Some people are worth melting for

This blog is dedicated to the Disney movie Frozen, starring Kristen Bell as Princess Anna, Idina Menzel as Elsa the Snow Queen, Jonathan Groff as Kristoff, Josh Gad as Olaf the snowman, Alan Tudyk as the Duke of Weselton, Santino Fontana as Prince Hans, and many others. The movie was released on November 27, 2013. Part of The Disney Directory!

[hafanforever]

A Sad Song of Snowmen and Sisters

“Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” is the first song that is sung by one of the major characters; in this case, it is sung by Anna. This song begins the theme of doors mentioned or shown throughout the film; in this case, it is every time Anna knocks on Elsa’s door (she twice does a “shave and a haircut” knock) and asks her if she wants to build a snowman with her (Anna). Anna sings the song at three different ages: five, nine, and fifteen, with the first time being not long after she has her memories altered. For the first two ages, Anna’s singing voices are provided by two of the film crew’s daughters. Five-year-old Anna is voiced by Katie Lopez, the daughter of songwriters Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, and nine-year-old Anna is voiced by Agatha Lee Monn, the daughter of director Jennifer Lee (who also speaks the queen’s single line of dialogue).

Because her memories have been changed, Anna doesn’t understand why she and Elsa can no longer play together. What she does retain from the memories are the happy times of them building snowmen together, so Anna still knows it is something Elsa loves to do with her. When the first day of snowy winter comes, she knocks on Elsa’s door, asking her if she wants to build a snowman. (One of her first lines is “Come out the door,” another reference to the door theme.) Anna feels sad that she and Elsa are no longer best friends and rarely see each other, and she becomes very heartbroken when Elsa tells her to go away. Unbeknownst to her, Elsa is just as crushed over not seeing Anna anymore and wishes she didn’t have to tell her (Anna) to leave. When a moment of panic makes her randomly release her powers from her hands, her father gives her a pair of gloves, telling Elsa to “Conceal it, don’t feel it. Don’t let it show.”

A few years later, nine-year-old Anna knocks on Elsa’s door again, asking her the same question, but also to ride their bike together. She continues to express her sadness that she no longer has Elsa’s company, as well as her own loneliness and boredom, since Anna has virtually no one else for company and very little to do in the castle. She is so lonely that she has attempted to talk to the people in the castle paintings, even telling one, “Hang in there, Joan” (which is a nod to Joan of Arc, but also an indirect message for Elsa to do the same). At the same time, twelve-year-old Elsa is growing more scared because her powers are getting stronger. Out of fear of harming them, she refuses to let her parents touch her.

By the time the girls are teens, Anna no longer attempts to see her sister since Elsa never opens her door when Anna knocks, despite all of Anna’s past efforts to change that. But after their parents take a ship voyage and during a storm at sea, Anna cannot help but knock on Elsa’s door once again, especially since Elsa does not attend the funeral. Anna sings that she is here for her and needs her (Elsa) now more than ever since they are each other’s only family left. Anna wants to comfort Elsa and receive comfort from Elsa herself…but Elsa’s door remains closed. :( After Anna sits down at the door, the camera pans from her to Elsa in the exact same spot on the other side. Due to her grief, Elsa’s entire room is covered with ice and snow in stillness. By this point, with their parents gone and Elsa believing that she is still too dangerous to be around Anna, both girls are now truly alone.

So while “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” starts with a cheerful, happy melody, it actually is (and becomes) a very sad, tragic song, because of the many such events occur as it is sung. These events are Anna and Elsa’s deteriorating friendship, their growing loneliness from being isolated from each other and the world beyond the castle gates, and the deaths of their parents, leaving them both in grief, orphaned, and more alone than ever before.

[arrendelle]

Belle & Anna + hair tucks (not all are listed) -- thanks to hafanforever for her help!

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Love Hurts at First

Unlike her relationship with Hans, Anna’s relationship with Kristoff had more of a rough start. Since Kristoff does not trust people, he is unwilling to give Anna a chance. And whenever she does something good for him, at first, rather than being grateful, he gets mad or annoyed and points out what she could have done instead.

First, Anna throws the bags with the carrots, rope, and pick ax at Kristoff, causing him some physical pain. Even though he decides to help her, he doesn’t thank her, since she hit him, and remains suspicious towards her.

Then when Anna tells Kristoff about her rushed engagement, his suspicions about her being another untrustworthy person are confirmed. This is why he does not want her to help him fight off the wolves. Even though she saves him when she throws the lit blanket at the wolves, Kristoff doesn’t thank Anna and instead yells that she almost set him on fire while doing so.

But then later…

After they fall off the cliff, Anna concernedly touches Kristoff’s head where he had hit it. Although he yelps at the pain, he also laughs, saying that it’s good and that he has a thick skull.

