Reviewing - The Frozen Collection
There's something about Elsa and Anna that made them two of the most popular Princesses in Disney's history almost overnight. Frozen was Disney's first billion dollar animated hit ever, and then they did it all over again with their first theatrical Princess sequel. Glorious, innovative, and yet strewn with mistakes along the way, these films have defined Princess-dom for 21st century kids. If you love them, watch these again because there's more wrong than you remember. And if you hate them, watch these again - because there's more to respect than you first thought.
Frozen (****)
In which there is a song that is literally so incredible the director had to make a public statement apologizing to parents about it
Beautiful, flawed, boldly new and yet wholly traditional. Love it or hate it, it seems the one thing we can’t do to the flagship of modern Disney animation is let it go.
Anyone who knows me is familiar with my love of The Lion King. So back in 2013 when a Frozen trailer said that the film was the ‘most acclaimed’ Disney movie since my favourite picture, my interest was immediately piqued. Was this the start of the second Disney Renaissance, or was it just a marketing ploy?
As it would turn out, Frozen had a lot more in common with The Lion King than I had anticipated. A cinematic hit that absolutely dominated the box office, Frozen would follow in Simba’s footsteps by spawning a booming franchise, winning two Academy Awards, inspiring a hit Broadway musical, and capturing the hearts of millions of children with an absolutely killer soundtrack. Even the opening track “Vuelie” is reminiscent of the 1994 flick’s intro – chorally welcoming us into the world of the film in a language native to the setting in question. The similarities were certainly not lost on me when this film was released.
That said, my relationship with Frozen is not like the one I have with The Lion King. Like many people my age, I have a love-hate relationship with this film. I saw it in theatres in the opening week or two, and was blown away by so many of its elements. I was also driven mad by the hyper-saturation of Frozen products that flooded the Earth in the year following its release. I marvelled at the music of the movie, and similarly began loathing “Let It Go” the more it showed up on the lips of every child I bumped into. Heck, for a while I was paid to dress up in an Olaf mascot costume and go to children’s birthday parties with other entertainers dressed as Elsa and Anna. I was so enveloped in Frozen-mania that I was literally sweating inside it.
But as much as I wrestled with how I felt about the film over the next few years, I couldn’t deny that there was so much about it that really made it a great film. It’s not perfect – I’d even go as far as to say that there are major flaws in it – but it’s still a landmark achievement for Disney and an impossible-to-ignore cultural phenomenon. So without further ado, let’s open up the gates on this thing and examine just what made it resonate so deeply with audiences.
Love At First Sight
To start things off, this is a beautiful story that follows the classic Disney tradition while simultaneously diverging to make important comments on its predecessors. Perhaps the most on-the-nose example is Elsa’s comment to Anna early on in the film:
“You can’t marry a man you just met.”
This is absolutely a direct jab at many of the Disney Princesses who have come before. Now, is it fair? Yes and no. Let’s look at the stats. Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty each met their ‘true love’ twice on screen, with the second time being the definitive bonding moment for the couple. Ariel, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan, Belle, Tiana, and Rapunzel each spent a considerable amount of screen time with their romantic interests before tying the knot – although Pocahontas and Mulan didn’t actually get married in their original movies, and Pocahontas actually ended up with some other bozo in the sequel and don’t even get me started on that because I’ll just get mad. The main thing is that most Disney Princesses didn’t actually marry men that they just met, even though three of the ‘big ones’ sort of did. There isn’t really a short answer for why Snow, Ella, and Aurora did it that way, so it’s best to just accept it for now and deal with it. The fact is that by 2013 when this film was released, the fairy tales of old had come under fire. The Shrek franchise alone had really criticized Disney Princesses, not to mention the growing cultural shift that encouraged young princesses not to wait around for some prince to save them. Disney couldn’t just pretend that this aspect of ‘princess-hood’ had aged well, so incorporating a different take on the trope was a great move. I love that Anna and Kristoff don’t get married at the end of Frozen. They certainly end things off in a good place, but to show them getting married would’ve felt rushed and counter-intuitive to Elsa’s earlier remark. Elsa’s right – you can’t really marry someone you just met.
