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| Sisters are doin' it for themselves |
Hans Christian Andersen’s 1844 fairy tale The Snow Queen had been a long-time thorn in the side of Disney. In the months before Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs was released in 1937, the studio had been in talks with MGM to partner together on a hybrid live-action/animated film about the Danish author, with Walt’s boys providing animated segments dramatizing such stories as The Little Match Girl, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, The Little Mermaid, Thumbelina and The Snow Queen. The animators, however, had great difficulty adapting The Snow Queen for a modern audience. Once WWII hit, and the studio was forced to tighten it’s belt (noted in prior reviews,) causing the deal with MGM to fall apart and the abandonment of the project. MGM would go on to produce an entirely live-action biopic starring Danny Kaye in 1952, which was met with great critical and financial success (I’m personally not a fan of that film - but we’ll be seeing Kaye around these parts in October.) Disney would hold on to the concept art prepared for these stories, many of which would eventually see the light of day as animated adaptations many decades later.
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| Imagineering briefly toyed with the idea of a Snow Queen attraction at Disneyland. "Enchanted Snow Palace" concept art by Marc Davis, c. mid-1970s |
Further attempts were made in the late 1990s and early 2000s to adapt Andersen’s story, including a pitch by actor Harvey Fierstein(!), a pass by animator Glen Keane (who would give up and move on to an adaptation of Rapunzel instead,) and a push by Michael Eisner to get a Taming of the Shrew-like romantic comedy version out before 2007. Despite these aborted attempts, the cinematic potential of the tale of a queen who could control winter was just too great to pass up. Work began again in 2010, with director Chris Buck determined to make the concept work. It wasn’t until the following year (and after the successful release of Glen Keane’s Rapunzel adaptation, Tangled) that the project finally began to gel, following chief creative officer (and Pixar king) John Lasseter’s suggestion that the film’s main characters, Anna (based on the original tale’s character, Gerda) and Elsa (the titular Snow Queen) could be sisters. From there, despite numerous further difficulties and re-writes up to and throughout the film’s production (screenwriter and eventual co-director Jennifer Lee, for instance, wasn't brought in to write the screenplay until she'd completed the previous years' Wreck-It-Ralph,) the creative juices were flowing, and all the pieces truly began falling into place.
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| My Frozen commemorative plates are here! |
The long and difficult journey was, for the Walt Disney Corporation, most assuredly worth it. Within months of the film’s release, planet Earth rapidly became over-over-saturated with Frozen. Hell, as the father of a 2-year-old this is something that I know first-hand: I’ve played the soundtrack in the car so many times that I could regale you with a full song-and-dance re-enactment right now, complete with grandiose vocal inflections and sassy hand gestures (go on - dare me!) In a very short time the film’s overwhelming financial success and subsequent cultural saturation forced a typically under-prepared Disney to scramble and push their Elsa-gowned cash-cow as quickly as possible. Little girls demanding Elsa dolls? Fast-track them into Target stores and add on spring-loaded “icy magic” action (yes, this is a thing; Elsa chucks plastic ninja-star-like snowflakes at your unsuspecting cat!) Kids want to see Anna and Elsa at Disney World? Let’s rip Maelstrom out of EPCOT’s culture-centric Norway Pavilion and replace it with a ride based on a fairy tale! A quick trip around your local supermarket will surely leave you marking several Frozen-themed items off your grocery list: Frozen frosted cereal, Frozen-themed Campbell’s soup, Cheez-It’s with Sven the reindeer on the box, Ziploc sandwich bags with Olaf plastered on each one. Frozen the t-shirt! Frozen the coloring book! Frozen the lunchbox! Frozen the towel! Frozen the flamethrower! With so much Frozen being crammed down our throats, it can be so very easy to resent the film that spawned it all.
And yet ... I can’t. It’s too damn good.
