Frozen: All It's Cracked Up To Be?

You can't go anywhere without hearing about it. It's like an epidemic. Wherever you go, people are singing the songs. They're giving an Olaf quote at everything you say. They're claiming to be Elsa lookalikes. They're writing annoying hubs about it.

Ready for it all to end? Then you've come to the wrong place!

Since I find myself helplessly drawn to pop culture and an unexplicable need to criticize it, regardless of my true feelings, I'm presenting a few pros and cons to this remarkably popular movie.

So what are some of the reasons we like Frozen?

If you hate every other part of the show, you're probably (unless you have a phobia of happy snowmen) going to like him. He's cute and he sings a hilariously ironic song about summer and is the personality that we all hate to run into right when we wake up in the morning. The epitome of never having a negative thing to say about anybody, and the one that gets on your nerves but you can't exactly accuse him of doing anything bad. And also the only one who actually had a damn clue what love actually was. "Love is putting someone else's needs before yours."

Admit it. Whether you want to or not, you'll be singing the songs in your head out of no will of your own. Anytime anyone says "Come on..just let it go, will ya?." Or "can you open the door for me?, your mind is in the realm of This Song Will Never Get Out Of My Head, regardless of if you think they're actually good or not. And who can really bash the heartfelt words of Elsa as she recognizes her true identity and shreds off all layers of hypocrisy and becomes who she really is? Even to the most cynical of us, you gotta feel at least a goosebump or two. (Even if she contradicts her own concept of freedom by not being her true self around the people [or person] she loves, living in a monk-like isolation up in a frozen mountain of doom.) As far as Disney animated musicals go, I think most will agree this is some of their best.

You've got Anna, who wants to hook up with her guy after knowing him for less than 24 hours. But then you've got Independent Elsa, who doesn't seem interested in a guy and would probably turn him into a human ice cube even if she was. Still, she's one of the very few princesses/queens in Disney animation to hold her own identity and not need a man to "save" her.( Even though indirectly she did. It was, after all, Kristoff who galloped an eccentric reindeer over miles of tundra in order to return Anna to the kingdom. Who in turn saved Elsa.) You can quit throwing tomatoes now. Our hats are off to you, Queen Elsa, for being your own person! Even if you send angry abominable snowmen after the ones who try to understand you.

You have to admit, the twist at movie's end where Anna saves her sister from a power-grubbing maniac is quite touching. It communicates to our children that in the presence of lying, hypocritical pigs, we must always stick together. Love between sisters was emphasized as being just as important as love between couples. Throughout the movie we see Anna showing more concern for her sister (no matter how pissed she was at Elsa) than for any guy in her life (even her beloved stud Hans.) Elsa took a little longer to get the whole "love" thing, but that's what this movie is all about. In fact, the men in the story are shown as (1) immature lower class guys who pick their nose (2) Evil double faced merchants who are bad dancers (3) Homicidal psychopaths masquerading as Romeos, and (4) people who seem nice but will toss you off a porch in a blizzard if you call them a crook.

You can't really find too much fault with the movie in terms of good values, but you gotta admit, some things just don't make sense. For example:

1. Magic

Why was it necessary to remove all memories of magic from Anna's mind? How does that affect brain wave function? Or life? Or is it all so magical I can't comprehend it? Am I running out of Pixie Dust?

Now that I think of it, the magical trolls weren't quite explained either. They were, in fact, the only magical element present. Unless of course you count Elsa in. It's too bad they only met at the beginning part of the movie. Another thought: did Elsa never question the wisdom of trolls she remembered seeing as a child?

2. Leaving

Why in the world did Anna not run away years before? Ok, so maybe she felt like she couldn't. That it was her home. Maybe she had lingering mother issues and felt like Elsa was the only mother she had. There may have been complicated psychological barriers keeping her from leaving her Palace Prison and becoming a free woman. But for God's sake she couldn't have gone to the nearest village grocery store and struck up a conversation with a merchant?

3.Love

If Elsa loved and wanted to protect her sister Anna, why didn't she tell her the truth about being able to create a new Ice Age?

How in bloody oblivion could telling her hurt her? Wouldn't it be a little safer for Anna to know there's a possibility she'd have to duck if Elsa got pissed about something? And I'm sorry to say this but Elsa was slightly bipolar in the emotional department. Going from this:

to this:

in seconds.

Hate it or Love it, you're still reading this article, you're thinking about Frozen, and now you have Frozen songs stuck in your head. Either way, it's a win!

Feel free to leave your own comments, suggestions, criticisms, and threats of death for me causing "Let it Go" to go through your head again, in the comment box below.

Thanks for reading!