Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/225858
SIMULATION The theme of Disney's 53rd feature animation is the power of love over fear, and it's tempting to extend that metaphor to the studio itself. With this film, Disney Animation has fully embraced its past and skillfully incorporated the beauty and magic of traditiontradition ally animated fairy tales within a truly modern feature film. Based very loosely on Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen, the new Disney " classic gives Andersen's villainous queen a more nuanced role, replaces the little girl on a rescue mission with an older, spunky princess, gives the princess a good-natured guide, and introduces a magical snowman. "I remember when we were all talking about making the snow queen more threedimensional, says Jennifer Lee, who wrote and directed the film with Chris Buck. " "Someone said, 'What if they [the girl and the queen] are sisters?' And, everyone felt something. I thought, 'Oh, gosh. I love this now.'" The sisters are Elsa, voiced by Idina Menzel, and Anna, voiced by Kristen Bell. "Anna is an 18-year-old girl who calls herself 'ordinary,'" Lee says. "She has a big heart, and she's fearless. She's also messy, talks before she thinks, and is funny and quirky. Elsa was born with the power to create snow and ice out of nothing. When the sisters were small, they used to sneak out at night and play with Elsa's magic with such joy. But Anna is too fearless, and she pushes too far. She gets in the way of the magic and is hurt. The trolls save her, but they remove her memory of Elsa's magic, and Elsa lives her life hiding her powers as best she can. Her fear is that her powers will come out. " 8 ■ CGW Nove m ber / Dec em ber 2013