An Act of True Love
The other big inversion that happens in this film is the ‘act of true love’ that takes place. For Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Belle, Ariel, and Tiana, “true love’s kiss” played a major role in their stories. It’s a trope that’s been carried over into many other stories, like Shrek, the ‘Once Upon A Time’ show, Enchanted, and even The Matrix. The idea is that this act represents a pure expression of true love between two people, and that the love between the two people is so strong that it can break virtually any curse. There’s nothing wrong with this concept in and of itself. It’s actually a really fun and useful narrative tool, allowing us to arrange a story in such a way that one powerful action ends up resolving all or most of our character’s problems. Think of the moment Luke blew up the Death Star. It was great because in a span of like ten seconds, he embraced the Force, Han showed up to prove he was more than just a scoundrel, and the bad guy’s base blew up. True Love’s Kiss is like that – a moment that brings all the narrative threads of a story together for one awesome second. But one unfortunate byproduct of this story element is that it’s led to a cliché scenario where a girl is under a curse that can only be broken by her valiant true love, a guy. The girl’s usually the one in the passive position, and the guy’s usually the one doing the cool stuff.
Frozen takes this story element, but uses it in a wholly new way. Instead of using romantic love as the catalyst for resolution, they used familial love – which is awesome. We’re led to believe at first that Hans will be Anna’s true love, but then that falls apart completely. In the audience’s mind, then, Kristoff’s really the only alternative – and the climactic sequence emphasizes this as Kristoff battles his way through the whirling snow to reach her in time. But there’s a crucial moment where Anna sees Elsa in danger at the exact second when she also sees Kristoff running towards her. And she picks saving her sister over being saved by Kristoff.
Disney hasn’t really compared romantic love with familial love in their films, so whether you like or dislike this movie, this is a big milestone for the studio. They’re showing us here that the bond between two siblings can be just as pure as the bond between two lovers. And to be fair, Anna’s relationship with Elsa was certainly stronger than her relationship with Kristoff at that point in the movie. The movie was about Anna and Elsa coming together, so it made sense that the climax involved one of them sacrificing their self for the other.
If I can be nitpicky for a moment though, the rules of the curse were that ‘only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart’. Can it really be your OWN act that thaws your own heart? As we’ve seen in the Disney stories that came before, it was always an external act that saved a person (i.e. Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel, the Beast, and Tiana). It seems here like Anna’s act of self-sacrifice thawed her own heart, which kind of doesn’t make sense to me. You could argue instead that it was Elsa’s crying and hugging of Anna’s frozen body that did the thawing, but does crying count as an act of true love? The rules are a bit unclear here – but hey, I love what they were going for nonetheless.
Apart from the ‘act of true love’ and the rejection of ‘love at first sight’ that really make this film stand apart from other Disney Princess stories, I have to admit that the characters were great for the most part. Anna is extremely likable, and Elsa’s reserved and noble countenance makes their interactions so interesting to watch. Kristoff was fine as a love interest, although I have to admit I still haven’t gotten quite used to the way he talks for Sven. Olaf is definitely a scene-stealer from beginning to end. He’s very funny – his “In Summer” song is basically one long joke that manages to keep you laughing through the whole thing. Now, the first time I watched this, I couldn’t make up my mind as to whether or not I found him annoying. I think sometimes I still wonder about it. But even if he IS annoying at times, he’s still very funny in others anyway.
The Music
To top off an engaging story with great characters, Disney brings us one of their best soundtracks yet. The music in this movie is absolutely terrific. Leaving aside the infamous and iconic ‘Let It Go’ for a moment, “For The First Time In Forever” is a blast. “Frozen Heart” does a great job of foreshadowing the future, and “Do You Want To Build A Snowman” manages to give us the complete backstory for our princesses while making us laugh AND cry in the span of three minutes. “Love Is An Open Door” is a really fun love song to boot. “Fixer Upper” is really the only dud in my opinion. It’s just not as catchy or narratively relevant as the others – and Olaf has a line in it that still bugs me:
“The only fixer-upper fixer that can fix a fixer-upper is true love”, the song says. By definition, a fixer-upper fixer can always fix a fixer-upper. EVERY fixer-upper fixer can fix a fixer-upper. You’re just having too much fun throwing the words around, Olaf.
