Caps #5: Dani Wingard

"Stereotyping is a general agreement about a social group and how we get our ideas about certain social groups. In other words, we are making social judgments about other groups and pop culture is assisting in creating and reinforcing these stereotypes" (Martin & Nakayama). Popular culture is something that is hard to resist in today's society. It is all around us; movies, magazines, books, television shows, news television, etc. I must be a little kid at heart because Frozen is my favorite movie. I watch Frozen at least once a week. I think that it is structured in an amazing way and the story line is incredible. Just like many movies, it contains little stereotypes, but they aren't necessarily bad stereotypes.

The first theme I noticed in Frozen is acceptance. Elsa deals with the struggle of her magic being wrong in their towns eyes. Her parents keep her locked away and away from any human interaction because they don't want to risk anything. In today's society, our media puts ideas into our heads as to how we should look or dress or act. In Frozen this is extremely noticeable when Elsa's secret comes out at the coronation and she runs away to The North Mountain. She sings a sing called "Let it go." It is such a powerful song talking about how she doesn't have to hide anymore, she can be who she wants to be and not have to listen to what people say. She can embrace her gift to make snow beautiful.

The second theme I noticed in the movie is love. There are many different forms of love throughout this movie, but the biggest one I noticed is when Anna meets Hans for the first time. They sing a duet together about love being an open door. It's all about how life with each other will be better and they're meant to be because it's true love after just barely a day. Hans proposes to Anna and she says yes. On Anna's journey to find Elsa, Hans is supposed to be taking care of the castle and Arendelle. When Anna is in the process of freezing Hans tells her that he never loved her and he just wanted to take over the castle. In today's societies terms, he 'played' her. Anna then realizes that all long Kristoff is her true love. 

The third theme in this movie that I wanted to talk about is family. This is my favorite theme because I just think it's incredible. This is the first Disney movie where the boy isn't saving the princess. Anna goes to see the trolls or "the love experts" with Kristoff after Elsa had struck her heart. They told her that only an act of true love can cure a frozen heart. Their first instinct is to get Anna back to Hans so that a true loves kiss can cure her heart. When Anna realizes it's not Hans she goes out in the blizzard to find Kristoff while Hans goes after Elsa to kill her. Just before Anna freezes she jumps in front of Elsa to save her from Hans' sword. She freezes completely and Elsa holds her sobbing. Eventually Anna melts because the act of true love was her saving Elsa. My favorite line in the movie is, "you risked your life to save me?"- Elsa. "I love you."- Anna. Their bond as sisters is stronger than a bond with any man. 

This movie is most likely resisted by boys. I love this movie because it strayed away from the social norms and it's the first Disney movie like this. It portrays a lot of stereotypes and pop culture, but I don't necessarily think that the stereotypes were bad at all. I think that this movie took negative stereotypes and made them into a positive one.