Disney's Frozen is a powerful allegory about mental illness and the propensity of sufferers to shut down to the outside world ... No, wait, it's a parable about puberty and coming of age, and the temporary distance and awkwardness that it generates between family members ... Oh, or is it about the challenges of bringing up exceptionally gifted children, and the loneliness of mental superiority? ... Of course, it's really a corrective on the damaging fairytale notions of romantic love ... It's a polemic against reductive and oppressive notions of womanhood, transforming the 2-dimensional Disney Princess into an aspirational fully-rounded smart, feisty and flawed character ... It's a celebration of sexual liberation ... A metaphor for coming out as gay ... An admonitory yarn about climate change ... A sympathetic observation on the discomforts of Raynaud's disease ...
In short, it is a very human, very simple, very beautiful (IMO) story which most people can relate to one way or another because it leaves plenty of space for the viewer to put him- or herself in the picture. Much like, come to think of it, my favourite bit of animation in the film: Anna is anticipating (through the medium of song) the excitement of finally getting to socialise on the occasion of her sister's coronation, when the palace is to be opened up to guests 'For the First Time in Forever'. Finding herself in a room full of grand old (famous) paintings, she dances from one to the next, physically framing herself into each scene as though one of the subjects. And the whole film feels like an invite to do likewise -- to identify with the dilemmas and longings and triumphs of the characters via one's own experiences; to sorrow over the sorrows and rejoice over the joys with childlike, unsophisticated empathy. Throw in a decent serving of surprisingly funny and rousingly sing-along-worthy songs, and a talking snowman who has never experienced summer but is absolutely certain that he's gonna *love* it, and, well, in spite of my reluctance (after all, it took me five months to get around to watching it), I was wholeheartedly sold ... to the point of re-living the songs on YouTube and looking up the lyrics.
No prizes for guessing what I "brought to the story": for me, it was all about the Christian symbolism -- and it wasn't hard to find. Even intended in part, perhaps (but then, I tend to find it even in the most unlikely unintended places [1]). As soon as those rambunctiously sagacious trolls invoked the words "true love" with a gently subversive (or was I just wanting to take it that way?) tone in their voices and glints in their eyes I was guardedly hopeful, yearning for the filmmakers to undermine all those saccharine clichés and go for something truly "true" ... suspecting that they might ... but not entirely confident -- there was still a lot to play for; still a lot of plot to get through. And so, well, the ending ... You can imagine my delight when ... no spoilers, aargh ... well, how about I give you the Bible reference which sprang to mind as I was punching the air with a jubilant fist, and if you haven't seen it yet then you can choose for yourself whether you can bear a mild hint as to the sequence of events: John 15:13 (with apologies to anyone sufficiently au fait with the scriptural memorisation thing to recognise that one by chapter and verse).
In an earlier draft, this was the point at which I launched into a lengthy, determined, even-more-than-usually rambling discourse about how Elsa's struggle to rein in her icy capabilities parallels our inability to fulfill the righteous requirements of the law by sheer dint of human effort, and our consequent need for grace -- with reference to Romans 7 and 8 and Matthew 5:17 -- but the look of bewilderment and exhaustion on Mr. W's face as he kindly undertook to read it through was enough to persuade even me towards some uncharacteristically ruthless editing… Another time, perhaps.
[1] The often-accidental ubiquity of the Jesus-centred meta-narrative of redemption is one of many considerations reinforcing my belief that it is true...
In short, it is a very human, very simple, very beautiful (IMO) story which most people can relate to one way or another because it leaves plenty of space for the viewer to put him- or herself in the picture. Much like, come to think of it, my favourite bit of animation in the film: Anna is anticipating (through the medium of song) the excitement of finally getting to socialise on the occasion of her sister's coronation, when the palace is to be opened up to guests 'For the First Time in Forever'. Finding herself in a room full of grand old (famous) paintings, she dances from one to the next, physically framing herself into each scene as though one of the subjects. And the whole film feels like an invite to do likewise -- to identify with the dilemmas and longings and triumphs of the characters via one's own experiences; to sorrow over the sorrows and rejoice over the joys with childlike, unsophisticated empathy. Throw in a decent serving of surprisingly funny and rousingly sing-along-worthy songs, and a talking snowman who has never experienced summer but is absolutely certain that he's gonna *love* it, and, well, in spite of my reluctance (after all, it took me five months to get around to watching it), I was wholeheartedly sold ... to the point of re-living the songs on YouTube and looking up the lyrics.
No prizes for guessing what I "brought to the story": for me, it was all about the Christian symbolism -- and it wasn't hard to find. Even intended in part, perhaps (but then, I tend to find it even in the most unlikely unintended places [1]). As soon as those rambunctiously sagacious trolls invoked the words "true love" with a gently subversive (or was I just wanting to take it that way?) tone in their voices and glints in their eyes I was guardedly hopeful, yearning for the filmmakers to undermine all those saccharine clichés and go for something truly "true" ... suspecting that they might ... but not entirely confident -- there was still a lot to play for; still a lot of plot to get through. And so, well, the ending ... You can imagine my delight when ... no spoilers, aargh ... well, how about I give you the Bible reference which sprang to mind as I was punching the air with a jubilant fist, and if you haven't seen it yet then you can choose for yourself whether you can bear a mild hint as to the sequence of events: John 15:13 (with apologies to anyone sufficiently au fait with the scriptural memorisation thing to recognise that one by chapter and verse).
In an earlier draft, this was the point at which I launched into a lengthy, determined, even-more-than-usually rambling discourse about how Elsa's struggle to rein in her icy capabilities parallels our inability to fulfill the righteous requirements of the law by sheer dint of human effort, and our consequent need for grace -- with reference to Romans 7 and 8 and Matthew 5:17 -- but the look of bewilderment and exhaustion on Mr. W's face as he kindly undertook to read it through was enough to persuade even me towards some uncharacteristically ruthless editing… Another time, perhaps.
[1] The often-accidental ubiquity of the Jesus-centred meta-narrative of redemption is one of many considerations reinforcing my belief that it is true...
[Thumbnail image from net_efekt on flickr]
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