Finally Frozen

So, I believe I mentioned recently that the only movies I see in a movie theater are Disney movies (the Disney brand includes Pixar and Muppets, both of which are favorites of mine as well).  You would think, then, that I've seen Frozen, the most recent Disney animated feature, at least a dozen times by now, right?  I mean, I know the songwriters - I must've gone to see it repeatedly!  Uh, nope.  And I have no idea why.  I fully intended on seeing it over Thanksgiving weekend and didn't.  Then I thought I'd see it when I was home for Christmas.  Nope.  It's embarrassing to admit that I've finally seen Frozen, via the DVD I bought and popped into the player over the weekend. 

Maybe after hearing so much about it, I was afraid to see it.  Afraid I'd had my expectations built up so high that the film couldn't actually meet them.  I'm here to tell you, my expectations were met and exceeded.  I loved Frozen!  It's definitely going into my 'watch again soon' pile.  If only I could remember how to get in and out of my DVR with my new cable box...  Oh, spoilers will abound in my thoughts below, so if you are even more tardy than I about seeing the movie, you might want to wait until after you've watched it to read on. I'll wait...

Welcome back!  Frozen was great, right?!  :)  OK, serious now.  I think it's significant that a woman wrote and directed Frozen and a woman was part of the songwriting team.  There's an acknowledgement of the princess fantasy that every girl grows up with, mainly thanks to Disney, and there's also an upending of the fantasy.  I can't tell you how thrilling it was to watch a Disney movie that didn't have the female protagonist depend on a man for her happiness.  Not that there's anything wrong with that - many a fairy tale and longstanding legend includes that dynamic, but there's also nothing wrong in celebrating the female spirit and the strong bonds between sisters.  And celebrating the discovery of what's special inside yourself that doesn't depend on anyone else.  

I liked how characters knowingly made fun of time-honored Disney tropes - love at first sight, the wise inanimate sidekick, the villain's 'bait and switch.'  I especially liked how everyone made fun of Anna for falling in love so quickly.  Much was made of "you're going to marry someone you just met?"  It was very funny to me and reminded me of the time my sister and I took our cousin to see a retrun of the Disney Snow White movie.  Our cousin was probably five at the time (so this is maybe 20 years ago?).  At the end of the movie, when Prince Charming kisses Snow White to save her, our cousin very loudly said, for the whole audience to hear, "Ew!  She doesn't even know him!!"  It was embarrassing and hysterically funny at the same time.  I thought of that and laughed every time someone made fun of Anna.

The animation was gorgeous and the songs were terrific (of course, I was predisposed to enjoy the songs because I do know and love the songwriters) - very clever lyrics and excellent storytelling.  I liked how the songs were very specific to character and said things about characters you didn't even realize on first hearing.  Naturally I've heard the Oscar-winning song "Let it Go" many many times, but it was incredibly moving in context of the movie.  And seeing Elsa's beauty blossom once she dropped her fear and became fully herself was inspiring.  Of course that couldn't last, but how she got it back was so touching.  I adore my sister and would gladly throw myself in harm's way for her, and to see one sister do that for another in Frozen seriously got me sobbing.  And the incredulous tone of the character who realizes the sister's love is the true love they had all been talking about throughout - beautiful.  I also loved that they used wonderful Broadway actor/singers for the voices - there was none of that celebrity distraction, they were just immediately the characters onscreen.

I actually almost watched the movie again right after my first viewing - I felt I wanted to go back and see what I missed on first sight, but I decided to wait.  I also didn't watch any of the DVDs special features - I may do that this coming weekend.  I love 'making of' featurettes, plus I'm dying to hear everything my favorite songwriting team had to say.  Bottom line: Frozen takes its place among my favorite Disney flicks.  Finally.  I feel like I could say so much more about it, but I'll stop here.  And if it becomes a Broadway musical someday soon?  I promise I won't wait so long to see it...

(I borrowed all of these photos from the internet.  I'll remove them if asked.  Obviously.)