So I went to see Frozen

I loved the movie personally, but the entire first half of watching it was me thinking that Elsa should be the main character and the second half was me wondering why she didn't get much screen time. Don't get me wrong, I love that Anna ended up being the main character and it makes perfect sense within the story, but Elsa should definitely gotten more depth to her.

Spoiler

The entire part with her finally figuring out her powers took about thirty seconds. And it completely destroys what her parents did. They taught her to feel nothing so her powers wouldn't go out of control, but they weren't out of control to begin with. Yes, she shot her sister, but Anna was moving too fast and Elsa tripped. Before the accident, she had phenomenal control, probably in part because she Loved Anna so much. But her parents told her to seal her emotions and as a result, they went out of control.

Oops, this was supposed to be a music discussion. Hmmm. The songs were great, but I agree with whoever said that the final song shouldn't be Fixer Upper. Needs moar song yo

 

Dunno if anyone else heard, but Frozen was originally going to simply be titled after the original story its based off of: The Snow Queen. However, the producer said that Frozen more appropriately than The Snow Queen would.

I happen to think Frozen fits the story's themes and character arcs better too.

 

The Princess and the Frog kinda tackled classism :x

 

C'mon Noba

 

I actually can't wait for this movie because it involves pirates.

 

Oh ok nvm I'm dumb

E: Although now that the post has been pointed out to me, the "esp. American society" bit struck me a bit oblong. A lot of my foreign friends, especially those who've ever visited America or who now live there, say that it's one of the least racist places in the world. We just like to put ours under the magnifying glass so they can get fried. As for sexism and classism, I can't say.

As far as classism in PatF: I don't think it cheapens the message for the main character to go from rags to riches. I think it's empowering to send the message that no one is confined to their station. Tiana's father died without ever seeing his restaurant built, but he still had the love of his friends and family, and that was enough. That alone is a potent message that can't be ignored, and it entwines with the lesson Tiana herself learns: that class and status are nothing compared to love.

Naveen, too, learned that being rich isn't all there is to life. In the end, what he thought was a death sentence became a new lease on life; starting from scratch with no money to his name allowed him to develop essential life skills, learn to make money rather than just spend it, and even grow truly attached to someone for the first time in his life. Moving "down" in class made him happier in the long run.

If we wanna talk about them being frogs the whole time... Idk. It still got the message across in its own way. Even the animals they met expressed these things, and the whole time that's happening we have contrast examples, like Dr. Facilier, who sacrifices more and more for a chance to move up in the world and only grows more miserable and desperate for his trouble; and Lawrence, who expected the high life to be all flowery meadows, and instead spends all his time trying to keep up appearances and stressing over the voodoo charm's waning effects.

 

Misty, I agree with what you said! I feel they have been playing it safe with their characters and story lines, but they should try something new as well.

 

loves that music
especially the part when it went booooooooooooooo then baaaaaaaa

 

Awesome post! Yeah, as I said I'm white so I am really not any kind of authority on this stuff. I don't have links right now but I've seen studies that show children will enjoy/relate to television shows, movies, and characters in general when they look like them--so it's entirely natural for you to relate to whichever Princess you connect most with, and appearance is an undeniable part of that. I just worry that now that Disney has, say, Mulan they'll say to themselves "welp we did our duty! We have an Asian princess!", making her the "token" Asian, amongst countless other white princesses.

yo okay since this came up, is there any term that is generally preferred? I've used poc personally but I've heard rumblings that not everyone likes that term & I want to see what people's thoughts here are.

Most definitely. For one thing, a lot of the people I've seen supporting the white washed cast of Frozen are going on about it being set in 19th century Norway. Completely ignoring that there was ethnic diversity in Europe during that time period, this is also a movie about ice powers, there is a talking snowman and rock trolls. I don't think that having a non-white character would be at all unrealistic, nor that it is the goal of Disney movies to be 100% historically accurate (I mean, hell, look at the ending of Pocahontas). It's obviously important for Frozen to take place in a winter/snowy setting, and it's totally okay to feature Princess of European descent--but not only Princesses of European descent.

Spoiler

The thing is, her parents were wrong. Teaching Elsa to hide her powers and bottle up her emotions is a parallel to mistreating mental illness (as Elsa's powers/struggle is meant to mirror anxiety & depression). Unfortunately some people just don't know how to handle special children, and so they tell them to hide away. And you can't entirely blame them if they have no experience with whatever it is the child has, they're just trying to do what they think is best. They panic, basically, and by the time they're out of the picture, Elsa has been taught that there's something shameful about her power, that she must continue hiding it. Elsa breaks free about halfway with Let It Go, because on her own, she doesn't have to hide her powers (constructing her ice castle/palace), but she's still hiding from people & emotion. By the end she gets all the way out, and breaks free from what her parents have inflicted upon her (albeit unintentionally).

We really don't know what kind of control Elsa had as a child, but it stands to reason that learning to use her powers would be better than trying to shut them away entirely (just like, say, it's better to deal with your anxiety and confront it rather than trying to hide it from yourself and your loved ones).

I wasn't referring to race with the America comment. I don't think I can really comment on where racism is 'worst' because I haven't ever been a victim of racism, nor am I, unfortunately, too informed on it. I was referring to sex & sexuality, about which America is ridiculously Puritanical, especially in regards to women.

I meant more so that Tiana being a black princess was, to me, slightly cheapened by her spending the movie as a frog. Princess & the Frog did definitely look at socioeconomic struggles and I don't mind the rags to riches story there, I'm happy that Disney chose to confront it. I'm more bothered by a story like Cinderella, where she goes from being very power to fabulously rich just because she married a prince.

 

Oh ya, that's legit.

 

This is why I hate tumblr.