In 2013, as soon as the Disney animated film "Frozen" landed in theaters, it caused a chain reaction around the world. The touching and catchy episode was widely sung, and the Nordic royal sisterhood also made the audience in the theater feel excited. Surging. As a successful commercial animation film, "Frozen" released a sequel after many years, revealing why Elsa the Ice Queen has magic. The film still continues the direction of the first film, with sisterhood as the main line of the story, but it presents a completely different aspect in the handling of the story content and the theme of the story. Compared with the first part in 2013, this year's sequel is more conservative in thought, and the arrangement of the characters' homes also makes the whole story show the problems of sudden emotional transitions of the characters and the contradiction between the character settings and the overall trend of the story, which compromises this The uniqueness of the series of films and the spirit that is very different from other "Disney Princess" stories have ultimately reduced the film's reputation among the audience. At a time when the global political conservatism tends to become more and more obvious, the story-based turn of "Frozen" has become a manifestation and confirmation of the changes in the thinking of the times.
As the core of the story of "Frozen", the magic of Elsa, the ice queen, has always been the driving force for the unfolding of the story: In the first part, because of her fear of her magic, Elsa chose to complete her self-cognition by escaping from society In the second part, Elsa has completed reconciliation with her own identity, and tracing the source of magic has become the driving force for the sisters to start a new adventure together. At the end of the second movie, Elsa chose to cede the throne to his sister Anna, who has no magical powers, and transformed from the supreme queen in the secular society into a part of the legend in the name of guarding the magic forest. If the main narrative of the first part is that love can bridge the magical world and the secular world, then the second part eliminates the sisterhood established in the first part by arranging a secularly recognized, conservative heterosexual marriage for Anna. Separate the magical world from the secular world again.
is the soul that supports the two "Frozen", Elsa's two transformations not only appear in the movie as a miracle of the existence of magic, but also complete the dual culture of "transformation" and "magic" Metaphor exposes the emotional narrative hidden in the actions of the characters, completing the construction of the core of the story. The magical transformation of female characters reflects women's self-seeking on one level, and also reflects the fact that women's self-expression and desire display are suppressed in reality.
, the ice queen Elsa in "Frozen 2"
In Disney’s fairy tale kingdom, transformation stories are not uncommon, and there are two models: one is represented by "Mulan" and the other is represented by "Gray" "Girl" as a representative. In these two story models, the heroine needs to "transform" to realize her personal will. In the story of "Mulan", Hua Mulan takes her father's place in the army by changing her makeup and clothing. In the story of "Cinderella", With the help of the witch's magic, Cinderella changed the clothes, makeup, transportation and accompanying attendants, crossed classes, met with the prince and made love. In these transformation stories, the protagonists are young and beautiful women. The protagonist must keep the secret of his identity from the secular society. The exposure of his true identity has become the biggest source of crisis for the protagonist in the story.
has turned its attention from Disney in the United States to the field of Japanese animation, and can also see the various interpretations of these two transformation story models. After the war, Japanese society was waiting for prosperity, and girl manga gradually developed. In 1953, Japanese manga master Osamu Tezuka began to serialize the manga "Sapphire Prince" (also known as "Ribbon Knight" and "Knight Princess") in "Girls Club" magazine. This manga is regarded as the origin of early Japanese girl manga At the same time, it also opened the history of Japanese girl manga with the image of "woman warrior" as the main character. The protagonist of "Sapphire Prince" "Sapphire" Princess is a girl with a "boy's heart". The kingdom she was born into does not allow women to inherit the throne. Sapphire is forced to disguise as a man and live as a "prince" in response to court ministers' rebellion The crisis of usurping the throne, but also had to face the fact that he fell in love with the neighboring prince. Sapphire has to expose its identity and lose power to gain love, and the price to consolidate power is to give up love.
In 1972, Riyoko Ikeda began serializing in the magazine "Margaret" the girl manga "The Rose of Versailles" with the background of the French Revolution, which was also named with Osamu Tezuka's "Strange Doctor Black Jack" and Takao Nagai's "Devil Man" In the works of the three masters of comics in the 1970s, the protagonist has a similar encounter with the aforementioned Princess Sapphire.The protagonist Oscar is the daughter of a French military nobleman. Because there is no male heir in the family, he was raised by his father as a male. When Oscar grew up, he became the captain of the guard of Queen Louis XVI Marie Antoineette. In addition to protecting Mary in the complex European political situation, Oscar also had to endure the torment of not being able to get love because of her identity as a man.
