favorite song friday: subverting the princess

I have always loved fairy tales, but I'm not a huge fan of the Disney princess, especially in its recent hyper-marketed form. I never prevented my daughter from seeing any of the animated films featuring fairy tale princesses like Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, etc., but was happy that she was just as impressed with Hercules and the Aristocats as she might have been with the Little Mermaid. Not to mention Fiona from Shrek, a more subversive (and secretly Mommy-approved) princess.

Idina Menzel and her alter-ego, Elsa

We both liked the recent Disney riff on The Snow Queen, Frozen, but I don't think I realized until hearing Idina Menzel belt out the ubiquitous "Let It Go" for the umpteenth time that Disney may have finally offered up a truly subversive princess. Pixar's attempt to have a new kind of princess, Merida from Brave, may shoot arrows and resist an arranged marriage, but her future still seems to be rooted in such enterprises. But Elsa walks away from not only her kingdom but her past and her future.

Don't let them in,
don't let them see
Be the good girl you always have to be
Conceal, don't feel,
don't let them know
Well now they know

...

Let it go, let it go
And I'll rise like the break of dawn
Let it go, let it go
That perfect girl is gone
Here I stand
In the light of day
Let the storm rage on
The cold never bothered me anyway!


Idina Menzel as Elsa in Frozen


With Jimmy Fallon and The Roots (and classroom instruments)

It is heartening that such a strong female, one yearning to be free, is the focus of the film. Maybe little girls will put aside the pink ball gowns and dreams of princes and instead think about what it means to feel as free as Elsa while she creates her own world upon that mountain top. And Idina Menzel's amazing, soaring vocals help young listeners to aspire to such dreams.

frozen

The kid and I checked out Frozen the other day. It only shares the slightest similarity to the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale The Snow Queen, so fans of Gerda and Kai may need to adjust their expectations before attending. Instead of a girl-power story of a young girl, against all odds and an evil Snow Queen, rescuing her young male friend Kai, Frozen features two strong female heroines, a pair of sisters (and princesses, of a northern country dubbed Arendelle) named Anna (Kirsten Bell) and Elsa (Idina Menzel). Elsa has a special ability — she can create ice and snow with the wave of her hand. But after some childhood play goes horribly wrong and her younger sister Anna is injured, their parents rush them to some friendly trolls, who take away Anna's memory and doom the fearful parents and Elsa to hiding their older daughter's gift away from the world — and her sister. "Conceal, don't feel," is the mantra they insist Elsa adopt.

Elsa, the Snow Queen - it's lonely at the top of a mountain of ice

Par the usual Disney fairytale adaptation, the girls' parents soon meet a tragically convenient end, leaving the sisters to grow up orphaned and estranged — as Elsa fears that she will lose control and seriously harm Anna and others. When Elsa comes of age there is a glimmer of hope at her coronation that the two sisters may finally grow closer, but that hope is quickly dashed when the impulsive Anna falls immediately for a visiting prince named Hans (Santino Fontana), and Elsa loses her temper and control of her powers, to the horror of her sister and coronation guests. She flees the scene, unwittingly covering Arendelle in ice. She may be forced into a life of isolation, but she is finally free, and no longer hides her ability but exults in it, constructing an enormous mountain castle made of ice.

Let it go, let it go
Can't hold it back anymore
Let it go, let it go
Turn away and slam the door
I don't care what they're going to say
Let the storm rage on
The cold never bothered me anyway 

"Let It Go," music and lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, performed by Idina Menzel

An intrepid Anna sets out after her sister, sure she can convince her to come home and "fix" everything. She is joined on her quest by some comic (and potentially romantic) relief — Kristoff (Jonathan Groff) and his lovable and loyal reindeer Sven, as well as a magical snowman named Olaf (Josh Gad).

Beware, spoilers below:

Frozen has a lot to recommend it. The vocals by Bell, and especially Menzel, are great. I do think, however, that apart from Elsa/Menzel's big number "Let It Go," the songs were pretty forgettable. Does every Disney animated movie have to be a mini-musical? Maybe it's time to move beyond Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid. Pixar and Dreamworks are making entertaining pseudo-Broadway song free animated movies.

