FROZEN

Sister princesses face travails when one cannot control her ice magic.

This “junior novelization” of the Disney film diligently follows its plot but cannot match its appeal. Almost scene by scene it unfolds, from the opening ice-harvesting montage through the childhood accident that causes Elsa to withdraw from Anna, Elsa’s disastrous coronation, her flight to her ice palace, and Anna’s struggle to bring her back with the help of doughty Kristoff, reindeer Sven and goofy snowman Olaf. Unfortunately, where the plot’s arbitrariness—where does Elsa’s magic come from? What do the trolls have to do with it? How can loving parents allow their troubled daughter to alienate herself?—can be forgiven as computer-generated filigrees of ice swoop across the screen, music swells, and dialogue is given voice by talented actors, it is all too evident in this print version that lacks the film’s advantages and does nothing to compensate beyond sprinkling extra exclamation points around. Funny moments of film slapstick are laboriously and unfunnily explained, and the film’s songs are given flat summaries: “…Olaf went on and on about all the wonderful things he would do in summer…”; the anthemic “Let It Go” receives not even a snippet of a quote. The only thing adapters Nathan and Roman do to capitalize on their medium is to use Olaf’s name for Elsa’s snow monster throughout its appearance: “Marshmallow roared—and charged after them!” Alas, the humor is lost in the pedestrian prose.

At $4.99, it’s cheaper than the movie, but it’s still a bad deal.