And finally, at the very end, Anna excitedly leads a blindfolded Kristoff to his new sled. She accidentally slams him into a pole while running, but while he does quickly exclaim about the pain, he also gives a little smile.

These actions reflect a big factor in Kristoff’s development during the film. When he makes his first major appearance, we see that he is a very rude, grumpy man who doesn’t like talking to or spending time with people. Even when he meets Anna, he just thinks she is like all the others who have hurt him, so he is not interested in helping her or being her friend. Kristoff only sees the bad in people, so he doesn’t thank Anna whenever she helps him. Rather, he gets mad because she harmed him or almost did. He criticizes her because he wants to have legitimate reasons not to like or trust her.

However, as they spend more time together, whenever she does more acts like these, Kristoff doesn’t point out the pain. He just smiles or laughs them off, as if they are no big deals. This shows that he is getting used to her; even though she has these quirks and flaws, he realizes that they don’t make her bad. They don’t matter to Kristoff by then; he realizes they are what make Anna who she is, and he loves her just the way she is.

And this is just what happens with relationships in real life: people learn to get used to one another before they fall in love, even with their flaws.

[arrendelle]

Left-handed Elsa -- requested by hafanforever

[hafanforever]

Signature Snowflake Scenes

In Frozen, we see that the trademark representation of Elsa’s magic is a signature snowflake. This snowflake appears numerous times throughout the film on almost everything she does and creates, including when she takes a step forward and causes ice to spread. But it is especially prominent during Elsa’s actions as she sings “Let It Go” and creates her ice palace. Moments that show the snowflake include the following:

First Scenes

The very first snowflake appears right before the title card, and it falls within the center of the “O” when the logo zooms onto the screen.

When little Elsa stomps her foot for the first time in the ballroom, you can see a light outline that is the snowflake before the ice spreads.

After Elsa calls for her parents and starts crying, ice spreads onto the floor as a response to her distress, starting with another snowflake outline.

When Pabbie tells Elsa about the beauty in her magic, a blue snowflake is conjured up in the sky before it turns red and breaks apart, due to Pabbie mentioning the danger of her powers.

As a preteen, Elsa voices her fears about her magic growing stronger. Part of the snowflake appears on the wall behind her, but it appears jagged and ugly, due to her fear.

A large snowflake is shown on eighteen-year-old Elsa’s floor and wall as she sits against the door and mourns for her parents.

When 21-year-old Elsa touches the fountain, there is an outline of the snowflake’s branches before the fountain freezes.

Right before Elsa accidentally shoots ice from her hand after telling people to stay away, there is a frame of the snowflake in a jagged shape.

The snowflake appears when Elsa takes her first step onto the fjord and freezes the water, and the snowflake appears with all of her other steps as she causes the fjord to freeze.

“Let It Go”

After removing her other glove, Elsa releases some snow with her left hand, making the snowflake appear first, then she does the same action with her right hand.

After creating the stairs, Elsa makes the snowflake appear as she takes her first step on them.

As she sings, “Here I stand!”, Elsa literally stomps her foot down, creating a large snowflake that spreads all around her.

While creating the ice palace, Elsa makes a chandelier, and the piece that holds it from the ceiling has attachments that resemble the snowflake.

Another view of the snowflake Elsa made from her stomp is visible after the chandelier is made, from its point of view. This snowflake has become the centerpiece of the room’s floor.

After Elsa creates her ice dress, snowflake designs can be seen on the cape, including a large one near the end. She also has little snowflakes in her braid.

With a wave of her hand, Elsa closes the balcony doors, which has handles that are made of the halves of the snowflake.

The Palace

After Anna walks into the palace, she looks up at the roof, which has a snowflake embedded into it.

The snowflake chandelier is visible when Marshmallow is created and takes up much of the screen.

As Elsa runs away from the Duke’s men, she comes to the room that has the snowflake center.

The chandelier is seen twice when Hans fires the arrow: before the arrow hits the top, then right after Elsa looks up at it and it begins to fall toward the ground.

Anna Freezes and Thaws

When Anna’s skin begins to freeze and turn to ice, the snowflake appears on the palms of both hands and is also seen on the back of her left hand.

Before Anna runs to save Elsa, she looks at Kristoff, and much of the left side of her face has white snowflakes. There is another under her chin and a few other appear to be forming on the other side of her face.

Before, during, and after she takes her last exhale, Anna has smaller snowflakes on her left cheek. Parts of a the snowflake are also visible on her right arm (in two places) and her cape.

Four glittering snowflakes are seen on Anna’s cape as she thaws, and they disappear after she thaws completely.

Last Scenes

Once all of the snow and ice has been lifted from the land, Elsa puts it all together in the sky in the form of a giant snowflake, when disappears once she spreads her arms out.

