Snow Queen, Snow Maiden
January 8, 2014 at 8:58 pm 5 comments
For recent glimpse of the Snow Maiden- check out the new Disney film, Frozen. It’s about a pair of royal sisters, Anna and Elsa. The elder sister Elsa is born with the magical ability to freeze things, and after almost killing her sister with frostbite, she is isolated in a tower. But after her parents are killed, she must be released to become queen, and she loses control over her powers and puts the kingdom into an endless winter.
Unfortunately I won’t be able to see it til it’s out of the theaters, otherwise I would review it right here. It looks like a beautifully animated film, with a great feminist message. See, Disney? You can do it! It’s not that hard!
I have to disagree that Frozen is a retelling of the Snow Queen– I’d say that it is loosely inspired by it however. C.S. Lewis draws much more explicitly on the Snow Queen with the White Witch character. She rules a realm of eternal winter (with no Christmas!) and tempts Edmund to hop in her sleigh of warm furs and tasty Turkish delight. That’s what happens in the original the little boy is lured off by the Snow Queen, and his sister goes on a journey to rescue him. And that’s Edmund’s siblings (Lucy, Peter & Susan) have to do.
For the longest time after reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, I wondered what the heck Turkish delight was. Well, I did get to try some a while back and I can see why it was so tempting! It is basically gelatin with dried fruit and nuts- rather like gooey fruitcake. Wouldn’t making some of it be a great way to celebrate winter?
Entry filed under: Mythology, Popular Culture. Tags: fairy tales, films, popular culture, snow maiden, snow queen.
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1.
Erika at endomental | January 10, 2014 at 5:09 am
I saw Frozen recently and really enjoyed it. I liked the focus on the sister relationship, as opposed to a romance, I agree, there’s very little of it from Andersen’s The Snow Queen, which would be an awesome story for Disney to do. It’s a good story about two strong female characters that doesn’t have to make men look stupid or incompetent to make the women look strong and competent.
My only complaint about the movie is that there’s too much “comic relief.” They could have done without the snowman. Or the reindeer. Or both.
2.
caelesti | January 11, 2014 at 9:47 pm
Glad you liked it! Disney does overdo the comic relief- the snowman did seem rather over the top from the previews. I think sometimes they are too desperate to be “cool” and “kid-friendly” Pixar films tend to balance adult/kid interest well. The movie looks great otherwise though.
3.
Erika at endomental | January 11, 2014 at 10:07 pm
I will say that Idina Menzel killed it with “Let it go.” It was very “Wicked.”
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