Disney’s 2013 movie Frozen broke many records, but one detail, in particular, set the animated movie apart from previous Disney princess movies as Frozen completely flipped one of the oldest fairytale tropes. Although Brave was the first to do something similar, the 2012 animated movie set in medieval Scotland was produced by Pixar. And while Brave’s Merida (Kelly Macdonald) paved the way for Frozen’s Anna (Kristen Bell) and Elsa (Idina Menzel) to invert one of the most used fairytale tropes in Disney Princess movies, its reception was nowhere near as big as Frozen’s, which became the top-grossing animated movie of all time when it was released.
While Frozen wasn’t the first Disney princess movie to focus on family, as the ‘90s Disney Classics such as Beauty and the Beast, Mulan, and Pocahontas can attest, it was the first to feature two sisters as protagonists. Elsa and Anna’s familial relationship was at the front and center of Frozen despite the distance between the two for most of the movie. Considering the centrality of their sisterly bond, it’s only fitting that their relationship is instrumental in stopping Arendelle’s eternal winter in Frozen’s climax - and it was this detail that sets Frozen apart from previous Disney princess movies, whose protagonists’ happily-ever-after almost always included a prince in the picture.
Unlike its predecessors, Frozen had romantic love, but it wasn’t that type of love that led the main story to a conclusion. While Disney princess movies ending with a true love’s kiss that came before it.
Frozen subverting the oldest Disney fairytale trope worked especially well because it was unexpected. After Elsa’s magic unintentionally hit Anna’s heart, Anna believed that what she needed was a true love’s kiss, actively pursuing it to save herself. Anna sacrificing what she believed would have saved her to instead save Elsa unexpectedly turned out to be the real act of true love - and it was as unexpected to Anna as it was to audiences in 2013. After all, Disney Princesses’ stories traditionally relied on a prince – or a love interest in general – saving the princess, often with a true love’s kiss, but in Frozen, it’s Anna and Elsa’s sisterly love that saved both of them.
Anna’s sacrifice not only highlighted a kind of love differentiated from romance, but it also let Frozen continue with the modern Disney princess trend of imbuing its female protagonists with agency rather than waiting for a prince to save them. This made Frozen a trailblazer among Disney princess movies upon release and allowed the movie to play on one of the oldest Disney princess fairytale tropes and flip it completely.