Right before she creates the ice rink in the courtyard, Elsa takes a step, which, again, briefly shows the snowflake before the ice spreads.

The very last snowflake appears as a shape attached to the tallest castle tower, near the top.

I have wanted to make a post detailing many of the moments that show Elsa’s snowflake, and these posts by arendellekingdom, arrendelle, and clavelina have been of inspiration and help to me. I also owe a thanks to my friend disneynumber1fan for making the gifs!

[arrendelle]

Anna + lip biting

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A Great Sense of Rumor

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All right, I know that after people have noticed this little Easter egg in Frozen since it was released, many have developed the same theory. However, I do not agree with it and will give an explanation as to why.

The theory with which I do not agree has to do with this brief moment in the film:

Yes, by now, I think every major Frozen fan knows about and has seen the quick cameos of Rapunzel (with her short, brown hair) and Eugene (or Flynn, if Tangled fans still want to call him that) when Anna passes by them during “For the First Time in Forever.” From seeing these two Disney Princesses together in the same scene and film, the aforementioned theory that some fans have developed is that Rapunzel is a cousin of Anna and Elsa, and that their mothers are sisters. Therefore, this means that Rapunzel and Eugene must exist in the same universe as Elsa and Anna.

But like I said before, I don’t agree with or believe this theory. Why?

For one reason, these characters actually do not exist in the same time period. According to Nathan Greno and Byron Howard, the directors of Tangled, the said film is set during the 1780s. On the other hand, Frozen is set during the 1840s, which is a fact confirmed in the book The Art of Frozen.

For another reason, this is not the first film in which Disney has shown characters from other Disney works. On many occasions, they have recycled animation from past films into others, including with character appearances. For example, Bambi and his mother make a brief appearance in The Rescuers. In fact, animation from Bambi has been reused more than any other animated film, with Bambi’s mother making cameos in The Sword in the Stone, The Jungle Book, and Beauty and the Beast.

The king and Grand Duke from Cinderella appear during the chaos of Eric and Vanessa’s would-be wedding in The Little Mermaid.

In Aladdin, as Genie looks through the wish recipe book, he comes to a crab recipe and gets pinched by Sebastian.

And in Hercules, the lion skin of Scar from The Lion King is briefly worn by the title character, then Phil uses it to clean his face.

My overall point in naming these examples is that I don’t believe the theory within Frozen because Disney has put many of these Easter eggs and references in their films as surprises and joke purposes that are meant to be just for fun. They are not meant to be taken seriously or literally in believing that their worlds are canonically connected to one another. In other words, we are not supposed or expected to really believe that all of these people or anthropomorphic animals exist in the same universes and during the same time periods.

I also don’t accept these crossover theories of characters from different stories and films existing in the same universe, especially if the creators or directors don’t make any confirmation of them being true or if they are not outright stated to be the same characters. The other part of it is, just because we see all of these characters, based on their similarities to the real characters in how they look and what they do, in these movies doesn’t mean that we should believe it is actually them. Like just because we see Hercules feature lion skin that looks just like that of Scar doesn’t mean that it is the exact same character, particularly since Scar died from being mauled, then was presumably consumed by fire, in his film.

So the same concept applies to the cameos of Rapunzel and Eugene; just because the two people we see in Frozen look like them, it doesn’t mean that it IS actually them and that they exist at the same time as Elsa and Anna. Now I do think it’s an interesting theory, but for all reasons stated above, I don’t agree with it.

I want to give a special shout out to my pal minervadennabond for coming up with the title, which is also an inside joke and reference, or a play on words. ;)

[arrendelle]

Frozen Fever vs. Frozen -- Part 6 of 6 (credit to hafanforever for her help!)

Anna’s Shock: She does (almost) the same shocked expression at Kristoff’s “I love you, baby!” solo and Hans’ surprise proposal!

Down With Hans: Once again, he deserves what he gets -- suckerpunched in the face and smashed by a...mega sneeze-snowball!

New Family: Tiny guys (the Snowgies) go off to live with a big guy (Marshmallow), kinda like the opposite: a big guy (Kristoff) living with little guys (trolls)!

[arrendelle]

Frozen Fever vs. Frozen -- Part 5 of 6 (credit to hafanforever for her help!)

Clock Tower: Anna and Elsa (well, just her) dance around the clock tower like what Anna had done with Hans.

Anna Saving Elsa: Once again, Anna saves Elsa from danger in the nick of time!

Sisterly Comfort: Anna hugs Elsa close like what Elsa did with her when she was unconscious.

Anna-Surfing: The kids carry Anna like the trolls! I guess this is an homage to them since they didn’t get cameos.

Anna’s Affection: Anna does a little shrug-and-blink for Kristoff as she did with Hans.

[arrendelle]

Frozen Fever vs. Frozen -- Part 4 of 6 (credit to hafanforever for her help!)

