"Let it Go"

I haven't bought the soundtrack to Frozen, just the one song, and I've listened to it several times this evening.  At certain points, I keep tearing up.  Here's the key one:

It's time to see what I can do
To test the limits and break through
No right, no wrong, no rules for me
[triumphant] I'm free 

[voice soaring, belting out] Let it go, let it go
I'm one with the wind and sky ...

And of course I'm trying to pinpoint what is so moving about this.

Partly it's the synergy of the message and the flow of the music; the combination taps powerfully into the well-remembered adolescent longing to break free from others' expectations and/or one's own insecurities.

But there's also the adult knowledge that there's never a moment when the insecurities are fully gone. You really can never be fully "arrived" and "proven" once and for all...  At least, not unless you're willing to stop taking risks, to stop learning and growing altogether.

And there's also the adult knowledge that freedom isn't all that it's cracked up to be.  It's the human connections that bind us together (and constrain us in so many ways) that make life worth living.  It's the constraints on our time that make free moments precious.

And even within the frame of the movie itself, there's a certain irony in Elsa singing "No right, no wrong, no rules for me, I'm free!" - because she quickly learns that she isn't.  When she finds out that her exuberance has imposed a long-term winter and famine on the land, she is immediately contrite and seeks to find a way to undo the harm she has caused.  She imagines, briefly, that she is free as a monster is free, but she remains fully human.  Which is all to the good of course, because she presumably learns to embrace her powers and find a way to live among others with integrity.  But it still nearly moves me to tears - that inflection point between idealism and reality.

There's a great parody video (albeit with some foul language): "Here I Go (Despair of an Alto)"

As for the movie overall, I just loved it.  The sisters reminded me so much of L&C.