Pure Love in Maleficent and Frozen

I’ve been to the movies again. On its opening day, I went to see Disney’s Maleficent and when I came home a copy of Frozen was waiting for me from Netflix. So I saw both films the same day.

And I was very pleasantly surprised. I haven’t watched Disney films since my own kids were little, and a girl, usually a princess or soon-to-be princess, is saved from whatever dire circumstance she finds herself in...by the prince, or some stalwart male.

I remember the song, “Someday My Prince Will Come,” and that story has had a huge impact on many girls and women. Snow White in her glass coffin is awakened by the Prince’s kiss; Sleeping Beauty in her unconscious state, after pricking her finger on the spindle, is awakened by the Prince’s kiss...the kiss of true love, and so on. We wait in anxious expectation of being saved by our prince, preferably on a white horse.

But what do you know? Disney has changed the story. And if I may quote Ernest Holmes, our illustrious founder of Religious Science, “Love points the way.” 

True love or pure love, in these films, the love that saves the day, that saves the princesses from their terrible fates, in not true love’s kiss from the prince. No, it’s sisterly love, the love of self-sacrifice that unfreezes the frozen Ana. And it’s motherly love, from the evil fairy godmother now regretful of her early, vengeful curse and now herself transformed by pure love, which awakens Aurora from her deathly sleep.

So I thought, how wonderful that my granddaughter is growing up on these stories that show females to be strong, independent, courageous and loving, rather than meek, passive and submissive. 

The stories we tell ourselves are important, and many of the stories in films today are about the exploits of men and boys. Stories of war, conflict, fighting and the explosions, death and destruction that accompany them.

I see a lot of action films, and I enjoy them, but it’s like a breath of fresh air to see a film that extols the value of love--and love that goes beyond romantic love, or lustful love, to the pure essence of love. Even when women are protagonists in films today, such as The Hunger Games or Divergent, they are imitating male behavior. Fight, fight, fight.

Apparently Frozen and Maleficent are successful commercially, making millions of dollars for Disney. Some critics feel Maleficent is hijacking Frozen’s storyline, as though the concept of pure love can be hijacked. It’s something we intuitively know, and perhaps are desperately thirsting for, after a steady diet of male-dominated violence and death in film after film.

So what is pure love? From John 13:34, 35 in The Science of Mind we read:

 “Love is an essence, an atmosphere, which defies analysis, as does Life Itself. It is that which IS and cannot be explained; it is common to all people, to all animal life, and evident in the response of plants to those who love them. Love reigns supreme over all.

 “The essence of love while elusive, pervades everything, fires the heart, stimulates the emotions, renews the soul and proclaims the Spirit. Only love knows love, and love knows only love. Words cannot express its depths or meaning. A universal sense alone bears witness to the divine fact: God is Love and Love is God.

And so it is.