Frozen

Year:  2013 

Filming:  Color 

Length:  102 minutes 

Genre: Adventure/Animated/Family/Fantasy

Maturity:  PG (for fantasy action and some rude humor)

Cast:  Idina Menzel (Elsa), Kristen Bell (Anna), Jonathan Groff (Kristoff), Santino Fontana (Prince Hans), Josh Gad (Olaf), Alan Tudyk (Duke of Weselton), Chris Williams (Oaken), Ciaran Hinds (Pabbie), Eva Bella (Young Elsa), Liwy Stubenrauch (Young Anna)

 Directors: Jennifer Lee and Chris Bucks

 Personal Rating:  4 Stars

***

     Fads come and fads go, especially in the realm of the Silver Screen. Most are far less supercalafrajalistic than made out to be. However, there are a few that at least live up to the title “enjoyable”. Among them are Disney’s Frozen, a 3D animated spin on Hans Christian Anderson’s classic fairytale, The Snow Queen. Although I can’t say this one stuck to the original script, it was a worthwhile entity in its own right, and minus a few ill-chosen remarks in the dialogue and possibly agenda-driven implications, I would recommend it as a fun holiday film to view during a snowy day. 

    Our story opens in the Scandinavian kingdom of Arendelle, where two young princesses, Elsa and Anna, are playing in the snow. This would be normal enough, except for the fact that Elsa is the one creating the snow inside the palace with her magical freezing powers, and Anna gets accidently zapped with an ultra-brain-freeze! The king and queen are naturally disconcerted, and immediately whisk Anna off to a troop of trolls to have the memory of her sister’s powers erased…which will somehow unfreeze her brain! Then they have Elsa confined to private quarters in the palace until she can master her icy powers.

    For years, Elsa has limited contact with anyone, including her sister Anna, who cannot understand the sudden separation, but continues to love Elsa and believe that Elsa loves her. After their parent’s death, Elsa becomes queen and must emerge from her seclusion for her coronation. At the same time, Anna get her first taste of first love, in the form of the tall, dashing Prince Hans. But when Hans and Anna decide to be wed immediately, Queen Elsa withholds her permission. The ensuing struggle of wills between the estranged sisters results in Elsa accidently revealing her icy powers, and the sinister Duke of Weselton convinces the people that she is a monster. In response, Elsa runs away from Arendelle, leaving a frozen trail behind her.      

    But Anna is determined to set things right be reconciling with her sister and convincing her to return and melt the ice. But first, she has to find her in the wilds of the mountains, with the aid of three faithful companions: Kristoff, the rough-and-tumble yet dependable mountain-man, Sven, he beloved reindeer companion, and Olaf, the magical talking snowman who “likes warm hugs” and longs for warm weather…er…yeah, he doesn’t know the harsh realities of a snowman’s life expectancy rate! But anyway, the dynamic quartet manage to make their way to Elsa’s new place of residence: a humungous ice palace, guarded by a humungous abominable snowman! 

    When Anna finally does manage to have a meeting with Elsa, she informs her sister that Arendelle has been frozen over. Elsa, still struggling to control her powers and terrified of harming anyone, is horrified by the suffering she unintentionally and unknowingly caused, but does not know how to undo the spell. Even though Anna insists that she should return to her kingdom, and that they can work it out together, Elsa angrily sends her away, against accidently shooting her with an icy ray that always emanates from her hand when she is upset. Although shaken, Anna insists that she is fine. Elsa, equally shaken, has them chased out of the ice palace by her abominable snowman guard.  

    Despairing of ever convincing Elsa to come home, Anna and Kristoff make their  way back to Arendelle empty-handed. But along the way, Kristoff decides to visit his own home so Anna can “meet the family” – a bunch of rocks that turn out to be the same trolls that healed Anna from brain-freeze when she was a little girl! Under the assumption that the two of them are an item, they make quite a to-do of welcoming her to their festive gathering, but when she feels ill and collapses, they are able to deduct that something is dreadfully wrong. In fact, her heart has been frozen by Elsa’s ice ray! The trolls inform her that only an act of true love can save her life, so Kristoff rushes to get her back to Arendelle and her “true love” Prince Hans who he believes can save her through a kiss. But things go a little differently than everyone expected as they search out what true love really means and how it effects us all.  

    I personally thought Frozen was the best 3-D Disney Princess film to date. The animation was quite spectacular, especially the panoramic shots of the charming Kingdom of Arendelle and the Scandinavian surroundings that seemed to leap out from a Hans Christian Anderson fairytale. Also, the formation of the ice castle was quite magical. Plus, the music really did branch out into something of a Broadway production, which was impressive for a cartoon. Tangled certainly started the trend of characters singing, Brave moved away from it, and Frozen came back to it with force. Also, beyond all this, the story really was a very good one, teaching some deep lessons about the meaning and power of love. 

