The record-breaking release of Frozen in 2013 marked a shift in the American animation industry and the Walt Disney Company as a whole. The film has been elevated as a catalyst for the third “golden age” for Walt Disney Animation Studios, restoring the company’s brand identity and ushering it into a new phase. It has also been praised for its pedagogical promise of change and reform of the Disney princess franchise, marking the start of an era characterized by strong, independent female leads that evolve around “richer, more complex stories” (Harris, 2016). Popular critics have lauded the film for improving Disney’s gender role portrayal and for providing role models that are more empowering and realistic for young women – or what American educational scholar Cole Reilly has labelled “an encouraging evolution among the Disney Princesses” (2016, 60).
The exchange of the traditional heterosexual fairy-tale romance for sisterly love was at the time unprecedented. Finally, from a business perspective, Frozen has set new standards for branding and merchandizing of the film's universe, music and popular characters. As the 10th anniversary of the film's premiere approaches, Frozen remains one of the most loved, recognizable, and marketed Disney films to date. Its enormous exposure and popularity calls for an exploration of itsinfluence on mainstream animation and on contemporary popular culture and society as a whole.
In 2015, the University of East Anglia held the world’s first “Symfrozium” with papers ranging from fairy tales and musicals, gender politics and its reception among different fan communities (Lynskey, 2015). Since then, the film has continued to attract scholarly attention. The impact of Frozen on popular culture, along with the critical and commercial success of Frozen II (2019) and the popularity of the wider Frozen universe is undeniable. From its empowering anthems and awe-inspiring visuals, to its heart-warming characters and themes of sisterhood, we cannot seem to let it go.
In this edited collection we seek to investigate and illuminate the Frozen phenomenon from a rich variety of angles. This volume invites contributions that explore various significant aspects of the film itself, its subsequent impact and reception, and wider issues arising from it. Topics and themes for articles can include but are not limited to:
- The revival of Disney Animation Studios
- Technological developments and perspectives
- Representations: gender, queer, ethnicity
- The “new” or contemporary Disney princess
- Reinvention of the classic Disney fairy tale
- Frozen in popular and mainstream culture
- Feminist readings of the film and/or the Frozen phenomenon
- Reception, fandom culture and social media
- Genre and narrative in Frozen
- Marketing, branding, merchandizing
- Frozen’s influence on children’s culture, girlhood, identity and play
- Local and global perspectives on the Frozen phenomenon
- The voice and politics of dubbing
- Frozen and the role of music
- The wider Frozen universe: sequel, shorts and other paratexts
Please submit a proposal (Word doc) of 300-500 words and a short biography stating your name and affiliation to the editors of this anthology:
Helen Haswell: h.haswell@qub.ac.uk
Rikke Schubart: schubart@sdu.dk
Maja Rudloff: mrudloff@ruc.dk
A selection of authors will be invited to submit full papers (maximum 6,000 words). Please note that acceptance of an abstract does not guarantee publication, given that all papers will undergo peer review.
For questions, please contact the editors of this collection.
Timeline:
Deadline for abstracts: 1 April 2021
Notification to authors: 20 April 2021
Deadline for submission of full papers: 1 January 2022
Peer-review process: 1 January 2022-15 June 2022
Submission of final manuscript: 15 June 2022
Deadline for submission of abstracts: April 1, 2021
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