"Frozen" is back.
Six years ago, the first film in the series created the atypical Disney princesses Elsa and Anna with a big break. The negative image of the prince, the plot of women saving the country, the flash of homosexuals, the episode that emphasizes "be brave to be yourself" Let it go puts "feminism", "LGBTQ" and "minority hymns" on this movie The label made it madly at the box office around the world, but it has also been subject to endless discussions and interpretations.
("Frozen" created a subversive image of an independent princess)
Six years later, Elsa and Anna returned to people's attention, with more beautiful battle skirts, more sassy movements, deeper sisterhood, and more An unattractive male protagonist, and a beautiful picture that makes everyone breathless. But six years later, the audience has become much stricter, and the reputation of "Frozen 2" has declined at home and abroad. "Frozen 2", which has been sharpened for six years, still seems to have failed to escape Disney's "sequel spell".
But what we still need to notice is that outside the crystal clear world of ice and snow, this movie brings something more complicated and heavier, and the "unsurprising family carnival" in the comments is not enough to summarize it. Putting aside those gorgeous special effects pictures and funny scenes, we may be able to re-examine this movie with an adult perspective. It contains some disappointments, some thinking, some social retrospectives, and some more after retrospectives. Deep positive emotions.
Misty Forest
's metaphor for history, truth, ethnicity and nature
Compared with the first film, "Frozen 2" looks less bright and bright. The first part brought a lot of surprises due to the subversive shaping of the characters and the initial formation of the ice world. In the second part, Disney began to try to answer some puzzles about the world and the characters. From the beginning of another crisis in the
film, Elsa perceives an unknown call from afar. The mysterious natural forces disturb her and bring chaos to the country. The protagonist needs to go all the way north, towards the misty magical forest, and begin to face a story about another ethnic group, political struggle and historical lies.
In the story of Elsa's father, the kingdom of Arendale and the northerners living in the enchanted forest once lived in harmony. In order to show the goodwill of allies, Arendale built a dam for the Northerners, but the war broke out suddenly and the magic forest was shrouded in mist. In Elsa's father's historical statement of that period of ethnic conflict, Arendale was undoubtedly positive, advanced, and friendly, but he was inexplicably attacked by the people of the North.
And when Elsa and his party came to the magic forest and met the northern people and Arendell's soldiers trapped in it, another historical truth gradually began to emerge.
(spoiler alert ahead!!)
It turned out that Elsa’s grandfather, the old king, never believed that he could live in harmony with the people of the North. The dam packaged as a "gift" is actually harmful to the ecology of the forest. "It's just a diplomatic rhetoric to conquer foreign races. After the leader of the Northlanders became suspicious, the old king killed him himself and the war began. In the end, the thick fog locked the forest, and the people trapped in the forest of the two countries gradually grew old, but the confrontation never stopped.
The exciting adventure stories in the eyes of children, but it is not difficult to see some shadows of modern social history. When the Northlanders appeared on the stage, the appearance and clothing of the ethnic minorities naturally formed a kind of separation from the ancestors of Elsa. Their worship of natural gods and primitive nomadic habits are easily reminiscent of the aboriginal groups in society, while the Arendales, armed with cold weapons and able to build dams, represent more advanced modern Western civilization.
(Northlanders and Arendale soldiers in "Frozen 2")
Arendales invaded the magic forest in the name of building dams, which actually means a kind of ethnic suppression, aggression and even killing . The dam that brought doom is a symbol of modern technology, but it has destroyed the forest where the people of the North live. The disaster caused by the disorder of magical elements poses a threat to Arendale. Isn't this the familiar plot of human technology destroying the natural environment and primitive civilization and suffering backlash? The confrontation of human beings against the mother nature through science and technology, the suppression of indigenous peoples by the powerful ethnic groups and the destruction of natural civilization have been continuously staged in the history of different societies.
On the American continent in the 18th and 19th centuries, Americans used modern soldiersThe weapon moved all the way to the west, and a large number of Indians were massacred while developing the west. More terrifying than this is the beautification and disguise of this bloody history. Many remarks obliterate opposition and conflict, and regard this as an inevitable way to modernize primitive tribes. Like the vague memory of Elsa's father, the lies of history conceal the true military fighters.
(a cartoon reflecting the slaughter of Indians on the American continent by latecomers)
This is also the change and the same in human society. "History is a little girl who can be dressed up". The rhetoric of history is always changing, but it really does not. What has changed is the reality of its own mighty force. In this regard, the film creator expressed his views on the truth of history through the words of the goblin: "If the truth of history cannot be restored, then there is no future." The distorted history of
is like the fog outside the forest, and humans need to do it. Only by recognizing the truth and mistakes can we make the difference and regain the understanding and coexistence of ethnic groups.
