By Flynn Geraghty
Features Editor
November 27 marked the first anniversary of Disney’s highest grossing film, Frozen, and the excitement over this film, while slightly decreasing, doesn’t seem like it’s dying down anytime soon. In almost every store you go to, you can find lunch boxes, shoes, notebooks, dolls, bracelets and countless other products all for this one film. If they aren’t all sold out that is.
Disney itself seems to be fanning the flames of this Frozen mania, as it has presumably been confirmed that a stage musical is being produced. Idina Menzel even announced that a full-length animated sequel might be in the works.
So, my question is this: Will the excitement for this film ever completely die down, or will we be listening to Let it Go until the day we die?
Now don’t get me wrong, I love Frozen as much as the next girl. In fact, if I sing Love is an Open Door one more time at house, my mom’s going to get in the car and just keep driving. However, as much as I like the film for it’s beautiful music and fun cast of characters, it is not really close to being a perfect film. The story had some holes in it and yes, I thought Hans’ whole evil shtick came out of no where with no rhyme or reason to it. After months of seeing merchandise being swooped off the shelves by rabid mothers and seeing about 20 little Elsas wandering the streets on Halloween, I have to ask myself, “All this fuss for a movie that was really just okay?”
I know people who hate this movie with a burning passion (I’ll keep their identities a secret, lest they fear getting stalked by angry mobs of Frozen fans). They say it was unoriginal and spent more time mocking Disney tropes than it did trying to establish a good story. These people cannot believe that it is getting so much attention and so much praise.
I am relatively neutral to the whole Frozen hyping (if not on the more positive side of the spectrum). While people are still going crazy over this one film, I know that other films that were just okay have gotten gobs of merchandising and fans. Take Dreamworks’ 2001 film, Shrek. It was a good movie and people went nuts over it. It now has three full-length sequels, a spin-off movie, two holiday specials, a stage musical and enough merchandise to feed and clothe a starving country. People aren’t messing around when they say, “Shrek is love, Shrek is life.”
However, what gives me a more positive outlook on the whole situation is that movies like these, while not being the best, inspire people. While I do know people who hate Frozen, I know others who adore it. They are given strength when Elsa takes her glove and thrusts it into the air, proclaiming that the cold never bothered her anyway. I’ve read posts online about how people would listen to Let it Go and it would give them the strength to come out to their parents or get out of an abusive relationship. Even if the movie has flaws, if a movie is powerful enough to strike up such so much power and strength, then maybe it is worth taking another look at. Try and see it from a different perspective and see if there might in fact be something worth enjoying.
And if you just can’t see how anyone could like a movie like Frozen and vow to hate it with every fiber of your being, my advice to you is, to borrow a phrase, let it go.
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Let the storm rage on and on and on
December 3, 2014
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