Another Way: Time to 'Let it Go'?

Did you get to catch up with any movie, film or TV viewing over the recent holidays?

I’m so far behind with unseen movies that I have no hopes of catching up (I spend a lot of time reading instead). About the only things I sit down and watch on TV are news, Jeopardy, and an occasional ancient Andy Griffith episode. (We don’t do any streaming.) So I hardly keep up with pop culture these days. Oh, we did watch The Voice because I felt like I “knew” the Girl Named Tom group.

So I was tickled to finally watch the entire Frozen movie (released 2013) on our TV during the holidays.

Yea, I know, 2013 was a lifetime ago — especially if you’re 8 (which two of my grandsons are)! When our daughters were 8 to 13-ish, we watched and bought numerous Disney franchise movies that came out. We still have on our video shelves Cinderella, Bambi, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Lion King and more. (Nope, no DVDs back then!)

Frozen was inspired by the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale, “The Snow Queen,” Wikipedia describes it thus: “The film depicts a princess who sets off on a journey alongside an iceman, his reindeer, and a snowman to find her estranged sister, whose icy powers have inadvertently trapped their kingdom in eternal winter.”

The princess, Anna, adored her older sister Elsa — and they loved playing in the snow like most kids. But, at one point the parents separate the two girls so that Elsa’s magical powers which could freeze body parts, won’t harm young Anna. Anna does not understand this and mourns the loss of her sister from her life.

As a woman with two sisters, and mother of three daughters, I have plenty of emotions, memories, and stories that could be told about sisterhood. Almost all of it good. But I still resonated with the basic storyline of this movie that grossed $1,280 billion in worldwide box office revenue, making it the highest-grossing animated film of all time, until the remake of Lion King in 2019.

A Disney story is going to have plenty of drama — and nowhere more than in making a film based on “Snow Queen.” There were various attempts from 1937, to post-World War II (1952), and the 1990s. Another attempt at production came in 2008 which finally came to fruition in 2013. Part of the issue was trying to make the story and characters relevant to a modern audience. When they finally hit upon the family dynamic of sisters in conflict, Wikipedia says “relationships between sisters are rarely used as a major plot element in American animated films.” I found it interesting that Disney held a “sister summit” where women from all over their own business, who grew up with sisters, came together and talked about their relationships.

I was happily surprised to find this super-popular movie had a theme I could relate to: I didn’t have much conflict with sisters, although juvenile jealousy exists in most family relationships, right? The classic song from this movie, “Let it Go” applies to so much of life including those ridiculous old fights and jealousies now replaced with love and appreciation in helping each other through life’s tough times.

After seeing the movie, I was amused when we drove to my brother and sister-in-law’s house after Christmas and saw the “Frozen” character — a puffy snowman Olaf — standing in front of their house. I immediately knew who he was! This reminded me of long ago when the “Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer” TV movie came out. All of my cousins (large family) were paraded up at the family get-together (after our Christmas potluck) to sing the then newly popular song featuring Rudolph. My sisters, brother, and I stood there feeling like maybe Amish children, not having the faintest idea of what we were supposed to sing because we weren’t allowed to watch much TV at that time (we only got TV in 1963).

Maybe it’s time for me to let that embarrassment go!

Send comments, memories, or stories to anotherwaymedia@yahoo.com or Another Way Media, P.O. Box 363, Singers Glen, VA 22834. Another Way is a column by Melodie Davis, in syndication since 1987. She is the author of nine books. Another Way columns are posted at FindingHarmonyBlog.com a week after newspaper publication.

This article originally appeared on The Daily American: Melody Davis column about watching Frozen movie