But it is revolutionary, in its own way, for a Disney musical. You have princesses wearing pants, for example. But more importantly, you have a princess story where the goal is NOT the princess getting the prince. In fact, the prince is a cad. The true love in this story is the one between the sisters. It is that “true loves kiss” that moves the story forward (and sorry for the spoiler if you haven’t seen the movie). There are some who believe that this story even has a lesbian subtext. I don’t see that — neither sister seems to express a strong sexual desire towards anyone, so this could be asexual at best. But it is a strong story based on the sibling bond, and that’s something you don’t see in Disney that often. That could be one reason why shows like Frozen and Wicked have such a strong following from young women: they center on relationships between women that are/love each other as sisters, and that aren’t centered around the men on the periphery. That’s a message of female empowerment, something that is decidedly not the Disney of Yore.
ADS