I concede that some of my arguments may be stronger than others, and that some of my associations may be too general or unfounded. As usual, I welcome any thoughts, comments and criticisms below!
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The theme/opening song of very beautifully-animated Frozen I (Eatnamen Vuelie - “Song of the Earth”) combines:
1. a yoik-inspired melody (“na na na hey ya na”, etc.)
with
2. a traditional Norwegian folk tune called Deilig er jorden (“wonderful is the Earth”). This tune has been sung by Christians to the English hymn texts “Fairest Lord Jesus” and “Beautiful Savior” since the 1800s.
The opening number of Frozen I (“Frozen Heart”, the ice miners’ work song, which features some lovely, folk-style fiddle instrumentation) calls ice “born of cold and winter air and mountain rain combining.” In this way, ice is introduced as the combination of the two elements air and water, of the four classical elements according to the ancient Greeks (the other two being fire and earth.) The song refers to how “this icy force both foul and fair has a frozen heart with mining.” It implores the listener to “cut through the heart, cold and clear; strike for love and strike for fear; see the beauty, sharp and sheer; split the ice apart! And break the frozen heart…beware the frozen heart.” All of this language and imagery calls to mind the hymn “Veni Sancte Spiritus”, the Catholic sequence for Pentecost (the feast day in the liturgical calendar that celebrates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Church). This Gregorian chant calls God the “light of every human heart” and asks Him to “bend the stubborn heart and will; melt the frozen, warm the chill.”
The head troll (to whom the King and Queen take Anna after Elsa accidentally hurts Anna, piercing her head with ice), says that “the heart is not so easily changed, but the head can be persuaded.” This reflects the Aristotelian-Thomistic concept that our intellect is supposed to guide our emotions. “Only an act of true love will thaw a frozen heart”, the troll says. The troll, who warns Elsa that “fear” will be her “enemy”, can foretell the future, like a prophet. In the same way that St. John the Baptist lived on the outskirts of society, in the desert, the trolls live on the outskirts of Arendelle, in the forest. (It is very likely that John was one of the Essenes, a group of 1st century Jewish ascetics based out of the caves at Qumran.)
In Genesis 1:2, we are told that “the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved over the face of the waters.” The Hebrew word there really has the sense of hovering and even brooding. In the Bible, water is associated with chaos and danger, as we see in, for example, the stories of A) Noah and the flood and B) the Red Sea swallowing up Pharaoh and the Egyptian army after God allows Moses to part the sea and thus save the nation of Israel. In Frozen I, too, water is associated with chaos and danger, as we see in A) Elsa’s initial lack of control over her ice powers and B) the dark waters that kill Elsa and Anne’s parents in a shipwreck.
We have a scene of a bishop-like man (he wears a mitre - the pointy hat that Western Christian bishops wear) reading what are presumably burial prayers at the King and Queen’s graves. Anna wears traditional all-black, with a head covering. Then, 3 years later (the amount of time of Jesus’ ministry!), Elsa’s coronation takes place in a positively church-like building with stained glass. Indeed, in medieval Europe, in whose visual artistic culture Frozen I is clearly participating, monarchs were invested with their authority by the Church. There is a bishop’s throne located behind the altar that has two lit candles upon it. Elsa is crowned by the bishop-like man while a heavenly-sounding choir sings above from the loft: “Worthy Queen of greatness, the heart of gold shines; we crown thee with hope, love and faith…follow the Queen of light.” These lyrics might as well be about the Virgin Mary! (Indeed, medieval human queens were thought to be representing and participating in the Queenship of their Blessed Mother Mary.) Notice also the mention of the three theological virtues of the Catholic faith in this Nordic choral piece.
In this scene, the bishop-like man calls the orb and sceptre that Elsa holds “holy properties”, and he refers to the building as a “holy place.” Furthermore, the choir sings and the bishop figure speaks in the language of Old Norse. Thus, it appears that this ceremony is using an archaic, preserved, hieratic (“heightened”), elevated sacral type of language - similarly to how Anglican Ordinariate Catholics in the Church use Prayer Book English or how the traditional Roman Rite of the Catholic Church uses exclusively the sacred language of Latin.
The Kingdom of Arendelle exhibits typical fairytale visual typology. The imagery of the town recalls many aspects of Christian medieval architecture, such as Romanesque turrets and Gothic spires.
