“The whole Walt Disney ideology eats out of your hand with these pretty little sentimental creatures. For my own part, I believe that behind these smiling eyes there lurks a cold, ferocious beast fearfully stalking us.”
— Jean Baudrillard, America (1968)
Introduction
The products of the Disney company have made themselves a big part of global mass culture. In particular, Disney’s fairy tale films are quite popular in the contemporary period. Frozen is one of the most popular films of this category released in 2013. It is inspired by, and a revised version of, The Snow Queen (1844) by Hans Christian Andersen.
This essay studies the process of Disneyfication through the analysis of Frozen. Disneyfication can mean a number of things: a) a process of presenting a flawed, oversimplified representation of social reality (Guy Debord’s idea of the spectacle); b) internationalization of American culture; c) the general process associated with the cultural products of Disney. It is not hard to see that all of these three definitions are related to each other, but I am using the term in its more general sense, that is, the definition c), which ultimately includes a) and b).
This essay does more of a critical analysis of the film. I use a combination of multiple theoretical frameworks for the criticism, mainly:
Psychoanalysis, to analyze the unconscious of the film;
Marxism, to analyze how the film portrays ruling and non-ruling classes;
Feminism, to analyze how the film reinforces gender norms and values; and
Intertextuality, to analyze the relation between the original text and the film adaptation.
Plot Summary
The story centers on two sister princesses and how they work out disagreements and hostility regarding the elder sister Elsa's magical abilities. Elsa finds herself ill-equipped to handle these potentially fatal abilities of freezing anything. To keep Anna and everyone else safe from a young Elsa's unintentional misuse of her talents, her parents secretly isolate her, unbeknownst to Anna, her younger sister. Because she is unable to control her power due to a disagreement with her sister, Elsa accidentally plunges the kingdom into perpetual winter (at this point, her parents have passed away and she is being crowned). After Elsa runs away in humiliation and terror, Anna looks for Elsa in an effort to find a method to end the never-ending winters and make amends with Elsa. By the end, Anna understands what true love is like, Elsa is able to control her strength, and the sisters reconcile.
Analysis
Although the film might look like the typical fairy tale with its all white characters and western geographical setting, the film still re-visions the original text by changing the roles of the character. In The Snow Queen, the Snow Queen is presented as an evil character and the female characters have a more passive role, which is not the case in Frozen that centers primarily around the female characters. It is not difficult to see how this is the result of different dominating social values of different times. If the film’s storyline were to be exactly copied from the original fairy tale, it would not have fulfilled Disney’s economic interests in the same way as it did by presenting itself as a “feminist” tale (as we shall see, the film, passively, reinforces many kinds of gender norms).
Like any other Disney princess movie or any fairy tale for that matter, Frozen also represents a “feudal dream” in how positively it presents the (ruling) class of the monarchs and aristocrats. The film passively conveys the ideological belief that the “truly powerful” and the “rightful heirs” will naturally find the seat of power (Elsa is a royal who is dethroned but then eventually comes back in rule). It also associates natural giftedness with royalty. Although it does seem to suggest both positive and negative effects of this, once Elsa controls her power, the people are shown to be overjoyed that their queen has returned. So, the natural born ruling classes are perhaps first shown to be defective in the movie, but in conclusion, it shows that the aristocracy is the only class capable of possessing magical abilities and remains unchallenged by the non-ruling classes.
Kristoff, belonging originally to a lower class, eventually earns the title of “Official Arendelle Ice Master” not because of his ice harvesting skills but because of the connections he holds with the royalty.
A dream analysis of the film can be done to find hidden symbols and meanings. Elsa’s superpowers can be seen as a symbol of neuro-divergency. Her being isolated from the outside world is a symbol of the struggles faced by neurodivergent individuals—they are forced to repress their emotions, for instance, by their families and society. When she lets out her repressed emotions (symbolized by her superpowers freezing the kingdom), she is the one who is ridiculed and blamed instead of her parents and society. In the end, she is only accepted when she learns to “control” her superpowers. It might seem to be spreading a great message here of her uniqueness and difference being accepted, but the hidden ideological meaning being conveyed here is that neurodivergent people would only be accepted by society if they learn to fit their neuro-divergency within the norms of the neurotypical society—any behavior that is harmful for the status quo would not be accepted.
Frozen also reinforces certain gender norms. It might look good on the surface to have female leads in the film, but how they are depicted is very patriarchal in nature. The film shows that it is not possible for a woman having power (Elsa) to balance power and romance, instead, female power is shown to be a substitute for romance. Indeed it is difficult to balance power and romance (as well as family), but men are allowed to have both without question. For them, it is not a problem; rather, it is viewed as a norm that presents difficulties that are a normal and expected aspect of life. On the other hand, Anna, who is the embodiment of the patriarchal definition of a “good girl” (hyperfeminine, illogical, quirky, klutzy, etc.), is allowed to have romantic relationships. Elsa is just shown as the stereotypical power-hungry female villain whose power is shown to be a substitute for love and compassion. The only difference in Frozen is that she finds redemption and societal acceptance through accepting gender-stereotypical compassion.
Frozen also justifies female sacrifice, a message clearly visible when, in the end, Elsa says to Anna, “You sacrificed yourself to me?”. The audience would not see this theme being promoted for men because women are supposed to put others’ needs before theirs. The notion being promoted here is that true love is equivalent to self-sacrifice for women.
References
Baudrillard, Jean. America. London, Verso, 2010.
“Frozen.” Disney, 2013, www.hotstar.com/in/movies/frozen/1260018197.
Hans Christian Andersen. The Snow Queen. Zoomikon Pr, 1844.
Khan, Mehwish Ali, and Bahramand Shah. “Frozen: A Postmodern Fairy Tale through the Lens of Intertextuality.” NUML Journal of Critical Inquiry, vol. 15, no. 2, 2017, jci.numl.edu.pk/index.php/jci/issue/view/17/109.
Kilmer, Alyson. “Moving Forward?: Problematic Ideologies in Twenty-First Century Fairy Tale Films.” Central Washington University Libraries, 1 Jan. 2015, digitalcommons.cwu.edu/etd/73/. Accessed 16 Dec. 2022.
Streiff, Madeline, and Lauren Dundes. “Frozen in Time: How Disney Gender-Stereotypes Its Most Powerful Princess.” Gender, Family, and Society: Reciprocal Influences, vol. 6, no. 2, 26 Mar. 2017, p. 38, www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/6/2/38, 10.3390/socsci6020038.
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