I finally saw FROZEN, the 2014 Oscar Winner for Animated Feature Film, in-flight on my way to an interspiritual conference via a visit to my sister. (How apropos.) So sisterhood and spirituality were on my mind. The movie was as good as my 15 year old daughter said it was – she saw it twice. Indeed, I was pleasantly surprised when Disney broke from a predictable storyline for new territory. The film demonstrates the value and meaning of sacrifice by contrasting it in two forms; one true and one false.

Elsa, the older of two sisters, shuts herself off from her younger sister and society with the idea that she is protecting them from her own sorcery which happens to be the ability to freeze anything. This is one view of sacrifice; giving something up. But why? She gives up her happiness and others’ out of fear that she’ll “lose control of her power” and that her sister, Anna, will die as a result. Anna finally demands an explanation. (Spoiler Alert…)

Not wanting to reveal her power, Elsa really does “lose it” and when she does, it is absolutely transforming. In letting go, letting her power come to full unbridled expression, Elsa changes from adolescent to woman, a theme worth exploring in another blog. She now knows the extent of her power and the score that accompanies this scene deserved the Oscar that it won for Original Song. But Elsa’s sacrifice is misguided since it keeps her further from her sister rather than closer. For the true purpose of sacrifice is to draw near*.

Disney does not resort to its two opposing male characters as the way to show true sacrifice. The charming Kristoff who rescues Anna and loses his sled in the process while realizing he loves her would be a pale example of sacrifice given what Elsa has given up to protect Anna. We are spared the formulaic idea that either Hans, the “too good to be true who isn’t prince” or Kristoff, “who isn’t a prince but should be,” are the only ones capable of true love, via a kiss of course, to save Anna. Hail to Disney for taking the story deeper. Rather than passively waiting to receive a kiss to save her life, Anna moves boldly to knowingly give it up to save her sister’s; an act of true love from whence redemption appears.

There are at least two take-aways from FROZEN about the proper role of sacrifice.

(1) Hiding from the world, keeping one’s powers (not the ego kind) under wraps, is a false form of sacrifice that actually expands the space between people rather than shrinking it. Becoming familiar with and nurturing one’s talents for the joy and benefit of others is preferable to repressing them where they are bound to erupt out of control.

(2) True Love, as Olaf the snowman explains, is about sacrificing one’s own needs and desires for the sake of someone else. (How refreshing that ‘someone else’ is not a romantic interest.) Kristoff’s kiss may have saved Anna’s life but it would have been at the expense of losing Elsa, and it was this sisterly relationship that needed restoration due to the earlier misguided form of sacrifice on Elsa’s part. Only when Anna, not Elsa or Kristoff, makes the greatest of sacrifice does the emotional distance between the sisters recede, at which point the ice enveloping the whole queendom melts.

Thanks, FROZEN, for showing us that sacrifice, enacted wisely, can keep us from living in a deep freeze.

* The Hebrew word, Korban, sacrifice, comes from the root for near.

See Resources on my website for movie guides discussing films with spiritual themes.