WARNING: This review contains spoilers!

Disney’s new animated film Frozen is an enjoyable, somewhat groundbreaking movie with one major flaw. The story is about the tumultuous relationship between two sisters, a relationship that Disney does not flesh out enough to make the movie the best it could have been. The older sister Elsa is born with powers over various forms of frozen water; her inability to control her magic drives the plot of the movie once Elsa accidentally freezes the entire kingdom of Arendelle and runs away in fear. Her younger, optimistic, romantic, bubbly sister Anna teams up with wilderness sweet guy Kristoff and Olaf—a snowman included purely for comedic relief—to convince Elsa to reverse the eternal winter. Anna and Elsa must battle their own demons and fight external forces to save the kingdom.

Disney is scared to declare that Frozen centers around two female protagonists — one of whom doesn’t even have a love interest — despite putting in loads of effort to make the chemistry between the two sisters authentic and relatable. Disney’s trepidation is a shame, because a further fleshing out of Anna and Elsa’s relationship would have given the story even more power. The movie does not even resolve a vital plot point—Anna figuring out why Elsa hid from her for thirteen years—a loose thread that shows Disney’s carelessness to fully develop the sisters’ relationship.

The cowardice of Disney to not advertise female-female relationships as making up the central plot also appears in Brave, where the trailer focuses more on archery and changing fate in Scottish accents than on the actual story: a tumultuous mother-daughter relationship. What’s up, Disney? Are you scared to declare that a story can center around two females?

Due to Disney’s reluctance to focus on the sisters, the first and last thirds of Frozen move quickly along because they contain actual plot. Actually, those parts may move too quickly; the few scenes between Anna and Elsa, although emotionally jarring and relatable, seem rushed. The middle third lags behind by comparison, and its comedic relief seems almost forced compared to the overall dark themes of the story itself.

A smaller issue is the lack of explanation with regards to Elsa’s powers.  Are her powers hereditary or is Elsa a genetic pioneer? Why is the kingdom afraid of Elsa’s magic? It is shown in Frozen that sorcery is feared, but at the movie’s end the townspeople seem too quick to accept Elsa’s powers. Was their fear just superstition and ignorance? An explanation of this pivotal element of the story would have gone a long way to make the story seem more believable. Perhaps such a clarification is too much for Disney.

Girls and Food

To combat accusations of always producing girls with skinny, barbie-like bodies, Disney has Anna stuff her face with chocolate; her appreciation for food continues the trend of Belle sipping breakfast with the Beast, Mulan downing porridge, and Merida devouring an apple. Apparently, a healthy princess-food relationship helps young girls not become anorexic, or so worried mothers claim. Still, however, Disney seems wary of deviating from its standard body molds both for its men and its women.