I think a big reason why this was so popular is because it was one of the first Disney princess movies that subverted the Disney princess tropes: it critiques love at first sight, hinges on sisterly love, not romantic love, and the guy who best fits the "knight in shining armor" role turns out to be a sleasebag. It was refreshing to have it hit different beats than expected
A lot of Elsa’s behavior towards Anna her whole life was based in fear, not hostility. Since the “freezing of the head” incident, Elsa was afraid of hurting Anna again because she couldn’t control her powers. She could’ve killed her the first time, so who knows what she could’ve done next. And especially when you’re a kid…fear is a powerful emotion. She did take it to the extreme with completely shutting Anna out, but tbh if she had had exposure to therapy, things probably would’ve turned out differently for both of them.
Anna and Elsa have the worst parents ever... I mean seriously, what kind of parenting is "lock yourself away from the world"??? The trolls told her (when she was young) that fear would be her enemy, and all her parents did was make her fear herself and her powers. Her powers were obviously never going to go away, so they needed to teach her how to safely use her powers instead of just trying to hide her powers.
“Why is Elsa so powerful?!” Ever have emotions you hid or bottled for too long and then it finally comes out? It can create a pretty big and damaging storm! Elsa has been holding it in for too long! ❄️
I agree, Elsa is not the most likable main character, but she is a, rather, tragic character. She never reached out to her sister because she was terrified of hurting her again, and the more afraid she was the less control of her powers she had. It was a downward spiral that her parents did, little, to help with. They reinforced her fear with that, "Don't feel, conceal" crap. That just made it worse and harder to control, because they made it seem like something shameful that she needed to hide. And, again, the more afraid she was, the harder to hide it was, which made her more afraid, etc. However, Anna, is a fabulous character and they subvert a lot of the common tropes with her. She was never the damsel in distress that needed the prince to save her. She saved her sister, and herself. One of the, interesting, theories about Prince Hans was that, maybe he was a good guy, and he didn't turn selfish until the trolls decided he needed to be removed to make way for Christof. I doubt it, but it's an interesting theory.
I think that, at least for me, the movie was surprising. The trailer didn't even show Elsa and made us think she is the villian. This together with Hans and the "true love" plot twists made this movie very original for me.
The reason why Elsa's powers looks diferent and more agressive is cause she's afraid Her powers are deeply connected to her emotions, carrying positive emotions tend to do smooth things (like when she has fun and makes snow and a soft ice floor to skate on) but negative emotions have agressive consequences (like when she turned angrily on Ana yelling "enough" and accidentally made a wall of ice spikes, and when she was afraid and touched the fountain and caused the water to distort into a disturbing ice sculpture)
I went into this movie completely blind. I saw it in theaters with my little sister (I was 19, and she was 17). It was such a treat to watch unfold. I was really pulled in with how finding a romantic partner was treated differently than in usual Disney movies (or any other family movie for that matter). It was focused on what love actually is and what love isn't, sort of brushing aside romantic love at the same time. The relationship point wasn't focused on the typical "it's wonderful to find someone to love romantically". Frozen's crew led that horse to water within the first 20 minutes and skipped right past it, utilizing the potential relationship in some further story-telling, and that was just so refreshing to me. Frozen certainly isn't the first story to use a picture-perfect true-love setup to get to the rest of the story (Enchanted, for instance), but I feel that it was done well. Frozen isn't my favorite Disney movie, but I'll always relate to it and hold it dear to my heart. Additionally, as soon as "Let it Go" played in the movie theater, I thought to myself "oh, I'll see so many gifsets of this musical number. I can't wait to see that animation again!" I don't know how anyone could resist Elsa finally allowing herself to feel something and getting so excited about her gift and what she can do with it after perhaps a decade of shaming herself for existing. I still can't resist it.
Interesting you got villain vibes from Let it Go because Elsa was originally supposed to be the villain and Let it Go was her villain song. However, after the writers heard it they changed the plot so Elsa wasn’t the villain.
This story is based on the the old book, The Ice Queen; I don't remember the author. I love this movie and the comic characters - Sven and Olaf. And love that good wins over evil. Elsa is not evil just fearful due to past experiences. You need to react to Frozen 2 also. Love watching your facial expressions as you react.