But let’s be real here – Let It Go became the anthem of a generation. There are many who hate this song, but few hate it based on the song’s own merit. It’s more of one of those situations where the song has been so saturated in our minds that it drives some of us crazy. To be fair, it’s a phenomenal song – and a phenomenal sequence to boot. Elsa constructing her ice palace is a beautiful scene, with dynamic camera work, stunning lighting and design, and a really cool emotional hook. This song is about Elsa leaving everything behind to find her own way.
And that’s exactly my problem with it.
Let It Go
Before I go any further, I need to re-assert that Let It Go is a great song. It’s one of the best songs Disney has ever put out, in fact. It tells a story, it’s catchy, it’s emotionally relevant, and it’s a blast to sing. The songwriters likely had no idea how big this one song was going to become. It’s a song so big that it overshadows the rest of the film. But the thing that I find difficult about it is that the song that we all remember the most happens to be a song that embraces and affirms one of the most catastrophic decisions in Elsa’s life.
Think about Elsa’s story for a moment. She was brought up to hide her powers and to do everything she could to limit them. She was cut off from her sister and basically kept in isolation, which sucked. Her childhood was kind of brutal – I’m not debating that. We all know that the approach her parents took – as much as they were trying their best – wasn’t the right way to deal with this. So when Elsa has the dramatic outburst at her coronation and runs off, it’s sort of the culmination of a lifetime of hiding part of herself away. Part of the reason Elsa’s character was so well-received is because so many people can relate to her. You don’t have to look far – maybe not even outside your own home – to think of someone who felt restricted by the life they were brought up in. Someone who had something inside them that they wanted to express, but was unable to because of any number of reasons. So when Elsa gets out on her own, she gets to take a breath of fresh air that millions of people have longed to take themselves. That’s great in terms of her character. But the thing is that Elsa hasn’t really found her inner peace or whatever in this moment. If you compare ‘Let It Go’ to ‘Hakuna Matata’ in terms of its narrative placement and significance, it’s the moment where our character leaves behind the responsibility and trauma of their past in exchange for a life without rules. Just look at the lyrics of both songs:
“It means no worries for the rest of your days. It’s our problem-free philosophy!”
“No right, no wrong. No rules for me. I’m free!”
This is Elsa’s Hakuna Matata moment. She’s leaving everything behind to be her own person and make her own rules. We love this moment just as we loved Hakuna Matata, because it’s fun and liberating. It’s like shaking off the shackles that have kept us down.
But like Simba, Elsa isn’t just leaving behind the bad parts of her past. She’s leaving behind her own responsibilities. She’s the Queen of Arendelle, and she ran away from her own throne. There’s a rift between her and her sister, and she ran away from that as well. Unbeknownst to Elsa, the entire kingdom is now frozen in ice – just like Scar took over the Pride Lands while Simba was away.
We can’t really blame Simba or Elsa for wanting to get away from their problems. Elsa had suffered for basically her entire life trying to restrain her powers. There’s a reason that “Let It Go” feels like such a sweet release. But when we elevate “Let It Go” to the chief moment of the film, we forget that the movie’s resolution is actually the antithesis of the song.
“No one wants to be alone,” Anna tells us in the movie. Elsa thinks that she’s found freedom in isolation – when it was really always isolation that bound her in the first place. Elsa only finds true freedom when she’s reunited with her sister – when true love thaws not one, but two frozen hearts. The climax of the movie showed us that love was the thing that would help Elsa brings her powers under her own control. It wasn’t building an ice palace or singing an awesome song that freed Elsa – it was Anna.
So here’s what I’m trying to say here. I think today’s audiences have picked up on Elsa’s ‘Hakuna Matata’ moment more than they picked up on her ‘Ascending Pride Rock’ moment, if you get what I’m saying. Instead of resonating with the moment where Elsa realizes it’s love that will set her free, we’ve fallen in love with a kingdom of isolation. I’m not saying that Elsa’s moment is not a well-deserved moment, or even that she’s wrong for feeling the way she feels. Who wouldn’t feel like Elsa did? My point is that this isn’t the moment where Elsa becomes free. This is when Elsa actually becomes even more trapped than she was before – and the horror is that she doesn’t even realize it.
The Plot Twist
I could probably write much more about Let It Go, but in the interest of time let’s move on to the other problem I have with the film.
Hans.
