Friday, April 18, 2014

Thoughts on Frozen

 I will freely admit we are a little weird about movies. We hardly ever go to the movie theater.  It's expensive to go, and we like watching movies at home, where we have our own large screen TV plus cheap popcorn and a remote so we can pause our movie whenever we like.

What is perhaps even weirder is that we haven't rented a movie for many years.  Our local library purchases many copies of popular movies, so we are able to borrow a movie for a week at a time from the library.

BUT, the popular movies have long waiting lists.  Thus, while the Disney movie Frozen has been out for months, we just got it this week.  Our kids were very excited to see it last night, and thankfully enjoyed it thoroughly.

Kevin and I watched part of it and frankly, found it rather depressing.  The 2 main characters, sisters, are estranged for years because of the elder's unwanted, magical power.  Their parents, no doubt with the best intentions, did some odd things which fostered the estrangement and both girls are very unhappy. 

We gave up too soon, apparently, as Lydia said it got more fun and exciting right after we stopped watching.  I read a plot synopsis after we watched part of it, and it did mostly look good.

Ok, so here is one really awesome plot point (warning: spoilers ahead...)

 Near the beginning of the movie, a beautiful princess meets a handsome young prince.  They attend a party together, sing together, dance together, and fall in love.  The princess decides she wants to marry the prince, but is stymied when her older sister (the Queen) refuses permission because she has only known the prince for a few hours.

Well, the refusal part is unusual, but the idea of "boy meets girl and they fall in love and get married and live happily ever after" is a standard plot device in MANY a Disney movie.  Quite a few times, the prince who falls in love with the princess has never actually talked to her!  Sleeping Beauty, for example, is unconscious when the prince falls in love with her. I think the prince in Snow White hears her singing once, but he falls in love when she is too is zonked out after eating a poisoned apple.  Cinderella and her prince spend a few hours dancing in a ball room but again, that's not much time to develop a real relationship.

I say "in love" but of course it isn't love.  It is ridiculous to say that someone has true, deep romantic, selfless love towards someone they have barely met.

Which brings us back to Frozen.  When Kevin and I quit watching, he made the comment that the whole bit with the prince was very unnerving.  The last thing we want our kids thinking is that a handsome young man (or beautiful young woman) is worthy of devotion after a brief time together.

In Frozen, the prince turns out to be an evil, conniving, selfish, murderous wretch!  I love it!  The sweet, enthusiastic, optimistic princess discovers that he's been manipulating her in the hopes of gaining the throne.

In a culture which focuses intensely on good looks and charisma and chemistry, this is a welcome message -- that we need to dig deeper into the hearts of someone who might potentially be marriage material. We need to know the person, we need to be aware that sometimes there are underlying issues that need uncovered. The prince in Frozen is a silly extreme, of course, but I really appreciate that the writers didn't go with the tired old "fall in love at first" sight theme.

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