To connect the dots between the two "recesses," the midday Broader Culture feature-length cartoons have a hodge-podge of positive messages some of which push "out": push one towards being oneself and empowering oneself and taking risks and taking on authority and leaping and soaring, flying, etc. etc. etc.
So, in one of the midday recesses I saw approximately 35 minutes of Frozen, from Hans to up the mountain and Olaf and the storm, if you've seen it. It contained "Let It Go" in context, where it was kind of thrilling (hadn't previously liked it and still don't usually enjoy hearing it). A couple months later Amanda, the Kinder teacher I work for, read a short picture-book version of Frozen to the class, so the plot's been spoilerated for me. Since I haven't seen it whole, I can't say one way or another whether the flick would work for me. But I suspect it would. As I was watching it, I assumed Disney had seen its task as making a princess movie that was also at least somewhat feminist, about female self-actualization and self-empowerment. Turns out that this isn't how the plot came about — according to Wikipedia, Disney had first been interested in Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen" eighty years ago, originally as part of a projected Andersen biopic to be co-produced with Goldwyn. ("The Snow Queen" may have appeared as a short ballet sequence in the 1952 Goldwyn film sans Disney; Wikip is unclear about this.) According to Wikip, the problem for Disney was always how to make the plot work. (Btw, I STRONGLY recommend that you not click the Wikip link if you haven't yet seen Frozen.) From Wikip's synopsis of the Andersen story, the Snow Queen seems not to be central to it, is more a metaphor of some kind of tantalizing entrapment for the male love object. In any event, after various attempts and abandonments over the years to make "The Snow Queen" the basis of a feature film, the project was finally given serious development in 2008, though from the account I'm not sure if it got the actual, definitive green light prior to 2011; and even with production underway in 2012, Disney still hadn't figured out the character and role of the Snow Queen in relation to Anna, the heroine. Finally — perhaps in desperation? — the decision was made to make Anna her kid sister, to add family drama to what was now a protagonist-antagonist relationship between two princesses. That's how the princess thing entered the story. And shortly afterward, a new screenwriter, Jennifer Lee, was brought in to take over the script. But Elsa still hadn't gelled. It was a couple of songwriters, Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, in having to come up with a song for her and trying to work out what it felt like to be her, who then in effect reinvented her. And once they'd played Disney the demo, Jennifer Lee said to herself, okay, we did it! we've got the movie! but now I have to rewrite the whole script. So instead of "Let It Go" being tailored to the movie, the song was taken whole, not a lyric changed, and the movie was re-worked around it.
And if you haven't seen Frozen you really need to before you look at my next comment. Though the comment won't reveal much, I don't want to reveal anything, not even the beginning.
Connecting The Dots
So, in one of the midday recesses I saw approximately 35 minutes of Frozen, from Hans to up the mountain and Olaf and the storm, if you've seen it. It contained "Let It Go" in context, where it was kind of thrilling (hadn't previously liked it and still don't usually enjoy hearing it). A couple months later Amanda, the Kinder teacher I work for, read a short picture-book version of Frozen to the class, so the plot's been spoilerated for me. Since I haven't seen it whole, I can't say one way or another whether the flick would work for me. But I suspect it would. As I was watching it, I assumed Disney had seen its task as making a princess movie that was also at least somewhat feminist, about female self-actualization and self-empowerment. Turns out that this isn't how the plot came about — according to Wikipedia, Disney had first been interested in Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen" eighty years ago, originally as part of a projected Andersen biopic to be co-produced with Goldwyn. ("The Snow Queen" may have appeared as a short ballet sequence in the 1952 Goldwyn film sans Disney; Wikip is unclear about this.) According to Wikip, the problem for Disney was always how to make the plot work. (Btw, I STRONGLY recommend that you not click the Wikip link if you haven't yet seen Frozen.) From Wikip's synopsis of the Andersen story, the Snow Queen seems not to be central to it, is more a metaphor of some kind of tantalizing entrapment for the male love object. In any event, after various attempts and abandonments over the years to make "The Snow Queen" the basis of a feature film, the project was finally given serious development in 2008, though from the account I'm not sure if it got the actual, definitive green light prior to 2011; and even with production underway in 2012, Disney still hadn't figured out the character and role of the Snow Queen in relation to Anna, the heroine. Finally — perhaps in desperation? — the decision was made to make Anna her kid sister, to add family drama to what was now a protagonist-antagonist relationship between two princesses. That's how the princess thing entered the story. And shortly afterward, a new screenwriter, Jennifer Lee, was brought in to take over the script. But Elsa still hadn't gelled. It was a couple of songwriters, Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, in having to come up with a song for her and trying to work out what it felt like to be her, who then in effect reinvented her. And once they'd played Disney the demo, Jennifer Lee said to herself, okay, we did it! we've got the movie! but now I have to rewrite the whole script. So instead of "Let It Go" being tailored to the movie, the song was taken whole, not a lyric changed, and the movie was re-worked around it.
And if you haven't seen Frozen you really need to before you look at my next comment. Though the comment won't reveal much, I don't want to reveal anything, not even the beginning.