Boat: The Snowgies tip over the boat like Sitron does when Hans and Anna were on it.

Oaken’s Inventions: He has invented a sun balm and cold medicine, who knows what he may come up with next...

Sandwiches: Anna loves sandwiches! What else is there to say?

Throwing Olaf: Poor Olaf keeps getting his body parts taken apart and thrown somewhere...

Sven and Ice: Sven’s tongue gets caught on an icicle like on the palace’s staircase rail.

[arrendelle]

Frozen Fever vs. Frozen -- Part 3 of 6 (credit to hafanforever for her help!)

Smelly Kristoff: The trolls and Elsa (indirectly) acknowledge Kristoff’s reindeer smell; she’s the one who persuades him to wash up! Makes me wonder if he was initially reluctant.

Little Brothers: Olaf was originally going to say this about Marshmallow; Snowgies are his next best thing to one! Or many.

Window-Washing Platform: In a call-back to the FTFTIF song, now Elsa joins in on it to help Anna hunt for all her presents!

Portrait Room: Elsa also joins her bouncing around with all the portraits!

Biking Through the Halls: Elsa yet again doesn’t leave Anna alone in the present hunt, now they both can bike through the halls.

[arrendelle]

Frozen Fever vs. Frozen -- Part 2 of 6 (credit to hafanforever for her help!)

Sisterly Wake-Ups: Elsa decides to do the same to Anna, peeping behind the bed and all.

Sleep-Confusion: Anna’s a little groggy from sleep and getting events jumbled up, and her mega bedhead returns!

“Cold never bothered me anyway”: Elsa simply changes one word of her line!

Dress transformation: I would’ve used this one for the previous FF gif, but felt that Anna’s modification fit better, plus it looks like Elsa’s doing a birthday favor!

“Wait, what?!”: The return of Anna’s catchphrase!

[arrendelle]

Frozen Fever vs. Frozen -- Part 1 of 6 (credit to hafanforever​ for her help!)

Cleaning Kristoff’s Face: Like the troll, Elsa licks her finger and wipes a speck of paint off Kristoff’s chin...but his reactions are different, he seems to be a little surprised at Elsa and disgusted at the troll!

“But it’s a ____!”: Olaf and Kristoff both seem to have a thing for ice, and they object to something they shouldn’t be doing, not to mention they both wave their arms around a little to express how they feel!

Freezing Fountains: Elsa makes the same ice designs like she did when she returned to the kingdom.

Expressvens: (Made up that word a long time ago) Kristoff speaks for Sven as usual!

Olaf’s intellect: Says his not-being-able-to-read-or-spell quote the exact same way about his skull-and-bones situation.

[hafanforever]

HEADCANON: Anna does not think about Hans during her journey with Kristoff

[hafanforever]

I think this is another popular topic of discussion and speculation in Frozen that makes a lot of fans curious. But before I get into it and explain my headcanon, I wanted to say that, when it comes to the development of Kristoff and Anna’s relationship during their adventure, many people seem to be more observant to Kristoff’s actions than they are to those by Anna. These include the different ways he looks at her as he grows attached to her and how he gets concerned about her well-being. But Anna has just as much as contribution to their relationship as he does; she just does it in a different way and at a slower pace because of her thoughts about Elsa and Hans.

The fact is that when Anna starts her quest, she thinks she has already found the man of her dreams in Hans. So when she meets Kristoff, she is definitely not looking to form a romance with him at all (though I’m sure she wanted to be his friend). Then when Kristoff and Anna start their journey together, riding in the sled, it is really the only time the two talk about Hans and Anna’s rushed engagement to him. And of course, Kristoff expresses his doubts while Anna adamantly insists that Hans is her true love. After Kristoff’s sled is destroyed and they (with Sven) start walking to the mountain, Anna’s only real concern and priority right then and there is to find Elsa and bring her home.

Getting back to my headcanon, the fact that Anna never (to almost never) mentions Hans again, at least not by his name (“Last time I introduced her to a guy, she froze everything.”), for the rest of her adventure makes me believe that she doesn’t think about him at all. Now I don’t believe she forgot about him entirely, but I do think she forgot about him and their engagement to some degree. Why do I believe this? Because not only is she beginning to get used to being in Kristoff’s company as they spend time together, but like I said, her main and major priority is to find Elsa, repair their relationship, and bring her back to Arendelle. It is really important to Anna that she succeed in this goal (especially because Elsa is needed to thaw Arendelle), so it’s pretty much the only thing on which she can really focus for the time being. With this being Anna’s main priority, it takes up so many of her thoughts within her mind, which leads to her not thinking about Hans possibly at all. So then by not thinking about him, she ends up forgetting about him a little bit.

