A refreshingly cool breath of air in Disney’s ‘Frozen’
(Courtesy of Disney)
Disney’s new animated flick, “Frozen,” appears on the surface to be following the traditional Disney formula:
Damsel in distress? CheckDead parents? CheckSibling issues? CheckTalking animals? CheckMusical numbers? CheckLove story marketed to little kids? Check
But about 30 minutes into the movie, it felt like “Frozen” began to blaze its own icy path. (Warning: spoilers ahead!)
The damsel in distress is one of the feisty ones. She saves the big muscly guy in a big way.
The parents do die, but the sibling issues that crop up afterwards are not due to jealousy or greed, they arise out of love.
The talking animal is there, but only if you can translate reindeer intonations. The absolute highlight of the movie is Olaf, the talking snowman.
The musical numbers are excellent; my kids were humming “For the first time in forever…” in the car on the way home. But when Olaf belts out “In Summer,” we all laughed ourselves silly. I loved how much credit the song gives kids to get jokes that aren’t spoon-fed to them.
And the love story? While there is certainly a small-waisted princess type who has her heart set on a prince, that works out poorly for said princess.
The real love story in “Frozen” is between two sisters, Anna and Elsa. It’s an empowering story in both song and plot for young girls.
And that, in my book, is reason enough to go see it.
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