In an earlier post, I wrote about how the Frozen franchise kind of sidesteps the trauma of Elsa and Anna’s separation as children and refuses to explore the roots of that trauma. I wanted to elaborate on that because some of you are probably thinking, “But Liza, how can the films sidestep the trauma of their childhood separation when they deal with that trauma in so many ways?”

Both Frozen and Frozen 2 show the sisters dealing with the impact of their trauma and, to the credit of both films, they portray their responses with sensitivity and thought. But at the same time, the films never have the sisters directly address what happened to them and how it shapes every aspect of their lives going forward. They never fully acknowledge the roots of their trauma.

The filmmakers obviously put a great deal of thought and care into portraying how the sisters react to their pain. In this moment, we see Elsa curling inward in self-hatred. Her behavior is a result of thirteen years of confinement and conditioning, conditioning from the adults around her and then from herself, that has taught her to conceal herself. Meanwhile, Anna’s behavior is rooted in thirteen years of isolation with no one telling her why, not even her parents when they were alive.

Again and again, we see how the trauma affects both of them. Anna’s hesitance to knock is a direct result of her life experiences. It shows her fear of rejection, her insecurity, her pain.

Elsa’s hesitance to let Anna in is a direct result of what she has been taught, how she has been raised. Yes, she cannot move forward from the accident, which happened before the separation, but the separation cemented Elsa’s self-hatred and fear. It taught her that she had to be afraid.

And we see the effects of that trauma across the films

in all the ways that Elsa and Anna interact.

We see Anna’s desperation to protect Elsa, Elsa’s desperation to protect Anna. We see their fears of losing the other. We see Anna’s issues with abandonment, Elsa’s dread that she could hurt those she loves. We see all these things that are a direct result of how these two were raised and the brutal experience of growing up as they did.

And the filmmakers portray all this largely with sensitivity and understanding.

Paradoxically, the films show an understanding of the effects of trauma but an unwillingness to more fully explore the roots of that trauma.

Neither sister gets a moment to pause and say, “Hey. The way we were forced to grow up really fucked us both up.” Neither sister gets the chance to directly reflect on what happened to them and how what happened to them left lasting scars. Even as the films explore the lasting impact of their pain, it shuffles aside consideration of the roots of that pain.

The closest we get to direct reflection is Frozen Fever, which is focused on the sisters healing and being able to reconnect after years of isolation (this is why Frozen Fever is the best short, don’t @ me.) But by making the separation just “something that happened” or by hand-waving it away with the broad generalization of “fear,” the film does a disservice to its characters and leaves what I feel to be… kind of a gap in the text?

It does a disservice to Elsa because, by treating the separation as “just something that happened,” it ignores all the external pressures weighing down on Elsa from childhood into adulthood, ignores how she had to learn her fear from the teachings of others, and puts the blame on her individually for something that was actually much more complex. (Seriously, I’ve seen discussions of Frozen that just blame Elsa for the separation and no, I will not stand for people blaming a child who only started doing what authority figures suggested - that’s the Elsa fan in me speaking, I know.) It does a disservice to Anna because Anna deserves more than “it was just something that happened” in regard to her years of isolation. As Frozen 2 makes painfully clear, there are still open wounds there for Anna - and yet F2 never directly acknowledges the separation from F1 even though it informs almost everything these characters do. And it does a disservice to Agnarr and Iduna because they were emotionally harmed by the experience of the separation just as much as their daughters - and simplifying/sidestepping the separation strips the parents of emotional depth.

I’m not saying that out of condemnation. As I’ve said in this very post, the Frozen franchise does many things beautifully and is brimming with emotional weight and thought. But I can still critique something I love while still appreciating it.