Frozen

[rowyn]

I saw this film last Saturday, and like everyone else I know who saw it, I enjoyed. It was atypical of Disney Princess films in several key ways that I enjoyed, and typical in some other ways that I was meh about, and one thing that got on my nerves enough that I'm going to write about it.

So, good things about the film:
* Anna gets to save herself! This may have been my favorite part of the movie. Women in films hardly ever get to save themselves, especially not in Disney films.
* Elsa isn't the villain! Apparently in the original pitch, she was, but they re-thought that while working on the score. "Let It Go" sounds like a villain song because it was.
* True love not always = romantic love. Woo, acknowledgement of multiple kinds of love!

My particular nitpick (there are other nitpicks, but this one is mine):
About halfway through the movie, I turned to Jenn and whispered, "Hey, I wonder if Disney can make it all the way through the movie without a cackling evil villain?" Answer: Of course not.

Jenn actually predicted Hans as evil based on the sideburns. Disney princes cannot have facial hair. I had not realized this before, but now that I know: *facepalm*

I didn't want Hans to be Anna's "true love", but I'd've been SO IMPRESSED if Disney had let him be a golddigger without being murderous. The same story could have worked: Hans tries to kiss Anna well, fails, and confesses shame-facedly that he was more interested in getting out from under his parents and 12 brothers than in love. He doesn't hate her, or wish her ill, but he's not feeling much beyond vague affection. Anna faints, he mistakes her for dead, and runs out of the room to get revenge on Elsa (not out of love, but out of a sense of justice and because Elsa wrecked his plans). Olaf shows up, revives Anna by putting her by the fire, and the movie goes much the same way from here but with less cackling and gloating.

I suppose Disney (wrongly) thinks that young kids need clearcut villains in order to enjoy a story.

Anyway, still a good movie and I'm glad I saw it.

Comments

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Hans suddenly turning evil was kind of out there. I was expecting his kiss not to work because it obviously wasn't true love, but deliberate murder? Really?

His explanation afterwards about how they'd secretly married just before her tragic death gave me Monty Python vibes, at least. n.n

[rowyn]

Yes! And since Hans had been sympathetic up to that point (the most dubious point was his telling Elsa "I'll see what I can get them to do" when she was in prison, and the viewer knew he'd been all "I'm in charge" before that) it really felt like the screenwriters were doing it to shock the viewer rather than because it made sense for the character.

[shockwave77598.livejournal.com]

But until he's married the princess then knocks her and the sister off, he can't be king. So your lower key approach lacks the impact of the jerk wanting power more than anything else.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

A little bit, but 'wanting power' and 'being a psycopath' do not have to go hand in hand.

A jerk would marry into the royal family for power but be content to try to then put himself on top through social means -- Elsa is kind of a recluse, so being able to discredit her for witchcraft or just 'take all the burden off her' and become the defacto ruler are both reasonable approaches. This is kind of what I expected -- his 'true love's kiss' wouldn't work and he'd be forced to reveal that he never actually loved her and it was all a (non-murderous) scheme.

[rowyn]

That would've worked for me too!

[rowyn]

I find the one-note villain (eg, murderous scum who will stop at nothing and has no compunctions about anything that will help achieve a narrow, selfish goal) less interesting and makes much less of an impact on me than a more nuanced antagonist. YMMV.