Frozen is one of the most popular modern Disney movies, and it has raked in over a billion dollars for the company. One of the biggest reasons for this is that the movie contains Elsa, a protagonist with ice powers. Children found her abilities interesting, and adults thought her lack of a prince was refreshing.
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While these traits made Elsa seem like the ideal Disney protagonist, Elsa also displayed an alarming amount of issues. Although Disney fans may like her powers, it's been argued that her abilities don't make sense and border on overpowered. Elsa's inability to deal with responsibility also sends a mixed message to children.
Elsa's personality traits relate to her ice powers or fear of getting close to anyone. While Anna is clearly bubbly, naive, and enthusiastic about the world, it's hard to see what personality traits Elsa has. Although it could be argued that Elsa allowed herself to be taken over by her fears and powers, she should still have some semblance of a personality outside her troubles.
Frozen 2 did not remedy this, as it only made Elsa more afraid of her responsibility to her kingdom. She constantly pushed Anna away, even though they'd seemingly gotten closer in Frozen and the beginning of Frozen 2.
Elsa may claim that her actions are to protect others, but for the most part, they've actually put others in more danger, especially Anna. Although Elsa ran away to keep everyone safe from her powers in Frozen, she put a giant ice monster named Marshmallow outside her castle.
RELATED: Frozen 2: 5 Ways Elsa Is The Better Protagonist (& 5 It's Anna)Elsa must have known that people would come after her and put her creature there to keep them out. However, what doesn't make much sense is how violent Marshmallow was. Anna nearly died facing him, as well as Kristoff and Olaf. Elsa could have made the creature simply to scare people off, but instead, she had him chase them down the mountain no matter how hurt they became.
Elsa's powers were already questionable in the first Frozen movie, with many people questioning how she made a dress from ice. Still, the following Frozen projects only made them more confusing. In Frozen Ever After, one of the many Frozen-based short films, Elsa creates a dress pattern for Anna using her powers and an outfit for herself. If this had been made of ice, Anna should have been freezing, but she seems to have no problem with it.
Frozen 2 insisted that Elsa was a powerful being known as the "fifth spirit," and that she could control water as well as ice. Since she could control water, it only made sense for the sequel that she could look back into time as well. Her powers are ridiculously complicated to the point where one can't understand them.
Elsa may be associated with depression and hardship in most people's minds, but she gets a lot handed to her on a silver platter. Although she was the one who'd endangered the citizens of Arendelle in the first place in Frozen, she's celebrated by the end and faces no repercussions.
In Frozen 2, Elsa pushes Anna away again and sends her into a group of giants. Anna never gets mad or upset at Elsa for this, but instead finds it as more motivation to go back to her sister. Elsa never has to face the consequences of her actions as everything is either solved for her or is just never addressed.
Elsa's actions often hurt someone in one way or another, but they seem to harm Anna the most. Although Elsa constantly claims she's looking out for Anna, the outcome of her actions seems to speak otherwise. Elsa's use of Marshmallow puts Anna in harm's way in Frozen, despite the fact that he didn't need to be physically violent in order to scare people away.
RELATED: The Strongest Disney Princesses, RankedIn Frozen 2, Elsa puts Anna on a boat and sends her away in the name of protecting her from the possible harm coming to them. In doing this, she creates an ice ramp where Anna's boat slides down without control. Had Anna crashed due to her lack of brakes or an oar, she would have been extremely injured or killed.
"Let It Go" is one of the most popular Disney songs, but its message is often lost on listeners. Elsa sings "Let It Go" after running away from her responsibilities in Arendelle, and boasts in the song that she doesn't care what people will say.
While the song's central message seems to promote being true to oneself, it can also be interpreted as running away from one's problems rather than facing them. This could have been rectified by having Elsa eventually face her fears and return to Arendelle, but she never willingly returns in the movie.
"Let It Go"'s message of running away from one's problems could have been fixed by Elsa returning home at the end of Frozen, but she never actually goes back on her own. Hans was responsible for Elsa's return, as he'd dragged her back while she was unconscious.
Elsa's message of overcoming depression and anxiety is completely thrown out the window because of this. She never faces her problems, and is spoonfed the answer to the indefinite winter she'd created.
When faced with hardship, Elsa runs away. In Frozen, she ran from Arendelle after everyone learned about her powers. This made sense, but she never came back to Arendelle on her own. Being dragged back and almost killed prepared her to take back her responsibilities.
Frozen 2's adventure began with Elsa again running from the throne, this time to chase a mysterious voice. The film ended with her passing her crown on to Anna, who had no prior experience or knowledge of how to rule. She doesn't consider the citizens' or Arendelle's well-being, only her fear of responsibility.
Elsa constantly thinks about herself first rather than her citizens or friends. In Frozen, she refused to return to Arendelle after learning what she'd done to her kingdom and citizens. Instead, she stayed in her ice castle away from everyone while the place she was supposed to be ruling froze over.
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Elsa also tries to leave Arendelle without telling anyone in Frozen 2. While it's understandable that she doesn't want anyone to follow her, she didn't arrange for anyone to be left in charge of the kingdom and failed to think about how worried her sister would be.
One of Elsa's biggest problems in Frozen was her inability to control her powers. "Let It Go" showed her slowly learning to let loose and embrace her abilities, and by the end of the film, she was able to take back her unending winter.
This was all reversed after Frozen 2 was released. At the beginning of the movie, Elsa is revealed to still have limited control of her powers, and she claims she wants to go off on an adventure to learn more about them. The backtracking from the first movie was confusing to fans of the franchise, and became even more so when it was revealed that Elsa was the fifth spirit. Elsa's powers will grow more complicated and less controlled as long as there are Frozen sequels and projects.
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