Fabulous "Frozen" First Look

Well... This is certainly the moment a lot of us have been waiting for! Stills of Walt Disney Animation Studios' upcoming film Frozen showcasing the animation and look in its completed form! All courtesy of USA Today...

The first still of Anna and her sister Elsa - The Snow Queen - is very pretty. First off, I love the design of Elsa's icy world. Despite being a film with lots of snow and ice, the artists really outdid themselves here in terms of creativity. And yes, it also has the warmth of traditional animation. It's essentially Tangled's animation style, but improved. I love it. I'm content with this being Disney's main style for most of their computer animated films.

The blurb over the image shows that their relationship will be quite different for a Disney fairy tale. Elsa comes off as someone who is guilty for her actions, so if they go through with that, it'll be refreshing to see a villain who isn't power-hungry or diabolical or willing to ruin the lives of others. A troubled character would be even more interesting! Plus, not every film needs an antagonist like that. Again, the new Disney likes to take new directions so...

Here we see mountain man Kristoff riding his trusty reindeer Sven, whose design is a bit reminiscent of Thrasher from Disney Animation's Prep & Landing series of shorts. Also, he does not speak, which is what I was hoping for. He'll be hilarious, much like Maximus from Tangled. Sometimes the best comic relief comes with very little words... If not none at all! It's also refreshing to see that Kristoff doesn't really resemble Flynn Rider, but we already knew that from the concept artwork.

Oh, and take a look at those frozen ships. Before I noticed that, I had no idea that the strong reindeer was running over the ocean!

Here, Anna meets Han, her suitor. So far, he seems like a likable character and his design reminds me of Cinderella's prince among others. It'll be interesting to see how big of a role he'll play in the story.

Here's the other comic relief sidekick, the hapless snowman Olaf. I already love that design, with the stick hairs and everything. It'll be cool to see how the two interact, since one talks and one doesn't!

This last still has a nice little reference to Bambi (one of Walt's finest). Director Chris Buck says in the blurb that "You like to give your lead characters humor, fun and some flaws. You can't rely only on the sidekicks for that. So you don't have these perfect lead characters you might have had in the past."

All in all, excellent stills. The look of the film is fantastic, the character design work is top notch and I like what I'm hearing about the story. At midnight, weather.com will be the first to show you the teaser trailer. Another home run for Walt Disney Animation Studios? I think so...