Finding out Hans was the bad guy may have felt like a plot twist, but plot twists need to have an element of “oh, of course! Why didn’t I see it before?”. Hans’ big moment doesn’t really have that. Think about it – what possible hint of Hans’ true nature was there before that big moment?
Leading up to the revelation, every piece of information we’re given about Hans makes us think he’s a nice guy. When he ends up in an overturned boat right after meeting Anna, we see him looking over at her with a kind of twitter-pated look in his eye. No one else is looking at him but us, the audience – which should lead us to believe that the emotion on his face is genuine. When Anna leaves Hans in charge of Arendelle, he goes around giving blankets and food to everybody. When Hans goes to the ice palace to try and save Anna, he tries to save Elsa’s life instead of trying to kill her. This guy had multiple chances to show his true colours, but he never went for it.
When I watched this movie the first time, I figured out pretty quickly that Anna was going to end up with Kristoff instead of Hans. The signs were all there – the movie kind of condemned her relationship with Hans from the beginning, and it became clear that she was going to spend much more on-screen time with Kristoff. But I remember thinking to myself,
“Okay, so she’s going to end up with Kristoff, but then what are they going to do about Hans?”
Was he just going to fall out of love with her? Or would he die? Was he secretly gay? That actually crossed my mind for a moment. The truth, as it turned out, was much less anticipated.
The problem with making Hans the bad guy is that we were literally not given a single hint that he might have a nefarious plan at work. The decision came completely out of the blue. As a storyteller, that comes across to me as cheap and rushed. In a film where nothing else has that kind of feel to it, this moment doesn’t quite mesh. We should’ve had something – anything – that made this moment make sense.
But as frustrating as that bit was, Frozen is still a powerhouse of a film. With incredible music, beautiful animation, a fresh story and charming characters, it’s no wonder how this movie quickly became the highest grossing animated film to date. Sure, it’s not perfect, but as the film says, everyone’s a bit of a fixer upper and that’s what it’s all about. Elsa and Anna just might be the world’s new favourite princesses.
Frozen Fever (*1/2)
In which a contagious disease in a small kingdom actually leads to overpopulation
I was thoroughly revolted.
It had been two years since the original film had come out, and Frozen-mania had swept the globe. I’m not sure what your experience was, but I remember the shelves at retail stores being absolutely packed with Frozen merchandise. Kids knew virtually every line of the movie and every girl wanted to be Elsa for Halloween. Frozen could not have been any bigger.
While I believe that Frozen II came at least in part out of a desire for the filmmakers to continue the story they started telling in 2013, I also think there’s little evidence that Frozen Fever was anything but a cash grab to capitalize on the massive popularity of the original. It certainly wouldn’t have hurt 2015 Cinderella’s box office sales, as this short originally preceded that masterpiece. I don’t usually throw the term ‘cash grab’ around a lot. For the most part, I review franchises, and their very existence is predicated on making sequels to highly successful films. But this film seems so focused on pleasing its target demographic that the story itself is virtually worthless.
So Elsa has a cold, but it’s Anna’s birthday. That’s the story, and I suppose that’s fine for a short film. But the moment Elsa said “A cold never bothered me anyway,” I wanted to throw up. By this time globally, ‘Let It Go’ had been played, overplayed, over-overplayed, and then reviled. The song’s great, but it was probably never more hated (at least by me) than in this specific time period. To have this little nod felt more like a wet downward slap on the nose given how much that song had pervaded our culture. And then they cranked the cuteness meter to well past eleven.
“You liked Olaf?!” the film asks with a twitch in its eye. “Well, have TEN Olafs! Have a HUNDRED Olafs! HAVE A MILLION-“
Hopefully you get what I’m saying. It just felt so catered and overboard, and it really rubbed me the wrong way the whole time.
And why was Elsa basically getting drunk off of her cold? She was acting all loopy, which is completely different from how we see her at any other point. It felt like they were making a joke out of her just for fun. Have some respect for the character that made you a billion dollars!
My wife and I disagree very strongly on this short. She thinks it’s wonderful, and that’s fine. If you’re like her, please don’t let my hatred of this thing get you down. And to be clear – it is definitely hatred.
Olaf’s Frozen Adventure (**)
In which fruitcake plays a major role
If you hate Olaf, skip this.
