And now for what I really think –
There is SO so much I love about this movie, I don’t know
how I can NOT write a novel. I’ll try to
keep this under, say, 30 pages.
Kidding!
So here are the main themes I was really excited about –
1. It’s not good to
live in isolation. Unless you
voluntarily took a vow to go be a cloistered religious. But neither Anna nor Elsa had that choice.
2. It’s also not good
to recklessly throw yourself into life without caution or self-discipline. Anna was easily sucked into predator Hans’s
web because she failed to exercise caution.
And Elsa’s “letting it go” destructively unleashed winter.
3. Embrace life (keep
the castle gates open), but channel your energies appropriately (focusing on love
instead of fear), and don’t jump into a serious relationship too quickly.
And then there’s Olaf.
Memo to George Lucas:
This
is how you do a comic relief character.
Not this.
This.
Not this.
Got it?
I was afraid of
that.
Oh
well. I tried.
Moving on –
Overall, there are so many positive messages that I cannot
overemphasize how excited I am that this movie’s popularity has caught on like
wildfire.
I only have two concerns: first, Anna spends the movie throwing
emotional energy into a void. Sure, as the
audience, we see that Elsa is conflicted, but Anna doesn’t see that until
adulthood, and even then I’m not sure how clear it would be from Anna’s
perspective. This message is one of
those things that could be either good or bad –
1) someone in a good, healthy relationship receives a
message to always keep putting effort into their relationship, even if the other
person doesn’t always reciprocate right away.
When two people mutually give to each other, it’s a beautiful thing.
2) someone in an abusive, unhealthy relationship receives a
message to keep on giving even when the other person continually shuts them
out. The happy ending is just around the
corner, right? Right?
In real life, if a person shuts you out the way Elsa did to
Anna, let them go. It’s the only way to
protect yourself mentally and emotionally.
My second concern is that “love means putting someone else’s
needs before your own.” It does. Absolutely.
But like Anna’s character, this message can be either good or bad in
much the same way; it’s either encouraging and affirming the type of
relationship that makes life worth living or it’s providing fertile ground for
abuse.
So I guess when I circle back around, I wish there was a way
for more people to be able to recognize abusive situations and get out before
they get too far in. I also wish we
lived in a world where I didn’t have to be on the lookout for unintentional
encouragement of abusive relationship dynamics in popular media. If there were more knowledge and awareness of
good vs. bad relationship dynamics in the culture at large, my concerns would
basically go away.
I give this movie 7 stars out of 5. Can I even do that? Sure I can!
It’s my blog – I can do whatever I want!
Seriously, though – see this movie if you haven’t already. If you need to, borrow someone’s kids (in a completely non-creepy way, of course) so you have an excuse to watch it.
