FROZEN, 10 Years Later
The 2013 phenomenon shows us Disney's past, present, and future
I remember seeing FROZEN in theaters back in February 2014. The theater wasn’t packed but it wasn’t empty. The auditorium was more full than one would expect since the film came out almost 3 months prior. This was after months of “Let It Go” being played everywhere and the characters becoming modern era icons. The FROZEN sensation was wild, with a worldwide total of almost $1.3 billion and two Oscar wins. FROZEN spawned two shorts and a sequel (FROZEN II, which I think I like better? IDK, it’s hard to choose!!). But FROZEN didn’t release in a vacuum; it’s actally a culmination of animated movie trends and the film’s impact is prevalent even a decade later.
To understand FROZEN, you kind of have to go back to 1999. Disney releases TARZAN, which ends up becoming the end of Renaissance period that began with THE LITTLE MERMAID in 1989. The Renaissance features such iconic classics like ALADDIN, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, and MULAN. After TARZAN, the studio is a bit aimless with some beloved movies (LILO & STITCH and ATLANTIS: THE LOST EMPIRE) but some real forgettable ones (DINOSAUR, BOLT).
In 2009, Disney seems to go back to its roots with a 2D animated princess movie musical THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG. Notable for starring Disney’s first African-American princess in Tiana, the film had a lot of expectations. The box office was about $270 million WW and the reviews were positive but muted. I think people were waiting for a return to the Renaissance era but THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG didn’t live up to those classics. Famously, Disney thought that the word “princess” in the title turned boys away, and so they retitled their next princess movies TANGLED (not Rapunzel) and FROZEN (not The Snow Queen).
TANGLED, released in 2010, was another classical princess movie but with a more beefed up male lead role. The film got good reviews and made almost $600 million worldwide. 2010 was a banner year for animation with movies like TOY STORY 3 and HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, so TANGLED missed a Best Animated Feature nomination, but its reputation has only grown in the decade since.
In 2012, Pixar releases BRAVE, which is a princess action movie and the hype was very much about rejecting princess tropes. The movie is a mother-daughter story, with almost no romantic subplot or songs. BRAVE makes about $540 million and wins the Oscar, but it gets mixed reviews and isn’t really remembered as a Pixar classic. But I do think the “not like other princess movies” stuck with audiences/critics, and Disney was looking to cash in on that 2010s mindset.
FROZEN comes out.
It’s kind of a perfect (snow)storm (ice storm?). It’s a love story about two opposite sisters. It’s a musical with one big time banger and a few really sweet, catchy numbers. There’s a romance but it’s the secondary plot. The jokes were funny, the animation was beautiful, and the movie felt unique. Even though FROZEN was a product of the 15 years before it, the film was a breath of fresh air. It was a talking point, whether you loved it or hated it/were wrong. Who knows why some movies click with kids and become part of the zeitgeist and why some don’t. FROZEN was the right movie at the right time, and became truly iconic the way THE LITTLE MERMAID is.
After FROZEN, you can see how Disney was trying to recapture that magic through a similar sense of humor, songs that wanted to be earworms, and character archetypes similar to FROZEN. Movies like MOANA and ENCANTO succeeded, not because they copied FROZEN but because they were original in their own right and took the time to tell original stories with compelling characters. ZOOTOPIA, RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON, and BIG HERO 6 have their fans, and you can see the influence from FROZEN especially as they tell unconventional stories and feature different character archetypes and cinematic style.
I love the FROZEN movies, partially because true worldwide phenomenons like this franchise are increasingly rare these days. It feels so strange now that I was able to see FROZEN three months after it came out. I don’t even remember what was in theaters three months ago this year. Pixar’s ELEMENTAL this year actually showed that a movie can keep chugging along and making money after a soft opening, and perhaps WISH will have that same trajectory. But there was and will probably not be another movie like FROZEN in this generation. It’s just such a gem of a movie—original, compelling, and impossible to forget.