That said, I’m not a big fan of the little guy myself, but he managed to make me smile once or twice. And the rousing song at the end of this short film was enough for me to say, “They actually did a good job on this thing”. The animation is terrific, which is to be expected given Disney’s reputation. Elsa’s fur trimming at the collar of her dress was particularly impressive. But at the end of the day, this was fairly cheesy and never really had anything to get really excited about. It’s kid-friendly to the max, to the point where none of the characters ever stand to lose anything of particular significance.
But hey, if your kid loves Frozen, this’ll keep ‘em quiet for a few minutes.
Frozen II (***1/2)
In which Elsa promises to stay with her sister and then promptly moves out of the kingdom forever
Visually and musically magnificent, Frozen II plunges us so deep into its world that some viewers may be at risk of drowning.
There’s a lot to commend Disney for in producing this sequel. Frozen did so monumentally well that a second film was all but inevitable. I imagine that when the sequel was announced, many saw it as nothing more than a mega-corporation trying to milk their property for all it was worth. There are far too many media franchises that have been bled dry as a result of their companies trying to get a few more bucks. But what’s admirable about Frozen II is that regardless of the motivations that resulted in the film entering production, the team that put it together definitely had the ambition of meeting (if not surpassing) the high bar set by the original. This wasn’t some sloppy ramshackle effort that was concerned more with a deadline than a product. Love it or hate it, these guys were going for gold. Whatever the expiry date is for this franchise, we’re definitely not there yet.
John Lasseter and Jennifer Lee
John Lasseter was one of the leading voices in the shifting landscape of animation in the 90s and 00s. After directing Toy Story, A Bugs Life, Cars, and other Pixar hits, he was named the Chief Creative Officer of both Pixar and Disney Animation Studios. Under his leadership, Disney’s feature animated films succeeded critically and commercially. He pulled them out of the 2000s slump that they had found themselves in, which is great. But we can’t just focus on what he did right. In November 2017, Lasseter took a six-month sabbatical after admitting his role in sexual misconduct in the workplace. Considering how big the #MeToo movement had become by this time, I’m surprised the Chief Creative Officer of one of the biggest animation studios on Earth didn’t get more news coverage. Whatever his specific misbehaviours were, it seems they weren’t serious enough to merit the same level of outrage as Harvey Weinstein did. That’s not to say that Lasseter’s behaviour was more or less acceptable than any other acts of sexual misconduct – I’m trying to highlight the contrasting levels of media coverage here.
Whatever the case, Lasseter was out of Disney after more than ten years of filmmaking prosperity. He had essentially led both Pixar and Disney Animation creatively, so his departure marked a significant moment for both studios. Once his exit was official, someone had to replace him as Chief Creative Officer for the two studios. For Pixar, it ended up being Pete Docter, who had proven himself by directing Monsters Inc., Up, and Inside Out – as well as working with Pixar since the 90s. For Disney, it was Jennifer Lee.
Lee did not have the same credentials as Docter by a long shot, which may have caused a stir among Disney’s staff. She first joined Disney as a writer for Wreck-It Ralph, and then co-directed the first Frozen film. While both films were undeniably successful, it seems that Docter’s resume had much more to offer in comparison. Jennifer’s appointment as Lasseter’s successor was thus a really big move for Disney. She was one of the ‘fresher’ voices in the studio in the sense that she didn’t have the experience that some of her peers did. Take Ron Clements, for example. He’d been animating for Disney since the 70s, and directed critically praised films like The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, The Princess and the Frog, and Moana. If Disney wanted someone with more experience, they certainly had options.
So choosing Lee was big because of her relative newness to the company, but there’s more to it than that. As successful as Lasseter’s leadership was financially, there’s been discussion around his exclusion of women in prominent creative roles. It was likely time for a culture shift, and Lee fit the bill in that regard. To top things off, she’d co-directed Disney’s first billion-dollar animated flick. She may not have had a resume like Docter or Clements, but she was doing something very, very right.
I imagine that this would have been very exciting and very terrifying news for Lee at the time. Frozen II’s release date was just seventeen months away – the first theatrical Disney Princess sequel ever. Production was really kicking into gear, and now to top off being co-director of one of Disney’s biggest films of 2019, she had to run the entire studio as well. That couldn’t have been easy.
