That man-interaction comes in the form of Hans (Santino Fontana), and his duet with Anna (“Love Is An Open Door”) is so breezy, so excitedly sang, and so downright fun that you truly believe they’re perfect for each other after only just meeting. Conversely, “For the First Time in Forever” suffers from a fairly run-of-the-mill chorus tune, but smartly makes up for it with catchy verses, amusing lyrics (“Don’t know if I’m elated or gassy / But I’m somewhere in that zone!”) and a great performance from Kristen Bell, showing off protagonist Princess Anna’s quirky side while still longing for a ball, a man, and some basic human interaction. While “Snowman” works better in the film (the visuals fill in some of the song’s gaps) the twee-cute vocals and gorgeous melody help its memorability. No small task, but the duo and Beck have successfully delivered several memorable songs, some notably beautiful, but inconsistent, score elements, and a lot of promise for the next flurry of Disney animated soundtracks.īoth the album opener “Frozen Heart” and the character-establishing “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” deeply resemble Disney’s song output under Alan Menken (“Beauty and the Beast,” “Aladdin,” “The Little Mermaid”) and that helps them feel instantly familiar.
Having previously written the songs for Disney’s “Winnie the Pooh” and “Finding Nemo - The Musical” (yep, it exists) the Lopezes were entrusted with coming up with fresh songs for an animated princess fairytale musical. In development for almost as long as Walt Disney Animation Studios has existed, Disney’s adaptation of “The Snow Queen” is now the computer-animated “Frozen” with original songs by Kristen Anderson-Lopez (“In Transit”, “The Wonder Pets”) and Robert Lopez (“Avenue Q”, “The Book of Mormon”), and an orchestral score by Christophe Beck.