Holiday movies, to be more specific holiday kids’ movies: talk about being out of my depth. It’s been quite some time since the days where I used to sit down to enjoy a kids’ movie; dare I say that I don’t have the slightest clue what the kiddies are into these days? Seems to be a lot of movies about planes, trains, and automobiles (pun intended) dominating the box office; however, not the case with Frozen in Time, which is centered around the most popular holiday of all time: Christmas. To give this film the proper justice that it deserves, I turned to someone who would be able to watch this with the objective view needed: I sat down and watched the film with my godson Amare.
Frozen in Time tells the tale of mischievous brother and sister, Eric and Patty. It’s Christmas Eve, and the family is loading up the car to spend Christmas with their inventor grandfather. From the start of the film, Eric and Patty demonstrate the traits that lead kids into being put on the naughty list; they fail to listen to their parent’s instruction, they blow off chores in favor of having dangerous fun, and they attempt to sneak cookies when they are told that they can’t have any. However, it is one act of disobedience that land them in the biggest trouble they have ever been in. When the two sneak into their grandfather’s workshop and come across a mysterious clock, intrigued by the clock the two accidently break the clock. What they don’t know that this is not an ordinary clock. By breaking the clock, the two have thrust themselves into a time loop, doomed to repeat Christmas Eve over and over again, and we all know what the biggest problem with that is: never getting to open the presents the next day.
At the conclusion of the film, I turned to my godson to receive his critique of the film. Periodically during the film, I would look down at him and found him thoroughly engrossed in the tale; however, when I asked him what he thought of the film, his answers told a different story. (Now bear with me; he’s only five and extremely shy, so getting answer from him requires work.) I asked him if he liked the movie. He nodded and said that he thought that Eric and Patty were funny. I asked him did he understand the story, and that’s where things got a little dicey, he understood the overall premise and the moral of the story; however, he did not like the technical aspect of the clock causing a time-loop. Understandable, he’s only five; I asked him what he thought should be different, and it was his idea that instead of the clock it should have been Santa turning back time until Eric and Patty learned their lesson and did the right thing.
I can’t help but agree with that assessment. I do believe that the element of the clock brought too technical an aspect to the film. In my opinion simplicity is key, or at least it was when I was growing up. Also having Santa doing the turning back of time makes the film fit more into the fantasy genre that it is meant to be in rather than the science fiction genre that it is more like now. In the end, the tale it is more about the message the film gets across, and since my godson had no trouble finding the moral of the story, I suppose the film accomplished its goal.
