Frozen: It's Disney, bitch!
Yesterday, I did something I've only done one other time... I watched two movies back-to-back in the movie theater. The last time I did it was in 2009, when I watched The Proposal and The Hangover back-to-back. :)
Yesterday it was Frozen and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.
OK, I can talk about Catching Fire in a bit, but what I really want to focus on is Frozen. Because I floved it. I floved it for all the ways it was classically Disney and all the ways it wasn't.
Some spoilers follow...
It's kind of hard for me to rank it with all of my favorite animated movies, because I can't necessarily say I loved it more than How To Train Your Dragon or Finding Nemo or even Beauty and the Beast. But it exists in a place all its own. First of all, this is the article that made me want to watch it in the first place: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/11/25/frozen-is-the-best-disney-film-since-the-lion-king.html I agree with everything in the article, and pretty much everything that needs to be said is there!
But in my own words, here are the things I loved about Frozen:
1) It's not about finding a man or keeping a man, it's about sisterhood. And I am (was?) really close to my sisters, so it hits close to home for me. (Feminists would be proud of this movie.)
2) The message that keeping secrets, keeping things contained, will only backfire for you in the future and make the problem even bigger than it should have been. I love Elsa--or maybe not love her, because we didn't learn that much about her, but I can relate to her. I am Elsa sometimes. If I have a fatal flaw, I know it's shutting people out and not giving things my all. I can be a closed door, like they talk about in the movie. (It's a recurring theme in my writing.) And that's why I could relate so much to Frozen's central message as much as I did.
3) The message that we should try to understand different people, instead of trying to exterminate or control them. Elsa was a villain for much of the movie, but she didn't want to be... Her dangerous powers were part of her identity, and trying to deny it or harm her only made things worse. I watched the movie with a gay friend, and it's no coincidence that he easily related to the movie's themes as well.
4) The idea that true love is not only something that happens to you (like a cute guy giving you love's true kiss) but something you give of yourself. In the words of JK Rowling and thousands of love songs, love is the answer. Love, love, love.
5) The visuals. My God! When we talk about Disney magic, sometimes it's literal! When we talk about Disney, we think about "Be Our Guest" in Beauty and The Beast, "Bibbidy-Bobbidy-Boo" in Cinderella, and "The Sorceror's Apprentice" in Fantasia. Frozen has that visual wow factor, with ice palaces, spells, and flurries. Plus, this movie made me want to be a princess again! That was such a girl moment when Elsa transformed into her ice-blue dress, trail, and golden braid. *Sigh*
This movie is oh-so-Disney because it's got princes, princesses, magic, talking animated objects, and orphaned children. But what made it not-so-Disney and thoroughly modern is the anti-heroine (Elsa), the non-princely love interest, and the fact that true love is not just found in a man but with your love of family and with your love of self. And that actually answers a frustration I've had with Disney that I wasn't even aware of until I watched this movie!
This message is classic but fresh, timeless yet modern. And somehow, only Disney can really straddle those two worlds successfully.
Disney magic? Frozen has it in ice buckets.