Frozen I consists of numerous pieces of Catholic imagery. On the wall of King Agnarr and Queen Iduna’s castle is a painting of Catholic St. Joan of Arc (1412-1431), who led French military forces during the Hundred Years’ War against the English and led the rightful King Charles VII to the city of Reims, France for his coronation. Anna specifically greets the painting (“Hang in there, Joan!”) in the number “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” Interestingly also, the image of Anna trapped in ice at the end of the film recalls the very center of Hell in medieval Catholic writer Dante’s Inferno, where Satan is trapped in - you guessed it - ice (not fire, interestingly enough). In this way, Arendelle being frozen (covered in ice) makes it a Hell-like place. Finally, in the number “For the First Time in Forever”, we see a painting of King Agnarr in front of an altar that has two lit candles on it. This song also talks about “opening the gates” of the Kingdom, which very broadly recalls the Scriptural image of the opening of the gates to the Kingdom of Heaven to those whom God has called there.
Frozen I features many other elements of Christian medieval/Renaissance culture that are traditionally featured in fairytales, including, of course monarchy - the “Democratic Republic” of Arendelle doesn’t sound quite as nice as “Kingdom”, does it! In the film, treason is a capital offense, punishable by death, as it was historically. Kristoff plays the medieval/Renaissance instrument known as the lute (while sleeping in a barn, where animals live - like Jesus at his Nativity!). In “For the First Time in Forever”, we see knights’ suits of armor and a Greco-Roman bust in the hallway of the palace. We also see a room full of Western art-style paintings, including A) one of a village country dance that recalls works like Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s “The Wedding Dance” and B) one of a woman on swing, which seems to recall this famous painting. After Elsa’s coronation is a traditional Renaissance-style ball. In all of these ways, Frozen I saturates itself in the imagery of the Western visual and artistic culture with which Christianity was historically so integrated.
(A few scenes in Frozen I also seem to pay homage to past scenes in Disney animated classics and even to some original rides and attractions at Disney theme parks. The wolves chasing Anna and Christophe recall Belle being chased by wolves in Beauty & the Beast. Anna goes after Elsa similarly to how Belle goes after her father, and Anna’s horse returns to Arendelle without her in the same way Belle’s father’s horse returns to the village without him. The Duke of Weselton calls Elsa a “monster” in the same way that Gaston dehumanizes the Beast, and Hans attempts to turn the Arendellian people against Elsa in the same way that Gaston convinces the villagers to turn into an angry mob that seeks to kill the Beast. The North Mountain peak in the number “Let It Go” has quite a resemblance to the Matterhorn at Disneyland. The giant snowman that Elsa builds rather resembles the Yeti, the villain in that Disneyland attraction. In the number “Love is an Open Door”, Anna and Hans dance on the huge clock of the city in much the same way that Peter Pan and Wendy fly by the clock on the Tower of Bridge of London. Finally, the mechanical figures that pop out of the clock in Frozen I call to mind the figurines that constitute the classic It’s a Small World ride at Disney World. )
In “Love Is an Open Door”, Prince Hans mentions that he is the youngest of 13 boys - Disney certainly isn’t scoffing at big families here! Hans mentions his treatment at the hands of several of them, which recalls the Biblical story of Joseph, the youngest of the 12 sons of Jacob. When the 11 brothers sold Joseph into slavery, Jacob had another son to replace Joseph (Benjamin). Of course, Jacob’s 12 sons foreshadow the 12 apostles of Jesus. Of the 12 apostles, the outlier is of course Judas - indeed, Hans is an evil, Judas-like figure! In the same way that Judas betrays Jesus, Hans betrays Anna and Elsa.
At the beginning of the Book of Genesis, the fundamental sin of the serpent (the devil) is deception. Indeed, Hans deceives Anna and the entire Kingdom of Arendelle. He lies to Elsa, telling her that she killed Anna, making Elsa think that what she always feared (hurting Anna again) had finally come true. When Hans tells Elsa that she killed Anna, the storm inside of Elsa that was causing the storm over Arendelle is swallowed up in Elsa’s grief. As Anna says, Hans is the one with the frozen heart - not Elsa.
Elsa had accidentally struck Anna’s heart with ice. This symbolizes the pain that Anna had felt in her heart ever since the day that Elsa shut Anna out. Kristoff and Anna believe the act of love that will thaw Anna’s heart is a true love’s kiss, reflecting the romantic type of love known as eros (of the ancient Greek conception of four types of love, eros was always considered the least important). Kristoff rushes Anna to Arendelle to receive the kiss from her fiancé Hans. Upon realizing the truth about Hans, Anna struggles through the storm to get to Kristoff, whose kiss she now believes will thaw her frozen heart.