    This is not to say it didn’t have its problems, because it did. Among them were occasional, unnecessarily crude language and gags (including references to urination and nose-picking) and rapid-fire humor that left one feeling out of breath. As I usually remark upon watching a “modern” cartoon, I don’t understand why they feel the need to try to force us to laugh instead of letting it all come naturally.  Also, there were several gaps in the plot. For example, how did Elsa get her magic freezing powers, and how was it that the trolls were able to heal Anna’s frozen brain by simply erasing all memory of her sister’s powers? Did the two sisters have any interaction at all after that point until their parents’ death? If not, who did have contact with Elsa all those years as she struggled to control her icy powers? Surely someone had to care for her!  

    The part that shocked me the most was when Hans revealed his true colors. I mean, I know it was supposed to be shocking but – couldn’t they have given us at least a little foreshadowing? With Kristoff entering the equation and the issue of “love at first sight” being brought up in a negative light, I think most of us surmised that Hans wasn’t going to be the leading man after all (at least, not with regards to Anna). But I thought he might wind up falling in love with Elsa instead, or otherwise just rather superficial and incapably of truly loving the way Anna needed to be loved in order to save her life.  

    But I never expected him to be a latent assassin or crown-snatcher! Honestly, I don’t think it was necessary to go that extreme! Besides, reading between the lines, I can’t help but get the feeling that the writers were going out of their way to completely obliterate any image of “Prince Charming” that might be lingering in the female subconscious. Now, I’m not crazy about charmers myself, and the “love at first sight” bit is usually a good recipe for disaster. But does that mean that all those exhibiting gentlemanly qualities are somehow suspect?

    It all goes back the way the upper classes are handled on screen in period pieces. Basically, according to Holly wood perception, the tendency of being attracted to dashing, well-dressed nobleman has been completely spun around to the point where it is a given that a dashing, well-dressed nobleman is bound to be evil. Beyond that, there is a notion that girls should never want to be rescued. While I agree we don’t always want to be (sometimes we can take care of it better ourselves!), that’s not always the case. Is the concept of a perverted “Prince Charming” invocating a liberal feminist agenda? 

   On that same subject, there are some who believe that there is a covert LGBT agenda running through the film as well, although I’m not sure I’d really agree. If it’s there, it’s far too light to detect directly…so why make a fuss? It’s been pointed out that Elsa has no male love interest (probably the only princess in Disney history not to have one…but considering her freezing problem, is that so odd?). I will admit that the song “Let It Go” could be applied to some sort of sexual liberation (especial with the reference to Elsa being forced to be a “good girl”), but really, it could mean anything. Indeed, Elsa is expressing only one phase in her journey, not the conclusion. She does not remain in her icy palace forever; she is brought back into the human race through the love of her sister, and this learning about love is what enables her to control her powers and save her kingdom.  

    But even if Elsa does not have a big love life (certainly not a crime in and of itself), Anna and Kristoff do make a lovable couple. She’s sweet and stubborn; he’s clever and stout-hearted. He’s also pretty funny, and knows how to tease and be teased, which to me is a very important trait. It’s obvious they have a chemistry from square one, and it was pretty easy to figure out they would be together in the end. But of course there was the question of what to do with Prince Hans. After Anna is struck by the icy ray, Kristoff is willing to give her up in favor of Hans who he believes is the only one able to save her life through a true lover’s kiss. However, when Hans betrays her, he rushes across the fjords to save Anna himself.  

    If Anna and Kristoff are a match made in heaven, Olaf is the best sort of third-wheel (well, fourth wheel, counting Sven…but the reindeer is not half as colorful as the snowman!). The comic concept of a snowman dreaming about the glories of warm weather is just hilariously incongruent, not to mention to erudite commentary at tense moments (“Hang in there, guys!” he shouts, whilst Anna and Kristoff are dangling from the edge of a cliff)!  But Olaf is not just hanging around for comic relief purposes. Actually, he has a profound role to play in teaching Anna about true love after she is ruthlessly left to freeze by Hans. Seeing her slumped in the corner shivering, he immediately begins to build a fire. When Anna tries to stop him, insisting that he’ll melt, he replies, “Some people are worth melting over.” (Aww…) 

   While Kristoff and Olaf are certainly important elements in the revelation of love, the relationship between Anna and Elsa takes priority. Even though Anna had seen barely anything of her sister for years, she has enough memory to know that she did indeed have a fond relationship with her sister in their youth, and she continues to believe they could have the same sisterly love again. It is this belief, this inner knowing, that inspires her to save Elsa by throwing herself in front of her and taking the blow from Hans’s sword. At the same time she freezes, and her icy hand smashes the blade. Through this act of true love, she saves both herself, returning to life, and Elsa, who finally understands that love is the only way to conquer fear and melt the ice encrusting Arendelle.  

    So overall I give Frozen a good rating. Some would even say that it has some Christian allegorical overtones, although I would probably just stick with saying it has a sturdy moral backbone. Even though it carried touches of liberation theology here and there (I can do what I want to do because…I can do what I want to do!), I think the plot successfully worked out the trouble spots and taught that we do have a calling to show true love to one another, and never to settle for giving or receiving second best. That being the meaning of Christmas as well, I suppose it makes a very appropriate holiday flick at that!

Kristoff (Jonathan Groff) rides in a sleigh with Anna (Kristen Bell)