And then when Anna does find Elsa, things get much more complicated when Elsa accidentally strikes her sister in the heart, then throws her out. Anna briefly frets when she realizes she had failed to get through to Elsa, but then she and Kristoff quick turn their attention to her hair turning white and her beginning to get really cold. So now Anna now has another big problem to worry about, which is for herself this time. Since this could be a very serious matter, Anna, again, really has no opportunity, time, or room in her mind to be thinking about Hans. This is especially because she doesn’t know what her fate will be due to her having been struck.

When Kristoff, Anna, Olaf, and Sven come to the Valley of the Living Rock, what is interesting to note that, by this point, Kristoff is the only one who seems to remember (and probably more so than Anna), that she has a fiancé. He shows or mentions this three times, both by what he does and what he says.

When Kristoff sees Anna shiver and is about to put his arm around her, he stops because he remembers that she is engaged, meaning that she belongs to another man. Instead, he brings her to a steam vent to get some heat.

When the trolls get into singing “Fixer Upper,” at one point, Kristoff tells them to stop because “She’s engaged to someone else! Okay?!”

Then when Pabbie tells them that only a frozen heart can be thawed by an act of true love and Bulda’s suggests a true love’s kiss, Kristoff tells Anna that they have to get her back to Hans, since she had said that he is her “true love,” so a true love’s kiss from him could save her.

The headcanon I have that Anna forgot somewhat about Hans during her entire adventure seems to be supported by her facial expression after Kristoff says, “Anna, we’ve got to get you back to Hans.” She scrunches her eyebrows, as if she is confused, before she nods and softly says his name. In fact, when Anna quizzically said, “An act of true love?”, I honestly don’t think Hans was the first person who came to her mind. So when Kristoff mentions Hans, she’s thinking something like, “Right, Hans. He’s my true love. He’ll save me.” So then she, Kristoff, and Olaf take off on Sven and ride back to Arendelle. But during the ride, I don’t think Anna was really thinking about Hans in the way she was when she first started her journey. It’s probably because she is growing colder and weaker by the minute, so she is more on the verge of desperation than of genuine happiness about seeing him again. Then when Kristoff drops her off, she looks at him behind her (and he keeps looking at her, too) before the gates close in front of him. With her condition deteriorating more and more, Anna is not feeling happy and excited, not even to see Hans: she is scared and desperate, and also sad and reluctant because she has to leave Kristoff and Sven.

But then after she reunites with Hans and he reveals his real, evil nature while indirectly trying to kill her, Anna becomes confused and disillusioned about love since he had fooled her so well and he was not at all what she thought he was. Even when Olaf tells her what love is and that Kristoff is the one who loves her, Anna is still confused and surprised. But it doesn’t mean she wasn’t falling for Kristoff during their journey.

Starting off as acquaintances, Kristoff and Anna began to become friends as they spent more time together, and Anna undoubtedly grew to like Kristoff very much. And she did express concern for him when she asked if he would be okay as he dropped her off. But remember that, at the start, Anna thought love was easy and happened fast, that it was something you recognize immediately, that it was perfect and based on perfection. She thought it was all about a mutual attraction at first sight. Since all of these things came true when she met and spent time with Hans (because things went perfectly when they met and remained perfect afterwards), she didn’t think it would happen with Kristoff, especially since they didn’t exactly get along when they first met (see this analysis).

Following Hans’s treachery and Olaf’s words of wisdom, Anna begins to understand that love is just the opposite of what she thought it was: that it doesn’t happen fast and you may not consciously realize it when you love someone. Not to mention that the feelings of care and concern that she was developing towards Kristoff is love. And love does not happen right away, but rather it takes time, especially the more you get to know the other person. At this point, and even by the end of the film, Anna is not in love with Kristoff, especially not madly in love, but rather, she is beginning to fall for him, and he is more for her, as their friendship continues to grow.

So as a summary, I really do believe that Anna did not think about Hans during her journey, since she had a, and then another, much more important matter on her mind. While she has not fallen for Kristoff when their journey ends, she thinks of him as a good friend, who she might have grown to care for a little bit more than Hans, particularly from the way she looked at him before the gates closed. And while Hans’s betrayal has caused her some trauma, Anna realizes that it doesn’t and wouldn’t hurt to give love a second chance, especially since Kristoff is very different (and a good different) from Hans.

[hafanforever]

Frozen: Far from the Average Fairy Tale Fantasy

[hafanforever]

One of my favorite subjects that is not thoroughly explained or confirmed within Frozen is why Anna is so adamant that Hans is her true love and why she doesn’t see a problem in them getting engaged so quickly. I have discussed my inputs on this before two times; however, since there is a lot of speculation and potential headcanons about this, I feel it is something I can discuss many times and come up with some new material I may not have realized before. And this time, I have more to say about the headcanon that Anna grew up reading fairy tales and developed her own views on love from reading those kinds of stories.

