The Evolution of the Disney Princess Movie

Disney has released their best movie yet by straying away from the traditional princess movie conventions that the Studio helped develop in the first place. Heating things up at the box office is Frozen, a story about sisterhood. Despite the limited amount of promotion for this film, it has been a clear commercial success, already passing the $800 million mark worldwide.

With the entire main cast having been on Broadway, the musical numbers in this film could not be better. Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel lend their voices to sisters Anna and Elsa, respectively.  When Elsa freezes the land into an eternal winter, Anna takes it upon herself to bring back summer. Along the way she meets her first love, Hans (Santino Fontana), Kristoff and his trusty reindeer Sven (both voiced by Jonathon Groff), and a lovable snowman named Olaf with a burning desire to experience summer (Josh Gad).

There are two engaging duets in this film, one between Bell and Menzel, “For The First Time In Forever,” and the other with Bell and Fontana, “Love Is An Open Door”. With some very clever and ironic lyrics, it is hard to forget Olaf’s daydream tune about the experience of being “In Summer”. Along with these and other musical numbers are a great selection of sing-along songs.

But what makes Frozen truly remarkable is the way it changes the classic Disney princess movie [you should name 1 or 2 titles you have in mind]. Here Disney becomes self-aware, changes up the humour, and unexpected villain is revealed and contemporary themes are consciously incorporated. 

Disney makes fun of itself several times throughout this story. One of the most noteworthy moments remains Kristoff’s confusion with Anna’s decisions, “Hang on, you mean to tell me you got engaged to someone you just met that day?” Since most previous Disney princess movies end with the princess falling in love in  a mere matter of days, it is refreshing to hear how self-aware this one line is. 

Another new concept Disney tackled in this film was the surprise villain. Usually children’s movies have a very clear distinction between good and evil characters. Talking aloud of schemes reveals them. Such was not the case with Frozen, however. The character we expected to be the antagonist is not, and when the true evil character is finally revealed, it comes as a true surprise. 

We have seen a recent push for strong female characters in animated films such as in Brave, Tangled and now Frozen. We see a similar character in second wave classic Disney Princess movies in Mulan. In Frozen, despite Kristoff accompanying Anna, Anna does not need his help.  She even saves him a few times. 

This could very well have stood as a strong story about sisterhood; the romantic subplot did not need to exist at all. Along with Brave and now Frozen, hopefully we will continue to see more princess stories that do not centre around attaining a romantic partner. “For The First Time In Forever” Disney revolutionizes the classic princess movie and audiences are loving it.