Unpopular Opinion: Frozen is Overrated

Disclaimer: This post contains spoilers. (That is, if you're among the seemingly 1% of people who haven't seen Frozen.)

I know I'm extremely late onto this bandwagon. Somehow I swerved away from the Frozen phenomenon. I don't have any kids to look after, or be around on a regular basis, and I'm not a film fanatic, so I just... never watched it. Until my older sister insisted we did over Christmas.

And it was 108 minutes of my life that I won't get back.

From the what I'd already seen, I was expecting a bit of an epic adventure. Running through the snow, hiding away as an outcast of society and just having to deal with that etc. Yes, this is based entirely on the songs 'Let It Go' and 'Love Is An Open Door', but also the official trailer which just didn't leave me with the impression Anna was trying to save Elsa, or that Hans wasn't a lead character (also that 90% of Olaf's contribution to the film is included in the trailer).

Some of my points may miss the mark. I know Disney never really create films to be realistic, but can we just consider a few things here:

• From Anna's point of view, would you really want to defend a sister so strongly, who since you were young children, for no explainable reason has hidden herself away, and didn't even try to comfort you when you both became orphaned? 

• From Elsa's point, if she did care, would there not have been some point in her life when she realised her love can reverse the damage of freezing everything? If she really felt that unhappy her whole life, then her 'Let It Go' lyrics are completely believable. I kinda wanted to shout 'you go girl!' during it. The lines 'I don't care what they're going to say' and 'I'm never going back, the past is in the past' particularly gave me a strong sense of plot progression. 
• But then it's not her distraught sister begging and pleading which makes her realise the 'errors' of her way, but a stranger who sells ice, telling her 'don't be the monster they fear you are.'
• But... Isn't her not caring what they think of her, the whole point of her now Academy Award winning famous song? *cough*Hypocritical.

Some research was done before writing this post, and I think I understand most main arguments about what makes Frozen so amazing. Feminism in Disney, sticking up for yourself, family bonds being stronger than love, being realistic, the price of not being able to be yourself etc. But... I think I missed it all.

While I agree there's progression in the two leads being female, Anna still spends most of the movie talking about her fiancé who she got engaged to the day she met. Not very feminist. It also doesn't address any other issues prevalent in society. Gay rights, racial prejudice, giving girls the wrong message about body image. These could have been so easily slipped in. Elsa as a lesbian? I'm down. Hans or Kristoff being from another culture or ethnicity? Cool. Smaller eyes and realistic waistlines? Easy.

It is nice Disney are swaying to the 'family love conquers all' over romantic love, but they seem to be spinning this with a price of making the man an obvious untrustworthy villain (something I was disgruntled with in Maleficent, too). Again, not particularly the message I think young girls should be receiving when having the feminist card on the table.

Now, after all this, it's fair to say 'yeah, but it's just a kids film'. Which fine, that's completely true. It's clearly loved worldwide for a reason, and I'm happy to let it go (haha, wink), but can we please stop pretending it's something it's not? If the messages are subtle enough that adults have to watch it several times to form some of the arguments mentioned above, why should we expect children to understand these messages too? They may just like looking at the goofy snowman and Elsa's pretty dress. And let's face it, who wouldn't? It is to die for.

Now excuse me while I go and re-watch some Disney films with better family based plots. The Lion King, for example.