My favourite Disney film is The Little Mermaid (except for Alice, but Alice is Alice. It doesn’t count.) I think I like it – The Little Mermaid – so much because it’s my Disney film. It’s the first one I can really remember watching, and loving. I got the video tape for Christmas when I was 6 and ¾ (my brother, then aged 20 months got The Rescuers. I can still remember us opening them on Christmas Day) and I thought it was the best thing. I watched it over and over and over. I had the dolls – my Ariel had a removable tail and a purple seashell bra, so cool - and I knew the words to all the songs. When I was in the bath I would pretend to be a mermaid. I tried to make my brother play the role of Flounder but he never quite understood. Prince Eric was the first man I ever loved, aged 6 and ¾ when I hoped an animated Prince would fall in love with me, too. On my desk now, aged 30 and 11 months, I have a small stuffed Sebastian. Sometimes, when I am alone in the office I make him dance across my keyboard singing ‘Under the Sea.’
Disney’s Frozen
will be, I think, to my niece Daisy, what The Little Mermaid is
for me. She’s only 3 (and ¼) and Frozen is the
first film she saw at the cinema. To date, it’s the only
film she’s seen at the cinema. And she loves it. All she talks about is Anna
& Elsa & Olaf and she sings Let it Go at the
top of her little voice, like she really means it. It’s a joy to behold. The
other week she tried to get Ian’s attention by yelling ‘YOOHOO! HI FAMILY!’ at
the top of her voice – a reference you’ll only understand once you’ve seen the
film. When I printed off some Frozen themed
colouring pages for her, she did an actual gasp followed by a happy dance. STOP
IT WITH THE CUTE.
The other little girl I’m super
close to (Lydia,
aged 4) has always been a Tangled girl,
for the same reason. She cried when I got my hair cut last year because ‘now
you can’t be Rapunzel anymore’ and I felt awful. I felt worse when every time we played
pretend for weeks afterwards I was relegated to the role of Mother Gothel.
MOTHER GOTHEL, I ask you. That hurt. Now though, Tangled
may as well not exist. It’s all about Anna and Elsa for her too. Daisy can rock
Let it Go; Lyd’s and her rendition of Do You Wanna Build a Snowman make my face hurt with all the
smiling.
I missed it at the cinema, but
naturally I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Besides, I love these
two kids, I love the very bones of the pair of them (some people are worth
melting for) and this film matters to them: I needed to get on board. And then,
in the car one time, Let it Go came
on the radio.
‘Hang on a minute’ I said, over the
top of Daisy’s singing, ‘I know that voice. It’s Queen Idina.
LEMME SEE THIS FILM.’
I finally (I am always so late to all the things) saw it
this weekend.
The Little Mer-whonow?
Just kidding, I still love The Little
Mermaid but when it comes to Frozen, I
totally get what all the fuss is about, although I reckon my reasons for loving
it so hard are completely different to those of Daisy and Lydia.
*SPOILER ALERT*
I love Anna. (Oh, perhaps not so different to Daisy and Lydia after
all, then.)
Oh my, I love Anna. She’s so feisty, and awkward and clumsy
and real and she says things that she wishes she hadn’t said and then dies a
little inside (‘I’m awkward; you’re gorgeous. Wait. What?’)
and she knows what’s right and won’t give up on it, and she’s just as strong as
her sister, if not stronger. I just, I want to be her friend ok. Hey Anna, come
and have a duvet day with Helen and me. I promise it will be fun times. She’s
so much more everything than the Disney
Princesses that came before. She kicks the animated ass of everybody else. She
proves that there is more to being a girl than finding a handsome prince – in
fact she goes on a journey with her love
interest. This kid doesn’t need saving: she is the role model that I want for
Daisy and Lydia
and all the other little girls.
I also read another article about how Elsa is being
interpreted as a metaphor for homosexuality; that gay people can relate to her
character; that Let it Go is swiftly becoming an
anthem in the gay community. It was interesting reading. I kind of get it, though:
Elsa’s is a story of growing up, becoming your own person and being proud of
who you are. It’s a story that matters whoever you are.
