This is part 2 of my Disney classics reviews -series. Last time I reviewed the Little Mermaid, an oldie but a goodie. Today we are going to review a film that is a bit more recent – Frozen.
Frozen (2013) is a film about two sisters: Elsa, who has magical ice powers from birth and Anna, who has no magical powers. When the sisters are young, Elsa accidentally strikes her sister with her powers. Luckily she can be easily healed but as a consequence, the sisters’ parents decide to keep Elsa’s powers hidden from everyone, including Anna whose memories of them get erased. Fast forward to Elsa being crowned queen years later (yeah, they are also princesses and their parents passed away some years earlier). Anna decides to marry a prince she just met like two hours earlier called Hans and that leads to Elsa getting mad and accidentally revealing her powers to everyone and then fleeing to the mountains.
Anna, though feeling somewhat betrayed, goes to find her sister and bring her back. She does find Elsa with the help of Kristoff, a hermit ice merchant and Olaf, a talking snowman. However, Elsa does not want to return home and she gets mad (again) and accidentally strikes Anna with her powers. Anna leaves to get cured but she is told that the spell struck her heart and only an act of true love can save her now. So, she leaves back home in order to kiss Hans who, meanwhile, captured Elsa for cursing the kingdom with eternal winter (which she did by accident). When Anna gets to Hans and explains the situation to him, it turns out he was the bad guy all along and only wanted to marry Anna because she is the heir to the throne after Elsa. He then leaves Anna to die and tries to murder Elsa. However, Anna throws herself between Hans’ sword and Elsa with her last bit of strength which not only saves Elsa but thaws her own frozen heart as well, you know, since it was an act of true love. Elsa figures out how to end the eternal winter, Anna and Kristoff become a couple, Olaf gets to live and everything is well.
I absolutely love this movie. Yes, I am 23 years old. No, I do not care. Sure, it has its problems, such as the lack of literally anyone but white people. That has, however, been taken into consideration in the sequel, at least a little. Frozen is also supposed to be happening in Norway in 1843, though it’s not like the movie is historically accurate anyways. Everyone is also skinny like in pretty much all other Disney classics as well as able-bodied. I really do wish one day we’ll get an overweight, disabled princess who absolutely kicks ass. Unfortunately, I don’t think that is going to happen anytime soon.
Everyone in Frozen is also straight… Or are they? Disney has given tiny hints at Elsa maybe being a lesbian and though so far it has only been queerbaiting, I am a firm believer that she is, if not lesbian, at least not straight. Elsa has no love interest in Frozen, which is awesome. She is a badass female character who shows us that she can for example rule a nation without the help of a man. Not having a love interest is valid and does not automatically mean one is unable to feel sexual and romantic attraction, though and we must take into consideration the possibility that Elsa is asexual and/or aromantic. That would be great since aro and ace people do not get enough representation.
Anna, on the other hand, has two separate love interests. I think Hans is a great character because he signifies how rushing into a relationship is not always a good thing. We have tons of Disney princesses who marry someone after knowing them for like a week and Hans and Anna’s relationship kind of turns that around. I love how Anna and Kristoff are content with just being in a relationship in Frozen, there’s really no need for them to rush into marriage. Unpopular opinion: I think Hans should not have been evil and he and Anna should have ended up together. I did like the plot twist with him turning out to be the bad guy and I genuinely did not see it coming. However, they seemed like such a good match for each other at the beginning of the movie, even if they did move on way too fast.
My favourite character in Frozen is Elsa because I see some of myself in her. Mainly, she is an introvert and I am, too. And she gets to be one without people trying to make her more extroverted. Yes, she ends up returning to her kingdom where all her people are but no one wants her to be more talkative, open or loud. This was new since so many movies that I see end up with the introverted main character suddenly becoming an extrovert. This is often seen as a huge win and it gives out the impression that there is something wrong with being an introvert.
I also love the movies’ message of sisterly love. I have a younger sister who means the world to me so I loved to see a movie about the love between two sisters rather than another romantical love story. Anna saving Elsa is really powerful and I love how they become basically best friends afterwards. I see a lot of my sister and me in Anna and Elsa and though our relationship is completely different from them, it is also in many ways very similar.
This was my review of Frozen. Hope you liked it and stay tuned for the next one!