so much is that everything has to go right once in order to make it work, which means a lot of pre-production is involved. You have to make sure you get the right performances out of the talent, as well as making sure the production is immaculate. For a Broadway musical adaptation, I was thoroughly impressed. I saw this the day after the new live-action remake of How to Train Your Dragon, and it felt like a breath of fresh air. Where that film still relies a lot on CGI, this adaptation feels more fitting to bring to live-action as something that looks more realistic and immersive.

I think if I wasn’t familiar with Frozen at all or if I was a huge fan of this, I would enjoy it more. With the crowd in place during the film, you can just tell how much people love this story. From what I can recall, I think they only do one shot in the beginning where you see the crowd from the perspective of the talent, showing you how focused they have to be to put on these performances, as well as sing, without breaking the immersion in front of a crowd. Broadway performances often get sidelined due to it not being cinematic, but I think it’s a key start to showing how people involved is able to stay locked into character for so long. With that being said, the performances here are great.

With 12 new songs not heard from the movies, the adaptation does offer something more and exciting that differs enough from the original material. I found myself not enjoying it as much when I heard the same songs. It’s just personally not for me. The core themes about sisterhood are still there that only feel more intriguing due to real people being involved. With a 111-minute runtime, the film never overstays its welcome. It feels well paced that kept me engaged from start to finish.

On a technical level, it’s amazing what they accomplish here. As much as the performances shouldn’t go unnoticed, what the crew did here shouldn’t either. From Olaf’s design to the way characters change in and out of wardrobe is creative and unlike anything else I have ever seen in real time. Again, there’s no CGI being involved, so real people are having to make this work in real time. It honestly looks like a magic trick at times.

Overall, Frozen: The Hit Broadway Musical is a solid adaptation that honors the past while making it an experience worth watching. I appreciate Disney giving viewers the opportunity to see what this is like, but I hope they don’t release more of these in the future, only because I think this would be best seen in the theater. I wouldn’t say the film is for me as I have no attachment to the movies, but the production value and the performances make this worth watching.

VERDICT: 3.5/5 (Pretty Good)