As a prelude, I love io9 which is a fantastic and intelligent website on science & fiction that is unashamedly nerdy – and in equal measure, I utterly hate their content management and commenting system called Kinja, which is just so bad on so many levels.
One of the many, many reasons it’s so frustratingly bad is, that I cannot even link to any single comment or comment thread on the site – and the comments on the articles on io9 are very often as interesting, thought-provoking, funny or simply worth saving.
io9 often invites opinions and discussion on a particular topic – for example, this article asked What’s The Most Unfair Backlash Against Something That Got Too Popular?, offering Avatar as an example, and as usual the comments came up with a number of other good, and not so good examples. Among them, someone mentioned The Blair Witch Project, and then the commenters reminisced about their individual experiences of watching that movie for the first time – and that brought back my own memories, so many years ago, on the other side of the world, watching it on my own in an empty movie theatre, and dying of fright…
Someone else mentioned Frozen, and then two commenters shared their very personal experience with the movie, giving a perspective I never considered:
It really is a very good movie and the music is amazing. But after hearing Let it Go over and over and over and over and over, and now seeing more merchandise than the last few Star Wars movies combined, even I’m getting tired of it.
Then PleaseNotToday answered:
I loved this movie when it came out. I am an introverted older sister with lots of health problems and super over-protective parents and my younger sister is extroverted and very little sister-ish who takes care of me and defends me. We could relate. But Jesus it’s been over talked about, people are ruining it.
Then SnowmanBuilder answered:
Sounds like you connected with the movie for the exact same reasons I did. Been in a wheelchair since I was in preschool, growing up I got to watch my little sis run around outside while I could only sit indoors with my books. Glad to know there’s someone else out there who gets it.
Yup, been in a wheelchair for about a year and a half now, because of an auto-immune disorder I’ve had for the past 12 years, which has given me a variety of other issues. I don’t usually cry at movies, but this cartoon movie made me cry.
Birth defects for me. Nerves not connecting properly at the spine and lower abdomen caused a fun mix of mobility and continence problems. I’m still convinced you can’t possibly understand the true meaning of “conceal, don’t feel, put on a show, make one wrong move and everyone will know” unless you had to wear diapers until you were 12.
And I just read this and was astounded, how these two amazing people, who so matter-of-factly talk about the unimaginable challenges they face daily in their lives, describe their own unique – and shared – perspective of this movie.
I was really, really touched and impressed. Guys – you are strangers on the internet, but your courage is inspiring. I salute you.
And then SnowmanBuilder (and in context, what a great username this is!), just to really top it off, adds:
If you ever feel the need to cry some more, just watch this fan-made song. It’s Elsa’s accompaniment to Anna’s Do You Want to Build a Snowman?
Now, Do You Want to Build a Snowman is my favourite song in the movie, and it is guaranteed to rip my heart out and reduce me to a blubbering cry-baby every time I watch it (simply because what it conveys is beautiful, and it is beautiful because it is true) – and I also love some of the heart-felt fan-made reprises of the song (something which I felt should have been a part of the movie itself).
Like this one.
Yup. That worked.
Thanks, guys.
P.S. I have tried to link to these comments anyway, and it seems like it has worked – but I expect it to break again within the next half an hour, when Kinja completely revamps their system again…
P.P.S.
Oh, and as to my own opinion – I think Frozen is a really, really great Disney movie, and its phenomenal success does not take away from this at all – in fact, I am pleased that so many children all over the world can be so enchanted and inspired by a movie, just like Disney movies have enchanted my own childhood, and still do to this day.