Disney's Frozen Fever Trailer

UPDATE: New trailer just released! Video at the bottom of the blog!

Almost a year after Frozen smashed into theaters, becoming the highest grossing animated film of all time, we finally get to see a sequel short, especially after the success of Disney’s Tangled Ever After. 

As the last short, this short will be premiering in front of the new live-action Cinderella movie (with Helena Bonham Carter!) With all the princess stories  seeming to be taken care of, Disney is taking a new direction with their films: remaking them into live action. Cinderella has already been made and before it has even been released, they are already in the making of a live-action Beauty and the Beast with Emma Watson playing Belle (and a possibility for Ryan Gosling? Still rather have Channing Tatum, personally). It seems a bit risky to already start another live-action adaption without seeing how well (or not so well) the first one does. Disney seems a little skeptical as well, it seems they might be using Frozen Fever to get fans to come out and see the beautiful sisterhood of Anna and Elsa again and hopefully stick around and fall for the new Ella of Cinderella. I was going to come for Helena to begin with, because seeing her parts are little bits of heaven for me. 

A handful of pictures has been released by Disney regarding the short, and they can be seen in a short while, as well. The release date for the live-action Cinderella movie is March 13, 2015, and with that the release date for the short. 

The short takes place a few months after the events of the first film, for Anna’s
birthday in the summer, but Elsa has a cold which brings some issues. Since
Elsa has magic powers, she doesn’t get colds like normal people do, but that’s
all the directors’ have suggested about it.

The original directors, Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee, have come back to do this
short and with a brand new song. The pictures show a lot, even a new dress for
Elsa (and flower powers?) but to the point that it is all mostly guessed at. 

UPDATE: TRAILER JUST RELEASED

The Dark Side of the Snow Queen: The First Mentally Ill Disney Princess.

            Disney’s latest film, Frozen, has been a major topic of conversation since its release almost a year ago. With the praise will come the critic, and I have found myself too often with my lips pursed shut as my peers complain about how it is a horrible story and a terrible movie. I’m not going to fight for the defense of plot holes or other complaints, but I will take the side of what I think makes the movie transcendent: the other princess, or queen, Elsa.

In the original drafts of Frozen, Elsa was originally written to be the villain. However, after writing the song, Let It Go, the writers decided that the empowering song about freedom and self acceptance didn’t fit a villain, and instead rewrote the whole plot.

Yet, Elsa, being the oldest Disney princess at 21 as well as the only true queen of the Disney Princess franchise, has more than a few things that separate her from her Royal brigade. She is the only one to be considered an anti-hero, as she can be represented as a “problem” rather than actively fighting the external antagonists. Hers are all internal.

There is a possibility that Elsa is mentally ill, which is touching on an American taboo. So, Disney made a movie about one, which is a huge step forward to mental health awareness as Disney is mainstream (yay). But, how is she mentally ill, or comparable to mental illness? Let’s start with the parents, who are abusive and neglectful to their eldest daughter.  

The first scene with Elsa and Anna’s parents is when Elsa hit her sister in the head with ice trying to save Anna from falling. Note, they are children here, yet her parent’s immediately blame her, with a nasty tone of “this is getting out of control,” and “what did you do.” Kids make mistakes, it’s just a fact of life, but rather than realize that, they just heap the blame on Elsa.

Speaking of the parent’s tone, when they are asking the Trolls for advice, the dad glares at his daughter when he says “born with it.” Not her fault there, bud. In fact, as she gets older, they reinforce her fear after telling her to emotionally castrate her from the world. In the Do You Wanna Build a Snowman? song, Elsa has an accidental ice blast. The queen goes to console her, but Elsa just recoils and says she is “afraid to hurt [them].” The parents just look at one another, like “yup, we are too,” when Elsa needed that support. Be the good girl you always have to be, and not yourself in any regard. Conceal, don’t feel, because you aren’t a human and should not have emotions, let alone express any.

The one time they smile at Elsa is when she bows to them before they leave on a ship and practically whimpers “do you have to go?” The parents just nod and smile gently, almost emotionally castrated from her, as well. Then the parent’s turn and hug Anna, showing Anna affection and attention that Elsa so desperately needed, but was denied, even from herself. Best parents ever.

Its pretty straight forward that Elsa’s snow and ice shows an emotional imbalance. “I can’t escape the storm inside of me,” her “inner storm” is something that follows her around everywhere, and she can’t escape it; much like a mental illness. People can’t see that battle the afflicted face, but they can in Elsa. My favorite examples are when she is cornered in herself, the ice turns red and jabs towards her, showing how much she hates herself. Or when she is dealing with grief, and her snow is frozen in time, which is an accurate analogy for anyone who has ever dealt felt that solitary emotion. When she is happy, she has control of her powers and is capable of producing amazing feats of art. These ice powers give voice to the invisible struggles that cage people who are mentally ill everyday, making it easier to empathize those who are suffering from it.

Elsa, because her lack of control, finds herself to be a villain. After her powers are discovered, she flees the kingdom as her ultimate fear of being discovered happens, and she doesn’t feel either safe or good enough for her kingdom. Her parent’s helped her swallow the pill of it being all her fault, taking root in the traumatic experience of almost killing her sister. There is actually a thing where Disney villains love saying fools.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOeFkAthM-w

And in the reprise of For The First Time In Forever, Elsa calls herself a fool for waiting to be free, which is a little Disney nudge of “Elsa thinks she is the villain.” Why? - Because she was raised to think so, and society pointed fingers for that to be true. Anna, on the other hand, tries to understand and open up communication, which ultimately saves her sister by proving her love for her, regardless of what she is (spoilers!).

Since I already ruined the ending (sorry, not sorry), let’s move on to the crisis point. Hans tries to kill Queen Elsa, although this time it is different than when he went to her Ice Palace – she doesn’t defend herself. Why? Because she feels that he is right, she needs to go, especially after Hans tells her she killed sister. Elsa believes her powers are such a curse she can only cause harm, and to save everyone and escape her internal (external) storm, she is willing to end herself as she sees it as the only way. Yet, what saves her? Anna’s sacrifice. Love. Understanding. Someone proving to her she is worth something, and in that realization, she is free from the cage of her mental turmoil.

On the surface, the movie is a fun, pro-empowering and independence, pro-family movie with Broadway songs and a lot of laughs in the snowman, Olaf. Yet, under the immediate layer is Elsa’s abuse, pain, and turmoil, exposing the world of Arendelle and the audience to the horrors of being trapped with “the storm inside of me.” Despite this darkness, it is enveloped in humor, songs, and impressive animation. And as another Disney movie puts it, “a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down”.