‘Are You a Monster, Too?’: Genre, Gender, and Hybridity in Disney’s Frozen (2013)

“Are You a Monster, Too?”:

Genre, Gender, and Hybridity in

Disney’s Frozen (2013)

Eve BenhamouPhD candidate in Film Studies, University of Bristol

IntroductionFrozen and the Fairy-Tale Genre

Frozen Fever (2015) Cinderella (2015)

IntroductionMarketing and Generic

HybridityDisney’s Frozen Teaser Trailer (June 2013)

Disney’s Frozen “Wolf Chase” Clip (October

2013)

“

”

Fearless optimist Anna (voice of Kristen Bell) sets off on an epic journey — teaming up with rugged mountain man Kristoff … — to find her sister Elsa (voice of Idina Menzel), whose icy powers have trapped the kingdom of Arendelle in eternal winter. Encountering … a hilarious snowman named Olaf, Anna and Kristoff battle the elements in a race to save the kingdom.

Frozen’s Official SynopsisDisney. “About Frozen”. Accessed 6 August 2014. http://www.disney.co.uk/movies/frozen/.

IntroductionResearch Questions

To what extent does Frozen actually fit in and rework Hollywood contemporary generic trends?

How does this hybridity impact on the film’s construction of femininity?

IntroductionOutline

1. “Formula-Defying”? Frozen and the Postfeminist Live-Action (and Animated) Fairy Tale Post-Shrek Universe: Frozen As a Self-Reflexive

(Disney) Fairy Tale Hollywood’s Postfeminist Update of the Fairy-Tale

Genre: Frozen As “Girly Film” and Romantic Comedy2. A “Big-Screen Comedy Adventure”: Frozen and Generic Hybridity Action and the Family-Adventure Genre in Frozen Frozen and the Superhero Genre

1. “Formula-Defying”? Frozen and the Postfeminist Live-Action (and Animated) Fairy Tale Post-Shrek Universe: Frozen As a Self-Reflexive (Disney) Fairy Tale

Overview of the Contemporary Fairy-Tale Film Genre in the 2000s and 2010s

Left: Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)

Right: Mirror Mirror (2012)

Left: Red Riding Hood (2011)Hansel & Gretel (2013)

Right: Ella Enchanted (2004)Enchanted (2007)

Parody, Self-Reflexivity and Intertextuality

Anna: Disney Princess, damsel in distress, and fairy-tale heroine


“For the First Time in Forever”: “What if I meet THE ONE?”Anna as Snow-White (1937), Cinderella (1950), Aurora (1959), and

Ariel (1989)


“Love Is an Open Door” (Frozen, 2013)

“So This Is Love” (Cinderella, 1950)


Celebrating “true love” love: Anna and Kristoff

1. “Formula-Defying”? Frozen and the Postfeminist Live-Action (and Animated) Fairy Tale Hollywood’s Postfeminist Update of the Fairy-Tale Genre: Frozen As “Girly Film” and Romantic Comedy

Frozen As Romantic Comedy

Anna and Kristoff: from an antagonistic relationship to the awareness of their

(true) love

Frozen As Girly FilmFemale bonding: Anna and Elsa

Girly Films and the Makeover

Top left: Maid in Manhattan (2002)

Top right: The Devil Wears Prada (2006)

Bottom left: She’s All That (1999)

Bottom Right: The Princess Diaries (2001)

Frozen As Girly FilmElsa’s Makeover

2. A “Big-Screen Comedy Adventure”: Frozen and Generic HybridityAction and the Family-Adventure Genre in Frozen

Action Sequences

Anna and Kristoff’s chase scenes

Gender and Action in Contemporary Hollywood: the

“Action Babe”Top left: Charlie’s Angels

(2000)Top right: Lara Croft Tomb

Raider (2001)Bottom: Scarlett

Johansson as Black Widow in Iron Man 2 (2010) and

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Gender and Action in Contemporary Hollywood: the

Action Girl

Clockwise: Kim Possible (2002-2007)Totally Spies (2001-2014)

Bolt (2008)Veronica Mars (2004-2007)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003)

Gender and Action in Frozen

Female-centred vs.

male-centred action

sequences

2. A “Big-Screen Comedy Adventure”: Frozen and Generic HybridityFrozen and the Superhero Genre

Superhero Tropes and Frozen’s Reworking of the GenreThe superhero’s

exploration of his powers Spider-Man (2002)

Superhero Tropes and Frozen’s Reworking of the

Genre“Let It Go”: Elsa’s exploration of her powers & super-

animator

Superhero Tropes and Frozen’s Reworking of the

GenreBruce Banner (the Hulk) mastering and using his overflowing power/anger

Left: The Incredible Hulk (2008); Right: Avengers (2012)

Depicting a Super-Powerful Female

“Conceal it, don’t feel it”

Depicting a Super-Powerful Female

“Don’t be the monster they fear your are!”

