Last night, Maria and I went to see the new Disney movie “Frozen,” a contemporary Disney animated re-interpretation of “The Snow Queen,” one of Hans Christian Andersen’s most elaborate and imaginative fairy tales. Disney didn’t, as usual, waste too much time being faithful to this dark but ultimately inspiring tale.
It’s interesting about corporate entertainers and books, they crave the legitimacy of the original story, but pay almost no attention to it in the production of the movie. “The Snow Queen” as written by Andersen is about a young woman – Gerda – and her courageous devotion to her male friend Kai, captured by The Snow Queen, his heart frozen by her ice splinters, an evil originally conceived by trolls and devils – the Devil himself is suspect.
This is considered to be one of Andersen’s best fairy tales, an evocation of one Disney’s favorite themes – the power of love versus evil. “Frozen” is also about the power of love versus evil, but that’s about all that remains of Andersen’s original tales. To enjoy a Disney movie – I liked this one a lot – I have to suspend any regard for Andersen and the integrity of his stories and also get past my counting the rides, Broadway show songs, toys and dolls heading for malls and the shops of Disney World and Disneyland that are woven throughout the script. We seem to have lost any capacity for outrage, even protest at this mix of subliminal, even sneaky, marketing of children’s movies. Take note parents, this movie will cost you a lot more than tickets and popcorn.
Does the story really need a cute talking snowman? Or an adorable reindeer who is a warrior for love? You can close your eyes and see the Ice Palace of the Queen in Disney World and the cute little Troll dolls on Amazon. The critics seem to have been beaten down by the Corporate Filmmakers relentless self-hypnotic manipulation of young minds, nobody even mentions it anymore.
Walt Disney was nothing if not a romantic, his earliest cartoons caught Mickey’s heroic devotion to Minnie, and his relentless efforts to keep her from the lusting clutches of various villains, his best animated films – “Snow White,”Fantasia,” “Pinocchio,” were all about the conflict between love and evil, and the idea than love conquers all in the end, even evil.
This is more or less the story line of “Frozen,” as well, stripped down Disney style. A Princess and a Queen (sisters), a prince and a commoner (both handsome), a lot of snow and ice, frightened villagers, an adorable snowman, a big snow monster. This movie is very well done, the kids in the theater were transfixed, they all left telling their mothers and fathers it was the best movie they had ever seen. They will never know what Andersen wrote or care, nor should they really.
Animation has come a long way since Walt’s time, the movie is gorgeous, the music uplifting, the 3-D affects striking and skillfully done. There were various princes and princes, but another thing that has come a long way is the role of women, they do not really need much, if any, rescuing from all the handsome boys and princes running around, they seem able to take care of themselves. As the father of a daughter who has always loved movies, we both would have loved going together to see this one, for all of the embedded cross-promotion and marketing tricks. Perhaps one day one of the leading roles might be plump or wide, or ordinary looking or wear glasses. We haven’t crossed that bridge yet.
In Disney movies like “Frozen,” love does conquer evil, and while Disney movies are a lot more upbeat than the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales many are based on, the power of love against evil was also the idea behind the original evocative “Snow Queen” story. This movie is Hans Christian Andersen lite, perhaps a bit too lite for me, a tale of good and evil should have at least a dash of evil, that’s what all of the greatest Disney movies did have. I will never forget Bambi’s mother getting picked off by hunters. In “Frozen,” there is one moment where the Queen’s life is threatened, it is about as menacing as cotton candy.
There is no sting in this movie, nothing to stir a bad dream, no kid will be looking back on the “Bambi” moment, when the specter of the real world rose up to grab the young imagination. There isn’t a scary scene in the film. In the world of contemporary children, there is plenty of bad news rocketing through the air, maybe they don’t need to see any of it in their movies. The “messages” if you will, are all careful and political correct – women are strong, they can care for themselves, love is better than evil, men can be good-hearted and brave, but are usually dumb and clueless, don’t hide your troubles, share them with your sister.
The movie – I might go see it again – is a foot-tapping, gee-whiz-look-what-they-can-do-now kind of experience, it is beautiful, bright, gentle and filled with light and fluffy moments. I left wondering if it is true that love conquers evil, I write a lot about love lately, greatly appreciating it’s entry into my life, and yet I don’t believe, as I look at the world, that love conquers all.
I’m not into grumping about the past, or lamenting how it used to be done, this is fun and entertaining movie, it reflects the times we are in, not the times we used to be in. I’d take my kid in a minute.
But messages are important to think about, I think love rarely trumps evil, rarely melts it or beats it back, rarely triumphs over it completely, if you look at Washington, at the wars that have raged in the world, at the machinations of bankers, politicians, corporate moguls and economists. I think the real message for me, for children, from “The Snow Queen,” from “Frozen” is that love endures, it cannot be killed, snuffed out, ultimately denied. It survives. I think sometimes that even if love cannot conquer evil and vanquish it from our world, perhaps it can outlast evil, outrun and outmaneuver it.
Like life and death, good and evil seem to sometimes be part of the same thing, one cannot exist without the other, each defines the other. And it does not seem to me that one will ever completely vanquish the other, not in the realm of the bittersweet human experience.