Frozen (2013)

Frozen (2013)

[8]

Disney’s Frozen borrows ideas from Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen and follows closely in the footsteps of Tangled before it, but it’s also a bit more. For one thing, there’s an interesting sister dynamic at play here. One royal daughter, Anna (voiced by Kristen Bell), is the care-free sort, while the older daughter Elsa (Wicked‘s Idina Menzel) is born with a curse – the power to turn things into ice. After a childhood display of her magical powers nearly kills Anna, Elsa hides herself away for fear of hurting anyone. That’s all prelude. The story proper takes off when Anna inadvertently upsets Elsa on her coronation day. When the citizens of Arendelle discover their queen is a sorceress, they freak, she freaks, and a hard snow comes to fall. Elsa flees the kingdom and builds an ice castle for herself on the side of a mountain, leaving it up to little sister to later beg her for a return to warmer times.

The Lord of the Rings (2001, 2002, 2003)

The Lord of the Rings (2001, 2002, 2003)

[10] Peter Jackson (Dead Alive, The Frighteners) embraces the Herculean task of bringing Tolkien's supreme fantasy to the silver screen, and hits a home run. The Fellowship of the Ring gets the trilogy off to a strong start, as Frodo…
Wonder Boys (2000)

Wonder Boys (2000)

[10] Michael Douglas gives a career highlight performance as a fifty-year-old college professor worried about following up a sensational debut novel in this warm, character-driven comedy from Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential, 8 Mile) and author Michael Chabon. I was quickly…
Titanic (1997)

Titanic (1997)

[9] By anchoring his screenplay in one of the most inherently compelling tragedies of the twentieth century and placing the the weight of the story on Kate Winslet's able shoulders, James Cameron concocts a recipe for the biggest money-making movie…
Working Girl (1988)

Working Girl (1988)

[8] Mike Nichols (The Graduate) directs Kevin Wade's tale of a stalwart secretary trying to climb the corporate ladder in New York. Working Girl is a highly enjoyable comedy-drama with a screwball slant. Melanie Griffith has never been better than…
The Wizard of Oz (1939)

The Wizard of Oz (1939)

[10] Those ruby slippers have lost no luster in the 80-plus years since the original release of The Wizard of Oz, a film that pretty much defines 'timeless classic'. In the L. Frank Baum story, a spoiled farm girl named…