#3 How Western Religions Influenced Frozen
Story telling has always been an essential part of religious history and most of the time depicts morally good values so that audiences can learn and use these ideas in their own lives. Specifically, the greatest virtue to have is love, the Bible reads, “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13). The main focus of story telling within Western religions is to show audiences the strong sense of love God shares with His people. With Western religions being forced out of the main viewing ring of society, these stories still continue to resurface and be narrated today, clearly linking to the modern story of Disney’s Frozen. Using Forbes snowball effect, Emelie Durkheim’s theory of collective religiosity, and Joseph Price’s idea of secularization I will show how religious values from traditional stories have been implemented in newer stories such as Frozen and used to show an ideal modern lifestyle.
___ — ___ — ___ — ___ — ___ — ___ — ___ — ___ — ___ — ___ — ___ — ___ — ___
Part 1… A Process of Growth
Religious stories have a way of repeating and growing with society. This is what Bruce Forbes discusses in his article “Christmas is like a Snowball.” He says that religious traditions grow with time and transform the history and stories that came before. (Forbes 2017). His major layers of the snowball consist of a primitive and early form of religious ideals, secondly a more institutionalized religion at the peak of society and finally a modern view on religion (Forbes 128). All of these layers gradually work together, and none are separate from the other because it is a process of growth. The outside layer of the snowball in this context is the movie Frozen and the inner layer is the beginning of Western religions that established the beliefs and ideas. What was once old has now become new and modern. Within the movie we can see this concept naturally evolving through the growth of stories and society. The ending of the movie, which is arguably the most important part, depicts the crucifixion story found in the Bible. Jesus sacrifices himself on the cross for the sins of humanity and is reborn or resurrected to establish his timeless love for the children of God. This sacrifice was an act of pure love for the redemption of the other and embodies the meaning of family love and responsibility.
These principle values have not changed over time but the way they are presented has. There is still a need to show children a romanticized version of a story. The cartoon characters with their wide bright eyes, the furry friends Olaf and Sven create an altered and friendlier version of this Biblical story. This thousand-year-old narrative has been transformed into a modern story for the modern family while still using the basic elements of the original story to create this snowball process. The movie holds additional contemporary values, such as women empowerment, so we can really see the snowball growing and implementing what is popular with what is old. This is seen through the strong independent voices of the two princesses who are headstrong and go after what they want; however, under that we still see a family who struggles with one another while still maintaining this concept of love.
The ending of the movie follows this identical story. Queen Elsa ‘sins’ against the community and causes pain; Anna represents Jesus Christ and wants to help her sister remove her sins. The community condemns the sinner, and Anna who suffers with an illness inflicted by her sister still sacrifices herself to save her. Essentially at this moment Anna dies for the mistakes of her sister, much like Jesus died for his people. (View this scene from the movie here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6OkgfPRCSI). The reason Anna is then resurrected is because of this feeling of pure love and care for the other. The love between the two sisters brings the light back into their lives and their reconnection releases Elsa from her sins of destruction. Clearly the crucifixion story is reused in this case, but we can still see that Disney has adapted it and used morals from today’s society to give it more meaning.
___ — ___ — ___ — ___ — ___ — ___ — ___ — ___ — ___ — ___ — ___ — ___ — ___
Part 2… A collective
To continue, it is evident that core religious values do not change overtime, it is simply the way that they are represented that changes. Emelie Durkheim states that religion is a creation of a collective, something that is integral to society which the community decides is important. Durkheim looks at religion not as a result of gods but instead as a creation of needs and integral values of the society that the community needs provided. Frozen provides a sense of joy through the quirky characters who display unconditional love and this movie gives the audience a place to discover these important beliefs established by religions. The story of the crucifixion of Jesus shows the result of a collection of needs important to the society at the time. During this time, family and a need for a leader to guide the community down the correct path of redemption and towards love was important.
This idea of societal needs and what is considered essential can be clearly seen depicted in the movie, for example, Frozen uses the recently introduced idea of women empowerment in order to strengthen the storyline and make it more relevant to the audience. On the other hand, this type of empowerment is not shown in the crucifixion story distinctly showing the difference of societal needs did not allow for it to be prevalent. Thus, as different ideas become essential, modern society attempts to incorporate not only previously established beliefs and ideas but additionally adding new ideas.
