Even though it’s officially December, I want to think back to November for a second – specifically November 27th. November 27th was the official 3rd year anniversary for Disney’s "Frozen." Three years ago this movie came out, and while I was definitely excited for it, I had no idea how much it would impact my life.
For a few months before "Frozen," came out and my life was starting to get absorbed into Tumblr, I noticed the reception towards the film was… less than positive, to say the least. It seemed that every aspect of the film — such as the designs of the characters, the separation from the original story of "The Snow Queen," the comedic relief — spawned nothing but scorn. This movie will flop! It will be nothing but a failure! Disney will ruin the original classic! So on and so forth. No one seemed willing to give the movie the benefit of the doubt — something about "Frozen" just made people angry. It was very stressful. It’s odd to think about, but I felt bad for the movie. There didn’t seem to be anything wrong with the movie that I could tell — sure, the female lead same-facing was pretty bad, but other than that, I didn’t understand why this movie deserved all of the hate. I love Disney, and I love musicals, so I was perfectly happy to see it.
Then, the movie came out, and the reviews started pouring in. Critics were going on about how good the film was! A great story about the power of familial love! Amazing songs! Beautiful visuals! Again, odd to say, but I was so proud of "Frozen." It was rising above the hate and turning into something amazing.
Then, finally saw it for myself. It is a little hard to put into words how much the movie means to me without going into some really personal stuff, and the article is already about to get pretty sappy, but as I sat in the theater, every single part of the movie resonated with me in a way I did not expect. Everything about the characters — Anna’s belief and optimisim, Elsa’s journey to work past her mental illnesses, Kristoff’s sarcasm and growth, even Olaf’s humor — all stuck with me after I left the theater. These characters were an inspiration to me, were all people I wanted to be. Special mention goes to Elsa — as I said, the movie showed her fight through her anxiety over her powers. Obviously I do not have ice powers, but around the time the movie came out, I realized I have my own mess of anxiety to work with. If Elsa could have these problems, and yet still find a way through them, maybe I could too. And all this came from a princess movie that everyone was sure would fail. On a personal and a public case, it has done the complete opposite. Three years later, "Frozen" has made over a billion dollars and is on its way towards a sequel. Of course, it still gets its fair share of hate. People still complain about the designs and such; and now a new complaint is that it is too popular. Myself, I cannot complain about its overexposure. If there is anything I can take from this, it is that no matter how much hate someone is received, they still have the potential to do amazing things.
