Frozen, the newest Disney film to hit theaters, is sure a
hot topic for having such a wintery theme.
The story of two royal sisters, one with the power to create snow and
ice, and the other left in the dark for years, hits home for many viewers, and
for a good reason. The family-centered
theme is easy to find relatable, and spoke especially true to me as I both
currently study families and have a close sister in my life.
Anna and Elsa’s relationship start out seemingly normal, as
sisters who love to play together. They
use Elsa’s powers to create winter wonderlands full of snow and ice, which we
all know can be a bit dangerous for kids, especially if unsupervised. In the instance we see, young Elsa’s powers
cannot keep up with Anna’s energy and she ends up with a frost beam striking
her in the head. After their parents,
the king and queen of Arendelle, find out the kids are rushed to a mystical
herd of trolls in the forest who advise Elsa’s powers be curbed and Anna’s
memories of the powers be erased. The
family therapist in me thinks this advice is just crap, and the rest of the
film proves this to be true. Whoever
those trolls are, or wherever they came from, I’d like to see some credentials.
Seriously though, think about anything that is powerful yet
can be dangerous. Say, cooking, for
example. Cooking can be very dangerous,
involving knives, stoves, ovens, and all kinds of things that can be harmful if
used without proper training. But
cooking can also be fun, creative, and extremely safe. It can result in a product that people love,
when you learn how to use a knife, the stove, and the oven. Sealing Elsa away
for her powers is comparable to doing the same to a little girl who likes
making cupcakes, and once accidentally burned her sister once while letting her
try a fresh baked batch. The
reinforcement that her powers were something BAD that could KILL her sister,
and must be CONCEALED only fueled her anxiety associated with them. Conversely, if her parents had found some way
to embrace the powers and help her to control them in a healthy way, Elsa would
have not had that anxiety, communication would be healthy, and Anna would have
been able to see her sister more often.
I know the metaphor is stretched a bit as powers don’t exist in real
life, but the concept is what’s important. Roll with it.
The fact that the king and queen died so early in the story
is also a shame. And Elsa’s absence at
the funeral was quite noticeable and heartbreaking. She was so in fear her whole life about
exposing her powers that she couldn’t even come out in public to participate in
an important grieving ritual. Who knows
what effect that had on her, in the long-term?
The “Do You Want To Build A Snowman” sequence showed Anna’s
frustration with the situation really well.
And anyone who has had or been a younger sister can sympathize. Little sisses are known for following their
beloved older sister around, wanting to play, and mimicking everything she
does. It’s annoying growing up while the
elder sister is trying to stake out her own identity, but as an adult it
becomes more apparent that it’s more flattery, and healthy part of development
for the sibling subsystem. Anna was
deprived of this experience, and you can hear the desperation in her voice as
she is faced with occupying herself with an empty castle. Prime development was lost for both sisters
here. Elsa didn’t learn how to care for
her sister, or to learn how to properly communicate with her. And I’m sure hearing Anna’s desperate cries
for playtime made her miss their time together even more. I can attest to the power of close sisters
seeming to share brainwaves. We finish
each other’s sentences (and sandwiches!) all, the, time. So you can imagine how emotional it is to
hear two finally grown sisters feeling incredibly lost, alone, and utterly
confused, by the end of this heart-wrenching song. I definitely cried here.
The day of Elsa’s coronation arrives and so much happens
here. Anna has been anticipating the
opening of the gates to the public and a huge celebration for so long, and it’s
obvious in her song “For The First Time In Forever.” Her social awkwardness works here, since we
know she hasn’t had normal opportunities to socialize while maturing. Another consequence of that troll’s crap parenting
advice, unfortunately, is that she is just so eager to go BE WITH PEOPLE. But what happens when you’ve been so deprived
of healthy relationships for so long? Well, you jump right into the arms of the
first person that takes interest in you so you can form some sort of attachment. Anna’s sudden engagement to Prince Hans is no
surprise here. We know it’s a bit too
good to be true, but she hasn’t had the experiences in life that would give her
that insight. She didn’t have an older
sister to steer her away from these things.
It’s such a shame.
Meanwhile, Elsa is still locked in her room having panic
attacks and stress breakdowns with no one to tell her it’s going to be
okay. No little sister to give her that
confidence, and the echo of her parents telling her only, “Conceal, don’t feel,
don’t let them know.” This just
absolutely breaks my heart. At age 18,
adolescence is not too far behind her.
