Frozen is Proof of Disney’s Emergence into the 21st Century

So many reviews have been written on Disney’s Frozen that I don’t think an ordinary movie review by myself would contribute much of significance, especially since said reviews touch on movie-related concepts of which I only have a rudimentary understanding.

I’ll talk about this movie from the point of view of a normal high school student who simply watches the movie, and does not further research the background.

The plot, the music, and most anything else I could fathom from a single viewing are proof of Disney’s emergence into the 21st century.

First, Olaf has some innate obsession with summer, which is understandable, considering that sun and heat only exist in his daydreams. All throughout the movie he seems to recognize that something bad will happen to him in the presence of heat, but the denial of its threatening existence is something that we can recognize in ourselves.

We fantasize about something, someone, someplace that we know is probably toxic to us, but we can’t help but lust for it. We’ve all got a little bit of Olaf the Snowman in us.

Props to Disney for putting not one, but two strong female roles at the front of a movie. Of course, this is not Disney’s first time casting the female as the main, strong protagonist. As we can see, it goes back as early as 1998, with Mulan, and probably even earlier.

But the unique positing of two main female characters suggests that true love doesn’t always come in the form of romance. In fact, it seems like Disney is trying to move away from that, portraying the immediate engagement of Anna and Hans as very irrational.

Even in the end, when it seems as though Anna and Kristoff are meant to be, Disney veers away from that conclusion, suggesting that although there’s a definite spark between these two, it’s just realistically much too early to tell, despite the ordeal that these two cuties endured together.

It seems as though this media corporation is trying to suggest that girls slow down before rushing to conclusions about whether or not he’s “the one.”

Have they started to stray from their outdated themes about the damsel in distress and the masculine hero? It looks like it, considering recent movies such as Tangled and Brave. 

And because this post wouldn’t be complete without the mentioning of some sort of motif, I will expand on the concept of doors.

Doors opening, closing, unlocking and locking.

Since Anna’s childhood, after her accident, she’s only known her older sister Elsa as a sad voice from behind a locked door. And the doors of the kingdom also remain closed until Elsa’s coronation.

But when she finally comes of age, Elsa’s bedroom door and the kingdom doors open for the first time in years, and the two sisters enjoy a little bonding until Anna accidentally reveals her older sister’s cryokinetic powers.

The opening of doors is a metaphor for the uncovering of truths and emotions.

After Elsa flees the castle and constructs her own ice palace up in the mountains, she erects barriers and protectors of her privacy and security, and as soon as those doors are opened by Anna, Kristoff and Olaf, and later, Hans and his men, in floods more truth and emotional revealings, and change.

Later, when Anna is trapped in the room that Hans has locked her in, her rescue comes from Olaf unlocking the door.

But there’s more than one way to open a door, you know? You can freeze it open (and shut) and you can barge through it.

Doors, which are created to maintain privacy and prevent the truth from slipping out, are broken and opened to let change and the truth flow through.

In the end, the doors of the palace remain open for Anna and Elsa to mingle with the citizens, for the back and forth exchange of information and goods, and that’s where we see the final, happy ending of this exciting story.

In reality, this movie is teeming with fantastic motifs to be expounded upon. We’ll see if I do anything with them.

---

The name of this song definitely made me do a double take…