“Oh look at that! I’ve been impaled,” chuckles Olaf, the snowman, after he is stabbed with an oversized icicle.
Disney’s newest animated film, Frozen, has made tremendous strides in the world of animation. As of March 30th, Frozen officially became the highest grossing animated movie of all time. Aside from being a financial success, the film has also received critical acclaim. It was awarded “Best Animated Feature Film” in the Golden Globes and won “Best Animated Film” and “Best Song” in the Oscars. The film’s reception even has staunch critics claiming the film marks a second renaissance for Disney Animated Studios.
Since the release of Tarzan in 1999, Disney Animated Studios has been struggling to maintain their monopoly in the animated film genre. Until Tangled was released in 2010, Disney had been producing features that were mildly successful and mediocre at best. While Tangled proved to be a blockbuster hit, earning $591 million in the box office and receiving nominations for several awards in “Best Animated Film” and “Best Song,” the film cannot compare to the box office success and critical acclaim reached by Frozen.
But why Frozen?
Disney finally updated their formula. The films of Disney’s past relied heavily on specific elements to achieve success. Each film featured a male and female protagonist. The female confronted some sort of issue with her partner, during which the two fall in love. Accompanying the protagonists: a somewhat entertaining sidekick meant to help the duo, act as comic relief, and occasionally contribute meaningfully to the final outcome. Finally, there is the antagonist. This is the movie’s evil villain, who is eventually defeated through the protagonists’ teamwork and love. This formula, in animated form, was novel and highly successful in early Disney features like Snow White, Cinderella, Peter Pan, Beauty and the Beast, Hercules and Tarzan. However, more than 50 years and 50 plus animated films later, this formula was tired.
Screenwriter and Director Jennifer Lee, finally revamped this plot line with the feature film, Frozen. Frozen boasts not one, but two female leads. After all, isn’t two better than one? Apparently for this film, it is. The dynamic between princess sisters, Anna and Elsa, makes for a more complex story line. Elsa, the older sister with magical freezing powers, lives in constant fear and isolation as a result of her “gift.” Anna, the younger sister, is a loving, free spirited, clumsy teenager with a penchant for chocolate and young men. Now, Disney did not eliminate all male leads in Frozen. Kristoff, Arendelle’s resident iceman, is introduced after a disastrous coronation ball from which Elsa flees into the woods. Her flight and the conflict trigger an eternal winter over the kingdom. Together these three characters work and fight to save Arendelle from winter.
In Anna’s quest to help her sister, she meets Olaf, a snowman from her childhood, voiced by Josh Gad. Although, Disney animations often have some sort of entertaining sidekick, like Flounder in The Little Mermaid or Lumière in Beauty and the Beast, Olaf’s naivety with heat, love and human relationships gives him a fresh appeal to audiences. With lines like, “Oh! I don’t know why, but I’ve always loved the idea of summer and sun and all things hot,” Gad transforms Olaf into an endearing, chatty and lovable character for children and adults alike. Olaf, distinct from previous Disney sidekicks, is another dramatic formulaic distinctions made in Frozen.
The Disney film of years past has always had an antagonist. Scar, Maleficent, Ursula and Cruella De Vil are infamous and memorable characters, all of whom we love to hate. But, until Frozen, the villainous role had remained stagnant, even in the modernized Tangled where a conflicted Mother Gothel fulfilled this position. Frozen finally broke free from this stereotypical character type. In fact, until a plot twist at the end of the movie, there is no concretely dreaded antagonist. Although Elsa is responsible for her kingdom’s eternal winter, the audience cannot help but feel sympathy toward her. That’s probably because she typifies the internally struggling teenage girl, dealing with bodily changes, fighting with her parents, and ultimately rebelling against her upbringing. Her lack of “wickedness” becomes especially clear when Hans says to Elsa, “Don’t be the monster they fear you are.” By blurring the lines between protagonist and antagonist, Frozen reaches a fresh level of appeal. Through original takes on the roles of protagonist, sidekick and antagonist, Frozen is finally able to break free from the Disney formula to create a newer, modern, but just as lovable, animated film.