An interesting "blink and you'll miss it" moment happened as Anna was leaving the castle, where as she was passing over the little bridge she passed by Rapunzel (with her short brown hair) and Eugene Fitzherbert from Tangled who were heading inside.
You should watch the second movie as well. A lot is getting explained there and Elsa's character development gets a bit more real :) In the first movie it's just the first step she takes to accept her powers and everything that comes with it.
I love this movie and I hope you will too, Frozen 2 also has a lot more backstory and dialogue which is why I think the second movie is better than the first
this actually is fitting cause it takes place during summer which is is right now down under BUT elsa's ice magic gave her kingdom the other hemisphere's weather in my timezone christmas is in like 40 minutes
Just so you know there is an end credit scene in all of the Frozen Movies and Shorts, One short I recommend you and anyone else who hasn’t seen it watch is called Frozen Fever. The end credit scene in the second movie makes more sense if you watch at least that one first.
Fun Fact: "Let It Go" WAS originally written to be a villain song. The original story they were writing was completely different from the one we got in the end simply because of this song. Elsa was originally the villain Ice Queen and Anna, who wasn't related to Elsa in any way, was going to the Ice Queen so she could freeze her broken heart. When they wrote the Ice Queen's big villain number, "Let It Go", they realized just how good it was, and decided to change the whole storyline because of it, creating the Elsa/Anna sibling storyline and no longer making it a villain song. That's why the song, although in the context of the movie, is an empowering and uplifting song, also seems to have this dangerous undertone to it... Honestly, I do wish that they did keep this as a somewhat villain song and given Elsa a slightly darker arc (which to me personally I think is the only thing missing for me to make this movie perfect, although she does almost purposely kill someone, but I wish the tone of the song was slightly darker and maybe a little more ominous to foreshadow the darker turn), not as a full-blown villain, maybe an antihero, or a more of a "come test me if you want to" vibe of a threat, so although you want Anna and Elsa reunited, you'd fear what possibly, dangerous mindset Elsa would be in with Anna, and as a Disney villain song, probably would have been considered one of the best Disney villain songs. To hear Idina Menzel sing "Let It Go" in a slightly darker tone would have been amazing. But to be honest, if this song was presented as a villain song, although it would have been amazing and probably considered one of the best villain songs, it wouldn't have blown up and been as highly popular as it became, especially with children. So, I just simply play it in my head as a villain song instead whenever I watch/hear it...
Thank you for saying the let it go scene had villain vibes. I watched that scene and thought "okay she's the villain now" I thought she was a sympathetic villain that might be redeemed but I thought her unleashing her powers on the town was her finally snapping and no longer caring about hurting people. As the movie progressed I realized that my assumption about that scene was wrong but I totally thought that was what the song was about. The craziest thing about it was that everyone says let it go was the moment that convinced the writers to rewrite Elsa's character because that song was "too empowering to give to a villain." I agree she needed to let loose but I thought the moment was her over correcting and by the end she would learn how to harness the power in a way that won't hurt herself or others.
When Elsa picked up the stuff for her coronation I said "Keep your cool" without even realizing what I said at first and then said "Wait, wrong choice of words"
When this first came out, my little girl was just getting into movies. Must have watched this a few thousand times. The big snowman Marshmallow was scary to her. It's a very good movie that began the list of strong female Disney lead without a love interest. "you can't marry a man you just meet" was an amazing lesson for little girls and has created many many GIFs and memes. I've since rewatched some of my favorites from childhood with her, but as an adult, I'm picking up on different messaging. Can most definitely tell the era the stories come from.
i like how this movie changes the clichés of disney princesses btw I NEED to see you react to Bridge to Terabithia if you haven't watched it in a long time
I noticed you mentioned mother gothel... Did you notice the cameo of rapunzel & eugene as anna was leaving the castle as guests arrives? ngl i am in on the theory that means they are related like maybe cousins but the sequel to this movie disproves the theory the girls are related to tarzan!
I really liked Frozen and my absolute favorite character was Kristoff. You should check the shorts "Frozen Fever" and "Olaf's Frozen Adventure", as well as "Frozen 2".
