Frank Kogan

SPOILER. DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIE.

Elsa's no punk, she's not a Mick Jagger or an Eminem. But like Jagger and Eminem, she's an artist who's afraid of her art, of its power. And in the world of the movie, she's slated to ascend to actual political (read "cultural") power but she's afraid to wield her power, that her various powers will sabotage and destroy everything. And, according to Jennifer Lee, there's at least something of a subtext that, in moving from princess to queen, Elsa is potentially moving to full-blown sexual expression. (I don't remember The Lion King very well, but there seem to be parallels.) Anyway, Anna still understands little of this, so her journey to find her sister is also a journey to discover who Elsa is. Meanwhile, Elsa has decided that the only way she can be her powerful self is to be alone, to divorce power from command. Which of course means it's not full power, since the condition of letting herself go is that she — it — her art, her power, her self, her authority — doesn't go anywhere real, doesn't make a difference. So Anna's quest is also to bring Elsa and Elsa's power back to society, back to people.*

In half paying attention to the picture-book version (at the same time as I was wiping down desks and sharpening pencils), I never learned if or how the movie actually resolves what Elsa is to do with her power. I gather that regarding the ending Disney's energy was concentrated on how to make the narrative configure the multiple meanings of love. Lee and Buck were instructed to make sure they earned the love ending. I fear that this left the power issue somewhat in the lurch. Someday I'll have to see the thing in its entirety. Here's a great interview with Jennifer Lee where she goes deep into the process of creating the story.**

http://johnaugust.com/2014/scriptnotes-ep-128-frozen-with-jennifer-lee-transcript

One thing I think I'm noticing in kid culture*** is that, despite Anna taking up way more screen time, it's Elsa the kids immediately think of when they think of the movie. This may be owing to the visuals as much as the conception, her light-blue and blondeness appearing more rarefied and enticing and princessy (perhaps this is me capitulating to a cultural stereotype, or Disney capitulating, or the kids).

*Anna's journey is a journey of self-discovery too, though I won't go into that here.

**A big part of Lee's struggle was to make sure the movie worked as comedy as well as drama; that struggle is one I'm not dealing with in this comment.

***Several weeks ago I was at a seder where a four-year-old who had yet to see the movie was nonetheless dressed in full Elsa costume, which she'd gotten with her parents at an Anna & Elsa boutique.