Olaf the snowman is adorable and sure to have multiple spin-off cartoons, as his character of a snowman who yearns for sunnier days is just too great to resist. After the sisters have an unsuccessful reunion Elsa once again unwittingly injures her sister, lodging a shard of ice in her heart, You would think that after being able to build such an amazing palace of ice (a truly gorgeous sequence) she might pay a little more attention to what she does with her flying ice hands.)

Anna, Olaf, Kristoff, and Sven in a beautiful ice forest

When the trolls confirm that the only thing to melt the ice that is slowly freezing Anna's heart is an act of true love, it is assumed that true love's kiss will save the day. The audience knows that Kristoff, not Hans, is the candidate for that job. But there is a last-act plot turn that spoiled a bit of the magic for not just me, but my daughter. The screenwriters make Hans a truly nasty villain, robbing Anna of the ability to realize for herself that she doesn't really love him. They do minimize that blunder by having the love that saves the day be that between the sisters, and not dependent on romance, which, admittedly, is great. But the sour, clichéd character of Hans still hung over our movie-viewing experience as we exited the theater.

That said, I would still recommend Frozen. Making Elsa a conflicted and not evil Snow Queen was an interesting choice. Along with Tangled and Brave, Disney's princess stories are trying to take some forward steps. Teeny, tiny, baby steps forward. But next time let the girl be strong on her own and make her own decisions about love, and not let her get dumped and disappointed by a bad guy so that she then notices a good one. Let the conflicted, "dark" girl like Elsa be the main focus rather than her spunky, cute sister. Could Disney manage a story that didn't have princesses in it at all? The original Snow Queen didn't need Gerda to be a princess. Far from it — she and Kai were poor. Not every girl dreams of being a princess. Remember Lilo and Stitch? It's worth a try.

the snow queen

BBC Home Entertainment recently released The Snow Queen, a movie originally screened on the BBC in 2005. Just in time for the holiday season, The Snow Queen is based on the classic children's story by Hans Christian Andersen. The project began as a showcase for the music of composer Paul K. Joyce, which debuted at the Barbican Arts Centre in London. The concert featured the London Symphony Orchestra, soprano Sydney Rae White, and actress Juliet Stevenson (The Secret of Moonacre, Mona Lisa Smile, Truly Madly Deeply) as the narrator. It was such a success that a filmed version of the concert was devised, under the direction of Julian Gibbs. The remastered version of the film includes 5.1 surround sound.

Gerda misses her friend Kay

The Snow Queen's palace

The Snow Queen becomes almost a tone poem, as Joyce's music tells the story of Gerda, who must journey to the dangerous and forbidden castle of the Snow Queen (Tiffany Amber Knight), who has kidnapped her best friend Kay (Pax Baldwin). White and Stevenson return for the film version; White plays Gerda, and Stevenson her mother. Patrick Stewart (X-Men, The Canterville Ghost, Star Trek: The Next Generation) joins the cast as a talking raven who helps guide Gerda on her adventure. There is minimal dialogue throughout, with the music and the acting telling the story. The Snow Queen, with its running time of 56 minutes, has the feeling of an animated film, even though it is populated with real actors. The live-action scenes were all filmed in bluescreen, and the CGI fanciful and painterly sets and backgrounds added later. A disc extra about the making of The Snow Queen features the film cast and crew talking about the logistical challenges of blue screen and how they brought the fairytale to life. The other extra, besides the behind-the-scenes featurette included on the disc, is a Blue Peter short film about Hans Christian Andersen’s life.

The Snow Queen should be perfect viewing for a cold winter's night, with Gerda's girl-power quest and lovely soprano voice taking viewers on a fanciful adventure. Parents may even get more out of this highly stylized version of a beloved fairytale than their children, and be the ones who opt for repeat viewings.

Originally published on Blogcritics: DVD Review: ‘The Snow Queen’