Walt Disney films are known for the idea that true love heals all, but what exactly is “true love. ” Merriam-Webster says its “one truly beloved or loving: a sweetheart. ” For many years Disney depicted true love as a damsel in distress waiting for her prince charming to come to her rescue and reverse the evil in her life with “true love’s first kiss,” with movies Sleeping Beauty and the classical Cinderella. Don’t get me wrong, movies like Mulan and The Lion King showed acts of love through family.
But the newest Disney film, Frozen, shows how the same evil of the past movies can be broken by the true love of a family member. If you take two Disney stories like the classic, Cinderella, and the newest edition, Frozen, you’ll see that Disney stays true to the theory of true love being the cure to all evil. In Cinderella her new poverty-filled lifestyle is overcome when she falls in love with and marries Prince Charming. In the film Frozen, Anna’s frozen heart is only melted when her sister sacrifices herself with an act of true love.
These movies along with most Disney movies are alike in the sense that there is an ultimate evil that needs to be eliminated. These evils eventually make it so the main characters Cinderella, Elsa, and Anna are locked away from the rest of their community. The movie’s “villains” are characters disguised as someone the audience would think would be someone with love for the main character. In reality the evil acts they commit are only for self-gratification. In all Disney movies there’s a “Happily Ever After,” and the good guy wins.
But even when giving the opportunity to be evil back, Cinderella and Elsa choose not to. They choose to stay loving and let everyone live a happy ever after alongside with them. In both of these movies the main characters are faced with the tragedy of losing their parents, as in most Disney films; and at that moment the childish feel of the movies disappears. The characters start to deal with adversity and they are giving to choice: give up and let all their suffering be for nothing or to keep going and keep hope alive.
The theme “anything can happen if you just believe” is depicted in almost every Disney film. In Cinderella when she meets her fairy godmother she learns that all you need is a plan and goal and everything will be okay. Despite the fact she was forbidden to go to the ball and even if she could go she had nothing to wear, she believed in her fairy godmother and a way was made. While in Frozen the snowman Olaf has a dream of experiencing summer. Even though he is made of snow, he isn’t aware that heat would make him melt but even after he experiences heat he still believes he could experience summer.
He fights along Anna the whole movie to end winter and in return Elsa gives him his own personal snow cloud during the summer so he can have his experience. Another obvious similarity in these two Disney films, along with others, is the act of personification. In Frozen the trolls and of course the snowman, Olaf, are given human characteristics and seem to have better morals than the actual humans. In Cinderella, when her fairy godmother changes the rats to the horse and the pumpkins to the carriage, she gave them the life of another living object.
These things having life help the characters achieve there end goal. Now although it seems the two movies have the same concepts they are played out in two different ways. In Cinderella true love was with a man. The king held a ball to help his son find a bride. This made all the women be in competition to be the most beautiful. All women desired to wear sparkly clothing and have the best ball gown. Cinderella and Prince Charming feel in love after one night of spending time together without even knowing each other’s names. Prince Charming then went on a hunt to find his Mrs. ight. All the women were in competition again to squeeze into the show. The movie shows how women weren’t supposed to get along not even sisters. The two stepsister even competed with each-other and they were biological sisters. Although Cinderella was a beautiful story the happily ever after was only for Cinderella herself, it wasn’t for the good of her kingdom. The story teaches good lessons to achieve self-gratification without hurting others. On the other hand Frozen approached the happily ever after under different means. True love was from a family member.
Anna and Hans’ marriage was arranged after their very first night meeting, there was no love. Throughout the movie the sisters empowered each other and stuck together because they were all they had. The women were the adventurous ones in this movie, as Anna became fearless and trooped out to find her sister to save the day. In this movie nobody was concerned with a big glamorous ball gown. Anna wore hiking gear and wanted to get down and dirty to help her town. In this movie every act was selfless and they ultimately learned that no one was an island, that everyone needed someone.
I think the differences of these movies reflect the time period in which they were written in. In the 50’s when Cinderella was written, women were worried about finding a husband and living the American dream. Men ran the world back in those days, while today women are starting to speak up. We live in a more feminist society, so the movie Frozen depicts women empowerment. It’s even being called Disney’s first feminist movie. In my opinion true love isn’t definable. True love is different to every person. Love can come from someone you just met just as evil can come from someone you’ve known all your life.