For the most part, one can conclude that stories of the past portray collective needs of society of that current time and although are often retold now, can continuously change depending on new ideas and opinions. Although these stories are constantly evolving, one unchanging factor that many collectively identify with is the theme of unconditional love. Disney’s company continues to uphold this message and wants to incorporate it in all of its movies. In the movie Olaf says that “putting someone else’s needs before your own” is the true definition of love. The family system and true love therefore has always been an important part of Western traditions. Coincidentally, Jesus preached, “love one another. As I have loved you” (John 13:34) demonstrating the same value in two different stories at two different times. Furthermore, indicating the importance of this belief with the idea still having a powerful presence in todays world. Subsequently, love, being a major need in society, is always the answer and with family by your side you will always be able to overcome any struggle.
___ — ___ — ___ — ___ — ___ — ___ — ___ — ___ — ___ — ___ — ___ — ___ — ___
Part 3… Frozen Replacing Religion
Building on the two theories already discussed, Joseph Price discusses his secularization theory that sports replace traditional religions. This idea is similar to that of Frozen; modern stories and movies take the place of older stories and show these important values through contemporary ways customized to fit the modern family (Price 2017). Using Price’s idea and relating it to Frozen, the movie would therefore replace religion. It does this by showcasing the values and strong morals of Western religions within the movie. For example, alluding to the crucifixion story as mentioned above, showing portraits of saints in the movies castle and even dialogue between the characters that show the feeling of togetherness, love and unity. (Halsall 2019).
All of these factors resemble Western religions but the movie Frozen is not actually explicitly defined as a religion. In place of the institution that was usually the focal point of communities, now stand businesses, corporations and production companies whose goal is to replace the church and create a reformed version. It is evident when, “Pope Benedict XVI says that, in a global context, businesses have a greater responsibility than ever to ensure their activities consider the impact on people and the environment. He posits that the very success of the market economy depends on this transformation” (MacLeod 2011). So, there is a strong recognition that Disney has taken the place of Church and uses its platform to share its core values. The corporation has a responsibility to create an environment that is in line with these values that society has repeatedly deemed important throughout history. Since these corporations are the new institution, the movie Frozen is its own form of the Bible. It depicts the necessary teachings of morality and good versus evil to teach the audience and especially children what kind of life they should lead. This is the life of uniting as a family and relying on those you care for. As a result, Disney becomes the institution replacing religion, and the Bible is replaced by the movie Frozen.
___ — ___ — ___ — ___ — ___ — ___ — ___ — ___ — ___ — ___ — ___ — ___ — ___
Discussing the idea that stories and values carry on through time shows what communities found as important themes within their society. Frozen is a movie that is built off of religion and uses it as an anchor to describe the themes of love and family while also putting its own spin on the original story. We can even go as far to say that Frozen and the production company replace traditional ideas of religion and instead showcase that system in a contemporary way. As a result, it is evident that Western religions have grown and adapted into movies like Frozen to best suit the needs of the community.
References
Arnal, W. “The Segregation of Social Desire: ‘Religion’ and Disney World.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion, vol. 69, no. 1, 2001, pp. 1–20., doi:10.1093/jaarel/69.1.1.
Forbes, Mahan (2017). Religion and Popular Culture in America, Third Edition. doi: 10.1525/california/9780520291447.001.0001
Halsall (2019). Disney’s Frozen Franchise and Transmedia Adaptation. South Atlantic Review
MacLeod, Michael. “RELIGION AND THE RISE OF GLOBAL CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY.” The Review of Faith & International Affairs 9.3 (2011): 29–36. Web. 15 Oct. 2019
Sandlin, J. A., & Garlen, J. C. (2017). Magic everywhere: Mapping the disney curriculum. Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 39(2), 190–219. doi:10.1080/10714413.2017.1296281
Smoodin, E. (1994). Disney discourse: producing the magic kingdom. New York: Routledge.
Stehn, M. (2018). A brilliant but Frosty Solution: Frozen ® as an Allegory for the Central Relational Paradox. Journal of Creativity in Mental Health, 13(2), 254–261. doi: 10.1080/15401383.2018.1426509