However, as Anna and Kristoff approach each other, Anna sees Elsa weeping on the ground and Hans approaching Elsa from behind, raising his sword to strike her. Instead of obtaining what she believes is the act of true love (a kiss from Kristoff) that will save her life, Anna throws herself between Hans and Elsa. Anna turns to ice as Hans’ sword strikes her, saving Elsa. Elsa clutches the ice statue of Anna, weeping. Anna thaws out and comes back to life. In this way, the act of love that thaws Anna’s heart was not one of eros, but one of agape (the highest of the four Greek types of love - self-sacrificial “God” love). Anna’s act of self-sacrifice not only saves Elsa but brings Anna back to life. Anna is clearly a messianic (savior) figure who lays down her life for another and then resurrects - like Jesus.
From Anna’s self-sacrificial, loving example, Elsa now understands that letting herself feel love will help her learn how to thaw out the whole Kingdom. In the same way, experiencing Jesus’ love teaches us how to change our world for the better. Olaf is self-sacrificial as well. When Anna is dying from her frozen heart, he keeps a fire lit to keep her alive and stays by her side even though he is melting.
Throughout the film, Anna demonstrates endless forgiveness and unconditional love toward Elsa. Even though Elsa continually shut Anna out with no explanation, Anna never stopped trying to connect with Elsa, and Anna did not hesitate to die for Elsa. Here, I recall the unending mercy and love of God who never stops pursuing us. Anna’s character also demonstrates tremendous fortitude - if a bit of a lack of prudence! (Here, I recall Kristoff telling Anna that “[he doesn’t] trust [her] judgment!”)
On a natural level, I find the messaging of Frozen I to be very healthy. The film promotes the virtue of courage (fortitude), for it was Elsa’s fear that caused her to accidentally strike Anna’s heart with ice. Here, I recall the Bible verse “be not afraid” (Joshua 1:9). Frozen I also promotes the natural good of friendship. When Elsa says that she wants to be alone, Anna correctly states that “nobody wants to be alone.” Indeed, “it is not good for the man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18). According to St. Thomas Aquinas, “the happy man needs friends…in order that man may do well, whether in the works of the active life, or in those of the contemplative life, he needs the fellowship of friends...the fellowship of friends conduces to the well-being of Happiness...friendship is, as it were, concomitant with perfect Happiness.” Elsa must rejoin her community in Arendelle instead of remaining in isolation. Regarding emotions, Aquinas taught that our passions want and need to be guided by reason, whereas Elsa had been told “don’t feel” altogether. Aquinas also says, “A hurtful thing hurts yet more if we keep it shut up, because the soul is more intent on it: whereas if it be allowed to escape, the soul’s intention is dispersed as it were on outward things, so that the inward sorrow is lessened.” Indeed, keeping her unique gift hidden took a tremendous emotional toll on Elsa.
Regarding Elsa and God/Jesus:
With her ice powers, Elsa possesses a certain dominion over nature. Olaf is Elsa’s first creation, the same way that Adam is God’s first (human) creation. Olaf is made from the material of snow, similarly to how Adam is made from dust/the earth.
Like Jesus, Elsa walks on water.
In the Old Testament books of Jeremiah and Zechariah, God is called “the source of living water.” In chapter 4 of the Gospel of John, Jesus refers to Himself as “living water.” Is Elsa, with her powers over ice and snow, not also a source of living water?
In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus unveils his Messianic identity to only a few (scholars refer to this motif as the Messianic Secret). Similarly, Elsa keeps her powers hidden until the right time.
“Let It Go” is revelatory in a sense, regarding the total uncovering of Elsa’s identity. The staircase that Elsa builds at 1:55 in the clip parallels the image of Jacob’s ladder (the stairway to heaven that the Israelite patriarch Jacob saw in a dream, as the Old Testament story relates). The castle that Elsa raises up in this scene is a heaven-like place, paralleling Jesus’ statement that upon the rock of Peter, “[He] will build [his] church” (Matthew 16:18). At 3:11, Elsa experiences a transformation moment not unlike Jesus’ Transfiguration, in which she is clothed all in white.
Elsa begins the song in the dark; at the end of the number, it is light outside, as Elsa sings, “Here I stand in the light of day.” It is difficult not to recall here the light-darkness imagery and vocabulary of Scripture, such as this famous excerpt of chapter 1 from the Gospel of John: “The life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not...The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light....He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light...That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world."
