Why Frozen is Monumental for Disney

Female Empowerment taken to the screens.

Two lead characters in Frozen, Anna and Elsa, are women.

Disney.com

Two lead characters in Frozen, Anna and Elsa, are women.

Karina Shah, Photojournalist

Frozen, a Disney Animation Studios movie released in November 2013, is a computer animated fantasy film inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Snow Queen”. The film’s voice actors consist of Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel as the lead women, along with Jonathan Groff, Josh Gad, and Santino Fontana playing roles alongside the leads.

 

According to Disney News, it was very apparent that Frozen was successful with its first movie. Within months, the film was an incredible success, achieving a significant commercial earning of $1.276 billion dollars. It surpassed Toy Story 3 as the second highest grossing animated film for Disney at the time and is ranked as the 15th highest grossing film of all time. They sold merchandise in every store across America for months as well as opening a ride at the Disney park Epcot. Because of this success, the creators decided to bring in a Frozen 2.

 

In the trailer for Frozen 2 much more was added to the main plot which had not been introduced in the first movie. Danielle Huizar (10), a Frozen enthusiast, says, “I’m so excited for one of my favorite childhood movies to come into my teen years as well.” The trailer has surprised everyone with new characters and sets that were not in the first movie at all. and Disney hopes that it will be even more successful than the first. 

 

However, Frozen is not only just a kids movie. Besides being monumental in the success and prosperity of Disney, it is also a big step forward for female empowerment. The lead role is a woman who is arguably independent throughout the entire movie. She takes care of herself and her sister in the beginning of the movie, and, as the movie progresses she ventures off by herself, where the main scene of female empowerment is presented. She is all alone, and yet she has the capability to build an ice castle with her own powers. Showing this is a big contrast to the usual Disney movies in which the women are merely dependent on men for the entirety of the story line. 

 

The biggest reason that this is a big step for female empowerment is because of all the little girls who watched it take place. Before, they were always watching about how they needed a prince their true love. Now, they see a woman as a strong lead character, which will make their new up and coming generation empowered.