Mayim Bialik is not a fan of "Frozen."
Listing the multiple reasons why she dislikes the Disney blockbuster, which grossed $1.2 billion worldwide, Bialik wrote a post for her blog, aptly titled "Why My Sons and I Hate the Movie 'Frozen.'"
The "Big Bang Theory" star calls out the movie's questionable feminism, storyline of male-bashing and "women as dolls."
"My issue is that this is a movie geared to small children who I don’t think need to be focusing on that as the main driving plot of a movie, especially when it’s not a literary or historically-based fairy tale," she wrote, referring to Anna's (Kristen Bell) romantic interest in the handsome Prince Hans of the Southern Isles (Santino Fontana), who winds up double-crossing those who love him.
Which brings readers to Bialik's second issue. Yes, she is a feminist, but, she wrote, "[F]eminism doesn't equal male-bashing. And this movie isn’t empowering because it shows that a Prince is a jerk and should not have been trusted. That’s weird too. It’s just confusing."
Her third and biggest problem with "Frozen" is the physicality of the female characters. While the male characters look like "cartoon men," she says, the females do not resemble human women at all:
They have ginormous eyes. Like really ridiculously big. Teeny-tiny ski slope noses. Exaggerated delicate ski sloppiness [sic], actually. Barbie doll proportions of their bodies in general: tiny waists, ample busts, and huge heads. They look like dolls. They don’t look like the same species as the male characters even! What’s up with that?! My sons thought the females looked like BRATZ dolls, truth be told. I kind of agree.
After the its release last year, some lauded the film for its feminist plot. Like Bialik, others criticized the film's attempt. Dani Colmen outlined her problems with "Frozen" in a lengthy piece for Medium, published in February.
"'Frozen' creates the clever illusion of its own progressiveness by subtly degrading what came before it to make itself look more enlightened by comparison," Colmen wrote. "In doing so, it not only treads upon a rich history of compelling heroines in much better films; it manages to get away with being good enough."
Commentators might have more material to critique if Disney pursues the flick's "franchise potential" with a "Frozen" sequel.