I’ll admit, when I first saw the film (at the theater, no less,) I walked away less than impressed. I mean, it was okay; the animation was very good, that Adele Dazeem (or Idina Menzel, or whatever her name was) could certainly sing, and the talking snowman was slightly less annoying than I’d feared. A lot of my initial issues, I later realized, may have stemmed from the fact that - having just turned 30 - I was apparently already lapsing into old-fart fuddy duddyness. Why, I wondered, did half the characters talk so … modern? Back in my day you wouldn’t have had Belle singing “don’t know if I’m elated or gassy, but I’m somewhere in that zone,” or have Aladdin referring to Jasmine as “feisty-pants” (despite the fact that her pants were actually pretty fierce.) Damn kids and their jive talk! I came to wonder, though, if it was just as likely that some older fans felt the same way about the films I grew up enjoying at their time of release; imagine growing up with Pinocchio and then wandering into the manic humor found in something like The Lion King (or - heaven forbid - Hercules.) Besides, the occasional slang thrown out by characters in these movies is merely window-dressing, a shorthand to get younger viewers on-board more quickly and follow along with the story. Like all entertainment, these productions reflect the time of their release more than anything else; if Disney’s characters were portrayed strictly in accordance with the periods in which their films are set, not only would Gaston have been boasting in French, but Sleeping Beauty would’ve resembled Game of Thrones more than a flashy ‘50s musical. But I digress …
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| Hey girl... |
While not as rewarding upon first viewing as, say, 2010’s Tangled, Frozen is one of those very rare family films that improves with repeated viewings. It’s first impression may leave some viewers feeling somewhat let down, just as I was - it is a fast-paced (though never manic) movie, and despite packing a lot of incident into the narrative, it tells a deceptively straightforward story. However, I eventually came to see that Frozen has a lot of emotional and psychological depth hiding beneath its’ fairy tale veneer, presenting much food for thought without providing easy answers. This is why I feel it’s connected with so many filmgoers, beyond the multitude of children who enjoy the film for it’s fun sense of humor and exciting adventure. For the first time in
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| Automatic, systematic - full of color self contained... |
For example, for a long time I believed that Anna (voiced by Kristen Bell) was a one-note character, defined by her clumsy immaturity. Her entire character arc (not a phrase I'm really a fan of, by the way) sees her going from a naive youth to a more mature young woman who's eventually able to help her sister come to terms with their strained relationship. The fact that Elsa (and, by extension, the screenwriters) tells her how ridiculous it would be to marry someone you just met (the deceptive Prince Hans, voiced by Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s Santino Fontana) didn’t seem as big a deal (or as “meta”) to me as it did to many viewers. Her eventual love story with Kristoff (voiced Jonathan Groff) seemed to indicate that the movie wasn’t quite as progressive as some claimed. With further viewings, I realized that what Anna learned over the course of the film wasn’t necessarily (or simply) that “true love” was not something that happens on first sight, but that love itself is something one must be an active participant in. “True love” is real, but it doesn’t just happen to you. Anna always loved her sister, but showed it through her actions throughout the story - by the fact that she went after Elsa immediately following her flight from Arendelle, without hesitation. Her sacrifice during the climax was merely the noble cherry atop her already piled-high sundae of love (good lord, that’s an awful metaphor.)
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| You mad bro? |
On a side-note: the love story between Anna and Kristoff, while clearly meant to contrast with the “falling for a handsome Prince” cliché earlier in the film, is spoiled for me by interference from the trolls. Already frustrating insomuch as their leader, Grand Pabbie (voiced by Ciarán Hinds) only speaks in riddles regarding Elsa’s powers (would it be so hard to say “a healthy emotional lifestyle will control your powers," or is he just pulling advice out of his mossy ass?), the goofy “Fixer-Upper” musical number ruins any subtle momentum the love subplot had been building up to that point. It’s as if the filmmakers didn’t trust the audience to see that Anna and Kristoff were developing a relationship over the course of their adventure, and had to shout out “Hey kids! The Princess and the big blonde lug are falling in love! Wouldn’t it be great if they got married later!?” - more or less cancelling out the whole point of the comparison to Hans’ proposal. Plus, since their love story is really of secondary importance to Anna and Elsa’s relationship, dedicating a whole musical number to it seems like an unnecessary waste of time.
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| Elsa's experiments with cake frosting go horribly awry... |
The big issue that the film seems to present without comment, but is fairly obvious to anyone who views it more than once, is how awfully Anna and Elsa’s parents screwed them up. From the first few scenes - in which little Elsa’s cryokinetic magic (thanks Wikipedia!) accidentally strikes her sister, prompting her father to exclaim “Elsa! What have you done!? This is getting out of hand!” as he runs in the room - it’s clear that the King and Queen of Arendelle have no clear idea of how to properly reconcile their first daughter’s mental well-being with her unique gifts (though perhaps I should just accuse the King, as their mother doesn’t say more than two words; an indicator, perhaps, that the best answers don’t lie with the patriarchy?) Seeking advice from the trolls, not only do they agree to let Anna’s memories be altered (an honestly terrifying prospect, even when there's some inscrutable form of magic behind it,) but they take the warnings of Grand Pabbie - that Elsa’s growing powers have “great beauty … but also great danger,” and that she “must learn to control it” - in the worst possible way. Rather than working to help Elsa actually control her powers, they instead force her to suppress them, and keep them from manifesting by pushing Elsa to stifle her emotions completely. Not only that, but they essentially quarantine the already terrified child within the castle, and isolate themselves and both children from the rest of the world. Seems like massive overkill to me, and indicates that the parents are actually more frightened of their daughter’s power than she is. You can see on their faces, in a scene featuring a 12-year-old Elsa desperately crying out for help and comfort (“I’m scared! It’s getting stronger!”), that they may realize just how badly they’ve fucked up when she recoils in terror as they try to soothe her, spluttering “No! Don’t touch me! Please ... I don’t want to hurt you.”
