Accepting my new "Frozen"-based reality

[jinasphinx]

I was rewatching "Frozen" again last night, like you do when you have small kids, and I started thinking about Kristoff. On the one hand, it's a bit of a bummer that Anna needs the help of a guy, unlike Merida, who doesn't even think about asking her three suitors for help -- she ends up being helped by her little brothers, but only towards the end of the movie.

On the positive side, Kristoff is a lot more three-dimensional than most heroes in Disney animated movies, and he differs in other ways as well. He's basically the anti-Prince Charming. Not only is he not a prince, his status in society is pretty low. Of the non-princes in Disney animation, John Smith is an explorer from a rich and powerful country, and Mulan's guy, Li Shang, is an army captain and a general's son. Aladdin becomes a prince via the genie. (Although Kristoff is a step up in society from Flynn Rider, the wanted criminal.) And he's prickly, not charming: he gets thrown out of a shop and follows it up by having an argument with Anna while they're being chased by wolves.

He might be the only Disney hero with a great sense of humor: "But people smell better than reindeers / Sven, don't you think I'm right? / That's once again true, for all except you." And although all the Disney heroes are brave, Kristoff also worries about everyone else first. Even at the end when he's frantically riding to save Anna ("like a valiant, pungent reindeer king!" as Olaf says) and he and Sven the reindeer take a spill on the breaking ice, he has to make sure Sven's okay before he takes off running.

And there's the "unmanly blondness": except for John Smith in "Pocahontas," I think Kristoff's the only blond "prince." (Here's a picture of the Disney prince lineup that's recent enough to include Flynn Rider.)

Comments

[jinasphinx.livejournal.com]

Well, it's definitely the case that the two sisters are the main characters. It's funny, the movie spends most of its time with Anna, but as far as my kids are concerned, Elsa is the coolest character ever and they both pretend to be her. Nobody wants to be Anna. They also pretend to be the snowmen.

[marzipan-pig.livejournal.com]

OK Kristoff is supposed to be Saami and a Saami guy goes into why it's not a great representation. That article, one conversation with a (white) friend of Nordic descent, and a brief conversation with a (white) colleague from Finland is the entire breadth and depth of my knowledge of the Saammi people though I guess my Inupiat friend is sort of related?

I will see if I can get my friend's little kid to talk to me about the differences b/w Elsa and Anna!

[jinasphinx.livejournal.com]

I had no idea Kristoff was supposed to be Sami! I feel bad for the Sami guy who wrote that tumblr; every time we watch "Lady and the Tramp" and the Siamese cats come out and sing that godawful racial caricature of a song, I have to leave the room. I mean, some of the stuff he mentions, like that the boots have no laces or the sled is too heavy to pull or that no Sami rides reindeer -- I'm like heck, did you notice that Anna and Elsa have eyes bigger than their wrists? Disney's not realistic. But yeah, I can imagine how painful it would be to have your culture misrepresented in popular media this way. Thanks for the link.