REFUTATIONS TO SOME OBJECTIONS
1. Frozen I is problematic, because it is not based upon the traditional fairytale archetype of a damsel in distress who gets saved by the man who has to go on an adventure and slay a dragon.
I agree that traditional fairytale archetypes (and what they teach ontologically about men and women) are important. However, something cannot be critiqued simply for being what it is and not being something that it is not. The fact of the matter is that Frozen I is primarily a story about the love between two sisters and the repairing of their broken relationship. Besides, Frozen I still includes a romantic (and normative, heterosexual) love story as the subplot.
2. Frozen I is problematic for being so loosely based on the traditional Hans Christen Andersen fairytale The Snow Queen.
Frozen I is indeed an adaptation of the traditional fairytale The Snow Queen. Hence, the film is not called The Snow Queen - it is called Frozen. I agree that The Snow Queen is even more rich and fantastic than the story that Frozen I tells. However, as I said above, something cannot be critiqued simply for being what it is and not being something that it is not. In this article, I sought to examine Frozen I for what it is and what it contains. Maybe in another article, I would compare the plot of Frozen I to that of The Snow Queen and show the superiority of the latter.
3. In the Kristoff character, Frozen I is glorifying the incompetent beta male archetype.
I disagree that Kristoff is incompetent. He may be a bit goofy, awkward, inexperienced and dweeby, but he successfully executes every task that he must undertake in the film. He successfully spots a pack of wolves in the dark and helps Anna get away from them in an exhilarating sleigh ride chase. In this chase, Kristoff tells Anna that she doesn’t tell the reindeer what to do - he does (#ManInCharge). When he and Anna are being chased by the huge snowman, Kristoff sets up the snow anchor for their jump over the cliff. When they do make the jump, Kristoff is the one who pulls Anna out of the snow. Kristoff also rides down a steep, slippery, icery, dangerous, snowy cliff in order to save Anna from the storm over Arendelle. As we can see, Anna has plenty of “damsel in distress” moments.
Besides, how woke can Kristoff really be claimed to be, when he is a blonde-haired, light-eyed, muscular white man who reflects essentially all traditional Western notions of masculine beauty? Furthermore, he is clearly heterosexual, as he is obviously in love with Anna and kisses her passionately at the end of the film. (So the film does include a true love’s kiss after all!)
4. Anna is an overly independent, competent woman.
Firstly, Anna clearly needs Kristoff’s (and Olaf’s!) help and asks him for it - how “overly” independent is she really?. Secondly, Kristoff pokes fun at her for attempting to climb the mountain rock wall - she is not competent at everything she attempts.
5. In its Anna-Hans storyline, Frozen I undermines the importance of male-female romance.
How can we claim this, when Anna still has an important male romantic interest in the film? Instead, I read Frozen I as critiquing romantic infatuation. Anna may have liked the way Hanz looked, but she did not know his heart at all. Christophe is the man who stood by her through her trials and proved himself to her. In this case, I do not have a problem with Frozen I subverting the 20th-century Disney fairytale notion of love at first sight. Rather, I appreciate Disney’s self-parody.
6. Elsa is queer-coded, and “Let It Go” is really about an LGBTQIA+ person coming out of the closet.
I insist that this is pure speculation and that Elsa does not need to be read that way. I understand that some people will choose to read into this number in that way, but the fact of the matter is that in the film, Elsa is revealing her unique gift to the world, and I maintain my right to “read into this” in a very different symbolic way! Similarly to Christophe, how woke can Elsa really be claimed to be, anyway? She is a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, thin, white woman who embodies traditional Western standards of female beauty in basically every way.
7. Oaken is clearly gay. He says “hi, family!” to the man and four kids in the sauna.
I wouldn’t say “clearly.” Oaken doesn’t specify that the man and four kids in the hot tub are his family. But, point taken. This scene is suggestive in that way, and I wish that it had not been included.
8. It is highly inappropriate to depict Anna’s dress flying up and Hanz falling on top of her.
The movie clearly depicts this event as a highly awkward accident - not as a good, desirable, normative situation. Besides, Anna was wearing pants underneath.
9. But they’re going to make Elsa gay in Frozen III!
We don’t know for sure. I hope not. Let’s wait and see.
