Cover not available
Part of
Emotion in Texts for Children and Young Adults: Moving stories
Edited by Karen Coats and Gretchen Papazian
[Children’s Literature, Culture, and Cognition 13] 2023
► pp. 83–103

Chapter 4
Literalizing emotions in Disney and Pixar

Frozen and Inside Out challenge emotional hierarchies

| Nichols College
Frozen and Inside Out warn of the dangers of suppressing emotions. As the films literalize emotions into physical entities to emphasize that emotions exist and that we must address them, they challenge the ideas that emotions solely reside within us. Moreover, as they respond to the combined binaries of reason/emotion and male/female, which taken together label females as inferiorly emotional, the films dismantle the cultural delineation of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ girls, seen in many earlier Disney films. This chapter contrasts Disney’s portrayal of female emotions in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Cinderella with the depictions of young female characters’ emotional lives in Frozen and Inside Out. The latter films encourage their audiences to address and express their own emotional states, importantly legitimizing girls’ pain, and given the role that Disney and its films play in our culture, potentially impacting broader understanding and acceptance of culturally denigrated emotions.
Keywords: Frozen , Inside Out , Disney, Pixar, emotional hierarchies
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • ‘With a smile and a song’: Disney’s treatment of female emotion in early films
  • Frozen : Challenging emotional interiority
  • Inside out : Challenging ‘bad’ emotions
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 6 January 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/clcc.13.04dey
References (26)
References
Primary sources
Cinderella. 1950. Directed by Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, & Hamilton Luske. Walt Disney Productions, United States.Google Scholar
Frozen. 2013. Directed by Jennifer Lee & Chris Buck. Walt Disney Animation Studios, United States.Google Scholar
Frozen II. 2019. Directed by Jennifer Lee & Chris Buck. Walt Disney Animation Studios, United States.
Inside Out. 2015. Directed by Pete Docter & Ronnie Del Carmen. Pixar Animation Studios, United States.Google Scholar
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. 1937. Directed by William Cottrell, David Hand, and Wilfred Jackson. Walt Disney Productions, United States.Google Scholar
Secondary sources
Ahmed, Sara. 2015. The Cultural Politics of Emotion, 2nd edition. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Ayo. Denise A. 2021. Do You Want to Build a Childhood Trauma?: Parental Agency and Authority in Disney’s Frozen . In Social Order and Authority in Disney and Pixar Films, Kellie Deys and Denise F. Parrillo (eds), 75–92. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington.Google Scholar
Baena, Rosalia. 2012. The Epistemology of Difference: Narrative Emotions in Personal Stories of Disability. In The Emotions and Cultural Analysis, Ana Marta Gonzalez (ed), 99–114. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Boll, Jay. 2015. Does Princess Elsa Have Borderline Personality Disorder? Disney’s “Frozen” as a Story of Emotional Dysregulation. [URL], 12 February 2015.
Davis, Amy M. 2007. Good Girls and Wicked Witches: Women In Disney’s Feature Animation. Eastleigh, UK: John Libbey Publishing.Google Scholar
García-González, Macarena. 2017. Empathy and Materiality in Pixar’s Inside Out . Kids-Media, 53–61. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gonzalez, Ana Marta. 2012. Emotional Culture and the Role of Emotions in Cultural Analysis. In The Emotions and Cultural Analysis, Ana Marta Gonzalez (ed), 1–15. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kia-Keating, Maryam and Yalda T. Uhls. 2015 The Science of Why Your Kids Can’t Resist Frozen . Time, 6 Jan 2015.Google Scholar
Lavery, Louise. 2017. Inside Out: Grown-Up Discussions For Little Ones. Screen Education 87: 8–15.Google Scholar
Letamendi, Andrea. 2015. The Psychology of Inside Out: A Beautiful Lesson in Emotional Intelligence.” Under the Mask: A Deeper Look at Heroes and Villains, 22 Jun 2015.Google Scholar
Locke, Abigail. 2011. The Social Psychologising of Emotion and Gender: A Critical Perspective. In Sexed Sentiments: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Gender and Emotion, Ruberg, Willemijn and Kristine Steenbergh (eds), 185–205. Amsterdam: Rodopi.Google Scholar
Ngai, Sianne. 2005. Ugly Feelings. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, Martha C. 2003. Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Parkinson, Brian, Agneta H. Fischer, and Antony S. R. Manstead. 2004. Emotion in Social Relations: Cultural, Group, and Interpersonal Processes. New York: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Prost, Eric. 2016. Life of the Mind. Queen’s Quarterly 123.2: 242–255.Google Scholar
Resene, Michelle. 2017. From Evil Queen to Disabled Teen: Frozen Introduces Disney’s First Disabled Princess. Disability Studies Quarterly 37.2. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Scarlet, Janina. 2014. Psychology of Frozen: What Makes This Disney Movie Unlike Any Other. Superhero Therapy, 12 Jul 2104. <[URL]> (3 Apr 2018).
Schwartz, Karen, Zana Marie Lutifyya, Nancy Hansen. 2013. Dopey’s Legacy: Stereotypical Portrayals of Intellectual Disability in the Classic Animated Films. In Diversity in Disney Films: Critical Essays on Race, Ethnicity, Gender, Sexuality, and Disability, Johnson Cheu (ed), 179–194. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.Google Scholar
Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. 2003. Touching Feeling: Affect, Pedagogy, Performativity. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Seepersad, Sean. 2014. 10 Ways Frozen Is The Story of Loneliness. Psychology Today, 5 May 2014.Google Scholar
Smith, Daniel. 2015. Pixar’s Mood Master: Can Pete Docter’s New Movie Change the Way We Think about our Emotions? The Atlantic 315.5: 20–21.Google Scholar