Why Were People & Critics So Infatuated With Frozen? | Idea Channel | PBS Digital Studios

What to say about Frozen that hasn't been said… well let's get meta and talk about the fact that so much has been said about Frozen!! Seriously, people LOVE analyzing and critiquing this movie. It's inspired dozens of think-pieces, covering everything from its portrayal of gender roles, to cultural appropriation, to the definition of true love. Frozen, and its complexity, has touched something in viewers. Could it be its morphing of traditional fairy tale tropes? Watch the episode and find out!

----------------------------------------­---------------------------------

----------------------------------------­---------------------------------

Assets:

Sources
1:01

1:02

1:03

1:11

1:12

1:13

1:32

1:34

1:38

4:17
Cosplay by Lisa Rosenberg and Meagan Marie

----------------------------------------­---------------------------------

Comments

----------------------------------------­---------------------------------

TWEET OF THE WEEK

----------------------------------------­­-

MUSIC:

"Dream Of Autumn" by Night Shift Master
"Dizor" by Outsider
"Lets go back to the rock" by Outsider
"Something like this" by Outsider

----------------------------------------­-----------------------

Come hang out in the Idea Channel IRC!

Check out the Idea Channel SubReddit!

And the Idea Channel Facebook page!

Let us know what sorts of crazy ideas you have, about this episode and otherwise:
Tweet at us! @pbsideachannel (yes, the longest twitter username ever)
Email us! pbsideachannel [at] gmail [dot] com
Idea Channel Facebook!
_______________________________

Want some more Idea Channel?

Is Cosplay a Form of Theater?

Could Sports Ever Replace War?

Are There Rules For Spoilers?

When Will We Worry About the Well-Being of Robots?

[pokeman]

In 20 years, no one is going to remember the criticism, but people will remember how much they loved this movie.

[FerroNeoBoron]

Frozen is a deconstruction of the fairy tale genre
Madoka Magica is a deconstruction of the magical girl anime genre
Evangelion is a deconstruction of the mech anime genre
PBS Idea Channel is a deconstruction of the fantasy genre
This comment is a deconstruction of the comment genre

[gotusername]

I think Shrek was the first Fairy Tale to be self aware and critique other Fairy Tales. Thoughts?

[BudCharlesUnderVlogs]

Frozen was okay, but it didn't deserve this much attention, plenty of other movies have already done the same thing. Yes the execution was great but the idea wasn't that original and I have no idea why it went viral like it did.  The LEGO Movie was full of tropes and stereotypes it turned on their heads, and that didn't go viral.

And the How To Train Your Dragon series changed the role of the dragon from something humans had to conquer and destroy to something we had to understand and befriend, that in turn improved our lives when we treated it right (which reflects on the wider theme of environmentalism and the idea that we should work with nature, not against it) and changed the role of the 'nerd' from a strange supporting team member who gets killed halfway through to the main character who becomes a leader and saves the world not through strength but through intelligence.

To be honest I think How To Train Your Dragon 2 should be the movie everyone is talking about right now, not Frozen. It covered the themes of broken families, the realities of warfare, the responsibility of leadership, the idea of treating other creatures with love and respect, and yet with all these dark and serious themes it still left people feeling happy and inspired at the end. How To Train Your Dragon 2 absolutely blows Frozen out of the water. I don't know why people are not talking about it. Maybe our civilization just can't cope with anything that makes them think.

[yepimbatman]

Give up on Frozen. We already have the best movie that changed up fairy tales
Shrek

[MobBossBobRoss]

I think at its core, people just liked Frozen's music and animation because let's be honest: the story wasn't very phenomenal. Audiences enjoyed the cute snowman that likes summer, the intelligent reindeer, and the obligatory Disney songs. Other than the true love "twist", the movie didn't break the mold for Fairy Tales OR Disney films.
I almost think using Frozen for this subject was a waste because The Wolf Among Us, (both the game and comic) paint a much better critique about these known Fairy Tales, and humanizes these characters realistically at much greater depths (granted, because they're aimed at an older age-group).

[odoloid]

Frozen is ridiculously overrated. The first half has promise, but then the second half throws it all away. Tangled had much more believable characters and a much more coherent plot. 

Tangled > Frozen

[PhilosophyTube]

If criticism helps realise a work, then are commenters helping realise Idea Channel?
Also, great reference to The Critic. Hotchie Motchie!

[CoolEric]

People keep saying that Frozen critiques fairy tales and their tropes, but didn't Enchanted do the same thing? Where's the huge Internet love? Where are my "That's How You Know" covers?

[lilypippili]

i honestly didnt think frozen was all that special... it was pretty cheesy actually. disney has done a lot better :/

[Butterworthy]

Few things anger me as much as constant cries of cultural appropriation. Look, cultures and groups of people appropriate other cultures all the time, since the beginning of history. Culture evolves over time like anything else, and without appropriating new things into it, then you ask for stagnation and death. The world is enriched by the sharing and emulation of other cultures. 

