Frozen

About

Frozen is an animated Disney film released in 2013. The film follows Queen Elsa, who has the power to create ice and snow out of nothing, and her sister Anna, who grows up with no knowledge of her sister’s ability.

Origin

Frozen was released on November 27th, 2013.^[1] The film stared Kristen Bell as Anna, Idina Menzel as Elsa, Jonathan Groff as Kristoff and Josh Gad as Olaf.

Premise

The film opens with princess Elsa and her younger sister as young children. As they play one morning Elsa accidentally injures Anna with her icy powers. A magical troll is able to heal Anna, but also erases all her memories of Elsa’s powers. Elsa spends the rest of her childhood and adolescence with little contact with others, including Anna, as her powers get more powerful and uncontrollable. When their parents die Elsa must open the palace to the public for one day for her coronation. When Anna meets prince Hans, who proposes, she asks for Anna’s permission, but she refuses. The fight between them reveals Elsa’s powers to the kingdom and she flees, unintentionally setting off an eternal winter in her wake. Anna goes after her to talk to her, on her way meeting Kristoff, an ice delivery man who begrudgingly agrees to help, and a magical snowman named Olaf. When she reaches Elsa they fight again, and Elsa unintentionally hits Anna’s heart with her ice. Kristoff takes her to the magic trolls, who are also his adoptive family, who explains only an act of true love can save her. Kristoff, who has fallen in love with Anna, rushes to bring her to her fiance. He drops her off, but it turns out Hans only wanted Anna’s kingdom, and does nothing to stop her death, while he imprisons Elsa. Sensing Anna might be in trouble, Kristoff hurries back, just as Elsa escapes her prison. As Anna sees Kristoff, she also sees Hans about to kill Elsa, and she runs towards them, stopping the sword just as she freezes to death. She quickly thaws as saving her sister was an act of love, and Elsa’s love for Anna helps her to thaw the kingdom and gain control of her powers. She reclaims her thrown with Anna by her side.

Reception

Frozen was a critical and commercial success. The film earned a 89% on Rotten Tomatoes^[2] and a 74 on MetaCritic.^[4] The film broke the record for best performing opening weekend for a Disney film, grossing $67.4 million in the first three days of its release.^[3] It grossed $347.8 million overall. On January 13th, 2014, Disney confirmed a stage musical adaptation of Frozen would be created.^[5]

Fandom

As of January 2014 Frozen’s official Facebook page^[10] has over 1.9 million likes. Fanfiction.net^[11] has over 1,500 submissions under Frozen, while fan art community DeviantArt^[12] has over 37,000 submissions for the film. Popular Tumblr blogs dedicated to the film include Disneyfrozen^[13], frozendailydose^[14], and annaandkristoff.^[15]

Related Memes

Frozen Whitewashing Controversy

Frozen’swhitewashing controversy is an ongoing online debate surrounding the lack of people of color in Disney’s 2013 animated feature film Frozen. This debate has come to include accusations against Disney of “whitewashing” the Sámi, the indigenous people of Scandinavia. The controversy began on Tumblr, and is largely driven by social justice bloggers who accuse the movie of racism, and fans of the film who are outraged by these accusations.

“Let it Go”

Let it Go is a song composed by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, sung by Elsa (Idina Menzel) after she flees the kingdom.^[6] Multiple covers and parodies were created including an explicit version (top, left), a My Little Pony version (top, right), a toddler version (bottom, left), and a version told from the perspective of an alto (bottom, right).

Shipping Elsa and Jack Frost

Fans of Frozen sometimes ship Elsa with Jack Frost from the DreamWorks animated film Rise of the Guardians(2012). On January 8th, 2014, Buzzfeed^[7] published a post titled, “Why Jack Frost And Elsa Would Make The Cutest Couple,” exploring the ship through fan art. As of January 2014 there are over 300 entries under Frozen and Rise of the Guardians crossovers on Fanfiction.net.^[8] Fan art site DeviantArt^[9] has over 1,200 submissions for Elsa and Jack Frost.