When Disney Gets It Right

[Disclaimer: This post will contain spoilers. If you haven't seen Frozen yet, do yourself a favor and go watch it now. Right now. Then you can read this.]

Imagine some of the creator's of Disney's Frozen having a chat together about the film, coming up with taglines to describe it...

"Ok, how could we sum things up? What's the heart of the movie?"
"Well, it's all focused on Anna and Elsa, on the sisters. Definitely about their relationship."
"It really contrasts love and fear between the two of them."
"Right! Because Elsa is dominated by her fear, which makes her unable to control her powers, until Anna sacrifices herself, love 'melts the frozen heart,' and Elsa realizes that love is the power she needs to conquer her fear and gain control over her abilities."
"So....'love defeats fear'?"
"'True love casts out fear'?"
"'Perfect love drives out all fear.'"
"That's great! That is definitely a major concept. What else have we got?"
"Well, this story kind of redefines the classic concept of 'true love.' It changes the way the romantic relationships work, but, again coming back to Anna and Elsa, it shows that true love isn't just romantic."
"Well, Olaf defines love by saying that it's putting the needs of someone else above your own."
"And then Anna sacrifices her life to save Elsa - the ultimate act of true love."
"Oh, that's good! 'The ultimate act of true love is sacrifice.'"
"'There is no love greater than sacrifice.'"
"'There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends.'"
"Perfect!"

Ok, my made-up dialogue may stretch things a bit...but maybe not a bunch. The fact is, Disney's newest movie that has taken our nation by storm (no pun intended) has a lot of substance to it. I believe that this is largely because some of the strongest themes at the core of the movie echo some of the strongest themes at the core of Truth - and at the core of the Bible.

The two lines above are from 1 John 4:18 and John 15:13. They deal with the selfless nature of love - a theme that we see throughout Frozen.

Love isn't falling for a perfectly charming prince the first time you see him. (Actually, that may not work out so well for you.)

Love isn't always neat or pretty - sometimes it means loving even when other people drive you crazy. And that kind of longsuffering love is powerful. ("We're not saying you can change him, 'cause people don't really change. We're only saying is love's a force that's powerful and strange. People make bad choices if they're mad or scared or stressed, but throw a little love their way, you'll bring out their best.")

Love is giving yourself for others, putting their needs before your own (walking out of town with your reindeer - then charging back in).

Love is the fact that:

Love is an action. And an act of true love doesn't have to be a kiss.

These are, honestly, only a few of the extremely solid messages from Frozen. And trust me, there are plenty of other blog posts out there about them (which you should definitely read). But the ones I noticed the most were the ones that very directly echoed themes - even direct statements - from the Bible.

I've completely fallen in love with Frozen for a lot of reasons, but perhaps the biggest is the fact that, in telling its own beautiful story, it often collides full force with some powerful truth.