[phone ringing] Err...hello? hey newbie this is your complementary reminder message! Do you
have any idea what time it is here? do you have any idea what time it is here?
Miller Time? No... wait... no, it's time for your debut on Channel Awesome! Debut...Channel...
Debut...Channel...IT'S CHANNEL AWESOME DAY!
And the penny drops...
[For The First Time in Forever plays] IT'S CHANNEL AWESOME DAY!
[sings] The camera is set up So's the mic
The hundredth show of Stuff You Like Who knew that we would ever get this far?
For years we've done all kinds of shows Some with singing, why? [spoken] who knows? Finally we've made it here we are!
I'm on TGWTG with new people Some of them totally strange (Hey!)
But wow am I so ready for this change! Cos for the first time in forever There'll be Disney on my show
For the first time in forever A reason to sing Let It Go (please no)
Personalities, fear and princesses, we'll be somewhere in that zone,
Cos for the first time in forever [phone rings] Wait, is that my phone?
Yes, yes it was! REVIEW?
This is Stuff You Like, you can call me Ursa and if you've never been here before let me tell you what the
show is all about this is a place where we talk about our favorite things in
media, sometimes there is analysis sometimes there is squee sometimes there
is singing and sometimes you get a little bit of all three and our topic
for this week is Frozen. okay frozen is the princess movie where
Disney combined classic and Renaissance tropes with amazing success. Frozen
was a massive commercial success it was loved by audiences and it won all of the
awards and I think part of the reason for the success of the film is having
something in there for everyone and a really strong message to boot. Two
messages actually both of them Disney favorites: 1. let your freak flag fly
and 2. take responsibility for your actions. right the plot of Frozen goeth
thusly Elsa and Anna are princess sisters Elsa has magic ice powers she
accidentally hurts Anna and because of trolls and parents and reasons shuts
herself off from Anna the world and developing her powers. Their parents die
Elsa comes of age; Anna, desperate for affection gets engaged to some guy she
just met at the party and Elsa's power is released when they argue. Elsa runs
and accidentally sets off eternal winter Elsa is free but Oh crud eternal winter
Anna goes to try and stop the winter, in her panic Elsa freezes Anna's heart and
we need an act of true love to thaw it as it turns out not a true love's kiss
because Anna's fiance is a baddie and the act of true love is Anna's to make. she
saves Elsa from Hans and all's well. Elsa gains control of her powers and she and
Anna have a relationship again woo. Anna is very much an archetypical
Renaissance princess she is a cheerful Sparky optimist who happily lets her
freak flag fly and hits Wolves with flaming things. Anna
like Lilo from Lilo and Stitch which is another great Disney Sisters movie by
the way is unashamed of who she is. princess she may technically be but Anna
is bold and valiant and fearless and reckless: Anna is a knight and I love her. Elsa
is much more in the classic Disney princess mould in that she is reserved
and quiet and holds things inside. she's pessimistic she's afraid she has an
ironclad sense of duty and a Woobie destroyer of worlds plot arc. elsa like
Eleanor from Brave puts duty before personal feelings sometimes to personal
cost. Elsa is noble selfless stately Elsa is a queen and she learns through
singing of award-winning songs and acts of sisterly love that responsibilities
without support without relationships and love and someone to help you and
advise you is a stranglehold but that the answer is not to give up all
responsibilities the reason that she runs away is not a shirk her duty but
because she genuinely believes (wrongly) that they would be better off without
her. Elsa learns to be more herself and is a better Queen because of it
Anna is our protagonist her goal at the beginning of the movie that she achieves
by the end of it is to reconnect with her sister but her learning curve her
arc is in many ways the opposite of Elsa's Elsa is closed off from the world
by her own choice and learns to open up Anna has been closed off from the world
unwillingly and learns that opening up to everyone is not a good idea
Elsa learns that you can loosen up and still be a good leader Anna learns that
you have to take responsibility for your mistakes. 'it's my fault' she tells
Kristoff I mean personally I'd put some blame on shoddy parenting but
no it's it's important that Anna takes responsibility for the fact that she was
the one who outed her sister to everyone in the world there is a part of Anna's
arc which is similar to Brave in that she has to take responsibility for her
actions but unlike Merida she is perfectly willing to do so from the
get-go. the main point is not learning that some things are your fault and your
responsibility the main point is fixing things which are your responsibility
Frozen is about two different people becoming more like each other but still
being different people and that being okay you can see elements of the two
sisters in each other not just that they have the same face the way that Anna
draws herself up when she is trying to order Kristoff around, the way that Elsa
even when she is in full-on fear and lockdown mode still loosens up just a
tiny bit when she's around her sister. but they don't become clones of each
other and that's important because it's important to know that there is more
than one way to be a Disney princess or to be a good person. Besides, having two
princesses or a princess and a queen in your movie: genius not only because you
double your marketing potential but because you more than double your reach
when you have only one main female character in a movie she bears the
weight and responsibility of all females everywhere which is kind of sucky when
you have Elsa and Anna you can have an optimist and a pessimist someone who
withdraws someone who takes action you have someone who's very outgoing you
have someone who's very reserved you have someone who's elegant and someone
who is clumsy it doesn't matter which of them you like best because both of them
are good people and you can take your pick which one you like best which one
you resonate with the most but it's not a competition there is no better sister
this one is crazy strong, this one has magical ice powers and they are supported
by the usual Disney stable of talking sidekicks and funny animal companions
and for a plot that's not terribly dense and occasionally
holey it carries you along very well because the characters are so
intrinsically lovable except Hans. Hans is a douche. Sooo yeah, Frozen, it's great:
lovable characters amazing songs and generally just a fun way to spend a
couple of hours and while I did say yes that you don't have to choose between
Elsa and Anna if you don't want to because they are both interesting different
female characters with their own strengths I will say this I love Anna
I empathize a lot with her and she is a redhead but ultimately: it's good to be
queen.
"...and they sound like a megalomaniac to boot. Rob what were you thinking... no I'm
still talking about the nostalgia critic..."