More Than Entertained

Hollywood is filled with storytellers. However, many of those storytellers are not so familiar with the Great Story–the Good News of Jesus Christ. Hollywood has become increasingly notorious for being a place absent of God. Some well-intentioned Christians cry out for Hollywood to be burned to the ground. While it is evident that the diabolical is at work in the stories that come from Hollywood and in the lives of its members, there is still hope.

I once heard it said that Hollywood is not Sodom and Gomorrah–it’s Nineveh. Its inhabitants are in desperate need of repentance and conversion. Nineveh needs someone to proclaim the message of the Gospel to them. “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15).

As a member of the More Than Entertained team, I subscribe to this method. More Than Entertained seeks to highlight that there are still semina Verbi–seeds of the Word–in the entertainment industry. There are still stories that contain within them truth, goodness, and beauty, because no matter how desperately someone may try to ignore it, The Great Story is written on every human heart, even on the hearts of those in Hollywood. 

During the Easter season we celebrate the climax of the Great Story. The powers of sin and death are defeated, and the destiny of humanity has been restored and redeemed. Jesus Christ is risen, and we receive the opportunity to rise along with Him. The power of resurrection and the power of love to beget resurrection and new life is not lost in Hollywood. I wish to highlight a pair of animated Disney princess movies in particular. Both Tangled (2010) and Frozen (2013) have scenes of resurrection and both movies intimately associate love with those resurrections.

In Tangled, there is a flower upon which a drop of the sun falls. It has the ability to heal the sick and the injured. This power was transferred to Rapunzel’s hair when the flower was used to heal her mother. However, the evil Gothel, kidnaps her in order to keep the power of her hair for herself. Flash forward 18 years and to the end of the movie, and the truth has finally come out. Rapunzel has been a slave all her life, in servitude to her pretend mother’s idolatrous pursuit of youth. Just as she becomes aware that she must fight for her freedom, she becomes willing to give it away for her beloved.

Flynn Rider (known as Eugene to his more intimate friends) and Rapunzel have been falling in love throughout the movie and in the climactic scene, he is stabbed by Gothel and is on the brink of death. Rapunzel makes it abundantly clear to Gothel that she will never stop trying to fight her and never stop trying to get away from her unless she is allowed to save Eugene. She promises that if she can do that, she will go with Gothel and be her slave forever.

Just as Rapunzel is about to heal Eugene, he cuts her hair, thus stripping her hair of its power to heal; the same power he knew would no longer be there to heal him. Both, in a mutual exchange of love, are willing to die for the other. And Eugene indeed does die. But, per the subject of this reflection, he comes back to life. Even after the power of the sun has been apparently lost, a single tear shed by Rapunzel hits his cheek and heals him. And it doesn’t just heal him, it actually raises him from the dead, a greater miracle than has yet been seen or been possible. I would propose their love for each other as the source of the elevated power of healing. Love, and only love has the power to beget new life, to lead to resurrection. 

This particular fruit of love is also abundantly evident in Frozen. Near the end of the movie, Anna’s heart is rapidly freezing and she desperately needs an act of true love - for it is only an act of true love that will thaw a frozen heart. As all our minds first go to true love’s kiss, so too does Anna’s mind. However, like Rapunzel, just as she has the opportunity to save herself, she decides to sacrifice herself. 

After realizing Hans is not her true love, and in fact is an evil mastermind who hopes to take over her kingdom, she realizes it is Kristoff to whom her heart belongs. But instead of running to Kristoff to receive true love’s kiss, she runs to save Elsa from being murdered by Hans. With her dying breath, she chooses to stand between Elsa and the sword which Hans would have used to kill her.

Friends, does this ring a bell? With one of his last breaths, Jesus pleads with the Father on our behalf: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). He stands between us and the punishment our sin deserves. He dies so that we might live. He did this for the love of you, for me, and for the world. It is for love and from love that Anna dies for Elsa. But, as we know, that is not the end of either story. Once again, love leads to resurrection.

This act of true love thaws Anna’s frozen heart and ultimately brings life back to the entire kingdom of Arendelle. Through Anna’s sacrifice, Elsa is able to see. “Love will thaw,” she says. “Of course. Love.” So, in an act of love, she thaws the frozen Arendelle. The flowers are back in bloom and the frozen fountains once again become springs of life-giving water.

These stories are beautiful because they tell us something about the Great Story. While we don’t see the fruit of our love in the same way, these stories make visible the invisible fruit of love and sacrifice. People cannot bring someone back to life by an act of love. But there is Someone who can. And He has! Christ the Lord is risen, Alleluia!