Fear

This is about Frozen Readers,

Before you exit your browser and throw the computer against the wall, please hear me out. I know this is the 345,645,234,456th post you've seen about Frozen, and I hate giving in to the temptation to pipe up about it, but what I saw in my second time watching it is something I haven't seen anyone else say anything about. Mostly because the core of what I noticed is given just a passing note in the movie, which is all the more reason to write it out. But seriously, is there a cult following for this movie or something? I think Disney might have perfected audiovisual drugs in this thing.

Anyway, toward the beginning of the movie, all the world now knows that Anna and Elsa are taken to the magical trolls to reverse the damage done to Anna. The Grand-pappy Troll heals Anna, then turns to Elsa and gives her some advice. He tells her that her power is a great gift capable of great good, but also has great destructive potential. He then says five little words that defines all that is Elsa's problem: "Fear will be your enemy." the movie rushes on with the king hastily giving his idea of how to fix the problem, so we have about three seconds for the troll's advice to sink in. Easily overlooked.

What is significant about his counsel is that everyone involved in controlling Elsa's power lived in fear, exactly what he told them NOT to do. Elsa is afraid of her self and everyone else, her parents are afraid of her powers, and Anna doesn't remember anything, left completely in the dark. Granted, this approach is easier than trying to interact with others while controlling the ice powers. Instead of dealing with the problem, shut it in a little box, push it in a dusty corner, and make sure everyone forgets about it. This does not make the problem go away, though. Fear of trouble turns out to be more trouble than actual trouble most of the time.

What's more ironic is how close Elsa always was to real help in the movie, and how much she wanted that help. There are many subtle hints as to what Elsa really wants, but believes she can't have. When Anna finished singing, "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" Where was Elsa? as close as she could possibly get to her sister, just on the other side of the door. At the Coronation party, Anna and Elsa start talking and laughing like they did as kids. Anna says how much she wishes it could be like that all the time, and then Elsa agrees.

Of course she quickly realizes how dangerous that would be to her pretended security in "conceal, don't feel," and so sucks back inside her shell. And finally, when she sings that all too familiar song on the mountaintop, for just three or four seconds you see her create Olaf. Why would she do that? Because he is a representation of what real happiness she once had with her family. Anna's love for her always was the key to Elsa being able to control her powers, but she believed she could never be close to anyone she loved because of fear.

Can you imagine living with that kind of internal conflict? Wanting so much to be a part of people's lives but being afraid to because of past pain? No one has really considered the scars left on Elsa from that accident late one night when she and Anna were just little girls. Everyone at one time or another has hurt someone they love, and sometimes the wound is so huge we believe it will never be healed. It is easier to believe then that it is better for us to remove ourselves from that person's life, rather than live with the fear of hurting or disappointing them again. I know I have felt that way before.

That's what "Let it Go" is really about, people. It's not pushing a gay agenda, it's not about farting, and it's not advocating YOLO, sorry. For the first time in her life, Elsa believes she can run far and fast enough to get away from her problems, and that is truly exhilarating. Everyone believes that too at some point, just ask any college student around finals week.

Just like the swamped college student though, Elsa finds out from Anna that her problems ran with her. She can never get away from them until they are dealt with. At this point, Elsa hits Anna again with ice, this time in the heart. In trying to protect people that try to help, Elsa fulfills her own prophecy and hurts them again. When we wrong somebody and they come to us to comfort us, something in us says that is backward, so we refuse their help, hurting them again. I've been guilty of that too, almost like I want the person to be mad at me for what I did; I don't want the problem to be fixed.

Push soon comes to shove in this story, and it takes a long time for Elsa to realize it, but finally she sees Anna will never give up on her. Her love for her would never waver. Finally understanding that Anna loved her enough to give her life for her, no matter what Elsa did, helped Elsa bridge the gap between her fears and wanting to love. This gave her the ability to fix the wrongs she had done. This was an act of faith in the most straightforward way. There is security in fear, and everything but security in love. The only way to gain love is to step out of fear's comfort zone, and to do that, you have to believe enough that something on love's side of the line will be there to catch you.

I don't claim to have pinpointed the symbolic meaning of Frozen because I'm pretty sure Disney is more in the business of capturing the human experience in an imaginative and entertaining way than they are in subliminal propagandizing. There are so many good and accurate parallels to our own lives to be seen here. This story is the story of so many who try to love and feel they fail those they love, the story of everyone who has ever done wrong and struggled to forgive themselves. Anyone can draw a disturbing or alarming symbol out of this movie when taken out of context, but when the rhetoric about this movie finally settles in ten more years or so, I want people to remember this positive message: 1 John 4: 18 (King James Version) "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love."