[inksmears]

I get so annoyed when people talk about how Frozen is "the first Disney film about family/sisters" when Lilo & Stitch did it first. And better. Frozen was good but not great. I liked it but I didn't love it and it definitely didn't deserve any academy awards.

[MangoTangoFox]

Frozen is a bad movie with fantastic animation/art. The songs are constructed to be pop hits that rake in millions, not to convey an emotion, make a point, etc. The story was INCREDIBLY PREDICTABLE even to me, someone who intentionally avoids all trailers/spoilers like the plague. I went in knowing absolutely nothing and wanting to like it, but I was immediately put off by how annoying and predictable it was.

People are making claims about people just hating what's popular. Fuck that! Game of Thrones, immensely popular, and I absolutely love it. Even The Hunger Games which I went in expecting for it to be "meh", and I came out a fan. I view tons of media, and I have an approach that isn't affected by popularity/popular media. I don't watch regular TV or listen to the radio, nor am I regularly around large amounts of people talking about the latest song/movie/show. Everything I judge is based on my own opinions and experience.

Frozen could have been genuinely amazing, but it was so predictable and clearly tried as hard as it could to make as much money as possible with the formulaic songs and music video-like moments. There were two highlights of the film. Some small bits with olaf were genuinely funny. None of that, or tons of that, are better options. A small laugh only to go back to the incredibly lame and predictable plot just doesn't feel good. And the best moment, was at the very end were anna sacrifices herself, and there's genuine emotion in the scene. Too bad it's completely ruined a few seconds later with the nonsensical plot and character interactions. The entire plot doesn't make any sense at all and there are tons of holes, but that doesn't even matter. Movies in the past have had that, but have remained enjoyable and engaging by being strong in other aspects. I get worked-up/emotional in TONS of movies/shows/anime, and for a film like this to make me not care a single bit about any of the characters (except for those few seconds after the sacrifice) is a really bad sign. Making the viewer care about characters can excuse other lesser parts of a film, but if that's all you had left, and you did a horrible job, there's no way the film could be enjoyed by people of intelligence.

The art is the only good thing about the film. If you legitimately enjoyed it for other reasons you are either too young to care at all about emotion, plot, etc, or you are just a sheep aboard the hype-train run by popular media.

[junglehero]

Gotta love the internet. Whenever there's something really popular, it gets hated on. And as you can tell from these comments, now its Frozen's turn to be the "cool thing to hate." 

[StCrimson]

Many people focus on Ana and Elsa and how their sisterly love for one another is the main focus of the movie being Frozen's most radical element, but I would actually say that Frozen's true subversion of the traditional fairy tale is something much bigger and much more important. Once Ana has her heart frozen, she is of course told that an act of true love will save her and she, along with the audience as well who has grown up with the well-worn fairy tale trope, assumes that she has to find her true love and he'll make everything better again, but then Ana's attempt is thwarted, first by Hans's betrayal and secondly by his attempt on Elsa's life. Even knowing that it will mean her end, Ana willingly sacrifices herself to protect her sister and she freezes solid, but then, she unthaws and returns to herself once again. It was Ana's action which saved the day and which, I think, unthawed her heart. One of the biggest criticisms of fairy tales, especially from a feminist prespective, is that fairy tales says that the princess is always the one to be saved and the prince is always the one to do the saving, that you should expect your knight in shining armour to ride in and save you from whatever you need saving from, but, while Ana attempts to do that, she fails and instead is forced into action and it is by her action that she winds up being unthawed. Frozen's truly radical aspect is the fact that Ana isn't saved by anyone else, Ana saves herself. It is her act of true love which saves her and her sister, no one else's, hers. It is the fact that she willingly sacrificed herself for her sister that saved her and, with that, Frozen countered one of the oldest, largest, most problematic, but also most enduring tropes of fairy tales, that it is always someone else's job to do the saving. I'm not as in love with Frozen as many other people, I find it a little too young for my tastes, but I love the movie for what it says, that, in the end, it is up to you to save yourself and that it is your actions and your love which will save you, no one else's.

[RicoSeattle]

I hope that someday Disney makes a movie with a gay romance. That would be so cool. They already have heterosexual romances; so why not?

[TheRunningLeopard]

Frozen is to Fairy Tales as Madoka Magica is to Magical Girl animes.

[repker]

Still haven't seen it.








Don't hurt me pls

[Alpha.Yankee.Whiskey]

I personally think that Frozen's success has a lot to do with Elsa as a character. To be honest, I don't think Frozen was as great a movie as everyone thought it was, but one look at DeviantArt shows that audiences really relate with Elsa. The reason why? I'm still trying to figure that one out, but I suspect it has to do with the insecurity with which she wields her powers. What do you guys think? What about Elsa does the audience find so interesting?

[hugocardenasulloa]

Anna: I like the open gates. <love is an open door> "and they lived happily"
Elsa: We are never closing them again. <for the first time and forever> "ever after"

Yeah i like this movie, good written dialog, and a lot, lot, damn a lot, of motifs.