ConclusionGenre, Gender, and Hybridity

in FrozenFrozen through a genre-sensitive perspective and Sarah Projansky’s “both/and approach”:


in FrozenFrozen through a genre-sensitive perspective and Sarah Projansky’s “both/and approach”: As a contemporary self-reflexive fairy-tale film, both

undermines and reinforces classic Disney fairy-tale tropes

Frozen through a genre-sensitive perspective and Sarah Projansky’s “both/and approach”: As a contemporary self-reflexive fairy-tale film, both

undermines and reinforces classic Disney fairy-tale tropes As a girly film, emphasizes both female bonding and

heteronormativity


in Frozen


in FrozenFrozen through a genre-sensitive perspective and Sarah Projansky’s “both/and approach”: As a contemporary self-reflexive fairy-tale film, both


heteronormativity As a postfeminist family-adventure film, portrays Princess

Anna as both active and girlish

Frozen through a genre-sensitive perspective and Sarah Projansky’s “both/and approach”: As a contemporary self-reflexive fairy-tale film, both


heteronormativity As a postfeminist family-adventure film, portrays Princess

Anna as both active and girlish As a female-centred superhero narrative, depicts Elsa as

both superheroine and monster


in Frozen


in FrozenFrozen through a genre-sensitive perspective and Sarah Projansky’s “both/and approach”: As a contemporary self-reflexive fairy-tale film, both undermines and

reinforces classic Disney fairy-tale tropes As a girly film, emphasizes both female bonding and heteronormativity As a postfeminist family-adventure film, portrays Princess Anna as

both active and girlish As a female-centred superhero narrative, depicts Elsa as both

superheroine and monster “inextricable combination of disruption/containment” in postfeminist discourses

Sarah Projansky, “Mass Magazine Cover Girls: Some Reflections on Postfeminist Girls and Postfeminism’s Daughters,” in Interrogating Postfeminism: Gender and the Politics of Popular Culture, eds. Diane Negra and Yvonne Tasker (Durham: Duke University Press, 2007), 68-69.

ConclusionGeneric Alternatives

Left: “Frozen’s Queen Elsa and Carrie White”, Didouchafik, Deviant Art, accessed 11 April 2015, http://didouchafik.deviantart.com/art/Frozen-s-Queen-Elsa-and-Carrie-white-425383826.Right: Carrie (2013)

Selective Bibliography Brown, Jeffrey A. Dangerous Curves: Action Heroines, Gender Fetishism, and Popular Culture. Jackson: University

Press of Mississippi, 2011. Gray II, Richard J., and Betty Kaklamanidou, eds. The 21st Century Superhero: Essays on Gender, Genre and

Globalization in Film. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2011. Greenhill, Pauline, and Sidney Eve Matrix, eds. Fairy Tale Films: Visions of Ambiguity. Logan: Utah State

University Press, 2010. http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/usupress_pubs/70/. Harries, Dan. “Film Parody and the Resuscitation of Genre.” In Genre and Contemporary Hollywood, edited

by Steve Neale, 281-93. London: British Film Institute, 2002. Holmes, Su. “Cold and Hungry: Discourses of Anorexic Femininity in Frozen (2013).” Auteuse Theory: A Blog

on Women’s Cinema. 21 November 2014. http://auteusetheory.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/cold-and-hungry-discourses-of-anorexic_21.html.

Krämer, Peter. “Would You Take Your Child to See this Film? The Cultural and Social Work of the Family-Adventure Movie”. In Contemporary Hollywood Cinema, edited by Steve Neale and Murray Smith, 294-311. London: Routledge, 1998.

Neale, Steve. Genre and Hollywood. London: Routledge, 2000. Projansky, Sarah. “Mass Magazine Cover Girls: Some Reflections on Postfeminist Girls and

Postfeminism’s Daughters.” In Interrogating Postfeminism: Gender and the Politics of Popular Culture, edited by Diane Negra and Yvonne Tasker, 40-72. Durham: Duke University Press, 2007.

Purse, Lisa. “Return of the ‘Angry Woman’: Authenticating Female Physical Action in Contemporary Cinema.” In Women on Screen: Feminism and Femininity in Visual Culture, edited by Melanie Waters, 185-98. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

Radner, Hilary. Neo-Feminist Cinema: Girly Films, Chick Flicks and Consumer Culture. New York: Routledge, 2011. Rowe Karlyn, Kathleen. Unruly Girls, Unrepentant Mothers: Redefining Feminism on Screen. Austin: University of

Texas Press, 2011. Tasker, Yvonne. “Enchanted (2007) by Postfeminism: Gender, Irony, and the New Romantic Comedy.” In

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‘Are You a Monster, Too?’: Genre, Gender, and Hybridity in Disney’s Frozen (2013)

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