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| O Lord, bless this thy hand grenade, that with it thou mayst blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy. |
Elsa’s life, from an early age, is one of terrified isolation. Not only have her parents treated her like some fearsome monster, but they’ve also ensured that she shares a codependent relationship with them, as they’re presumably the only human contact she has (outside of some limited house staff, one assumes.) Contrast she and Anna’s farewells as the King and Queen leave on what would be their fatal sea voyage - Anna giving them warm hugs, chirping “See you in two weeks!”, Elsa bowing politely and asking “Do you have to go?”, her eyes and voice pleading. When news comes that the King and Queen are dead, Anna (who is seen at the commemorative service alone) is naturally sorrowful over the loss of her parents, pleading through Elsa’s door that “it’s just you and me - what are we gonna’ do?” Elsa, on the other hand, is utterly devastated, silently weeping alone, her unchecked (and unsupported) emotions causing a subzero blizzard within her bedroom. One wonders how she managed to get by at all in the three years separating her parents’ death and her coronation ceremony. The inevitable revelation of her powers and subsequent self-exile naturally leads to the show-stopping “Let It Go” number (still a fantastic song and powerful character piece, even after it’s been played and performed over 9,000 times,) in which Elsa’s sudden freedom brings unexpected joy. Her emotional emancipation therefore allows her powers to become focused and less chaotic than they were under her parent's forced restraint.
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| Now appearing at the Ice Palace - the fabulous Eileen Dover! |
Much about Elsa is left open to interpretation, which actually helps make her the most memorable character in the film. We are never told exactly where Elsa’s powers originate from (her father tells the trolls that she was born with them, not cursed - which brings up a whole other set of interesting questions - like where, or whom, do such curses come from?), nor the extent of her abilities. We see that severe emotional outbursts can cause winter in the middle of summer across the kingdom - but how far this extends is a mystery. Could Elsa threaten a new ice age? Incredibly, Elsa powers also allow her to instantaneously create life, first in the snowman Olaf (voiced by Josh Gad,) and then in her hulking bodyguard, the ridiculously-nicknamed Marshmallow. The formation of these two beings is another window into Elsa’s psyche, as she creates the loveable Olaf (an imaginary playmate from happy childhood memories) during a moment of joyful exuberance, and the much larger and fearsome Marshmallow during a moment of anger and fear. It’s also interesting to note that the gentle Olaf was created unknowingly, the fact of his sentience coming as a surprise to Elsa (who looks at her own hands with muted awe after he’s revealed); Marshmallow, on the other hand, was spawned purposefully, fashioned to eject unwanted guests from Elsa’s fortress of solitude (Elsa backing away with her hands up after he appears, “washing her hands” of whatever the monster does to her sister and company.)
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| Don't talk to daddy before coffee... |
Frozen’s refreshing ambiguity leads to a number of intriguing questions - and the unavoidable fan theories that follow. Much worthless internet space has been dedicated to the question of whether Anna has powers as well, specifically super strength. This can actually be borne out from the film itself, as Anna is seen to effortlessly fling a large bronze bust across a ballroom during the “For the First Time in Forever” sequence, and later when she sends a number of large Timberwolves flying after El-Kabonging them with Kristoff’s lute. Lastly, when Anna punches Hans in the face following the film’s climax, the strapping young Prince is literally sent flying through the air, off a ship and into the fjord below. Also never revealed in the film is whether or not Kristoff was an orphan, as surely some bother would’ve been raised in Arendelle after a local youth was kidnapped and raised by a well-meaning troll. My personal favorite theory is that the deceptive Prince Hans possesses icy-magic powers himself. It’s intrigued me from my first viewing that, like Elsa, Hans is seen to always wear a pair of snug-fitting gloves, making a point to take them off only once in the film when he's seen to snuff out a candle with his bare fingers, and then put out a large, roaring fire with a half-full pitcher of water. It’s a silly notion, I know, but why make it a point to show the whole glove thing at all? Especially since a point was made early in the film that Elsa depended on her gloves to keep her powers in check (more like a security blanket than an actual deterrent, I’m sure,) and to show her dramatically flinging them away as she accepts her powers during “Let It Go.” If Hans truly possesses such powers (which, again, I’m sure he’s not really meant to,) why keep them hidden? What nefarious plans did he have once he’d claimed the Arendelle throne? Oh well - maybe all will be revealed in the sequel?
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| Never, under any circumstances, pause a Disney movie... |
Beyond the deeper undercurrents running below Frozen’s cinematic ice sheet (both intended and otherwise,) the film is a solidly entertaining adventure that’s obviously found a special place with a generation of moviegoers. The animation takes the technical advances made for Tangled and pushes them even further, the music serves the visuals well and (nearly) all the songs are memorable, and the vocal performances are all top notch (including a humorous turn by Alan Tudyk as the scheming Duke of Weselton - Tudyk quickly becoming the John Ratzenberger of Disney Animation.) Some have said that the runaway success of Frozen with girls and young women is akin to the sudden popularity of Star Wars back in 1977 - and the non-cynical side of me can certainly believe it when witnessing the faces of children (both boys and girls, I should point out) betraying their delight at spotting the films' characters at Disney’s theme parks.
Besides the filmmakers’ own commendable achievements and the movie’s undeniable worldwide popularity, I’ll always remember Frozen for as long as I live because it was the first movie my own little girl was a fan of. Her bright little eyes still light up at the sight of “Anna Elsa!” (as she calls the film’s royal sisters,) and she snuggles into the arms of either myself or my wife as we sit to all enjoy a great animated movie together.
That, dear readers, is real magic.
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