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You're in the car. And from the booster seat in the back a young voice is belting out the power ballad Let It Go – for the umpteenth time, writes Karen Kay in the Sunday People.

Take comfort, because you’re not alone. And you’re probably humming along as well.

In fact I was singing Do You Want To Build A Snowman? in the supermarket aisle when I realised I’d been well and truly Frozen.

I didn’t even have my six-year-old Molly with me as an excuse for the out-of-tune outburst.

If you don’t have young daughters, or you managed to hibernate this winter, let me explain.

Frozen is the latest in a long line of Disney princess films which, since its release in November, has taken more than $1billion at the box office. This is the most popular animated movie of all time – toppling Toy Story 3.

Molly was ­enthralled after seeing it with friends on a Christmas cinema trip and has watched it multiple times on DVD since. She is one of millions of girls out there living and breathing the Frozen dream.

Frozen is loosely based upon Hans Christian Anderson’s 170-year-old children’s story The Snow Queen. It begins with two young princesses, Anna and Elsa, frolicking together as they enjoy Elsa’s magic powers.

When the pair are orphaned, Elsa is overwhelmed by her ability to turn her surroundings to ice.

She disappears into a self-imposed exile, to avoid further harm to her subjects in the kingdom of Arendelle, which she has left in an eternal winter.

(Image: Disney)

Her loyal sister Anna ­enlists the simple mountain-dweller Kristoff and his trusty ­reindeer Sven to help rescue her sister and save their homeland.

Then they all live happily ever after. So far, so Disney, right?

Well, here’s the thing. Frozen is not a typical fairytale, where a flaky princess eventually ­marries her heroic prince.

The men in this film are the supporting cast. One is Hans, a ­manipulative prince who proposes to Anna in a bid to gain power (girls, there’s a lesson).

The other is the humble l­abourer Kristoff, who falls for an awesome young woman, who is blissfully oblivious of his affections.

Frozen has captured the ­imagination of a generation of young girls. It marries the eternally ­popular formula of a doe-eyed, pale-skinned princess with more realistic and appealing character traits, giving the girls a bit of gumption.

Frozen ­offers some progress in terms of the way females are portrayed by the hugely ­influential Disney machine.

To what extent has been the subject of fevered debate among feminist commentators and school gate mums (not that the two are mutually ­exclusive, of course). It angers me that Elsa and Anna are absurdly proportioned, with saucer-like eyes,

atop ludicrously shaped ­bodies that could exist only as

CGI fantasies.

In contrast, the men in the film, while buff, are relatively normal, with facial features that appear almost conventional.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not averse to a sprinkling of romance and fantasy in a movie, especially where children are concerned.

They have enough gritty reality in everyday life. But it is refreshing to break the mould, and demonstrate to the next generation that there is more to life than simply looking pretty and ­marrying a beefy bloke.

(Image: Disney)

Annoyingly, Frozen implies you can and should still look pretty and wear sparkly dresses while trapped in lonely exile or taking on an icy wilderness.

The crux of the tale is the power of sisterhood, the ties of family and the strength of females to overcome adversity, often with self-sacrifice. These two are not ­victims, but females who make decisions to protect their loved ones.

And that ­reflects a very powerful human instinct – one that appeals to ­children, who understand that ­innate sense of family in an ­increasingly fragmented society.

In Hollywood terms, Frozen wasn’t heavily promoted. The power of playground chat has made this a global hit.

Even Disney, whose ethos is built on consumerism, have been wrong-footed by the tidal wave of demand for Frozen merchandise.

“Frozen is a global phenomenon that has truly exceeded expectations,” Disney spokeswoman Margita Thompson admitted, ­after angry parents complained about a shortage of Frozen dolls, costumes, and other products.

The company is racing to ­replenish supplies of their ­lucrative official merchandise.

And a quick scan of eBay this week showed that Anna and Elsa dolls and nylon dressing up ­costumes were changing hands for more than £2,000 a piece.

Meanwhile back to the music. The irritatingly catchy Let It Go, performed by Wicked actress Idina Menzel, has been viewed more than 200 million times on YouTube. The soundtrack album has spent 12 weeks at the top of the US Billboard charts, making it the first album to sell more than two million copies this year.

(Image: Disney)

Taking in figures for 2013, Frozen has racked up total sales of more than 2.5million so far.

To put that in perspective, Beyoncé’s latest release is the second-biggest seller, shifting 648,000. Still slightly baffled by the appeal, I asked singing teacher Adele Lee Peters, who runs the Rox Vocal Studios, for her take on the popularity of the songs.

She explained: “I teach children from the age of six upwards, and they are all, without exception, obsessed with Frozen.

“You can see them imagining each scene as they sing the lyrics. It really empowers them as they picture themselves building an ice palace, or simply creating an idyllic childhood snowy play scene.

“These are enduring songs that will form part of the soundtrack of these children’s lives. They are quite challenging to sing, which children like.

"They have changes of tempo and Do You Want To Build A Snowman has sound ­effects like the tick-tock and the door knocking, which they love.

“Let It Go is an incredible track when you hear someone with the mature vocal range of Idina Menzel performing it, yet it works for younger voices.

“I don’t lower the key for children, they sing it naturally. They really enjoy the way those crescendos build.”

And don’t we parents know it!

(Image: Karen Kay)

"Better than your average princesses" by Molly, aged 6

I think Elsa and Anna are more interesting than other Disney ­princesses, who can be a bit boring. All Cinderella does is clean and she wants to marry a prince.

Elsa is cool because she has magic powers, but she’s thoughtful and kind because she doesn’t want to use them in case she hurts people.

I didn’t really like Prince Hans at the start, because I knew he was going to be bad. You shouldn’t agree to marry someone when you first meet them. That’s crazy. You should be friends with them first so you know you can trust them.

Olaf the snowman is really funny, and makes people laugh, even when things aren’t going very well. He’s my favourite character – and it’s really sweet that he gets his own snowcloud at the end so he doesn’t melt when summer comes.

And when he said, “Some people are worth melting for” to Anna, that was lovely, because she felt loved. Sven the reindeer is cute too, because he is a bit like Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh.

The songs in Frozen are good. I know all the words to Let It Go and it’s easy to sing out loud. I also love Do You Want To Build A Snowman, because it is a happy song about sisters having fun together, playing in ­secret, using Elsa’s special powers.

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