Last week my parents and I wanted to go to the movies, but with so many good ones out right now for Christmas break and the Oscar season, no one could make up their mind. In the end, at my mother’s request (she had seen it once already)we ended up seeing Disney Animation’s newest film, Frozen and I must say, I’m glad that we did.
I liked Tangled and I really liked Wreck it Ralph, so going into this movie my expectations were relatively low ( I say relatively, because my expectations are always very high for Disney or Pixar films). I was completely blown away. This might just be Disney’s newest masterpiece. In short, Frozen is an incredibly beautiful, funny and heartwarming (see what I did there?) emotional journey that brought tears of joy and sadness and joy the likes of which only Up and Toy Story 3 has done for me before. All the while presenting a postmodern take on the classic disney princess story.
Of course, you don’t have to think that hard to enjoy Frozen. It’s funny, it’s pretty to look at, and of course the music is great. So if that sounds good to you, go see the movie right now and look no further. Otherwise, I’m going to dig a little deeper and tell you why this is not just a kid’s movie but instead something far more universal.
It’s my personal belief that the goal of all art at it’s core should be to inspire emotion in the beholder. Frozen accomplishes this in more than one way. In the first few minutes of the movie there is a song called “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” which I would challenge anyone to sit through and not shed at least one tear. Within minutes after that, Kristin Bell’s character Anna sings a duet with her soon to be prince which is a hilariously nostalgic call back to all things disney princess while also being completely different. I almost shed a tear during this song as well, but that was just because of the nostalgia. Frozen will make you feel so many emotions in the all the best ways and for that, I left the theatre satisfied.
Secondly, this revolutionary spin on the Disney princess story. While I won’t say that the whole movie is post-modern, it definitely has those elements. Disney has successfully made so many movies based on the whole “princess gets saved by a knight in shining armor” that it’s nice to see something that turns those tables completely. For example, when the central character, Anna needs to be unfrozen, the “act of true love” to save her is not a kiss from the man she loves, but rather an act of self-sacrifice which saves her sister’s life (It seems like no good art can escape the narrative of the Gospel). This movie kept me guessing the entire time, which is why I’m glad I chose not to know much about it before I saw it. What I found most interesting about the post-modern jabs at common princess story tropes, was that it is Disney itself which has singlehandedly fostered those pastiches into the western mindset. Of course I understand that most of the disney “Princess” movie are based on old source material like Hans Christian Andersen, but still, at least in film, Disney seems to have has made the same movie many times. I know that Frozen isn’t the first movie to take on a new perspective to the princess movie (Shrek, Princess and the Frog for example) but that does’t matter because Frozen does all of this so damn well that it blows everything else out of the water.
Finally, Frozen is a movie that will stand the test of time for more than one reason, and If you haven’t seen it, go and see it a soon as possible. One last plus side is that unlike other movies out right now (Ehem… Wolf of Wall St, I’m looking at you), this movie doesn’t have any language, sex, or crude humor (except one booger joke, but that was hilarious). If you’re not willing to spend the money to see this masterpiece in theaters at least once, then I hope that a little kid beats you up and steals your money to see it for himself. That’s just how good it is.
My Validated Opinion 