Frozen

Disney's most recent movie, Frozen, became an instant hit among children and their parents. Frozen features two sisters Elsa and Anna who lost their parents in a tragic accident. Elsa has a unique power of freezing anything, creating snow, or anything that involves winter things. Elsa hurt her sister, Anna, one night with her powers, so she is locked away from everybody including her sister so that she can try to learn to control her powers. After the loss of their parents, the King and Queen, it is up to Elsa to take over the crown. On Elsa's coronation day, the kingdom is finally open to the public and Anna meets a young Prince from another kingdom. They fall in love instantly and decide to marry each other. When Ana tells her sister about their plan to get married, Elsa does not approve. Anna ends up pushing Elsa to the limit and Elsa ends up using her powers for everyone to see. A King from another kingdom orders his guards to seize Elsa. Elsa sends her kingdom into a dark winter, freezing everything in sight. Scared, Elsa runs away into the now snow covered mountains.

The positive message in this movie is that women do not need a man. Women can be independent. Frozen is not a typical Disney princess movie. In every other Disney princess movie, a male character saves the day and the girl. At the end of the film, Anna needs an act of true love to save her. Instead of her “prince” coming to save her, Elsa performs the act of true love and saves Anna’s life. In all of the other Disney movies, when the princess is in trouble her prince in shining armor saves her. This film just proves that a woman can be independent and does not need a man to “come to her rescue.”

The negative message in this movie is that running away from your problems is a good thing. In the film, when it gets difficult for Elisa she runs straight into the woods and refuses to come back to the castle. Anna searches for her, and when she finally does her, Elsa shuts her out refusing her help. This can give the message to young kids that if you are ever faced with a problem or issue that it is okay to run away from it and not to address the challenges of the problem. During this scene, Elsa sings the song Let it Go, transforms a mountain into a huge ice castle, and changes dresses. Elsa changes into a tight dress with a thigh-high leg slit. This can be seen as over sexualizes her. Also, it is sending the message that a “good” girl has gone bad and rebelling. Elsa sings, “Let it go, Let it go, That perfect girl is gone.” This can give girls the idea that dressing more scandalous and rebelling is okay.

Overall, I think Frozen sends the right message to young girls. Not many movies feature two strong independent female characters. Also, I like how Disney changed things up, and this is not a typical prince saves the princess story. I believe in this case, the good outweighs the bad. Personally, I focused more on the positive in the movie and how it is different than any other Disney princess movie.