Breaking Down The Scene: Party Is Over (Frozen)

Hello  & welcome back to A Look at Disney.  And welcome to the first installment of Breaking Down The Scene,  where I go over a scene from a movie and talk about why it works in it's film.    To kick things off, from   Frozen, we are going to look at  when  Elsa declares the party over. Why this scene?  Well,  it's  one of my favorite moments from the movie and I do apologize if I'm spoiling this for people that haven't seen Frozen yet but to be fair,  Disney did release this clip before the film came out.   So, let's begin.  Here's the scene.

For some set up,  this scene comes after Elsa tells Anna that she can't marry a man, she just met.  And Anna doesn't take it well and  Elsa is pushed to her breaking point.  Both sisters are, really.  Let's start with what is perhaps the most crucial moment of this scene.   Anna  removing  her sister's glove.    The gloves for Elsa were her shield to hide her powers.  They let her be relatively normal but removing the gloves makes Elsa  more vulnerable,  then she already is.  And  by this point in her life,  she was scared and a bit of introvert  because she didn't  know  how to handle her powers.   The only advice that she'd been given was.

Conceal, don't feel 

Which  my take  on  this saying, which comes back to this scene is that Elsa growing up could not be her true self because her true self would be viewed as a monster.   And sadly, that isn't too far off  as The Duke  of Weselton's  reaction does come across this way.

Though to be fair, it is probably a little jarring to see someone conjure ice like Elsa did but  again  just listen to the way, the Duke reacts.  It  is in a rather negative light.   One cannot  focus on Elsa alone in this scene.   As  we also  need to look at Anna  in this scene.

Prior  to this moment,  Anna  had just fallen  in "love"  with Prince Hans of the Southern Isles as seen during  Love  Is An Open Door.

 So,  when she went to her big sis,  she was  expecting a happier reaction. Thankfully, Elsa is a lot smarter then that.   But what makes this scene work in particular with Anna  goes back to the beginning  of  Love  Is An Open Door,  where  she was venting her frustrations about her strained relationship with   Elsa.  Here,  we finally  see that she can't hold it  in anymore and she blows her lid at her big sister.  (As a younger sibling,  I've been there a time or two).  So, while  we have the fear from Elsa, when her glove is removed.  We have Anna finally  trying to confront  Elsa  about their relationship.  Albeit,  it wasn't the best time to do so but it shows that while Anna  still love her sister,  she's  tired.   And honestly, the coldest part about this entire scene is when  Elsa  tells  Anna to leave.   Ouch!   I know  this is just basically a recap of this scene but when you look at it from both perspectives of both sisters,  it is one of the most tragic moments in this film.  Kinda hard,  when this is a rather sad film to begin with.  That's the thing this film,  while it has great comedic moments,  it has good tragic moments like this scene right here.  And folks,  this  is just the tip of the iceberg  on sad moments. Going back  to Anna for a moment and doors,  I want to bring up  a lyric from the deleted song,  Life's Too Short that I feel applies to how Anna is feeling in this moment.

There it is! The door you’d love to slam in my face!

I  bring up this lyric  because  that song just like this moment both show Anna finally  losing her cool with Elsa and as I've seen  pointed out elsewhere, doors play a theme  in this movie.  Not literally but the concept of doors closing on relationships.  And that is clearly  what  happened to Elsa and Anna and  it almost feels as though Anna,  is trying to wedge the door open, so  she can have that relationship,  she so desires with Elsa.  Granted,  it kinda blew up in her face, which in turn caused Elsa to get angry.  I don't  know,  maybe I'm just over thinking it.


In  the end,  what truly  makes this scene work  is both the build up, we had to this moment and the relationship between the royal sisters feels real.  That's the great thing,  this is a genuine relationship  and I can see people taking both sides.  And neither are wrong, they're  just frustrated.



There  you have it,  my look at this scene from  my third Disney movie of all time.  For anyone that has seen Frozen,  what's your take on this scene?  Tell me in the comments.  Peace!