I like Frozen

I expected to see more kids at an animated movie; instead I noticed young adults formed the bulk of the audience watching Frozen during the evening hour on a week-day. I gather the show has been around for about 2 weeks, but appears to be still running strong, as seats for the earlier time were all sold out when I logged in. And I can see why. It's a delightful adaptation of the classic Snow Queen fairy-tale, with lots of funny dialogue, appropriate songs with meaningful lyrcis, amusing characters, and awesome awesome animation of something as ordinary as ice and snow. Never will I look at ice as boring old cubes again. And as for snow, man, if not for my nose sensitivity to cold, I would be sooo tempted to fly off to somewhere that snows, build a cute snowman and call it Olaf, and mayhap it will spew wise-cracks like the screen version.

At so many levels Frozen wormed its way into my heart. Who cannot but be taken up by the story of 2 siblings as different as winter and summer- the elder sister who by regrettably wrong parental training  grows up in such fear of hurting others that she becomes as frigid as  the ice she is able to conjure up supernaturally with a wave of her hands. Standing in perfect total contrast as an opposite foil is the younger sister, warm and naive as can be, who only wants nothing more than to play build a snowman and is so desperate for love she promptly agrees to marry the first handsome sweet-talker prince charming who waltzes her off her feet. Talk about dysfunctional families. It's so easy to relate to the tragic loneliness of both Elsa who chooses self-imposed exile, (literally and figuratively), as well as Anna, who can't understand the rejection by her own sister hiding behind a closed door all the time. Thanks to a re-wiring of Anna's head by a wise (??) rollypolly stone-troll which was the only way to save her from the deathly blast of ice Elsa had accidentally struck her with, Anna can only remember the good memories of their childhood.

But as we all know, life isn't always a ball of a good time. So right on her coronation day, Queen Elsa's greatest fear comes to pass when unwittingly in a fit of provocation, she went 'ice crazy' and unleashes such power that she turns the whole kingdom into an eternal winter. How often we do much damage to people  without realising or intending it. Heck, we don't need magic hands to hurt - our small bit of a tongue alone contains enuf power to pierce hearts and create mountains of unresolved bitterness in ourselves and in others.

So like all humans thinking problems can be solved by escaping from reality, Elsa runs away to the highest most remote pinnacle she can find and there creates a magnificent ice palace for herself (quite an architect she is too). It's so ironical - there  she is belting out a powerful song about freedom and "letting it go" , but she doesn't realize she is only deluding herself and living a life of deception. She has merely exchanged 'jails'. Being free to live her own life didn't mean she was free, really. Isnt that the greatest tragedy - living a self-perpetuated lie thinking it's the truth? Just like Elsa, we can so easily change our clothes, change our hair-do, build our own monuments and think we are doing fine,  secure in our own little world, doing what we like, how we like, when we like and call it independence, but in fact we are just kidding ourselves to feel good or right about ourselves.  Apostle Paul correctly surmised we are all slaves actually - its only to what/who are we enslaved - to sin or to righteousness, to self or to God (Romans 6:16-22). 

How Elsa reacts when Anna finally meets her sister after many adventurous perils is again exactly how humans react when confronted with truth. She just can't 'get it'; she creates a monster of a snow-man to protect herself (typically how we keep digging our own graves deeper and deeper, trying to solve the problem our own way) Succumbing  to the dangerous power in her, once again, unintentionally, she hurts the very person who loves her; only this time, a magic blast from her fingers hits Anna's heart fatally, which causes her to freeze slowly to death, moment by moment. And obviously the only cure for the heroine  is true love, which even the most knowledgeable wisest troll-magician can't manage.  I loved how they pulled a surprise on this one, they didn't settle for the usual traditional dashing hero kissing heroine to break the curse of death (ho hum, we know that one). Instead it was Anna's act in blocking off the bad guy's  (of coz there is at least 1 in every movie) sword falling down on her sister that melted her own frozen heart in her final moment. The sacrifice of her own life to save her sister was that true love needed to resurrect Anna from death. And finally Elsa 'gets it' - the only way to overcome fear is not to hide or reject others, but to dare to love and be loved. So like all fairy-tales, there is a happy ending.

It was Olaf the funny snow-man  who started up a fire at the risk of being melted himself just to warm up a "being-frozen-to-death" Anna who quipped "Some people are worth melting for". It was Olaf who defined true love - not the passionate kiss of a rugged mountain man, not the grieving tears of a repentant sister, but simply - "That's when you put someone else's needs before your own.." Like the act of selfless sacrifice of one's own life for another who really didn't deserve it. Which gives me cause to wonder many times whether Hollywood script-writers are aware of how biblical their ideas for movies are. 2000 years ago, Jesus Christ had already committed the act of truest, most perfect love in sacrificing His life on the cross for sinners such as I. I didn't ask for it, I wasn't aware of my need for it, I even rejected it at one time, just like Elsa rejecting Anna all the way. But it didn't matter to Anna; she just loved her sister, and she proved it by saving her life, even if it meant she had to die in the process. Exactly what Jesus did, sacrificing His life to save all humanity, when we don't deserve it. No one could love me (us) so that much. Jesus thought all of us are worth dying for. That's what true love and amazing grace is all about.

"There is no fear in love....perfect love drives out fear...We love because He first loved us." - 1 John 4:18-19