Frozen: Hero’s Journey Film Analysis “A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself” says Joseph Campbell.
The protagonist Ana, in Frozen, goes on a journey in which she is in great jeopardy of her sister’s ice powers. Elsa, Ana’s sister, has just become queen in an opulent coronation when her ice powers go out of control. She runs away and Ana goes on a very dangerous journey to find her and change the weather back. Ana nearly loses her life in the end because of Elsa. Although Ana’s journey to find Elsa lacks parts of the hero’s journey, she still embodies the classic and Hemingway hero archetypes, follows the hero’s journey for the most part, and learns a valuable lesson that love heals relationships.
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When a hero is in their initiation stage, generally they are starting or getting ready to achieve their ultimate goal and end up achieving it in this stage as well. Because Elsa froze Ana’s heart, Ana needs an act of true love in order to not literally freeze to death. Ana thought that this act would be a true love's kiss with Hans. However, Hans turned out to portray much duplicity and never loved Ana, as he just wanted her throne. When Ana freezes in front of Hans’ knife, she saves Elsa from being stabbed by him. Elsa then hugs Ana and weeps. Meanwhile, Ana begins to thaw and the ice which she is contained in melts. This event in Frozen serves as the “atonement with the father” in which Elsa acts as the father figure. Elsa’s love for Ana thaws Ana and brings her “back to life.” Likewise, the next part of Ana’s initiation occurs once she is thawed. The whole city of Arendale thaws as well. Elsa remembered and said aloud, “Love will thaw” (Frozen). This event depicts the “ultimate boon” part of the hero’s journey. Ana’s ultimate goal, to bring back Elsa and change the weather, is achieved in this part of the movie. Throughout most of the movie, Ana has worked to find Elsa and thaw Arendale so this “ultimate boon” is the climax of the movie as well. This quote also helps to elaborate on the lesson that love heals because Elsa’s love for Ana is what thawed Ana and Arendale. Clearly, Ana’s ultimate goal was achieved while also …show more content…
The hero achieves their ultimate goal before the return. The return is when the hero is coming back home and/or trying to settle back into their normal life. Ana owes Kristoff a new sled because his broke on their journey. He loves it so much that he wants to kiss her and he and Ana realize they are in love. This event in the movie makes Ana the “master of two worlds”. She and Elsa are sisters and now have a very good relationship and her newfound love for Kristoff puts her in a romantic relationship as well. She has to learn to deal with and master both worlds, whether romantically or not. Finally, Ana has come to the last part of her hero’s journey. Ana is now home and with the people she loves. At the beginning of the movie, the castle gates were always closed which made Ana very sad. However, the gates are now open. Ana says to Elsa, “I like the open gates” (Frozen). This quote can be interpreted literally like the castle gates are now open, or metaphorically. Metaphorically this quote implies how Ana can now be free and herself with the people she loves. Ana can now “live in the moment” and not worry about the past or the future. This ability to “live in the moment” showcases the “freedom to live” step in the hero’s journey. In the end, Ana has completed the hero’s journey with hardships, achieved goals, and mended
whole life changes in one night though, when Elsa is raped by a GI soldier, and
The human need to be relatable is unquenchable. We love to be able to see parts of ourselves in others, and to be able to feel like our idols are not untouchable. The Hero’s Journey format is one that can be found in almost any story, even in real life. Overall, it is the perfect recipe for keeping readers engrossed. Another place the journey has shown up is in Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand and Odyssey by Homer. These two stories—one a biography, the other, an epic poem—are so effective in their storytelling, it is easy to see how authors today continue to use the same method to make stories that grab the readers’ attention. What makes them most alike, however, is the emotions and thoughts they have the power to provoke.
The overarching stages of these steps defines the important trilogy of the departure, the initiation, and the return of the hero in the spiritual, physical, and emotional changes that are experienced in this mythic cycle. Campbell’s insightful evaluation of the ten stages of the hero’s journey define the initial reluctance of the hero to follow his destiny, yet he or she slowly walks through the various obstacles and the awakening of consciousness through the death and rebirth of their identity. Finally, the return of hero to “home” reveals the liberation from previous prejudices and limitations of the mind, soul, and body that were present before they partook in the adventure. Surely, Campbell’s’ heroic cycle defines the overarching challenges of selfhood that the hero must endure to raise his or her consciousness to a higher level of understanding and realization. These are the important aspects of the ten stages of Campbell’s heroic journey that define the transformative nature of the journey and the hero’s initiation into the mysteries of life in this mythic theory of the heroic
To fully appreciate the significance of the plot one must fully understand the heroic journey. Joseph Campbell identified the stages of the heroic journey and explains how the movie adheres meticulously to these steps. For example, the first stage of the hero’s journey is the ordinary world (Campbell). At the beginning, the structure dictates that the author should portray the protagonist in their ordinary world, surrounded by ordinary things and doing ordinary tasks so that the author might introduce the reasons that the hero needs the journey in order to develop his or her character or improve his or her life (Vogler 35). The point of this portrayal is to show the audience what the protagonist’s life is currently like and to show what areas of his or her life are conflicted or incomplete. When the call to adventure occurs, the protagonist is swept away into another world, one that is full of adventure, danger, and opportunities to learn what needs to be learned. T...