Teens are developmentally meant to be more self-conscious than
normal. They think everyone is watching
everything they do, and that nobody in the world understands the emotions they
are feeling. This helps them to develop
their identity and individuality. Elsa’s
most likely still feeling these normal emotions, alongside being reminded that
that she has deadly powers that no one should know about. Talk about pressure.
Anna and Elsa’s first conversation (in pretty much forever)
is awkward and it seems as though they are complete strangers. Anna clearly still yearns for a connection
between the two of them and harbors no bitterness toward Elsa for keeping
herself separate all those years. It’s
beautiful and you can tell Anna has a huge heart. Elsa acts warm toward Anna but seems like a
shell of herself, and almost mentally checked out. She cannot even enjoy the biggest event of
her life because she is so invested in keeping composure. And when Anna suddenly reappears a few hours
later with plans to be married to a man she’s just met, her sister instincts
kick into gear. She sees that this isn’t
a good idea and becomes protective, and Anna pushes back. A younger sister doesn’t always know when the
elder is trying to protect her, however, and Anna just sees it as her sister shutting
her down once again. Both sisters can’t
be blamed here, especially in context of their stale past. But unfortunately Elsa’s passion ignites her
powers and the very thing she feared her whole life unfolds before her
eyes. People freak out, Elsa sees her
sister’s eyes filled with fear, and without any knowledge of how to deal with
this situation, she flees.
The following sequence is “Let It Go,” the most beautifully
executed musical scene in the entire movie.
Idina Menzel is known for belting emotional numbers in a powerful way
and this is no exception. The emotions
revealed here start as sadness, embarrassment, and loneliness, and bubble into
empowerment, a bit of guilty pleasure, and finally extreme confidence. Up on a mountain and away from people, she
can “test the limits” and even have a little fun with the one thing she had
been taught to fear her whole life. She
is growing into her individuality and independence finally, the task she was
struggling with as a locked-up teen. She
blossoms into a free-flowing beautiful woman and literally lets her hair down,
her outfit change echoing her internal transformation as well. However, she unknowingly causes an extreme
snowfall on her kingdom of Arendelle, making everything, well, frozen.
Meanwhile back in Arendelle, Anna is very much confused about
the night’s unfolding events. All she
knows is that she has to take responsibility for finding her sister, making
sure she’s okay, and getting her to unfreeze the kingdom. Again, her huge heart is evident here. It’s hard not to be mad at someone you care
about who keeps running away from you. But Anna only wants to make things right
and without a second thought leaves her fiancé in charge of the kingdom while
she sets out to find Elsa. Her
frustration is revealed though in the next scene, as she rides out and wonders
out loud if it is her fault at all, or if all this would have happened if Elsa
had just confided in her in the first place.
Poor Anna. Poor Elsa. So hopelessly set up to fail before they can
have any say in the matter, and all because of one troll.
Along the way Anna happens along a lone mountain man
Kristoff and his reindeer companion Sven.
She basically buys their services to help her up the mountain to get to
her sister. He is hesitant at first but
after Anna proves her non-total-worthlessness by helping fight off a pack of
wolves he actually seems pretty onboard.
Not to mention his livelihood is threatened by a total ice-over since he
is in the ice business, so he finds his investment in this cause as well. One thing I would have loved to know more
about is Kristoff’s seeming aversion to people.
He sings a whole song about how reindeer are better than people, but all
we know is that he was taken in as a child by the same trolls who I believe
should be seeking major malpractice insurance.
Kristoff’s backstory is incredibly underdeveloped, which is one my
issues with the film itself. As such a
loveable and sincere character he deserves more, I think.
They meet Olaf, the snowman that Elsa created the night of
her accident with Anna and again during her “Let It Go” sequence, along the way
and he accompanies them the rest of the film.
He offers some comic relief as well as heartwarming moments and a
connection to Elsa that keeps Anna going.
Once Anna reaches the castle she attempts to reason with her
sister. She shows no bitterness or
anger, only desperation for her to return home.