I know I’m not the first person to speculate that Anna has read fairy tales all of her life. It offers a good, possible explanation on why Anna is interested in and values romance so much (besides her desperation to not be alone anymore). During the years that she and Elsa were apart from each other, it is most likely that Anna did not receive the same, if much at all, amount of formal education that Elsa did. Anna doesn’t seem like the kind of person who would enjoy academics and studying, nor might she remember some of the things she was taught. Maybe there came a time that her parents gave her storybooks to read to keep her entertained (not to mention so she would stop riding her bike down the stairs and crashing into the armors). It is possible that many of these stories were fairy tales. If so, Anna would especially enjoy reading about princesses who fall in love with and are saved by handsome, dashing princes, then they get married and live happily ever after. It was apparent to her that these fictional characters actually fell in love and married very shortly after they met. They didn’t go on dates or spend a lot of time getting to know each other, they just fell in love literally at first sight of each other.

Due to her not being allowed to go outside the castle gates, Anna would just read these fairy tales over and over again as she grew up. She never had any real experience with love since she had limited contact with people, so the only knowledge or “experience” she had of it was what she learned from the fairy tales. She developed a concept that love is all about romance, is easy to recognize, and that it happens quickly (or “at first sight”). Basically, Anna believed that love and even real life in general was just like how it would be in fairy tales. Even further, many of the fairy tales featured princes that were almost exactly the same and no different from each other. So she also developed the idea that all real-life princes are good, noble men who would do no wrong whatsoever. They always know exactly what do and what to say in any situation. In summary, in Anna’s mind, all princes are handsome, polite, kind, charismatic, and basically flawless and perfect in every way imaginable. So as she grew up, I believe that part of why Anna wanted to find romance was because she wanted to be just like the fairy tale princesses. Because she is a princess, she thought that her best bet in finding romance was finding her own prince, who would be her own true love. I think she spent many hours for many years dreaming that her dream prince would one day come into her life. She wanted to live out her own fairy tale by meeting her ideal dream prince, then they would fall in love at first sight, and after a whirlwind courtship (which would include flirting, making each other giggle, and singing a romantic duet), they would marry and live happily ever after. On the side, since fairy tales never said what happens next after the “happily ever after” quote, this meant, in Anna’s mind, that everything between the prince and princess was just perfect. So then once she and her prince would marry, just like a fairy tale ending, Anna and her husband’s life would be completely perfect.

And then come Elsa’s coronation day, what happens to Anna? She stumbles upon Hans, the most handsome man she has ever seen. She probably can’t even believe her luck when he mentions that he is a prince. With his princely title, along with his good looks and undeniable charisma, Anna realizes that her dream of meeting a real life prince charming has come true. But that’s just the beginning. Later, Hans meets Anna again after “coincidentally” catching her before she falls on the ballroom floor. Then he starts flirting with her when he smoothly leads her into a waltz. And as the evening goes on, not only does Hans further prove himself to be exactly what she wanted in a prince, but the two end up doing all of the romantic things Anna had wanted to do with him. This convinces Anna that she knows Hans so well and that he is no stranger to her. In all, these reasons are exactly why Anna believes, despite them having just met, that Hans is her true love.

And from her point of view, Hans feels the exact same way. By the time they finish singing “Love Is An Open Door,” Anna thinks that her dream of a fairy tale romance with the prince has already come true. But something is still missing…and that is the marriage, which will complete her picture perfect romance. So then what happens next? Hans proposes marriage to Anna. Although she gasps, she eagerly accepts without any hesitation. I think it is safe to say that Anna was expecting Hans to do that sooner or later. Because she finds herself in the same position as the fairy tale princesses right before and during when the princes proposed to them, it’s part of why Anna accepts. In her eyes, marriage is the purest form of love. It means that the man and woman will live happily ever after and have a perfect life together forever. To her, a man would propose marriage to a woman solely because he loves her. And because Hans proposes to her, that tells her that he must love her. Why else would he do it?

After his proposal, Hans and Anna go see Elsa to ask for her blessing of the marriage. Now what comes next is a very unique change in a Disney film, especially for a fairy tale. It is really the first time where realism about love sets in, and this is when Elsa denies her blessing and objects because Anna and Hans have just met and barely know each other. Anna doesn’t see the problem in marrying Hans even though they have just met, insisting that it’s true love. When Elsa asks Anna what she knows about true love, Anna argues that she knows more about it than Elsa. This amount of realism comes into play again later, when Kristoff reacts to Anna’s engagement, and his shock is almost identical to that of Elsa. He questions her about Hans and sees gaps in her answers, yet Anna remains confident that Hans is her true love and not a stranger. But again, why does Anna say she knows so much about love and insists that Hans is no stranger? Because to her, love is merely all about romance between a man and woman. It has nothing to do with things like knowing a person’s foot size or even eye color. In just one evening, she and Hans have done everything romantic that she had wanted to do with a prince and he has proven himself to be the exact prince she had wanted. Therefore, Anna believes that anything that happens with her and Hans in the future will be just like what happens in the fairy tales. Having had her own romantic experience while Elsa never had one (and she assumed Kristoff never had, either, which is true) makes Anna believe that she knows more about love than Elsa does.

