Frozen (2013)

This animated movie musical from Disney was lots of fun to watch.

Once upon a time in the realm of Arendelle there were two princesses.  Elsa, the elder  of the two, has a secret she needs to hide not only from her sister Anna but from the entire kingdom too.  Alas! when Elsa is crowned queen after the untimely death of her parents, her secret is exposed and she goes on the run.  Anna now sets out to find her sister and bring her home.  Can she do it?

In the course of the movie, we meet bad guys, henchmen, good guys and sidekicks. The good guys are particularly memorable, especially Olaf the snowman who steals every scene in which he appears - he is quite unforgettable.  There are dark and threatening moments in the film, providing a good contrast to the lighter and more endearing scenes; and the tension in the movie rises and falls in a pleasing rhythm.

The film features an interesting assortment of songs, one of which won the Oscar for best song.  I particularly liked the duet between the backwoodsman and his pet reindeer.

I think it is no coincidence that Frozen has become the biggest grossing animated movie of all time.  There is lots in it for children and inner children of all ages.  And remember to keep an eye out for the snowman.

Five Children and It by E. Nesbit

This is a story about what happens when wishes go wrong.

Robert, Anthea, Jane, Cyril and their infant brother move with their parents to their new home in  countryside Kent.  As they explore their new acreage, the children encounter a Psammead, a type of fairy that can grant wishes.  But there is a catch: the wishes last only until sunset.  The Psammead agrees to grant them one wish per day.

The children's parents are called away for a few days by the sudden illness of their grandmother, and the children are to stay at home under the stewardship of their nanny.  While the cats are away the mice will play, and the children start experimenting with their wishes.  They soon find that all their wishes have unexpected and unwanted consequences, and the children have to meet these challenges in brave and resourceful ways.

Five Children and It is basically a series of vignettes, each dealing with a wish.  The author invents some rather interesting twists that derail the intention of each wish - although some are more intriguing than others.  The prose style is breezy and informal, but despite this the action does build into suspenseful climaxes and tapers off into settled resolutions.  There are authorial intrusions into the story at times.  These tend to be didactic in nature but are done with enough good humor to make them welcome.

I enjoyed this story of magical hijinks set in Edwardian rural England - there is something safe and comfortingly familiar about the place, like The Shire.  

The One Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

I liked this book a lot and had a great time reading it.  I wasn't expecting it to be the best thing to happen to modern literature (it certainly isn't that) but it was thoroughly enjoyable for what it is: a stratospherically tall tale about the history of the 20th century.

Let me start by answering some of the book's critics.  The work is derivative, yes, and it uses the same conceit as Forrest Gump - that a nobody was influential in shaping popular culture (or, in this case, modern history). Yet Forrest Gump was not the first to use such a device - I'm thinking of the Illuminatus! trilogy.

Secondly, the novel's structure and storytelling style is uncannily similar to those employed by Kurt Vonnegut.  Vonnegut's style of storytelling pre-dates the modernists, so he wasn't that original in this respect.  As for structure - well, tell me how many authors have been wholly original in that department?

Finally, the central character, Allan Karlsson, doesn't really develop over the course of the novel, and he seems incapable of forming lasting emotional bonds with either people or credos.  So?  This may be central to literary fiction, but not all fiction has to be literary - it would be a dull world if that were the case.  Some just want to tell you a story to cheer you up, and there is nothing wrong with that.

Having said that, what could possibly be right with the book?  Well, it does bear an uncanny resemblance to some of Kurt Vonnegut's work but without the latter's sardonic inflection.  That's a good thing in my books.  Allan thinks the world is what is and goes along for the ride.  And what a ride it is.  A lot can happen in a hundred years, and a lot of it happens to Allan. I don't want to spoil the fun by giving the plot away, because a lot of the fun is in finding out what happens next.  

If you are the kind of person who can't loosen the corset enough to let a silly story carry you away, then this book isn't for you.  If you are a stickler for historical accuracy, then forget it. If you want to enjoy a tall tale, then this one is one of the tallest.