Watching the limited series on Disney+ that documented the production process, my wife and I got an in-depth look at just how much work went into the film. To be clear, it’s not fair to judge a film by how much money it cost or time it took. The Hobbit films are proof of that. But what was really interesting about the series was seeing how Lee’s stress levels built and built as the release date approached. Only learning about the proximity of Lasseter’s departure after watching the series, my respect for Lee as a storyteller and as a leader really rose. In a sense, her career hinged on this film. If Frozen II worked, then she would have proved herself as more than a one-hit wonder – simultaneously affirming her legitimacy as Disney’s Chief Creative Officer. If Frozen II fell apart…it’s up for debate just how much would have changed in the studio. Lee tackled one of the most highly anticipated films in the company’s history WHILE leaping into a new position of leadership. That’s a big deal…and thank heavens it paid off for her.
Returning To Arendelle
Frozen II is positively awe-inspiring. It’s bold, it’s beautiful, and it’s anything but generic. It takes the characters that millions of families have fallen in love with, and pushes them in unexpected directions. Even though it’s received a bit of critique for biting off more than it could chew, you’ve gotta admire how they weren’t afraid to take that risk with one of Disney’s most successful franchises of all time. At the very least, this is Disney’s best theatrical animated sequel yet, and better than more than a few of their original films.
To start with the animation, it’s some of Disney’s most astounding work. Sure, the characters look a bit sharper than they did back in 2013. But there’s so much more than that going on. Elsa’s foreshadowing visions while singing ‘Into the Unknown’ are simple yet stunning. She walks through a black space, with silhouettes and contours of things yet to come illuminating the air around her. In contrast to impossibly detailed scenes like what we see in Coco, The Lego Movie, or Ralph Breaks The Internet, this is brilliance of a different sort. It’s restrained elegance. We get a bit more of that in ‘Show Yourself’, and it’s great. Then there’s the stupendous action sequence of Elsa running into the North Sea and taming the water-horse-spirit thing. The beginning of this sequence was so great that they used it as the basis for the first trailer, and it honestly blew me away the first time I saw it. The water looks so real, and yet it doesn’t detract from the animated aspect of the characters. It’s just dazzling. Elsa’s big moment at the end of the movie saving Arendelle was similarly spectacular. Part of the reason I’ve always loved animation is the beauty and power of certain shots, and there’s plenty of visuals to marvel at here.
Then there’s the music, which is certainly better than the music of the original. Nobody can top the mania that ensued after “Let It Go”, but if you compare all the songs from the original to the sequel, I don’t think there’s much of an argument. “All Is Found” beats “Frozen Heart” partly because of its lullaby sweetness but also because of its narrative significance. I loved how the song was basically a road map for the rest of the film, and how it was woven into ‘Show Yourself’ at the end. ‘Into The Unknown’ easily beats ‘For The First Time In Forever’, and is definitely a suitable rival for ‘Let It Go’. It’s big and catchy, and it makes you feel exactly like Elsa feels. Olaf’s ‘When I Am Older’ is a wonderful successor to ‘In Summer’ in the sense that it’s still about a blissful unawareness of the true nature of things – only now it hits with greater poignance because of its subject matter. The only song that didn’t land for me was ‘Lost in the Woods’, but it was certainly better than the half-point song ‘Reindeers Are Better Than People’. And come on – Show Yourself is unbelievable.
What I particularly loved about the music was the way the songs blended together. I already talked about how ‘All Is Found’ showed up in ‘Show Yourself’, but the best was the role that Ahtohallan’s call played in both ‘Into The Unknown’ and ‘Show Yourself’. I loved how in the former of the two, Elsa was in a battle against ‘the call’. She resisted for the first two thirds of the song, and then in the final moments, she sings the call back and harmonizes with it. That was freaking incredible all on its own – but then in ‘Show Yourself’, they take it to the next level. She’s returning the call as she moves deeper and deeper into the glacier, finds out that “she’s the one she’s been waiting for”, and then lets out the call one last time in this huge, triumphant moment. It’s just jaw-dropping.