However, throughout the time Anna spends with Hans and Kristoff, and how much she gets to know them, we can realize that she does not have a very firm grasp on reality. She has dreamed so much about finding true love, and then apparently lives out that dream for a while, that she cannot distinguish fantasy from reality. And Anna not only falls for Hans for the wrong reasons, she never really falls in love with him at all. Remember, she grew up spending most of her time alone with the impression that Elsa no longer loved her. She wanted to make a change (to the point where she became so desperate for one to happen), and she knew that that change could be finding someone to love and love her so she would no longer be alone. Anna also falls for Hans for very superficial, easy reasons: he is handsome, polite, and very charming. These appeared to be the reasons why fairy tale princesses fell in love with the princes, so she “fell” for Hans in the same manner. But in part of her not being able to tell the difference between fiction and real life, Anna does not understand that more serious matters can come into play in the relationship. She thinks that love is not only easy, but that it is perfect. Her feelings for Hans are really nothing more than a naive, shallow crush. What she “loved” about her relationship was the idea of being in love, especially because it was the first time she ever experienced one and believed that she would never have another chance at it. In all, the only things Anna ever really learns about Hans are his name, that he is from the Southern Isles, and that he has twelve older brothers, and that is it. When she argues with Kristoff, she claims she knows Hans just because of what he has already proven himself to be just what she expected. Anna has no true or firm affirmation of what things will be like between them in the future, so while she thinks she knows him, all she is doing by then is assuming things about him.

So then when Anna finally returns to Arendelle and is slowly freezing to death, she reunites with Hans and tells him what happened. Because she needs her “act of true love,” she assumes that since Hans is her true love, only he can provide her with one: a true love’s kiss (which is, of course, an act of true love that is done in many fairy tales). But then, at the very last second before the couple can kiss, Hans pulls away and smirks, then indirectly reveals that he doesn’t love her and never did. This catches Anna completely off guard, but then she slowly starts to catch on as Hans reveals his matured plot to marry Elsa, then pursue Anna instead, and marry her just to become king of Arendelle (meaning that he only proposed because he was taking advantage of her naivete and desperation), then kill Elsa just to get her out of the way. Throughout it all, Hans indirectly, yet cruelly and sadistically, makes fun of Anna for having been so desperate for love that she was easy to deceive and didn’t thoroughly think about the repercussions. Upon realizing the depths of Hans’s cruelty when he announces his plan to kill Elsa, then leaving leaving her (Anna) to freeze to death, Anna is given a harsh reality check. His deception about who he really is and how he hid his true colors so well tells her that she did not know him at all. Not only that, but the fact that he just led her on and played with her feelings proved that love is not at all what Anna thought it was, especially in that it is all about romance between a princess and a prince. When Olaf comes to her rescue and asks her for ideas on how else to save her, Anna admits that she doesn’t know what love is. Due to her disillusionment over Hans’s treachery, she speaks the truth.

When she learns that Kristoff and Sven are coming back to Arendelle, Anna rushes outside to get to him, believing that kissing Kristoff is her only chance of being saved. But prior to that, Olaf gives her the correct definition of love: that it involves putting another person’s needs before yours. So she takes this to heart (no pun intended XD) when she saves Elsa from Hans and comes back to life after temporarily freezing to death. This act helps Anna (and everyone else) realize that she did not have to resort to romance in order to save herself, but also that love is not solely limited to romance. 

So by the end of the movie, Anna has learned an important lesson: that a lot of things in real life, including love, are a lot more complicated than what they are like in fairy tales. In other words, fantasy is not the same as or at all like reality. Looks can be deceiving, and we must never judge new people purely on their appearances. We should take slow time in getting to know them before we make big decisions about them, especially whether or not we like them. So in real life, the first person you meet may not always be the love of your life. Even if they act so nice and charming, they may not always be who they appear to be. Hans is perfect proof that real-life princes can be evil rather than always be living versions of the fictional “prince charming.” At the same time, Anna begins to understand more about love not being easy to happen or recognize. In fact, she realizes that love can happen in very unexpected ways, that meeting your true love doesn’t always start off with romance. This is what she understands from her growing relationship with Kristoff. They started off not getting along at all, and he is pretty much the complete opposite of what she imagined in a man. But by now, with him having begun to reveal his true self, Anna realizes that him being different (especially from Hans) is a good different. Her true love doesn’t have to be a flawless “prince charming.” but a flawed ice harvester who complements her perfectly. As she begins to fall for Kristoff (she does not love him at the end, since she wants to take things slow after her trauma with Hans), Anna realizes that what she initially wanted with love may not be what she wants after all…and she is (or can be) perfectly happy with that.

