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Fresh thoughts on 'Frozen'

I blogged about this marvellous Disney film last year, but I watched it again yesterday and I'm struck again by other things that are totally brilliant about it.  I'm working on a series of talks for the youth club based on films they like, and one of the films they chose was Frozen.  The obvious clip to use for a God slot is probably the redemptive ending, when in an 'act of love' Anna saves her sister's life, apparently at the cost of her own.  On second thoughts, however, I think I'm going to show the sequence with the hit song Let it Go.  I've been reflecting on why I like that song so much and why I like the concept behind it.  So here goes.

Elsa has a secret - she can do magic.  Specifically, she can produce ice and snow from her hands. Elsa's magic is nether good nor bad, it just is.  However, one morning as a child she accidentally hurts her sister with the magic, and that causes her parents to protect Elsa and Anna by hiding Elsa's magic from the world, and by teaching Elsa to hide it.  No one can hide who they really are for long, and on Elsa's 21st birthday her magic comes bursting out of her for all to see.  She runs away to the north mountain, conjures up a beautiful ice palace to live in and sings Let it go.  Finally, she can let it all go, she can be who she is.  It's exhilarating.  I found myself thinking of my anxiety, which (despite blogging about it) I tend to keep hidden.  How wonderful it would be just to let it all go.  However, Elsa's freedom comes at the cost of terrible isolation (and of accidentally condemning her land to perpetual winter).  She thinks that the only way she can be herself, and keep others safe, is to be alone.  Her isolation is finally broken down by her sister's love.  Anna refuses to be kept shut out; she loves and trusts her sister and accepts her completely.  She goes looking for her sister again and again, and finally gets through.

I think this is a beautiful picture of God's love, and of human love at its best.  Like Elsa and her magic, we all have the potential for good and evil (and the two are often mixed in our actions anyway).  Love accepts that human beings are not perfect, and loves them anyway.  And - at its best - that love enables them to be the best they can be.

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