As well as being visually astounding and musically impressive, Frozen 2 tackles an important modern phenomenon: that despite the fact that many basic human needs are met, we are also experiencing a sharp increase in widespread mental pathology. The movie uses a number of strategies to show the possibility that this crisis may be the beginning of an awakening.

The movie gives voice to very real, increasingly common mental health challenges with hit songs.

Fear of impermanence

“Some Things Never Change” is Anna’s attempt to comfort Olaf who has begun to question the impermanence of things. And it is comforting, but it’s also a bit saccharine to count on relationships for stability in a world where everything changes. Perhaps human-snowman relations are more enduring, but if we’re honest, human relationships—even the ones that last—provide some of the most painful experiences of impermanence available in life. Elsa offers the wisest advice when she sings, “I can’t freeze this moment, but I can still go out and seize this day.”

Anxiety

It’s brilliant to give a song about anxiety to Olaf, the movie’s trusty comic relief, who, even as real and nearly fatal events are happening all around him, maintains a stubborn grip on hope. “Cause when you’re older, absolutely everything makes sense!” is heartwarming when an animated snowman is belting it à la Ethel Merman.

Depression

When Anna thinks Elsa has died, she faces the choice depression sufferers bravely make every day—to go on without a sense of direction or will by finding a shred of resolve to do “The Next Right Thing.”

Confusion, lack of direction, overwhelm, sense of meaninglessness

The lullaby Elsa and Anna’s mother sings in the beginning of the movie seems simple enough but actually foreshadows the major points of the emotional journey Elsa will take once she can no longer resist the siren’s call. The lullaby invites Elsa to awaken: “In her waters deep and true/ lie the answers and a path for you” and warns her of the cost: “Can you brave what you most fear?/ Can you face what the river knows?”

Elsa’s struggle to wield her powers symbolizes the struggle to be emotionally and spiritually powerful in a society ruled by intellect.

Elsa spends much of the first Frozen trying to sequester herself in order to avoid harming others with her powers. The highly sensitive among us connect to this issue of feeling things so deeply, of perceiving so much that it seems we almost have a mind-reading superpower, as well as the overwhelm and inconvenience such a superpower can bring when it’s not sufficiently grounded in love and support.

Elsa’s quest “into the unknown” is the same deep emotional dive that more and more highly sensitive and energetically awakened folks are making in search of healing and aliveness.

Now that Elsa has stability, it may seem selfish to put her family at risk. But for Elsa, as well as for the highly sensitive and empathic viewers who feel our powers of perception growing, it doesn’t feel like a choice at all but rather a necessity to respond to and investigate what we see and hear.

Upon reaching Ahtohallan and finding a massive glacier instead of the flowing river she expected, Elsa thinks she has failed until she realizes that a glacier is actually a frozen river (which, besides teaching us a fun lesson in geographical features and tidily alluding to the movie’s title, it is a symbol of just how locked up the river’s secrets are).

Elsa expresses her determination to unlock the answers in “Show Yourself,” calling on the siren to reveal her purpose to her as if it’s an external being.

As the tune morphs into a grand orchestral setting of the lullaby “All is Found,” we hear the siren’s motif. Up until this point ethereal and otherworldly, it is now clear, grounded, and sung by a familiar voice. It’s her mother, singing the line from the lullaby: “Come, my darling, homeward bound,” to which Elsa replies, “I am found!” The two sing a duet, and Elsa’s mother calls her to “Show yourself, step into your power” and “You are the one you’ve been waiting for all of your life.”

It’s clear now that this is Elsa’s answer and purpose and it’s been inside her all along. Her high sensitivity and awareness give her the power to come home to herself and be a healer of generations of trauma.

The plot acknowledges the historical societal trauma that is inextricably interwoven with the family trauma we all experience.

The tension between the Arendellian soldiers and the Northuldra people of the forest is the same true story of violent, imperialist nations oppressing peaceful, indigenous cultures that has played out repeatedly over the course of history.

The trauma we all carry (because truly, no one gets out of childhood unscathed) shares roots with the same dark energy that has propelled oppression for generations. And even though more and more people are becoming conscious and doing work to heal from this trauma, it’s not enough to see a memory, acknowledge it and move on. It must be fully lived through to be let go. And this experience can be extremely terrifying, even physically debilitating.

When Elsa finds out her grandfather murdered the Northuldra leader after stealing their resources, hating them for their magic powers and connection to spirituality, she is so overwhelmed she begins to turn into a rigid block of ice.

Perhaps the movie’s most important message: we must look inside to learn what it means to be true to ourselves, but even those of us with magic superpowers can’t go it alone.

Even though Elsa’s powers may have been the catalyst for healing, she could not have been successful without Anna’s help, who broke the dam and returned resources to the Northuldra people after sensing that Elsa had died. Her act of love was enough not only to help heal the societal trauma but also to revive Elsa and secure safety and prosperity for all.

Elsa leaves Arendelle to Anna and moves to the enchanted forest where her magic powers and energetic sensitivity are understood and nurtured. In contrast to a conventional Disney happy ending with one heroine, a dashing Prince Charming, and a luxurious castle, Frozen 2 honors the needs of two complex characters and recognizes that the journey to awakening may lead to unexpected and beautiful places.