Frozen

Frozen directed by Christ Buck and Jennifer Lee (also the writer).

One of the better cartoon movies I've in awhile and one of the better stories I've seen for a cartoon in awhile.  Oh, yeah, it's also a good kid and family movie to boot. 

This movie is a good example of how if you making good, interesting characters you don't have to have an evil villain moving things forward nor do you have to have a detailed ridden, plot driven story line.  Good characters can move things forward and make things interesting because they make you care about them and what's going to happen in their lives.  The two main characters, the sisters Anna and Else, drive this story forward with their different personalities as the movie makes us care about them and wants them to get back together.

The actually villain of the movie is Elsa's powers and how those powers have driven the sisters apart, putting a distance between them as the years and age over take them.  It's such a brilliant concept to not have a standard, stock villain but it works in wonderful ways and the movie feels really alive and original because of it.  By not having that stand out villain, the movie breaks down the feeling of cliche that seems to overpower many movies that rely to heavily on a villain for the sake of a villain - I think of the second Iron Man movie, which didn't need a standard villain and should just have relied on Robert Downey, Jr as Tony Stark fighting his demons because he was the driving force of that movie.  Then the other side characters that come into the sisters' lives only further enhanced the story and world created here and helped to bring everything to life.

Visually one of the things I liked about this movie was how the dresses worn by the sisters helped to convey and match their personalities.  Anna's dresses were flowing and moving, matching her care free and sunny personality.  Where as Elsa's dresses were straight, rigid, and rather frozen matching her personality of isolation and for the most part iciness.  This was a nice slight touch that think helped to transform these characters into some real people.