Show Yourself
On that note, let’s talk a bit more about ‘Show Yourself’. It’s one of several key resolution moments in the film, and it’s also essentially the musical climax for her character. But as amazing as it is to watch and to listen to, it’s the part of the movie where I’ve found audiences (myself in particular) tend to get a bit confused. Elsa’s been following this ‘call’ throughout the movie, and we’ve been wondering the whole time who it is that’s been calling her. We’ve been given hints and suggestions since the beginning:
“Are you someone out there who’s a little bit like me?”
“I can sense you there, like a friend I’ve always known.”
“Are you the one I’ve been looking for all of my life?”
Lines like this kind of led me to believe that it was a specific person Elsa was going to be meeting – someone maybe with a similar set of powers that was calling out to Elsa to get help balancing the forest or whatever. What strengthened this idea for me was the fact that the forest seemed intrinsically bound to the four elements. If Elsa represented one of them, it makes sense that she’d be water, right? So maybe this other person was another one of the elements. That seemed like a pretty cool idea to me. Maybe there’s a ‘Fire Elsa’ out there or something like that, and we were going to meet her/him at the climax of the film.
But when ‘Show Yourself’ hits, we hear these words that prove my brilliant theory was definitely not the case:
“You are the one you’ve been waiting for all of your life.”
So there’s no Fire Elsa, which is mildly disappointing. And this line seems to indicate that Elsa’s been calling to herself since the beginning. After all, she’s been asking this disembodied voice who it was since the beginning of the film. Hearing “step into your power” and “I am found” imply that Elsa’s the answer to her own question – the question being the same one I ask anytime my phone rings during Survivor: “who is calling me?!”
But Elsa can’t have been calling herself, right? That doesn’t make sense. Unless it’s like a bizarre future version of herself or maybe her disconnected spirit or something. And then there’s the whole ‘water has memory’ thing to contend with. During this song, we see Elsa’s mom as a child doing ‘the call’ amidst the ice. And right after the song, we see crystallized memories of Elsa’s past but also of the past of her parents and grandparents. So what if the glacier itself is calling to her using the memories of her parents? Is that what’s going on here?
Jenna and I have seen this film three times together, and after the third watch-through I still didn’t really understand who or what was calling Elsa. Was it herself? The magic glacier? Her mother? Magic itself? I had no clue. And what was really interesting was that when we watched the behind-the-scenes series, one of the chief obstacles the producers were dealing with was figuring out who was calling Elsa. There was a year left of production and they still didn’t know who was calling her. By the series’ end, they’d decided that it was Elsa’s mom doing the call. That’s why there’s that clear shot of Elsa’s mom in the glacier, as well as Elsa looking at her and saying “Mother” out loud. In the first watch-through, I wasn’t sure when it was her mom singing and when it was Elsa, but the second and third time made it a bit more clear. So OFFICIALLY, it’s Elsa’s mom calling her.
But here’s my problem. Elsa’s mom’s dead, right? So is this a Mufasa-style meeting where her mom is trying to help her find herself from beyond the grave? Or is this simply an echo of the past that’s somehow gotten stuck in the glacier? The second possibility meshes better with the ‘water has memory’ principle, but it can’t be that simple because we see grown-up Elsa’s mom in the glacier singing directly towards her. That certainly seems Mufasa-esque. But if that’s the case, how did Elsa’s mom manage to speak from beyond death?
None of this confusion should detract from the song itself. It’s still a drop-dead amazing piece of music, and the emotion of the scene still shines through even if you get a bit lost in it.
Loose Ends
As entertaining as the movie is, I have one other problem with Frozen II’s conflict resolution. Once Elsa saves Arendelle, it seems like one conflict after the other is resolved very quickly, one at a time, and without much emotion. Anna and Elsa were reunited, which was nice. Then Olaf was brought back from the dead, which was also fine from an emotional standpoint. But then Kristoff proposed – and it honestly felt a bit forced to me. I know he’s been trying to propose the whole movie, but the last time we saw him, it felt like he was seriously questioning his relationship with Anna.
“Up till now, the next step was a question of how. I never thought it was a question of whether.”
There’s nothing wrong narratively with him questioning his place in Anna’s story. To be fair, she did leave him behind without any warning. But the issue I have is that Kristoff doesn’t have a moment of resolution before this proposal. You’d think that he might have an epiphany or something in the woods – maybe by talking to one of the Northuldra or by witnessing something in nature, he’d realize that his relationship with Anna is worth it even when it’s hard. But instead, he overcomes his inner doubt for no discernible reason. “My love is not fragile,” he says – but where did he learn that? It seems that this is a decision he made offscreen.