Japanese transformation animation image
The transformation story of the Cinderella model in Japanese anime has a heavier trace of imported goods. In 1966, the first "Magic Girl Sally" in the Toei Magical Girl series was broadcast. The cartoon was adapted from an American TV series. It tells the story of the alien magical girl Sally who came to earth because of her curiosity about human society. A fifth-grade elementary school student named "Yumano Sally" lives on the earth. Most of the early magical girl stories were children-oriented. With the transition from the second wave of feminist movements after the war to the third wave of feminist movements at the end of the century, more women began to absorb Cinderella model transformation stories into comics. In 1991, Naoko Takeuchi's manga "Sailor Moon" began to be serialized in Kodansha's monthly magazine "Good Friends". The heroine of the story, Tsukiha, is a little confused type of second-year girl in junior high school. After meeting the black cats, the story of transforming into a Sailor Moon Sailor Moon and fighting ceaselessly to resist the forces of darkness begins. "Sailor Moon" opened a large genre of Japanese girl manga in the 1990s, and the magical girl nicknamed "Horse Monkey Shochu" became a unique existence in the field of Japanese anime. In 1996, the well-known Japanese manga creation group CLAMP began serializing "Magic Girl Sakura" in "Good Friends" magazine. The heroine of the story is also a cute female high school student, who protects the peace of the real world by transforming and fighting the dark forces.
After entering the 21st century, in the process of the continuous enrichment of Japanese animation content and types, magical girl is still an important type of character, and the programmed transformation mode and battle plot of magical girl have also become ridicule of many works. Object. The internal structure of the magical girl story has also changed. The main body of salvation has changed from the magical girl herself to the prince. The narrative structure has gradually become more complicated. The theme has changed from non-violent and indirect magic to military weapons, and the fairy tale style has turned to realistic style. The social and cultural core of the transformation story has not undergone essential changes.
Japanese animation "I am a Magical Girl"
After the end of World War II, affected by the global feminist movement and changes in the domestic economy, Japanese women are more active in society, and legal protection for gender equality rights has increased. The expression space has expanded, but society’s expectations for women have not undergone subversive changes. The ideal image of women in animation from the 1950s to the 1960s was a good wife. From the 1970s to the 1980s, the family scene in the media began to change. , The ideal image of a woman transitioned to a good mother, and after entering the 1990s, the compound demand of "good wife and good mother" appeared. In the visual presentation of popular culture, including animation, the image of women is still based on the family, and has not broken through the family category to establish an ideal female image. Whether it is the Mulan transformation or the Cinderella transformation,
has a common direction in cultural connotation. No matter what kind of transformation, the "transformation" itself changes the heroine's attributes by strengthening or changing the external equipment, and then reveals two facts: one is that women want to have power; the other is that in reality Women do not have this power. In the transformation story, women have to change their identities if they want to rise to the top of the social class and play the role of a leader in saving the world. Regardless of the transformation model, the heroine’s battlefield shows a utopian state. The heroine’s transformation method is not practical and cannot be copied. The transformation story must rely on imagination. Space, otherwise it cannot be self-consistent on a logical level. The existence of transformation proves from one aspect that it is difficult or impossible for women to realize themselves in real society. Another major feature of
transfiguration stories is that the heroines in these stories are trapped in identity and cannot obtain love, which becomes the core contradiction of the story. The heroine of the transformation story still needs to accept the basic disciplines and requirements of the real society for heterosexual women. "Beauty" is still the core element of the heroine. Although there is no lack of tragic ending and cruel process, the heroine Most of the battles of the heroine are non-violent, and there are few direct confrontational scenes. The emotional life of the heroine is still the main content of the story description. The change of identity is only the external conditions set for the inner exploration of the female character, and the emotional gainWinning is still regarded as an integral part of the ending of the story.
In the "Frozen" series of stories, the core model of "Magic Girl" Elsa is still Cinderella style. In the first part, the biggest crisis of the characters comes from the exposure of their secret identities. Unlike the common setting in Japanese anime, Elsa is set to be a member of the social ruling class. She does not need to be transformed to gain leadership, but like other magical girl stories, the secret exposure will still make her live. The social status of Julai was shaken. In the second part of this series, Elsa gave up her social status, retreated to the utopian magical world, and gave up the power of social rule in reality to her non-magical, heterosexual sister Anna, and then let this series from The fate of the characters is set to completely complete a rebellion against the social and cultural connotations of the magical girl story. If the first one has a certain avant-garde in the Disney princess movie, then the second one is a complete setback in terms of ideology.
The second part of "Frozen" separates the field of women's battle (ie the magical world) from the secular world, and completes the overhead of women's self-consciousness and desire expression. The meaning of transformation is completely dispelled, and the narrative Women still long for power, but the power gained by transformation no longer acts on the real society, but only on a fantasy zone isolated from reality, and the power that women desire is blurred. In the six years from the first to the second, the mainstream trend of international politics has completed a large-scale change. Conservatism has become the dominant ideology, the existing ideology of the patriarchal society has returned, and Elsa is in an overhead magical world. Constantly breaking through the ice barrier, but the invisible ceiling confinement reflected by "Magic Girl" for half a century in reality still cannot be broken, and even breakthrough expressions no longer have room for a "let it".