To me, Frozen 2 is even better. I love the emphasis on sisterly love in this movie, but the second movie focuses more on self-love. Definitely worth a watch.
Frozen II is better than this one. Unpopular opinion, I think. Also, after watching Frozen II, I'd recommend watching the behind the scenes miniseries about the making of it... it's so good. It's really great to be able to see how much love and care the creators have for it.
Frozen two is better, they were going to make Elsa the villain. But decided against it, it’s not her fault her parents are the ones to blame for how she treated her sister she just wanted to protect her sister she just was doing it the wrong way.
I believe that u know how she tawed for me I think it was both u know like in encanto when they get the candle it's not one thing It selflessness and hope. So this could be the same but instead of hope love for someone there might be a word and I don't know tht word.
Elsa's love for anna melt the frozen heart and unfrozen anna and kingdom,is what elsa feel that melt the magic,the act of anna was for the mind of elsa to understand that she have to love herself and she need to stay with her sister and kingdom,and her love is the only way she can control her own power. Elsa is the best character of this movie,she is gone through depression cause of them parents and tried to save her beloved anna from her power ALL THE TIME of her life, anna keep not understand any of that,any of the emotions of elsa that was trapped in prison of her room for fault of her parents,anna dont try once to understand elsa,anna even attack her in front of everyone at the ball coronation,cause anna is the classic mary sue with no personality except the positivity and no empathy until someone put the evidence on her face,she is so fake as character,elsa is kind and strong and love her sister and her kingdom and is so much human,and is blowed by many emotions,a single and indipendent queen was perfect for her,she never wanted to leave arendelle,she just want to be herself and be accepted IN her own kingdom,elsa is the one with depression in her mind that cant see that someone really want to help and love her,cause she dont love herself in first point,her mind and heart reject love cause she is in that mind state where she cant see clear who she have around,she became herself again in the end of the movie when she free her mind from fear of herself and dont see her as a monster anymore,reason why frozen 2 is pure sh*t with non sense,all kids hated it and many adults too,the merchandising after the movie release flopped so much everywhere,jen lee just random decided to destroy frozen and keep elsa away again alone in a tomb of ice and give everything that belongs to elsa to anna in the sequel for any reason just because she prefer anna and hated that everyone empathysed with elsa,elsa loved arendelle and her people but jen decided to change all this and made anna,the worst one for be a leader,in charge,random! Don't watch the sequel,is trash,it made money at the cinema only cause of the fame of the first but the second is a disaster in EVERYTHING,plot holes everywhere and they literally switched completrly the personality of the sisters. I hated that movie,it destroyed and insulted the first movie that was for 10 years,literally 10 years a MUST that bring together many people around the entire world singing let it go all together,something that magical never happened,frozen 1 is a masterpiece,with some defects yes of course,but totally a good movie,and is special for me,elsa in particular and her story of depression,and social anxiety and acceptence,she is amazing and she belong to arendelle with family and friends. Elsa is voiced by broadway star idina menzel.
Frozen is not a bad film by any means - although there are a few plotholes I cannot overlook - but it was way too hyped for me get on the Frozen train. Tangled, on the other hand, is an underrated masterpiece.
@Cio Lake For sure. I am not American but I was in the US the autumn before the film came out, so the hype was definitely there. Didn't watch the film until the following year. But for a good several years after, Frozen merchandise & music were everywhere. I got tired of it quickly & put off watching the sequel for two years because of it. Glad to hear Frozen resonated with you! I personally found Tangled more relatable with its lessons on gaslighting but both films have some hidden treasures & life lessons that make them worth the watch :)
Frozen was never one of my favorites, although it’s a decent movie. I think the pacing is off, and the plot is really hard to pin down. The characters are likable enough, though, and the animation is gorgeous. I still prefer both Tangled and Encanto.
Yeah it has some real weak points, not least the fact that Jonathan Groff doesn't get a proper song, which will never not annoy me. The guy can SING and you give him a reindeer ditty? C'mon.
Yeah frozen is good but overrated. Johnathan Groff is king George (great character) in Hamilton so that's worth noting if/when you watch Hamilton. Keep up the good work. Merry Christmas and happy new year.
