Michelle Martin

Let it go!

Sunday, April 6, 2014

OK, Elsa, enough already.

Find an act of true love so the interminable winter will end.

Come on, you know you thought it, maybe when we woke up on the first day of spring to a fresh covering of snow. At least if you have a girl between the ages of, say, 3 and 8 living in your home and Disney’s “Frozen” has been running on an endless loop inside while the snow and ice kept coming back for more outside.

SPOILER ALERT

For those not so blessed, “Frozen” is the story of two sisters who are (of course) princesses who (of course) have lost their parents. The elder, Elsa, has a gift (or a curse) that allows her to freeze everything around her. Unfortunately, she can’t control it very well, and she ends up freezing her entire realm in endless winter (sound familiar?) before running away to try to keep from hurting anyone.

But when her sister, Anna, comes to beg her to come back and make it thaw, Elsa accidentally blasts her, and we learn the only thing that will reverse the freeze creeping through Anna’s being is an act of true love. Anna thinks that means a kiss from the man she wanted to marry on less than a day’s acquaintance — the bit of foolishness that sparked Elsa’s anger and the deep freeze in the first place — only to find out that she couldn’t be more wrong. The act of love that ends up saving Anna (this is a Disney movie; you knew it had a happy ending, right?) is sacrificing herself to save Elsa.

Meanwhile, the land of Arendelle gets to enjoy summer, with a permanent ice skating rink on the grounds of the palace. I could live with that.

I like this movie on so many levels — it’s a good story, the animation is exquisite, the snowman inserted for comic relief is funny — that it seems almost pedantic to point out the obvious: it’s a Disney princess movie that doesn’t end with a wedding. It says that marrying someone you hardly know is hardly a good idea. It offers self-control as an admirable goal, necessary to living in happy proximity to others. It acknowledges that “true love” encompasses far more than just romantic love, and that real love means being willing to lay down one’s life for someone else. I think I’ve heard that one somewhere before.

Now, into April, we seem to be breaking out of the winter, although history would tell us more snow in Chicago is not out of the question. It seems Disney was able to manipulate even the polar vortex to keep much of the country indoors, suffering brutal winter weather, in the season they released “Frozen.” Somehow, an April snowstorm seems like it could happen. But even if it does, the snow won’t stay for long; we’re approaching the end of the movie.

And if it does, I have one question for everybody: Do you want to build a snowman?

Topics:

  • michelle martin
  • family room

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