Review: Olaf’s Frozen Adventure

Arendelle fruitcake is indestructible!

Overview (Spoilers Below):

It’s the holiday season and Anna, Elsa, and Olaf are eager to begin the surprise party they have planned for the people of Arendelle. However, everyone seems to have their own traditions to attend to, leaving the Princesses lonely. (Kristoff’s attempts at cheering them up go about as well as can be expected.) Unable to remember any of their own holiday traditions, the sisters appear to be in for a depressing Christmas.

Olaf decides to take it upon himself to fix the situation, visiting every house in the kingdom and taking a small piece of everyone’s family traditions. Things take a turn for the worse though, when the sleigh full of items lights on fire, then falls off a cliff. Dejected, Olaf wanders through the frozen trees. Alerted by Sven, Anna and Elsa rally the citizens and search the forest, eventually finding and rescuing the poor snowman. It turns out that Olaf is their holiday tradition – he was what brought them together before Elsa got locked away. Olaf really did save Christmas after all.

Our Take:

As a fan of Frozen and other Disney musicals, I’m pleased to say this special wasn’t as bad as many who were forced to see it before Coco complained. The best part is definitely the soundtrack, which contains some real gems written by Elyssa Samsel and Kate Anderson, newcomers to the Frozen franchise. ‘Ring in the Season’ is near-impossible to get out of your head, and ‘When We’re Together’ is a duet between the sisters sung beautifully by Idina Menzel and Kristin Bell.

Olaf’s Frozen Adventure is a fun-filled special with plenty of Christmas spirit to go around. While it doesn’t aim to surprise viewers, or hold them in any real suspense, it serves to keep Frozen relevant while fans await the sequel. It’s also a pretty enjoyable 22-minutes of holiday entertainment in its own right. (As long as it doesn’t come before Coco, of course.)