This was an extended idea from a few other analyses I have already made before on Anna’s views on love, but I really wanted to say more about the idea of her having read fairy tales as she grew up. I couldn’t have done it without the encouragement and insight by my friend itsaroseforrose since she thought the same things, too. And thanks also goes to arrendelle for her support and allowing me to to use gifs that we thought best relate to the topic. Thanks, guys! :D

[arrendelle]

[hafanforever]

Frozen with Fear

Love is the major theme in Frozen, and it is proven to be stronger than fear, a theme that is also very prominent throughout the movie. While Anna is shown to be very fearless, she does fear being alone and unloved. At first, Kristoff doesn’t seem to be scared of anything, either. But as he falls for Anna, he worries about losing her due to her frozen heart curse. And as for Hans, he seems so overly confident in himself and his plan to take over Arendelle that nothing seems to scare him at all. However, I am sure that on some level, he does fear that his plan will fail, since he has to change it accordingly over the course of the film. As an example, he appears afraid when Anna volunteers to go after Elsa, and tries to talk her out of it. However, he is only concerned for himself, not her, because if anything happened to Anna, his plan to become king would be ruined, since he hadn’t married her yet.

So while these three characters do have some level of fear within them, Elsa is by far the one who has it the most. It all revolves around her powers, which are represented by her emotions. The first event is when she is playing with Anna, and falls behind in keeping up with catching her. Elsa slips and falls, and then, worried that she won’t catch Anna in time, she shoots ice from her hand, which accidentally strikes Anna in the head. Afterwards, when Pabbie tells Elsa, “Fear will be your enemy,” he is referring to her own fear, since it causes danger and chaos with her abilities. However, her parents misinterpret it, believing that Pabbie meant that people would fear Elsa and her powers. They become afraid of Elsa endangering herself and harming others, especially Anna again, so they keep them inside the castle, away from people. At the same time, Elsa is consumed by fear of harming Anna, and others, so she conceals her true nature, wears gloves to suppress her powers, and spends a lot of time in her room, refusing physical contact with Anna.

Other scenes that display the appearances or results of Elsa’s magic in response to her fear include the following:

When twelve-year-old Elsa is scared due to her magic’s growing strength, her signature snowflake appears on the wall behind her. However, it appears jagged and ugly rather than smooth and beautiful.

When Elsa (who is feeling afraid and agitated by Anna) turns away from the ballroom door and waves her hand, she accidentally shoots ice, which forms a barrier of ice spikes of all shapes and sizes. It acts as a barricade because it shows how Elsa wants to be separated from others, knowing that the people will get serious hurt if they try to cross the ice to get to her. Also, the spikes point towards the people, symbolically telling them to stay away from Elsa.

Outside, Elsa backs up to and touches the fountain, causing the water to rise up and freeze, with a jagged and spiked appearance. Then when she tells people to keep away from her, she accidentally shoots ice from her hand and towards the Duke, who calls her a monster. So she runs away until she comes to the fjord. Ice is released from her body and starts to spread onto the water and freeze it. When Elsa takes a step, the water freezes beneath her, and with each step she takes when running forward, the ice spreads all across the water until the entire fjord is frozen over. As she departs, she unleashes a winter trail behind her, which consumes her kingdom.

Upon learning that she caused a winter over Arendelle, Elsa sings that she can never be free and causes snow to spread in a flurry around the room. It intensifies but then finally stops when Elsa yells, “I CAN’T!” This causes her to lose complete control and send dangerous ice flying from her body, some of which hits Anna in the chest.

Marshmallow was created to throw Anna and her friends out when Elsa wanted them to leave. He turns fierce and chases them when Anna throws a snowball at him, then fights Hans and his group when they try to enter Elsa’s palace. He is the embodiment of the fear in which she now finds herself, as well as her desire to be alone, so he is big, fierce, and rough. Marshmallow is a perfect representation of what Elsa’s powers do when she lets her fear take over her.

Alone in her palace, Elsa paces back and forth, telling herself to control her powers. While she does, ice shards form from all directions, giving her palace a darker and scary interior design, matching the monster Elsa fears she has become. It is also noticed that much of the color is now red, while it was blue before (red represents her fear, blue represents her happiness).

When Elsa attempts to drive away the Duke’s thugs, out of fear and anger, she pins one to the wall with spikes, then tries to push the other one out and off her balcony with an ice barrier.

Upon escaping imprisonment in the dungeon, Elsa’s fear grows to the point where it becomes so overwhelming that she freezes her palace and causes a whiteout as she tries to run back to the mountain.