LITTLE GIRLS EVERYWHERE ARE ENCHANTED BY DISNEY’S “FROZEN.” It has some cute parts — who doesn’t love Olaf the snowman, or just Norwegians in general? — but it has a lot of weird and unsettling parts, too.

(Spoiler alert for people without daughters who haven’t seen it.)

In the beginning of the movie, young Elsa nearly kills her sister with her magical ability to freeze things. Elsa’s parents respond by taking the advice of a troll doctor-slash-magician who decrees that Elsa should forever be separated from her sister. Then they let the troll wipe little sister Anna’s memory so that she doesn’t remember her sister’s magical powers or that she nearly died or even that she visited a troll who is a doctor-slash-magician.

This just seems like really bad parenting. If it were me, I’d have taken Anna to the emergency room, as trolls typically specialize more in telling riddles and usurping bridges. Then maybe I’d have gotten Elsa an ice tutor so she could learn to control her tendency to freeze and murder people. (Please contact Benicia Tutoring Center if your child has this problem.) But Elsa’s parents don’t do this. They listen to the troll, who says that Elsa will be OK with her ability to freeze things on a whim if she learns not to be afraid. In a little less than two hours, then, Elsa just has to complete that small task of conquering all fear, even knowing she almost offed her sibling. She also has to be permanently separated from her beloved sister, which seems cruel. But, later, Elsa almost kills Anna again, so maybe I’m wrong here and it wasn’t bad parenting after all.

Then, in true Disney fashion, both parents die. That’s every child’s greatest fear, so it’s fun that that trauma makes its way into this G-rated feature. I guess this is a plot twist, though, since typically it’s only the mother who bites it. Disney also changed it up a little by orphaning the children after Mom and Dad issued their psychologically harmful parenting decree of separating the siblings.

Next, Anna meets and immediately falls in love with the villain. This is Disney’s attempt to show that maybe princesses shouldn’t run off with the first man they meet. I like this revision of the falling-in-love-at-first-sight plotline. It’s refreshing. But after Anna realizes she was maybe a little impetuous and silly, what does she do? She falls in love with Kristoff, the hero, within hours of meeting him. And after criticizing her for being so impetuous with the villain Kristoff falls in love with her. This seems to undo everything Disney was trying to prove.

Later, Prince Hans, the villain, becomes his overly nasty self. Anna, dying because her sister has assaulted her with ice yet again, asks Hans for true love’s kiss to save her. He cackles and says he was just using her to usurp the throne. This whole scene felt unnecessary. I might have liked it better if Hans had just kissed Anna, and then Anna continued to waste away because she and Hans didn’t share a true love bond after all. The movie already had enough of an antagonist in Elsa, who acts as the villain and the hero, so why add one more nasty character? While it’s fun to teach children that they’ll meet people in life who will want to manipulate and exploit them, maybe we could just leave it at the ingrained fear of parental death and the added bonus of attempted sibling homicide.

But here’s my real problem with the movie. Elsa freezes the country of Norway, then runs away to an impressively built ice castle, and sings an empowering ballad. To symbolize her girl power moment, she gets a makeover, new hairstyle, and dress. Good for her. I’m happy she’s escaped the damage her parents have done to her at last. But why, when she decides to “let it go,” does she walk out looking like a five-dollar throw? Couldn’t she at least put on a wrap or something? She is living in an ice palace, after all.

And the scantily clad princesses are such a Disney thing! Ariel swam around in those seashells — and nothing else! And what about Jasmine? She wore fewer clothes than any princess, and she hails from a part of the world where women are known for their modesty. Honestly, maybe I’m just jealous. I’d never be able to pull off those seashells the way Ariel does.

I also don’t get why little girls everywhere love Elsa. Wasn’t Anna the heroine? She gets the guy, and she gets way more air time. Is Elsa more loved because she’s blond, or because she shows a lot of cleavage? Or because she’s a scary murderess with superhero powers and a great voice? There’s no accounting for taste, I guess.

At the end of the movie everything is OK because Elsa saves her sister and Norway (after nearly killing everyone, but, ha ha! She didn’t mean to! So the Norwegians give her the Nobel Prize for her good intentions). Everyone forgives Elsa and reinstates her as their queen because she’s really sorry and also because she looks hot in that off-the-shoulder number. And boy can she sing.

Kirstin Odegaard runs the Benicia Tutoring Center. Read and comment on her writings at www.kodegaard.com.

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