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3rd August 2014, 10:44 PM
#11
I just watched Disney's Frozen tonight for the first time. Wow. I can see why so many people rave on about it! It amazes me that a "simple" Disney animated musical delivers far more story integrity than all the live action TF films put together (and frustrates me further that Transformers cannot even strive to achieve at this level).
Frozen is a wonderful tale with principal characters' personas are changed by the events of the story; changes which drive the story. And I really like how this story cleverly hides its true nature, allowing itself to be more than meets the eye to the audience. There are elements of the story which initially present themselves as being rather cliché, only to be totally turned right over!
e.g.
+ Ana's search for her Prince Charming (Hans) <--- turns out he's evil!
+ Ana needing a man (Kristoff) to save her <--- turns out she didn't! Her sister's love was strong enough to break the spell
+ The villain requiring a man to vanquish <--- Ana punching Hans into the harbour was a great "boo yeah!" moment 
+ The Kingdom requiring a man to rule over it <--- Queen Elsa reigns as an independent woman
+ Ana repaying Kristoff for helping her out before, thus making them equals (rather than portraying the female as a dependent on the male)
I also love how it broke the long standing tradition of fairy tales where the "love" between the male and female characters are based on nothing more than superficial looks. e.g. Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty etc. -- the men who kissed them and went off to live happily ever after with them knew nothing about these women at the time that they fell in "love" with them. The stories just tell us that they fell in love with their cosmetic beauty, but what about their personalities? The story begins with Ana making the mistake of following this sort of shallow love with Hans, which of course comes to bite her on the butt big time when it turns out that Hans is a bad guy. And ultimately Ana falls in love with Kristoff because of who he is, not what he looks (or smells) like.
Finishing with Elsa as an unwed queen was also a powerful metaphor for female independence. Ana and Kristoff can produce an heir for the throne, but as far as Elsa's concerned, she doesn't need a man to rule by her side. Her stalwart independence and needing to overcome her enemies are somewhat reminiscent of Elizabeth I (only without the bloodshed
).
The story obviously delivers a powerful message about the personal individual struggle for tolerance and acceptance; not only societal acceptance, but self-acceptance as well. The audience witnesses Elsa's lifetime of isolation and self-loathing, as she struggles to learn how to love and accept herself for who she is, and learn how to adapt to society (as well as society learning to accept her).
The music is incredibly addictive, and as a Transfan it was also cool to see (hear) Alan "Dutch" Tudyk as the Duke of Weselton.
My only real criticism of this film is a rather superficial one -- and that's the accents. I'm personally not a fan of American accents being used to portray royalty... IMO Old World accents (e.g. English, British etc.) are better suited for playing such roles. e.g. I felt that Princess Leia had a more regal sounding accent in A New Hope as opposed to her more Americanised accent in Empire and Jedi (Padmé similarly had a more received accent when she played the role of Queen Amidala, but reverted to a more unreceived accent when she was playing Padmé Naberrie and later as Senator Amidala). JMHO.
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