This is the scene that broke my heart the most… and accompanied by the score, “Reunion,” it’s ten times heartbreaking all at once and I think this one will stick to me for a very long time.
I love this mainly because of Anna’s animation and her expressions.
The first frame shows Anna looking beyond the sea. It’s calm. Is Arendelle now under all this water? What happens now? Did people survive and make it out alive?
She didn’t know, but she knew Elsa didn’t make it. Or so she thought.
Anna clutches the strap of her satchel and she takes a deep breath. She remembers her sister. Grief washes over her again as tears well up. The gravity of her sorrow weighs more than the relief she felt a moment ago. She squeezes her eyes shut, and she exhales. She’s depleted once more, and she doesn’t know when she’ll ever really feel whole again… if that’s even possible.
Did she really do what was right? Did she really lose everything… again?
But right before she could break apart, Elsa’s snowflake shows up right on time to hold her broken heart together before it could shatter… is that even possible? What else is there to shatter? But the snowflake - it was an adhesive, a healing balm that instantaneously gave Anna a flicker of hope.
So Anna takes another step. And another. And she runs.
I love this so much because what takes place after is Anna running and finding Elsa - Elsa who ascends from the depths of the ocean to find her sister, too.
The love they have for each other renders me breathless.
And this scene is another example of hope.
Just when you think all hope is gone and you’re about to succumb to grief, it comes rushing to you. Not necessarily with a horse, but hope - hope will always come back to you when you least expect it. When you think it’s dead and lost.
Nothing is ever lost. Love is permanent.