10. Kristoff doesn’t romantically pursue Anna in the way that an “alpha male” should.
Throughout the movie, Kristoff is a bit busy helping save the kingdom of Arendelle and the lives of both Elsa and Anna. Kristoff also exhibits some “dying to self” - he clearly has feelings for Anna, but his first priority is making sure she does not die. Thus, Kristoff whisks Anna off to Hans, whom he believes her “true love” to be, instead of trying to compete with Hans for Anna’s affection in that particular moment.
11. Frozen I glorifies sorcery and witchcraft.
When Elsa accidentally loses control of her ice powers at her post-coronation ball, she is indeed accused of “sorcery” by the thoroughly unlikable Duke of Weselton. But what even is sorcery? Traditionally, the ideas of sorcery and witchcraft were interchangeable. According to Catholic Encyclopedia, in both “there is involved the idea of a diabolical pact or at least an appeal to the intervention of the spirits of evil.” Elsa’s simple ability to use and control ice does not meet this definition’s standards in order to qualify as sorcery/witchcraft. On the other hand, CE (Catholic Encyclopedia) broadly defines magic as being concerned with the “producing of effects beyond the natural powers of man by agencies other than the Divine.” What Elsa can do does seem to qualify as magic in this sense.
Here, I recall the desire of Catholic clergy to check “fanaticism” regarding sorcery and witchcraft among the laity, as we see in the Council of Paderborn (785 AD), which passed this decree: “Whosoever, blinded by the devil and infected with pagan errors, holds another person for a witch that eats human flesh, and therefore burns her, eats her flesh, or gives it to others to eat, shall be punished with death.” Indeed, in the first 1300 years of Christianity, CE states that “we find no trace of that fierce denunciation and persecution of supposed sorceresses which characterized the cruel witch hunts of a later age.” Furthermore, CE states that “on many different occasions, ecclesiastics who spoke with authority did their best to disabuse the people of their belief in witchcraft.”
12. Frozen I is woke in other ways!
Like what? For example, the characters are dressed in a completely traditional manner - Anna and Elsa only wear dresses, for example. Besides, the Duke of Weselton’s “I’ve been traumatized!” line at the end seems to poke a bit of fun at some aspects of contemporary mental health culture.
At Disney World, girls don’t flock to Belle or Cinderella the way they do to Elsa. Elsa is uniquely addictive.
This may simply be because Elsa is a newer princess than Belle or Cinderella. However, Elsa is also unique. Frozen is different from every other Disney princess movie in that the film is not primarily about a romance; it is about the sibling relationship. Children can absolutely relate to relationships between siblings; they cannot relate in the same way to romantic relationships. Disney may have exhibited some real narrative genius here.
The problem with Frozen I is that it contains no villain.
It does contain a villain - the deceitful Prince Hans. However, the main villain in Frozen I is fear. As Grand Pabbie warns Elsa, “fear will be your greatest enemy.” Elsa has to overcome her own fear of her own self and her unique powers. It is this fear that keeps her isolated, without any relationships with other people - most importantly, with the only family she has left (Anna), after her parents’ tragic death. Fear is the villain that Elsa must defeat. Sometimes the villain is not a dragon or witch or something external - sometimes it is something internal, something within us.
MY CRITIQUE OF FROZEN I
I do not find Frozen I to be a perfect film. Beyond the unfortunate, aforementioned Oaken scene, I take issue with Disney’s disregard for certain traditional notions of fitting marital matches. Instead of putting Princess Anna with a prince, Disney puts her with a working class man, seemingly critiquing the traditional model of royalty exclusively marrying other royalty. However, I submit that there are some good reasons that royal-only marriages took place historically (although I am obviously a Kristoff fan). A similar point was made very well here in Crisis Magazine about Disney’s Aladdin, which has a similar plot device, with Prince Jasmine falling in love with a beggar and thief. In that movie, the sultan “feels like a jerk that there are laws that dictate whom his daughter can or cannot marry, until he suddenly and conveniently realizes that he can just change them at will…with no thought as to why those laws might have been there to begin with.”
In its poking fun at “marrying a man you just met”, Frozen I seems to also be critiquing the historical model of arranged marriages, which often resulted in immediate betrothals and engagements upon the first time of meeting (or before the first time meeting). While there were clearly pro’s and cons to this system, I submit that arranged marriages were in many cases actually quite like “match-making”, which manifests itself in our times in the system of online dating, in which a computer algorithm does much of the work! The success of so many arranged marriages historically can be attributed to commonality - shared religion, values, social class, etc. In our contemporary society in which we have endless diversity and layers of stratification and individuality - different levels of education, etc. - this is a completely foreign concept to us.