‘Frozen’: Why kids can’t ‘Let it Go’

It was the the most downloaded movie from Apple last year, and kids everywhere are still singing the movie’s anthem “Let it Go.”

Heck, it’s now probably stuck in your own head right now, even if you have never seen the film.

So why, you may ask, has the 2013 movie stuck around for so long for the under 5 set?

The experts say it is not just because you can find images of movie’s sister on everything. The Frozen sisters Elsa and Anna are on dresses, on scooters, and just in time for the Easter season, they’re even on jelly beans.

To truly understand the psychology behind Frozen Mania, CNN reached out to psychologists who are sisters, themselves: Yalda Uhls is regional director for Common Sense Media. Maryam Kia-Keating is an associate professor of clinical psychology at University of California, Santa Barbara. Here is our edited conversation.

CNN: Princess movies have been around since the beginning of time, but this has really resonated. What has made this one so unique?

One of the lines she and all her friends connected to was: “Be the good girl, that you always have to be.”

And when they sing it, they wag their fingers like they do in the movie.

I think it looks a lot like something they see and hear from parents — be a good girl or boy, don’t do this or that — so part of it is copying what they frequently hear.

But when I asked my daughter what she thought the song was about she said it was about “Elsa being happy and free, and nobody bothering her.”

That’s a message that everyone wants: to be happy and free.

CNN