Story Breakdown: Frozen

We’re back with the story breakdown series! We’ll be doing one every month. (Although, we didn't get to do one in July but let's not make it a big deal!) 

This week, we’re talking about the extremely popular and beloved animated movie: Frozen

In case you're counting, that makes it the second Disney / animated movie on our story breakdown series. Why did we choose this one? How do we even decide what story to breakdown?

Glad you asked. We basically have two things we look for when picking a story that we can breakdown for you - 

1) Universal Appeal: It has to be a movie that you've probably seen at least once, and is also the one that can be viewed by everyone from a teenager to a grandparent. This limits us to English movies only, and also those that were popular and released in a majority of the world. 

2) Character-Driven Narrative: This is crucial. These breakdowns are for storytellers and writers, so we want to choose movies that have well-written, fully-realized characters that drive the plot rather than the other way around. 

Makes sense? The goal with this series is to use movies you may already be familiar with to understand how the writer put it all together. If you have movies or books you'd like us to cover in future breakdowns, let us know!

Let's get back to Frozen. In case you've never heard of this movie, Frozen is a Disney-produced animated musical released in 2013 and was an instant success, having earned close to $1.3 Billion worldwide. So let's break it down, shall we?

The Plot

Elsa and Anna are two sisters and princesses of Arendelle, a kingdom somewhere in or near Norway. Elsa has magical powers that allows her to control and even create ice. After a terrible accident which injured Anna, their parents see Elsa's powers as a curse, so they tell her she needs to 'hide it'. The parents die when both girls are young, so on the day Elsa becomes an adult, she's appointed the new Queen of Arendelle. Unfortunately, she accidentally reveals her powers during the ceremony - much to everyone's (including Anna) shock. She then runs away, unknowingly freezing all of Arendelle. Anna must then bring back her sister from the mountains and save the kingdom.

Also, by the way, Frozen is also based on an old but classic fairy tale called The Snow Queen by Hans Christen Andersen, who also wrote The Little Mermaid. But the story of The Snow Queen was changed a lot to get to the family and sisters-focus of Frozen. 

The above is less of a 'plot' and more of a 'setup'. What I just described above is the first 30 minutes of the movie, aka the 'First Act'.

Because Frozen is a movie aimed at young kids, the plot has to be very, very straight forward. Young children watch films in repetition - it is how they learn names, even dialogues, and life lessons. Disney is known for making family-friendly movies that also spread positive and hopeful messages. The way this story starts is like any other animated or even live-action Disney Princesses movie has started for decades.

Yes, the movie is funny. Yes, the songs are catchy. Yes, the film entertains you.

But what really separates Frozen apart from any Disney movie before it, is how the story subverts your expectations in the second and third acts.

See, every Disney movie always has a love interest for its main lead. The Princess always falls in love with the Prince. And Frozen seems to be that movie too, for the first two acts. But it's when you reach the final act - and the climax - that you realize that the writers here are not interested in making this a love story between a Prince and a Princess. This movie is a love story between two sisters.

In order to do this, the story has to earn the love Anna feels for her sister - so that when she sacrifices herself to save Elsa, you're rooting for her to somehow survive and win. 

How do you do that? How do you tell a story about how sometimes we fail to understand how much we love and need our family? How do you show the process through which two sisters - who are still grieving their parents - reconcile the anger and misunderstandings to heal together? And how do you make any of this entertaining?

This is where character development comes in.

The Characters

Viewers - the audience - readers - consumers of stories, they will care about any story you choose to tell, no matter what tangents you take or how complicated your plot feels, IF you can make them care about your characters.

Think of your favorite story. Movie, book, show, whatever. Think about why you still love it. 9/10 chances are it is because you care about the main character. Somehow, you connect to that person so much so that you're willing to stay with that character no matter where they're going.

Characters exist so we can use them to tell stories, talk about things we are curious about, share our viewpoints. 

So how do the writers of Frozen make us care about Anna and Elsa both, while also making us feel sympathetic for Elsa even though she's responsible for a lot of bad stuff that happens in the movie?

Let's talk about Elsa's character first.

From her very first scene, when the two girls are playing, we know that Elsa loves her sister. So much so, that she'll do anything to protect her. Even if that means shutting her out of her life. In that way, Elsa is given a paternal/maternal feel, especially with the way she talks to Anna at the coronation ceremony. 