The Hero’s Journey is an ancient archetype that we find throughout our modern life and also, in the world of literature.Whether metaphorical or real, the journey that a character goes on shows not only the incredible transformation of the hero but it also gives them their life meaning. It is the ultimate human experience and it reflects on every aspect of life. Take Logan, also known as Wolverine, from the X-Men movie as an example. His adventure starts with “The Call,” which is the first step of the Hero’s Journey. This step happens due to the realization of imbalance and injustice that the character has in their life. Logan steps into the first stage of the pattern but is hesitant to start his adventure because he does not know what and
Of course, this could be justified by the target audience, as it is a Disney princess film after all. However, this relationship between two sisters is special enough to be analysed. Indeed, female friendship is often depicted as conflictive, in films such as Bride Wars for instance, whereas male friendship is made more valuable, as seen in most Seth Rodgen films. Here, the feminine solidarity is the core of the plot in Frozen, which motivates each protagonist’s designs and solves central issues of the
The hero’s journey is a useful tool in analyzing narratives of all kinds, from myths to movies to everyday life. One of the most iconic stages in the Hero’s Journey is the ordeal, otherwise known as the belly of the whale or the cave, in which the protagonist has reached their darkest and most hopeless point – things cannot get worse. Once the hero gets through the main ordeal, their journey home is much more sedated. This can be paralleled to the encompassing plot structure, in which there is a climax, and then the intensity of the story winds down again. This stage is one of the most universal in the hero’s journey, because without conflict and climax, there is no drive or reward within the story. Popular movies such as The Hunger Games,
The second concept of the Hero’s journey shows us that all stories are the same. They all follow the same pattern or algorithm of separation, initiation, and return. An example from the movie is the Wizard of Oz where Dorothy is removed from her natural environment by a tornado, initiated with a lion, scarecrow, and tin man, and the group embarks on a journey to see the wizard. In the end, she is able to return home by clicking her heels. She realizes she has had the ability the whole time, but she needed to test herself. We are just like the characters we see in our favoritie movies, books, and shows – they are a metaphor for us as normal human beings. The last concept I learned is “Follow your bliss”. This concept of bliss is defined in many ways. One definition is serenity. Another definition is the thing you cannot not do. It is what makes a person feel alive. In order to answer the question of what is your bliss, you must ask yourself difficult questions like: What am I passionate about? What makes hours seem like minutes? What made me different as a child? After answering these tough questions, a person can find their
Have you ever seen snow before? That white fluffy stuff that covers the ground completely. Well if you have, I am sure you have overcome an obstacle in your life and have reached something “irreplaceable and beautiful” (102). Just like Sister Zoe had said when she saw that snow falling from the sky. This story was very enlightening because the way the author brought in herself and portrayed herself through the character Yolanda was very intriguing. She brought the subject to life in many ways. However, the author of “Snow” uses two specific elements, its symbolism and its character to prove how overtime one individual will be able to overcome obstacles. Not only does theses elements point this out but the narrator also makes an impact of the reader as well.
In the movie of Frozen, they show a King and Queen of a kingdom have two princesses, Ana, who was a normal girl, but Elsa, who has magic powers of ice. One day the kingdom was crowning Elsa as queen when she had a breakdown, revealed her powers to the kingdom, and ran off to be free as her sister went out to fight battles to bring her back. Throughout this movie, the archetypal they used was the journey showing that we as humans value our family more than anything, even though there could be tough battles to go through to show family
For some, coping with death is the end of a journey, but to others, it is the beginning of change. The novel, The Hero's Walk, explores the meaning of this statement through the death of Maya. Because of her death, the people who are close to her, such as her father, Sripathi, begin to suffer. However, he eventually experiences a positive change after coping with her death. In Anita Rau Badami's novel, The Hero's Walk, Maya's death is a major turning point which affects the life of Sripathi; ultimately, this loss contributes to his major character development.
It is a truly magical moment. When the snow covered tree branch brushes against her it makes the audience are practically beg for her to go further. When she enters Narnia she is greeted by a beautiful snowy wonderland. As she walks further she stumbles upon a lamp post.
Ricky Martin once said, "Heroes represent the best of ourselves, respecting that we are human beings. A hero can be anyone from Gandhi to your classroom teacher, anyone who can show courage when faced with a problem. A hero is someone who is willing to help others in his or her best capacity." A hero can be anyone in everyday life. "A hero does good for good, not for glory." A hero does not expect rewards for their actions; a hero does something because it is right. A hero perseveres when faced with adversity. No matter the physical and mental difficulties, a hero continues trying until their goal is reached. Heroism is acts of kindness, no matter how small, and no matter from whom it comes.
Snow still has been falling from the sky in the little town of Coventry since the day started. The little orphanage from the crossroads was almost buried in snow, but the kids were excited. They have never seen so much snow in their entire lives. You could’ve heard their laughs from a mile. They quickly started to build a snowman, to ride their sleigh or have a snowball fight. All the kids were outside playing, but a little girl of seven, with fair and wavy hair, down on her shoulders. Her deep brown eyes were sad, but he was quite pretty, even if she didn’t know that yet. She had the looks and the manners of a prince, though she was a girl. Her favorite things to do were reading and writing stories. He had great imagination. She wished other kids would play with her, but she often seemed invisible to them. Her only friend was a boy of 9, with blue deep eyes, who promised to watch on her and he often played with her.