In Which I Overthink Stuff...

I have three young daughters...you just KNOW that we've sung the songs from "Frozen" a time or two.  Truth to tell, my favoritest one is "Do you Wanna Build a Snowman?"  It's totally me.  As in, that Ana character?  Me.

"Dontcha wanna play with me?"  I even do the lips-in-the-door thing.

Plus, I love all the different parodies that have been made of that song...including the many MANY created by my own children...

The thing is, THE song from Frozen is "Let it Go!" 

We also really like the musical "Wicked" over here.  My favorite song being "For Good" which I got to sing with Beanie a few years ago...looka her sweet lil 12 year old self...

While "For Good" is pretty well known, it's "Defying Gravity" that so often identifies the show to those who didn't necessarily see it.

Ah, Idina Menzel, you do know how to wail out a gorgeous girl power song.  And, to be fair, who doesn't love to wail a little?  It is why they are so popular.

That final shoulder flounce at the end of the words, "The cold never bothered me anyway"...it made us all roar just a little bit.  Own it, baby!!  Own that incredibly cool, freezy gift that you have that nobody "understands".

The phrase that sticks out in my head from "Defying Gravity" is also the last one, "And nobody in all of OZ, no wizard that there is or was, is ever gonna bring me down."  RAWR...again, we cheered at her strength and bravery in that moment.

sigh

In THAT moment, we cheered. 

Few of us really thought about the next moment.  The moment where she defied gravity right away from everything that she loved.  We were proud of her for standing up against lies...but she stood against lies and walked out into the next horrid phase, nearly losing Fiyero, walking away from Glinda, bearing the guilt of knowing that she'd damaged Boq to save him from her sister and he would never understand.

"Defying Gravity" may have been a girl power song...but it was a horribly sad choice that Elphaba was making.  So many people shout, "HELL YEAH!" at the end of it, without really thinking what it MEANT to her.  The real sound for the character had to be an agonized whisper, "what now?"

But "Let it Go!" is even worse.  At least Elphaba was standing up to an evil that would be conquered and she knew that people loved her even if she couldn't be with them.  Elsa was merely running away from the fear that was created by her parents.  People who SHOULD have embraced what she was and taught her, and everyone around her, how to deal with it.  Instead they heaped fear and loathing of herself upon her, isolated her from her very best friend and sister, and, it appears, any other grown up who could help her, and then DIED, leaving her the impossible task of not only healing herself from their abuse, but being responsible to Ana as her big sister AND running a country.  Gee thanks, Mom and Dad!!!

"Let it Go!" isn't about standing up for what is right, it's about isolating yourself from the millions of things that scare you MORE than your "worst" fear.  'Mom and Dad aren't around to keep my door locked and remind me to never share myself with anyone, never trust EVER, I know what I'll do, I'll build myself a big old frozen castle and hole up in it so I never have to worry about hurting anyone, especially me.'

But, it sure is pretty.  And Idina Menzel does have awesome voice.  Sadly, so many of us can relate to the story/lyrics that we hook on to them and shout them at the sky, like they are a good thing.

My poor kids.  They can't even just watch a MOVIE or sing a pretty SONG without Mom explaining the back story from an adult's perspective to make sure they don't like it tooooooo much.

See ya around...