Elsa is firmly convinced that her powers can only result in terrible things,
and tries once again to protect Anna by shutting her down. Anna brings up the tiny fact that all of
Arendelle is frozen solid and this only reinforces Elsa’s attitude. She didn’t know she had done it, let alone
how to fix it. The whole situation turns
into a dreadful positive feedback loop, amplifying Elsa’s anxiety and fear
until she shoots an ice beam at Anna, which strikes her in her heart. Her darkest fears confirmed, she creates a
snow monster to physically throw Anna and her friends out of the castle. But Anna, Kristoff, Sven, and Olaf escape only
to discover her hair turning completely white, an indication that her heart is
indeed frozen. Luckily Kristoff, being
raised by the damn things, remembers seeing his troll family unfreeze Anna
years ago, and so he takes her to his “friends.”
For some reason “frozen heart” symptoms arise in a much slower
manner than “frozen head,” which is another discrepancy I found in the
film. Nevertheless, Anna stays conscious
and mostly ambulatory until they meet up with the trolls. Here is my personal lest favorite scene, and
not just because of the problem I have with their idea of parenting
advice. The trolls assume Kristoff and
Anna are a couple, or on their way to becoming one, and proceed to sing a very
strange song about why Kristoff is great despite his flaws. But it’s just… not a great song and seems to
stretch way too far in attempts to be funny or edgy. Apparently blondness is unmanly, he is close
to Sven “outside of nature’s laws,” and it’s weird that he relieves himself in
the woods? I dunno, I don’t understand
this song at all and I’m not a fan of anything reinforcing gender stereotypes
about what’s masculine or not. In
addition, near the end they start singing about how love brings out the best in
people who make bad choices because they’re mad or scared or stressed, which
seems like a blatant point to Elsa when they’re supposed to be singing about
Anna. Anyway, after the song papa smurf,
err, the lead troll tells Anna that only an act of true love can melt a frozen
heart. And it appears the characters
have seen their share of Disney movies because they assume this means true
love’s kiss and take off to find Hans.
Meanwhile, Hans and his armed volunteers have gone to Elsa’s
castle and brought her back to Arendelle, imprisoned until she can unfreeze the
kingdom. She insists she doesn’t know how
so she remains chained up. Anna returns
to Arendelle and as soon as she finds Hans to ask for her life-saving kiss he
reveals that he had only been using her all along to take control of the
kingdom. Here I can only imagine Anna’s
humiliation. Hans revels in how easy it
was to fool her, as she is wasting away and running out of life. Her last hope to survive and continue to try
to resolve things with her sister is truly the villain of the story and leaves
her to die. She crumples to the ground,
her hope and life all but sucked out of her.
Olaf discovers her and gently reminds her that her true love may have
been riding alongside them on a reindeer the whole time. When he sees Kristoff actually returning to help
Anna he helps her out onto the frozen fjord to try to get to him.
At the same time, Elsa has managed to escape and is also out
on the fjord fleeing Hans, who thinks Anna is dead and is attempting to kill
Elsa next. Although Anna sees Kristoff
coming to her aid, she also sees Hans raising a sword to kill Elsa. In her last act Anna chooses her sister one
last time, throwing herself between Hans and Elsa as she turns completely
frozen.
The next few moments in the film are the most poignant and
heart-wrenching. Anna, who has been
selfless throughout the majority of the film and has been deprived of so much
her whole life, just sacrificed herself for the sister that she believed had
been purposely been shutting her away her whole life. And Elsa realizes this and collapses upon the
ice sculpture that was once her little sister, absolutely crushed and
sobbing. At that moment she really “lets
it go,” and lets all that pent up emotion loose with absolutely no idea what to
do now. All the love she couldn’t share
with her sister her whole life is released.
It is an intense and emotional scene, no doubt. But in true Disney magic fashion, of course
this is an act of true love from BOTH girls finally and the frozen heart spell is broken. The girls share a beautiful sister moment and
it looks like all is well in the kingdom of Arendelle as the love shown by Elsa
melts the winter spell. Hans is sent
back to his home country, Anna and Kristoff share a kiss, Olaf is given his own
personal snow cloud to keep him alive, and Anna and Elsa happy proclaim that
the castle gates will never be closed to the public again.
I just want to reiterate how different this film is from
many of the Disney musical films. The
main storyline is family, not romance.
The tears at the end resurrect a sister, not a love interest. The family dynamics here are incredibly real
and relatable, and it actually has a sound moral: Don’t shut people out when
you are in need of love, communicate your fears, and embrace the love of others
who can help you. Also, seek family
therapy from a professional and not a stone troll, but that should be obvious
by now. In all seriousness, this newest
of Disney films makes huge bounds in storytelling, a twist on the typical
villain and love story, and music that really rings true.