At the same time, Elsa is hiding something deep inside her. Something she has been told is bad, and destructive. She can't control her powers because she hasn't been taught how to - nor has she ever been allowed to 'let it go' and embrace who she is.

Imagine that you feel something, deeply. And only you understand how much that thing means to you. Maybe it's how bad you want to be a writer. Or a singer. Or a dancer. Now imagine if you're told your whole life to keep these desires inside you. Don't let it show. Conceal. Don't feel. 

Now think of the experience a teenager who is struggling with figuring out their sexual identity must be having, feeling something they can't share with anyone - not even their family or best friends. 

Now imagine that one fine day you or that teenager walks into a movie theater and there is a character named Elsa who is representing what you're feeling. 

And then thirty minutes into the movie, that character sings this song - 

It's funny how some distance makes everything seem small
And the fears that once controlled me can't get to me at all
It's time to see what I can do
To test the limits and break through
No right, no wrong, no rules for me
I'm free
Let it go, let it go

Elsa's character is sympathetic because she is just trying her best to deal with her situation. And even when she 'revolts' and 'acts out', she does so involuntarily. When she finds out her actions had unfortunate consequences, she immediately tries to correct them. And all this while, her number #1 priority is still to protect her sister, even though she herself could die.

Elsa could have been written as an antagonist. But the writers knew that her character journey was too important. They wrote her as a hero who didn't understand the scope of her powers and her capabilities. A message that every parent would want their children to get from the 'cartoons' they see.

Now, let's talk about Anna.

Anna's character is the audience proxy in this movie - meaning, she's the one we're supposed to experience through. So by default, she has to be likable, because we - the audience - are likable, aren't we? 

Anna goes through a lot of emotions over the course of the movie. First, she becomes an orphan, and then her sister chooses to not see her or speak to her until her coronation ceremony. Then, on the same day, Anna falls in love, and her sister immediately rejects her feelings. Then the whole kingdom freezing thing happens and Anna starts putting the puzzle pieces together. Once she understands that her sister was hiding her powers from her, she realizes that she must need help, so she goes after her. Then, when she finds her sister, Anna accidentally gets injured, again. Then she's told that true love is the only thing that can fix her. Love, something she hasn't received from anyone since her parents died, except that one guy who she met and immediately wanted to marry. 

Anna is our reluctant hero. The one who must do something despite there being any evidence supporting that it will work. The one who must have faith. The one who must trust her sister to know that she wouldn't harm her, or her kingdom, intentionally. The one who not only has to accept what her sister's going through, but help her and support her when everyone else is labeling her as a 'monster'. 

And most importantly, Anna must show us - the audience - that no matter what, you never give up on family. 

Anna teaches us a lot of things throughout the movie by first learning them herself. And because she is our eyes and ears into the other world, we learn those lessons too. 

Together, Elsa and Anna are not only the strong female role models we want and need, but just well-written characters. 

Still, just characters and plot don't make a story fun to experience.

So let's talk about the execution.

The Execution

Think about this: you want to tell a story where you wish to explore the bond between two sisters, while at the same time, talking about broad themes such as self-acceptance, self-doubt, failure, isolation, feminism, empowerment and love.

Animation is a unique medium because it can create unique worlds that are unlike ours and even surreal, while also delivering an experience that is deeply human and rich in moral lessons that anyone can relate to and learn from.

Once you know the core of your story, you have to figure out what is the best medium and style for that story so you can have as much fun as you want writing it while also delivering it in a package that finds the right audience.

If Frozen wasn't animated, it wouldn't have been seen by as many young girls as it did. 

If Frozen wasn't a musical, it wouldn't have been able to give it's messages in a way that is memorable to its audience.

If the story of Frozen was approached with even 1% cynicism, it wouldn't have become a beloved instant classic. 

Writing a story about sibling love and self-acceptance could have been tackled in a hundred different ways. But none of those ways would have been this powerful and entertaining.

Speaking of entertaining, we hope you enjoyed this story breakdown! Frozen is filming its sequel at this moment, so expect us to make another story breakdown of Frozen 2 upon release, where we'll probably talk about how to grow already-well-established-and-adored characters.

If you're ready to put the things you learned about in this guide to the test, the button is below!

Start writing, and let it go :)