"Let it go."
Hello everyone!
Or should I say, musical?
Apparently, I've been in the musical mood lately, which is funny since Snow White very nearly undid all my desires when it comes to anything sing-along LOL
But this one was too good to miss.
Disney Plus keeps releasing absolute bangers on its streaming service, making me never regret for a single moment that I subscribe. This one is no exception either, and is by far probably one of my favourites (I still need to put my big girl pants on and watch the Lion King live thing they did ... I know I'll bawl).
I mean, how can it NOT be?
Anna and Elsa make a triumphant return in Frozen the Broadway Musical!
By this point, over a decade after the first movie spawned a franchise that really seems to be gaining track (a third and fourth movie are making it to the big screen in the following years), I don't think it's a spoiler to recap the plot as it stands:
the kingdom of Arendelle is ruled by a good king and queen, who have two daughters, the oldest of which, Elsa, is tapped to be the next queen. She also happens to have magical, ice-forming powers, and she and her sister Anna LOVE playing together while she uses them.
That is, until she accidentally zaps her own sister, and the parents have to call on some rock trolls to save her.
Said trolls erase all memory of magic from the girl, and Elsa, along with her parents, decide that they'll keep them separate, to both hide Elsa's powers, and to try and teach Elsa to keep them hidden on the whole, never using them, just ... keeping them in.
When the parents are lost at sea searching for answers that might help their daughter, Arendelle mourns, and as the years pass, the sisters drift apart with so many walls - both physical and imagined - between them.
Finally comes Elsa's coronation day, and everything goes to pot when she gets agitated (I ask you if you wouldn't be, when your sister, in the perfect caricature of what Disney princesses usually did, waltzed up to you saying she met a man and she's going to marry him!) and unleashes her powers, revealing herself.
The people freak, and egged on by Weaselton - ahem, Weselton, but he's a weasel, and everyone in the musical LOVES to make fun of this fact - they crash out over the "monster".
Elsa runs off, and Anna runs after her, knowing it's her fault but also knowing they're sisters and need to stick together. Her mistake? Leaving Arendelle in the hands of Hans, this dude she wants to marry and believes is her one true love.
Helped along her journey by Kristoff the ice dude, Olaf the snowman, and Sven the reindeer, several musical numbers later, Anna reaches the palace Elsa constructed for herself during her triumphant Let it Go number, and the sisters admit they can't lose each other again, yet Elsa also can't return.
Anna, overly emotional and pushy, pushes another of Elsa's buttons, but this time when the magic zap hits her it hits her heart, not her head. Kristoff rushes her to the trolls who raised him, because hello, Anna, your hair is turning ALL white, not just the fashion streak you had going before! But there's nothing the trolls can do - only love's kiss will save her now, so naturally, Kristoff returns her to Arendelle.
And also naturally, Hans captures Elsa in the meantime, and then tells Anna sikes, sorry, no kiss for you, besides I don't love you anyway, I just want your kingdom.
Elsa frees herself, desperately searching for Anna, and is lied to by Hans (Hans lies to them both, actually), which breaks her heart further, but Anna forces her way out into the storm that's raging because of Elsa's volatile and violent emotions, to save her sister, right before she freezes into a full statue.
Heartbroken, Elsa kisses that frozen cheek, and hey presto! Anna's awake, all her memories restored, because it was never about the love between lovers, but between sisters, which is the ENTIRE point of this movie.
Hans is yeeted out of there, Weasel does his best to pretend he wasn't scheming to lock the queen away, and Elsa promises Anna that they'll live openly together in harmony now, no more closed gates, and oh also, Kristoff's welcome too, considering he and Anna ARE actually in love.
The musical ends on the same high note as the first movie, and to top it off the ensemble cast is magnificent. Anna and Elsa shine, both individually and together, and whoever was doing the casting knew their stuff with Weasel, Hans and the lot.
Several songs were added to the production that never appear in the original movie, but which I found charming and endearing in the same way that the others are, which goes to show that following the heart of the message is always the way to go.
Frozen the Broadway Musical is available for streaming, and I strongly encourage you to watch it. It's beautiful!
10/10 recommend.
xx
*images and video not mine
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