I think Elsa is an awesome character; Frozen
could have been a different but equally fabulous story if it had been told from
her viewpoint I think. I would love to go deeper into that whole tale – the
teenage me would quite probably have fanfic’d the life out of her – but the
story we actually got, the character. I loved it.
I love how when she breaks free from the world that has been
holding her back and misunderstanding her she blossoms, and yeah ok she’s kind
of chased out of town which sucks, but she doesn’t let it get on top of her,
she doesn’t crumble, she grows. She’s
finally free, and independent and she can be the person she knows she is because
the cold never bothered her anyway.
She’s totally fine on her own: she builds herself this awesome castle and gets
a pretty dress and sings that song and you kind of want to punch the air, and
you definitely want to sing along with her
because she’s some kind of beacon of strength. She gives a big old two fingers
to the rest of the world but at the same time she’s kind of fragile, and you’re
proud of her and you ache for her and it’s fabulous.
Also, I love that the isolated character isn’t a villain this
time.
(Alsoalso, anybody
else get Elpheba feels when Elsa is belting out her song on the mountainside?
It had a defying gravity air I felt. YOU’RE NEVER
GONNA BRING ME DOWN. Etcetera. Love it)
Disney films seem to follow a formula, more often than not:
Princess Damsel in Distress is saved by ‘True Love’s Kiss’ (or, in the case of
Beauty and the Beast, Beast buys damsel a library. Beast is saved by True
Love’s Kiss) point is, these films ,which we all LOVE are generally about true
love, romantic love and how it’s pretty much a fix all. They’re about falling
in love and living happily ever after and whilst that’s all well and good, I
love that Frozen is not your typical love story. Frozen sticks to the age old fairytale theme of true love
breaking any curse, but it does it differently. It’s not Kristoff and his love
for Anna that saves her, as he races across the frozen fjord. It’s Anna who
saves herself, through her true love for her sister.
That’s my favourite, the way it shows that you don’t need a man – even if it’s lovely to fall in love with
one and be together for a while (or even ever) you don’t need him to save you and that also, there is so much more to love than
boy meets girl –the love for your friends, your family can be just as powerful
and just as true. A most excellent message – another one.
This is another thing I loved about Frozen: the way it so
blatantly poked fun at Disney films past.
You know what else is amazing about Kristoff? He’s voiced by
Jonathon Groff. I didn’t know this for sure til the end credits (the whole way
through I was all ‘I know that voice dammit. Is it Jon Groff? No, I don’t think
it is, but is it’ but my phone was charging on the other side of the room and I
couldn’t IMDB it!) I love Jon Groff. I loved him as Jesse St. James in Glee and I loved him as adorable asshat Patrick in Looking (you all watched Looking, right?
Please say you did.) But whilst I
was all ‘yeah GROFF’ when I realised it was him, I was
also a little frustrated, because, way to underuse a gem of a cast member,
people. Jonathan Groff is talented and
his cute little song with Sven is cute and all but it’s too short and nowhere
near enough. I mean, listen to this (the number of times I’ve played this track
is embarrassing.) Boy can sing, right? So if you’re going to put him in a
musical then please, let him sing.
(Also, HOW CUTE IS THIS??)
Frozen doesn’t end in a ‘happily ever after.’ Frozen is too
real for that. It ties up the ends of the story neatly, but it lets you know
there’s more to come. Nobody rides off into the sunset. Elsa comes home and is
Queen and has to learn to control her power and find the balance between who
she needs to be, and who she wants to be – she has to learn how to rule the
Kingdom and at the same time still be her; after pretty much a lifetime apart
Anna and Elsa have to relearn each other; Anna is starting a brand new
relationship with Kristoff, and they’re both less than perfect. It’s a happy
ending, but it’s not a happy ever after: it’s the end of the beginning I guess.
The story evolves after the film has ended and the film feels like a big step
forward.
I love it.
Also that scene where Olaf becomes a giant snowball. Actual
gigglesnort. I love Olaf.