In the modern era that advocates peace, there is no genocide. The excavators developed by the government are still crushing the primitive forests and tribes. The contradictions between nature and people and the conflicts between civilizations still exist. The reindeer tribe "Northlanders" in the
movie is considered by many to be a reflection of the "Sami" (Sami, also known as Lapp people) living in Norway and other countries in reality. The Sami people also accompany reindeer. They are peaceful by nature and there is no word for "war" in their language. In 1979, Norway's plan to build an embankment on the Altar River and a road to cross the reindeer grazing area was strongly opposed by the Sami. This is undoubtedly a strong contrast between the war and the dam incident in the film in reality.
(a Sami and his reindeer)
finally used Anna to destroy the dam to eliminate conflict and restore the beauty of the forest. This is of course a simple and rude solution, which has been criticized by many fans, who believe that it is forcing a break in environmental protection and development.
However, the problems of real society cannot be solved by magic and fairy tales. For the issues of environmental protection and race in society, "Frozen" can only give naive but beautiful answers. Its metaphors and reflections on reality can only stop here, still like a fog, without clear political and social movements. Thoughts are just some indistinct historical images and reflections on the truth.
Change and change
's real growth troubles and antidote
is the biggest joke in the film, but Olaf acts as an experiential questioner in the second part. "Is there anything that lasts forever in the world?" The question it asked Anna at the beginning, the answer was only given at the end of the film.
As a snowman, Olaf's desire for a passionate hug is itself a contradiction between change and change. Magic allows it to retain itself in a warm world, but its worries and doubts about "may disappear" also make it constantly mention topics of change and growth. After walking into the forest, Olaf, who usually shows people with a joyful to a bit neurotic sham treasure image, said, "I heard that in the magic forest, everything changes." Such words may imply that changes in his life are inevitable. .
(The snowman who yearns for a warm hug is itself a contradiction between change and unchanging)
When the magic fails, Olaf once again disappears, and the voice "I love the warm hug" falls, and it is scattered into snowflakes. Holding it, Anna feels the heartbreak of losing a friend again. Family members may be hurt, friends may leave, the kingdom is in danger, and she has been insecure. She did not answer Olaf's question at the beginning and was destined to endure changes. The pain caused.
To some extent, Olaf and Anna are us who are constantly undergoing separation and changes in our growth. Embracing snowflakes by the fire is a childish fantasy in the adult world, and acknowledging this makes us frustrated and heartbroken.
But fortunately, after showing the pain caused by change, Disney did not forget to leave us some antidote. With the return of magic, Olaf is reborn again, and because "water has memories", all emotions are preserved. Through hard work, Anna and her sister were able to meet again, everything was corrected and compensated, and family affection and friendship were confirmed more firmly.
"Is there anything in the world that can last forever?"
Disney said: "Yes, love and memory." Everything
now has may disappear in an instant, but only love and memory are eternal, and only those that are worth remembering situationFeelings never change.
The proposition of change and unchanging once appeared in "Dream Quest", "As long as you are not forgotten by people, you will always live in another world." In "Frozen 2", Disney once again added a little courage to the lives of adults.
bravely face the parting and changes in life, as Olaf sings, "Time's moving fast it's true, some things never change, and I am holding on tight to you."
behind the "sequel spell"
Disney's dilemma of change
Although we can make some in-depth and rich interpretations of this movie, we have to admit that "Frozen 2" really cannot bring us the kind of surprise and touch of the first movie. Many people criticized it, believing that the plot of the second part is too smooth and lacks novelty. To a certain extent, "Frozen" has also become an unchanging one.
This is not the unique dilemma of "Frozen 2". In fact, there are very few cases of surpassing the previous one in Disney's sequel. "Mulan 2" and "The Little Mermaid 2" were excluded from the princess series by fans, and "Maleficent 2" was ridiculed by "watching a movie for 5 minutes and sleeping for 2 hours". The continuation of a well-recognized classic is a very difficult creation in itself, especially in Frozen 2.
Today, six years later, when more and more independent female roles and anti-traditional fairy tale narratives are accepted by us, when we have seen Moana in "Pocahontas" go deep into the sea and save the people, we have already appreciated The princesses in "Invincible Destruction King 2" collectively laugh at themselves, and it is difficult for them to feel great freshness about the independent and strong images of Elsa and Anna. We began to hope for a more radical change, and some even called on Disney to make what they expected of Elsa's sexuality in "Frozen 2."
(In "Invincible Destruction King 2", the Disney princess made a collective self-deprecation of her own "personality")
But this kind of continuous subversion is not what Disney wants. Disney's goal in the sequel is to The introduction in the previous book is written as a complete story, which makes the world constructed in the first book more reasonable. Obviously, explaining a world is much more boring than creating a new world, and it is much boring in everyone's eyes. This is probably why Disney prefers to make live-action movies instead of making sequels.
But fortunately, Elsa in the second part is still free and rusty, and has returned to true natural belonging. Anna is still brave and has assumed the responsibility of a queen. Some things have never changed, whether we are happy for it or not.
