Why The Frozen vs. Other Disney Movies Rivalry Should End

As anyone who knows me in person or has followed any form of my social media for a period of time probably knows, I am a huge Disney fan. When I was a little girl, if I behaved my dad would wake me up at midnight to watch the reruns of the original black and white Zorro and Mickey Mouse Club that the Disney channel would play when no one else was awake back in the 90's. To this day, we quiz each other on random Disney trivia (such as name the 12 rides that were running opening day of Disneyland and still in operation today, and what characters had parking lots named after them between the years 1955 and 1998.) Basically if Disney created it, I love it. Unless it's the current Disney Channel, but that doesn't really count anyway.

Naturally, when Frozen came out, I was ecstatic. I loved it the first time I saw it, and never had any doubt that I would. I assumed that everyone else would feel the same way, but over the next few months what I watched unfold over the internet in regards to the movie was quite surprising to me. There seems to be two teams, and very few people in the grey area. One side, adores Frozen, to the point that it has replaced all other classics and beloved characters, while the other side is somehow deeply offended by the movie and feels it has betrayed Disney's history. In all honesty, I don't understand either of these points, and while there are quite a few arguments, I'm just going to focus on a few of the main ones I have come across.

You can’t marry a man you just met

This line apparently struck a cord with almost everyone, just in different ways. I'm sure if you have been on Pinterest at all in the last four months, you have seen the meme of multiple princesses in the signature lay on the ground sob in response to Elsa's line, or another one with 'It's about damn time, Disney' underneath. The other side of this battle is that this line was so insulting of Disney's past. 

When I saw this scene, neither of these perspectives popped in my head. I saw this as a way of showing how seclusion was different for both sisters. For Anna, she was so open, trusting, and excited for love, of course she fell for Hans! Just like she sings in the scene before, it's the first time she has ever been noticed by someone. And you know what? That's okay. As for Elsa, she has lived in fear most of her life, and has a secret that not a single living person besides herself knows. When you are holding something so heavy inside of yourself, of course you will be guarded and the thought of letting someone into your life so easily is ridiculous, who knows what they too could be hiding. And you know else? that's okay, too.

Elsa and Anna's parents were abusive

Wait, what? I don't understand this one at all. Apparently because they tried to teach Elsa to 'conceal, don't feel' they were intentionally causing emotional abuse. In other situations, yes of course this would horrible advice, but I truly believe the King and Queen thought they were doing their best to protect both of their daughters. If you remember when they visit the trolls, Elsa is warned that fear will be her enemy. As viewers, we understood he meant her own fear, but I think Elsa and her parents saw it as the fear of others, (like in Beauty and the Beast, we don't like what we don't understand, in fact it scares us) and thought they were protecting her. Because her powers are a direct result of her emotions, of course learning to control it would seem to be the answer. But did you also notice her parents were never afraid of Elsa? Her father isn't afraid to touch her or help her. And guess what? Sometimes parents mess up, sometimes they make mistakes and it plays out in their children's lives. They're human. Which in this case complicates things further, because neither of them know how to handle her powers from personal experience. But I truly believe they both were doing their best to love and protect both of their girls.

 

Elsa was kind of a b!tch

I read a blog the other day with one of the points being that Elsa was quite a b-word and I was actually floored by it. The writer went on to say that Elsa was so self involved and cared so little about everyone else that all she cared about was that she got to “Let It Go” and the line ‘the cold never bothered me anyway’ shows how it only mattered what bothered her. Also the fact that she didn’t know that her kingdom was covered in ice obviously means she clearly only thinks about herself, that she didn’t even care about leaving her sister behind, especially after all those years of Anna wanting to play with her and Elsa just ignoring her constantly. After all that, Anna comes to help her sister fix the problem and she doesn’t even care to help anyone else, freaks out and tries to kill Anna and then throws her out in the snow to freeze.

….I’m convinced this lady watched Frozen on mute without the subtitles, because my four year old neighbor understands Elsa better than her. I don’t feel like it’s necessary to explain where she totally went wrong, but just to touch on it a little, Elsa lived most of her life sacrificing not only interaction with the person she loved most, but also having that same person think she didn’t care at all. Have you thought about how hard that would be? Losing everything to protect one person who just thinks you’re a coldhearted jerk? I’m assuming this is what it feels like to raise a teenager at times.

And tried to kill her? If you’re not sure about this part, I’ll have my little friend next door help you out.

 

Frozen is the first Disney movie to teach girls they don’t need a man to save them.

Ugh. Maybe if this is the only Disney movie you’ve seen, then you can think that. I’m not sure how they came up with that one but seriously, Merida? Mulan? Belle? Pocahontas? Did you miss all of those? And in all honesty, I grew up watching the other princesses as well and I am proud to say I grew into quite a strong, independent woman. Watching Snow White and Cinderella didn’t teach me to take food from strangers or sit in my room waiting for a man to save me either. You know what I learned? To be kind to animals, and to show love and respect to people, even when they aren’t kind to me, and that if they can spend years slaving away for awful stepmothers while wearing wooden clogs and still continue to sing and whistle through it, I can probably manage to clean my room every once in a while for a mother that loves me.

And yet the other side of the argument is that Frozen made all men the enemy, it taught girls to never trust men and that Kristoff could have easily been edited out of the movie because he was totally pointless. I don’t understand this angle either. I guess if you move enough things around you could take anyone out of a story, 
depending on how you do it, but Kristoff was quite important. And Anna still got her love story in the end, so no, it didn’t turn all men into the enemy. It showed that Anna was still the same sweet spirited optimist even after her first heartbreak. So despite the fact that not every princess/queen ended up with a prince in Frozen, it is far from the “shove it down your throat feminist movement” some people seem to be so bothered by, but I will say it is the first fairytale I can remember that displays true love in a different way than romance, which I actually think is pretty cool.

 

Tangled is better because Rapunzel is so much more likeable than either Anna or Elsa.

This is the point that bothered me most of all, and not because I don’t like Tangled. I actually love Tangled, just ask my husband. I can easily watch it three times in one day, in one sitting even. One of the articles I read said that Anna was a less desirable version of Rapunzel, but the only comparison I can see is they both were secluded dreamers, just like Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, and Jasmine. As a little girl I loved all of those princesses, and I know I would’ve loved Tangled as well if it had come out during my younger years. But the truth is, we can’t all be Rapunzels. Not all girls are peppy and bubbly. For whatever reason, some of us just feel a little darker inside, our hearts might feel a little heavier. Some of us are carrying things with us, and others of us are just naturally quieter, deeper. Since I was very little I have always been called an old soul. I have always struggled with social anxiety and a terrible shyness, and I am more comfortable observing from the outside. For years I battled internally with my introverted mindset and tried to change, but ultimately that’s not who I am, and I know that and embrace it now. But as a little girl, I would’ve loved to have a princess that I felt like I understood, and I think it’s important for girls to feel like they are okay just the way they are, even the quiet ones. Reserved girls deserve a Disney princess too. Hell, we got a queen. 

Basically, I don’t care if Frozen is your favorite Disney movie, I don’t even care if it’s your least favorite, and that’s the great thing about it. We don’t have to agree, and we also don’t have to chose, because we're all different and we are all going to feel closest to different ones for different reasons. It’s also okay to like them all, and as a Disney fan through and through, that’s my choice.

I know that I’m beginning to sound like this girl, and I’m okay with that.