There are spoilers here. If you haven’t seen the movie, see it before reading this post. Again, I’m spoiling the movie right here.
So, I saw Frozen a couple of days ago, and I must admit, my expectations were not high. It’s a Disney movie, the main characters are sister-princesses; I was not expecting to like it. However, my expectations were dashed – many of the things I expected from a Disney movie (blatant racism, sexism, etc.) were missing or subverted.
Let’s get the unfortunate things out of the way first, however. Frozen did have some Disney problems.
The primary problem was the absolute lack of people of color in this movie. As in, there were none that I saw. Now, I understand that not every movie has to have a main character who is a person of color, but can’t you animate some black or brown people even in the background? It’s not terribly difficult, since you’re animating the white folks anyway.
On to happier things, however, because Frozen had some other things going on that were really, really good.
Quick, what’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear “Disney magical transformation”? Is it Beauty and the Beast? Maybe it’s The Black Cauldron, or Princess and the Frog. Either way, magic in Disney is almost always a bad thing. There’s exceptions – the forest witch in The Princess and the Frog, for example, and I’m pretty sure King Triton has some “good” magic. It’s rare, however, and transformational magic is always bad. Ursula changes Ariel’s legs, the voodoo man in Princess and the Frog, the unnamed witch in Beauty and the Beast. It seems that Disney has decided that any change to the way you were born is absolutely evil, and building things with magic is right out.
Except Frozen has the very first magical building sequence I’ve ever seen that was presented in a 100 percent positive light. Elsa flexes her powers for the first time and magics up an ice castle while singing about how she’s totally the most awesomest person in the world who doesn’t need anyone else (it’s actually “Let it Go”, the most popular song from the movie, but whatever). Throughout the scene, I was expecting a turn to evil in her appearance – because magic building is bad, remember? Except it never happened. Elsa never gets turned into an evil sorceress, even though that’s normally the path Disney has their female magic-users take. Greatly impressive subversion there, Disney.
Let’s talk about the ending. There are two main female characters in this film (making it pass the Bechdel test handily within the first couple minutes. Good again!) and one of them isn’t paired off with a man at the end of the movie. I was floored. Elsie doesn’t fall in love! With anyone! Her character arc is all about learning to accept her powers and just be herself, and she does it without the help of a penis man. That’s actually tough to find in any movie, let alone a Disney feature!
Let’s talk about villains for a minute. Villains are exceptionally difficult characters to write. In Disney films, this usually means a one-dimensional villain with little more motivation that “Evil gives me lulz”. So you get someone like Gaston, who is the reason that we can describe a “cartoonishly evil villain” and have other people know what we’re talking about. In Frozen, though, there’s not really a villain for about three-quarters of the movie. There’s an old dude who basically exemplifies privilege and creepiness, but otherwise the central conflict is Queen Elsa’s burgeoning powers. At the point that Princess Anya comes back home, however, Hans, the love interest, gives the most unexpected villain turn I have ever seen. Not only did they subvert the “Prince Charming” love interest, they did it while subverting the idea of a “True Love’s kiss”. I could not believe it. Disney just avoided a True Love’s kiss scenario (twice!) and had the characters hang a lampshade on the idea to boot. While giving us a villain who is well-written enough to make us love him for the first part of the movie and then loathe him entirely for the last bit.
So, I hope you enjoyed my ranting about Frozen – if you agree with me, or disagree with me, please say something in comments, either here or on Facebook. I would love to hear what you all thought about it.
Aaron K Collett 
I think what the best part was when Ana saved herself. The act of True Love was when she saved her sister instead of relying on a man to save her. I think that part was a huge factor in making a Disney film, feminist.
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Absolutely. I loved that turn, when she was watching the love interest run toward her and she makes the choice. Great filmmaking, great writing.
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The racial comment at the beginning was annoying, because it didn’t make sense given the setting of the movie. It’s set in the Fjords of Norway, or a magical land like them, where there’s only sour cream for 100 miles around.* If, for example, it was set in Brazil but everybody sparkled like snow, I’d gladly accept your objection.
Its important to only mention racism when overt racism is at play because carelessly complaining about lack of representation. Crying wolf fuels excuses for people who WANT to believe that racism doesn’t exist anymore, which can, in turn, intensify the problem. I don’t think you wanted to do that.
Other than that, I appreciated your analysis.
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* There are exceptions. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_immigration_to_Norway. For overall demographics see http://www.indexmundi.com/norway/demographics_profile.html.
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There’s a concept in analysis called “negative space” – it’s essentially looking at the opportunity cost of what’s appearing on-screen. It’s the answer to the question “What’s not appearing here?” And the answer really is people of color. I’m not claiming that the lack of people of color makes the movie bad, or even that the movie would be better or worse if they included them. I’m pointing out that they didn’t, and as part of a larger conversation about racism, it’s important to note what kinds of things play into the larger narrative. In this case, that larger narrative is making people of color invisible unless they’re in a movie about them being people of color.
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That makes sense. I stand corrected.
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Overall, I love the review ^.^ I think the points you made were spot on. Personally I would have added the trolls song, I think that was a negative, at least partially. The ring missing was the all important thing, so it was cool if she were to either (partially implied) cheat on the person she was with, or might as well dump him cause you’re not married yet.
On a positive note, I’m surprised that you didn’t say anything about Anna saving Elsa, and that being considered an act of true love. I thought that was one of the most outstanding points in the movie ^.^
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