So Kristoff proposes, and then Elsa explains to Anna that they are ‘the bridge’ between people and the magical spirits. Elsa is the ‘magic side’ of that bridge, and Anna is the ‘people side’ of that bridge. Personally, I feel like Elsa could really be both sides seeing as she’s both human and magical, but whatever. But when Elsa explains this, she’s also saying that Anna will be the new Queen of Arendelle. That’s great for Anna, but this means Elsa is going to go far away. Throughout the whole movie, Anna’s been fighting for the two sisters to stay together. Elsa’s been pulling away from Anna the whole time, but Anna’s consistently been saying, “Hey, we’re supposed to be side-by-side here.” The fact that they end up separate isn’t a good or a bad thing – it just felt like Anna deserved more of an explanation. She wouldn’t have liked the idea of her sister moving away, and I think we should’ve had a moment where Anna begged Elsa not to leave or where Elsa helped Anna understand the importance of their separation. I just didn’t get to see the scene where Anna came to terms with the ‘new normal’, and I feel like I missed out.
The Next Right Thing
But speaking of Anna, let’s talk about her song, because it’s freaking amazing. Unapologetically dark and brooding, it’s definitely one of the saddest songs in the Disney catalogue. But at the same time, it has such an important message. Anna’s lost everything, and the grief is so heavy that she feels like she can barely move. Her sister is dead, her best friend has disintegrated, and her boyfriend is lost in the woods. There’s some serious emotional trauma going on here, and the filmmakers didn’t hold back. Clashing sharply with Olaf’s “this is fine” mentality from his song, Anna communicates in no uncertain terms that this is the lowest she’s ever been – and she doesn’t know how to get out. But instead of giving up, she ‘does the next right thing’. This train of thought is hinted at back at the beginning of the movie through Papa Troll or whatever his name is, but it’s such a great principle to follow. Speaking as a Christian, this mantra is emblematic of what we as followers of Christ are called to do in the midst of suffering. When you don’t know what to do, trust God and keep going. Do the next right thing. It’s Anna’s best moment yet, and to be honest it’s brought me to tears on more than one occasion. It may not be a banger like Elsa’s tracks always are, but both the heart behind it and Kristen Bell’s performance are positively golden.
Disney’s decision to release this film three months early on Disney+ was brilliant. The world was shutting down in the midst of its first pandemic in ages, so releasing a big movie to help families at home was a great PR move. But what was really interesting was how much the movie felt relevant to our situation. With this song in particular, my wife and I sat in lockdown and watched this sequence with new eyes. There are times during this crisis where it really does feel like ‘things will never be the same again’. We’re not prepared for this or qualified to deal with this. I’m a first-time Dad raising a baby in the closest thing to an apocalypse that me or my own parents have ever faced. This is scary and hard. But this movie reminds us that even when things get tough, you have to keep pressing on because the dawn is coming – and one day, things will be made right. Not everybody believes that, but as for me and my house, we choose to hold on to a peace that’s stronger than fear and a hope that guides us through this really weird time.
Like its predecessor, Frozen II isn’t perfect. But it’s still beautiful, poignant, and courageous. And that’s exactly what a Disney classic should be.
Once Upon A Snowman (***)
Shorter than I had expected, but a good enough time anyway.
My guess is that this was initially supposed to be a theatrical short that accompanied another Disney release. However, what with the theatres being all but extinct for the moment, it’s little surprise that this went straight to Disney+. For what it’s worth, it’s a cute short similar in scope to ‘Tangled Ever After’, that short we got a few years back showing Pascal and Maximus attending Rapunzel’s wedding. The story takes us from the moment Olaf was born (or re-born, depending on how you want to look at it) to his fateful meet-up with Anna. Sure, it’s trivial and isn’t anything more than a few quick laughs, but the jokes are well executed and Olaf manages to keep his star shining. The way he turns out to be a part of the original film in ways we didn’t know before is fun enough, in much the same way that The Lion King 1 ½ made jokes out of a few key original-film moments.
It’s not a must-see in any sense of the word, but it’s cute, short, and sweet. There’s not much more you can ask for from a film of this length.