A Boy Mom Analyzes Disney's "Frozen"

Last December, Hubby's wonderful sister (also known as Aunt-of-the-Year) took our boys and a group of their cousins to see "Frozen" so that the parents could have some time to go Christmas shopping. The boys had a great time, liked the movie, and that was the end of the story.

Except now, Frozen is EVERYWHERE, especially with the release of the DVD last week.

Many moms are talking about it on their blogs, parents are already lamenting about costumes for next Halloween and swapping tips on how to throw Frozen-themed birthday parties, viral knock-offs of the movie's most popular song are everywhere, bloggers are analyzing the movie and GAH!! Enough already!

But we were at Costco last weekend, and there was "Frozen" available for sale. The boys wanted it, I wanted to see it, and we love movie night at the Frog house; so it ended up in our cart and in our DVD player that night.

Oh. My. Goodness, you guys. I have officially been . . .Frozen!!

I usually use movie night as a chance to get caught up folding my mountains of laundry, but I couldn't keep my eyes off the screen. I loved the songs, I loved Anna's strength and perseverance, and I love, love, loved the ending!! So NOT typical Disney.

Of course, there were typical Disney elements in this movie - beautiful princesses with huge eyes, long hair, and teeny tiny waists whom every girl will want to be, highly marketable characters that appeal to both genders, and boy-based humor in the form of secondary characters for the brothers who get dragged to this movie with their sisters. **SPOILER**  The parents die early on leaving the girls orphans and there is a villain, although an unlikely and surprise one (that I personally did NOT see coming).

It's all here and more. I can now totally see why it has won all the awards and garnered all the hype.

Plus, there are some lessons in the movie that I'm hoping my boys have noticed in the three times we have watched the movie this week:

1. Girls can be smart, strong, confident, and beautiful all at the same time. Anna refuses Hans's help when she decides to go after Elsa. She is sure she can do it on her own, and we're sure she can, too.

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2. When a girl does ask for your help, she wants it to be on her terms. We're sure she can do it until her skirt gets frozen and she realizes she can't make it up the mountain without help. But she has her own money and her own plan, and Kristoff can't help but to comply.

3. Sometimes, when girls wear certain clothes or look a certain way, it's just because it makes them feel good. Several girl moms are up in arms about Elsa's "sexified" look at the end of Let It Go, which I totally understand (says the boy mom who judges the inappropriate skirt lengths of girls during Sunday mass). But Elsa sings that she can now finally be who she wants to be. There is no one in her ice castle but herself, so clearly she's not trying to be sexy for anyone. Boys need to know that the way girls dress is not always about boys. It's about girls wanting to feel good. And sometimes that's okay (but it's also a really fine line).

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4. Don't be the jerky guy who tries to win a girl over in one day (or night). Sometimes those douche bags win; but most of the time they don't. **SPOILER** Hans ended up in jail, and his modern-day frat bros end up in cheating scandals and divorce court with alimony payments.

5. Humor, boyish charm, loyalty, and kindness ALWAYS get the girl. Always.

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6. Don't try to understand or break the bond between sisters and women friends. It always prevails. Just let the women have their time together, and don't try to figure out why or what they're doing. Take your reindeer black lab and go ice fishing and come back to a happier woman and a happier you.

7. Women don't NEED men to be happy. Oh geez, this has so many levels. It's nice when you have a connection with someone, but don't try to force it. Sometimes a girl is perfectly happy just hanging out with her friends.

8. Siblings always have each other - through good and bad times. Anna never gave up on Elsa, even when it looked like Elsa had given up on her. Create that bond and keep it sacred.

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I'm sure I will think of more lessons my boys can learn from Frozen in the next 20 times we will watch it, but these should do for starters.


If you're a boy mom, what do your boys think of this movie and how would you break it down for them?


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Smoke Weed, Play with Legos, Write Screenplay Dissing Parents~Everything is Awesome: The Lego Movie Review

*Spoiler Alert! Reading this post will tell you what you already figured the message of the new Lego Movie would be. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Ever since we saw Despicable Me 2 last summer and our boys saw a trailer of the new Lego movie, they have been dying to see it.  I hardly doubt there is a boy in the 4-12 age range who isn't dying to see this 100 minute Lego commercial movie.

Right off the bat, the movie showcased the big gun voices: Morgan Freeman and Will Farrell in a super villain vs. Obi-Wan Kenobi-like sage battle of good and evil.

In steps The Everyman, Emmet (Chris Pratt of Parks and Recreation fame), the construction worker drone living in an Orwellian society who has never had an original thought in his life, and he likes it that way. Until he falls down a really, really, really long Lego hole and finds what is needed to defeat the villain. And by chance, he becomes . . .dun, dun, dun: The Chosen One- or as they call it in this movie, The Special.

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Here's where it gets weird.

Emmet meets a mysterious woman (voiced by the lovely Elizabeth Banks), whose name is - get this - Wyldstyle. No, that's not her porn name, but a name she has chosen which prompts everyone who meets her to ask, "Are you a DJ?" Elliott moves in and out of consciousness listening to her talk in her velvet porn voice a few times, reminding me uncomfortably of a tweenage wet dream in progress.

From here, it's one Star Wars/Lord of the Rings/Harry Potter-type reference after another as Emmet and his band of hodge-podge, mash-up characters attempt to defeat Farrell's President Business who is determined to freeze all the pieces of his cities in place - no deviating from the rules allowed. He even brings in 'micromanagers' to be sure everything is perfect.

There are Matrix-type fight scenes, psychedelic characters, dream sequences, and so many butt jokes I lost count. By the end of the movie, it's clear that the writers are stoners with Daddy issues, sending a definite anti-establishment message. Rebelling against childhood notions that one moment everybody is special and the next you're a nobody, and that you shouldn't "get a trophy for just showing up," the Lego movie writers are clearly sending a message to parents on behalf of the Lego company driven home in the last 20 minutes of the movie (which I won't give away).

Out of our four boys, aged 10 and under, the movie received two thumbs way up, one thumb to the side, and one thumb down (of course that was the two-year-old who preferred to sit in the back of the theater watching Mickey Mouse on the iPad).

All in all, I did think this movie was clever and entertaining, though I did roll my eyes a lot at the in-your-face societal commentary. And I am never going to be able to get the awesome theme song out of my head.

So, parents, run, don't walk, to the nearest theater closest to the most accessible Target, because on your way home from the movie you know you will see no matter what the reviews say, you'll want to spend $200 on a Lego set that your child never finishes putting together since he's lost the instructions but that's okay (oops, I said I wouldn't give away the last 20 minutes). The world so clearly needs people who can both follow instructions and think outside the box.

As long as it's a Lego box, that is.