This is a pointless blog containing a rant about the movie Frozen.
We watched Frozen for the second time last night. Rented it from redbox. Yes, it was cute and the music was semi-catchy and it had nontraditional disney love motives and it had some really funny moments and cute lines and no I don't think Idina Menzel's voice fit Elsa BUT what really gets me is that it was based of a H.C. Andersen story- what?
At the beginning of the credits it says it was based off of The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen. So I'm like "cool," I REALLY have a thing for fairy tales. I looked into it a little bit and read the story HERE. The Snow Queen was written in 1845 and if you've ever read fairy tales that are that old they are WEIRD. The story long, is split into 7 parts, and goes on to describe the girls quest to find her lost best friend (who is a guy). I read an article, HERE, stating that "back in 1943 Walt Disney saw the potential of the Danish author’s stories." So they've wanted to do this story for years. Years and years and years... I wish they would have done it back then. It would have been closer to the real story (which is super weird). That same article provided a wonderful summary:
"Andersen's tale of ‘The Snow Queen’ begins with a magical mirror created by the devil, that has the power to make people look at the ugly side of others. When the devil tries to bring it to heaven, it falls and breaks into shards which eventually pierce people’s hearts and fill them with contempt. Years laters, a boy named Kai and a girl named Gerda become good friends, but soon one of the shards finds its way into Kai’s heart and he changes like the others. One day, he goes out and ends up being lured away by the Snow Queen while playing on his sled. Greta, knowing of the legend of the Snow Queen, sets out on a dangerous quest to rescue him and eventually thaw his icy heart."
In all reality it's a religious story about innocence and coming unto Christ. I mean, c'mon, half of one of the sections is Gerda talking to flowers, who essentially talk in parables! They leave as children, experience the world, then are shocked as they return as adults to their grandmother's house- The grandmother sat in God’s bright sunshine, and she read aloud from the Bible, “Except ye become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of God.” However, this isn't Mr. Thompson's english class and I'm not/can't go through and point out the symbolism in the story because, honestly, I read it quite fast and was confused at the end.
I really don't know where I'm going with all this. I just found it super interesting. Like, did you ever read the LOTR books and compare them to the movies? This is kind of how I feel with frozen except the ONLY thing in common is a reindeer and a strong/innocent female lead. I find it surprising they claimed The Snow Queen as inspiration at all.
okay. thanks for listening.
My two favorite memes from Frozen:
