Movie Review: Frozen {And Discussion}

So I took some of my younger siblings to see Frozen the other day, at my 17-year-old and 15-year-old sisters’ begging and prompting after browsing the Pinterest pins about it,

listening to some of the songs on YouTube, and having been drooling over the concept art for months.  I guess that is what artists do, lol!

 

After my disappointment with the last Disney princess movie Tangled, I was skeptical about Frozen.  Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised and even took home some great discussion points.

Summary of the Film:

 

The movie is about two sisters, princesses Anna and Elsa.  Elsa has magical powers of ice and snow–she can turn an entire room into winter wonderland, snowman and all!  Anna, on the other hand, is just an ordinary girl that adores her sister.

 

One night, Anna wakes Elsa and begs her to “do the magic” so that they can build a snowman.  Elsa cannot resist, and they play for hours…until in a complete accident, Anna ends up getting struck by Elsa’s powers, knocking her unconscious.  Elsa panics and wakes her parents, the king and queen.  Anna is taken to a group of trolls where she is healed.  But her healing comes at a price; no longer does she remember Elsa’s powers, that, with the fear growing inside of her, are consistently growing worse.

 

Elsa and Anna grow up separately.  Elsa stays hidden in her room, wearing gloves to protect those that she loves, her parents being the only people that know of her secret.

 

When the girls are teenagers, their parents are shipwrecked, and they are all that each other has left.  But Elsa continues to stay hidden, the palace gates remain closed, as they had been since Anna’s accident.

 

A few years later, Elsa has come of age; she is to become queen.  The palace gates are opened, neighboring kingdoms’ royalty joins in the celebration of the coronation of the queen.  Among these is handsome Prince Hans, who immediately takes a liking to Princess Anna.  Anna, completely flattered and socially awkward, returns the affections, and upon a spur of the moment proposal, agrees to marry the prince that she had just met that day.

 

The couple happily makes their way to Queen Elsa, as she nervously oversees the party within the castle, wishing with all of her heart for it to be over.  She is tired of concealing her powers, she is fearful of anyone finding out.  Anna and Hans announce their marriage and ask for her blessing, but she refuses.  Anna grabs her hand and pulls off one of her gloves on accident as the two girls argue.  Elsa, ravaged by fear, angered at her sister’s audacity, gestures roughly, throwing her hand down–and in turn, throwing a huge chunk of ice at her guests.  She runs.  Out of the castle.  Out the gates.  To the North Mountain.

 

And inadvertently sets off an eternal winter throughout her whole kingdom.

 

Anna is stunned, but quickly gathers herself to go find her sister.

 

The major theme in this movie is true love.  And, surprisingly, it’s not the same kind of true love that is so popularly sung about in the other Disney Princess movies.  It a story about the love between two sisters.  

 

My Thoughts: 

I really enjoyed the music and the art in this film.  Disney did an excellent job with the story as well, afterwards I found myself using examples from the movie to illustrate storytelling points!  The scenes in the beginning with Anna and Elsa as children, the montage of their growing years as Anna begs Elsa to come and play made me cry–such beautiful and simple love that Anna yearned for from her sister.  It inspires such camaraderie for siblings…

 

The one of the only parts that I particularly did not care for was the scene with the trolls near the end.  They sing a song to Kristoff and Anna, trying to get them together, and use a couple of crude references.  Nothing serious, but bathroom humor type stuff.   And because I take things too seriously, it bugged me.  The other part would be when Elsa is building her ice castle after running away, she has an “attitude”, and her appearance changes with the fact–including her slightly slinky blue sparkly dress, complete with a slit up the front, only noticed at certain times.

 

All that to say, I was thrilled with the story, the rather unconventional Disney princess movie that teaches about true love as the love of family.  After taking my teenage siblings to see the movie, I took my 9-year-old brother and 6-year-old and 4-year-old sisters…toward the end of the movie, my 4-year-old sister was literally on the edge of her seat, “This is AWESOME!”

 

Discussion Points {SPOILER ALERT}:

 

Discuss the two young men in the movie.  We have Prince Hans: handsome, romantic, sweet, and “perfect”…royalty.  And we have Kristoff, not-so-handsome, sarcastic, smelly…and he sells ice for a living.  Both are interested in Anna, but who proves worthy?  

 

Why do you think that Kristoff was so surprised that Anna was going to marry someone that she had just met that day?

 

Do you think that it was wise of her to commit herself to Hans before she really knew him?

 

What do you think her life would have been like if Elsa had just blessed her marriage and did not question it?

 

When Elsa disappears into the mountains, she sings the song, “Let it Go”, where she throws caution to the wind, rebels against everything that she had enforced since her childhood, and abandons her kingdom.  She builds herself an ice-castle and lives all alone.

 

Do you think this was right of Elsa?  Why or why not?

 

Elsa has a special power that she can use to bless others, or to the detriment of those around her, including herself.  If she does not fill herself with and channel her powers with love, fear overwhelms her and traps her, hurts those around her.  

 

What is a special gift that you have that you could use to bless others through love, or through fear, hurt others?

 

As Anna’s heart is turning to ice, she searches for Kristoff.  An act of true love to thaw a frozen heart.  But when she sees Elsa in danger, knowing that she only has a few moments of life left, she throws herself in the way of the sword meant for Elsa’s life.

 

Anna chose to love her sister over herself, she chose to save Elsa’s life instead of her own.  That is true love.  What happened as a result of this act?  How can you show love to others by putting their needs before your own?  Can you think of another example from this movie of true love?