Frozen Review: The case for Hans of the Seven Isles
Hi. I always wanted to do a review of the game changing film Frozen which is Disney’s adaptation of the Snow Queen. I’m also going to keep it brief because everything great about it has already been said. Queen Elsa, Princess Anna, Kristoff, Olaf and even Sven the reindeer are all great loveable quirky characters. I even like Hans! And as a woman who has a sister who I am close with, this movie hits a note with me.
However, I also need to confess that as much as I love it and always will, there was always something about this fantastic story that was... off. And that is what I am going to talk about and I’m afraid while it the one flaw it has, it brings it down a lot. And it took me years to detect what it was and it wasn’t until I watched a review by Aldone (link below) on Prince Hans that I had my “eureka” moment.
Prince Hans should NOT have been the villain because him being a twist villain makes no sense. Nothing about his actions, gestures, decisions or even his character showed any subtle hint that he was a bad guy all along. When he meets Anna and watches her as he leaves, he looks genuinely smitten. When he introduces himself to Elsa, he is a gentleman even when she rejects him and doesn’t argue with her at all. His backstory of never having been loved by his brothers and father though still having his mother’s love sets him up to knowing what loneliness and at the same time, being loved feels like. When Elsa accidentally brings down an eternal winter, he isn’t the one to label Elsa as a monster (the Duke of Weseltown is) and is more concerned about the well being of the people. And even when he captures Elsa, he doesn’t kill her. He just locks her up. That moment where he is revealed to have been evil all along and plotting against the two sisters makes no sense when you look at everything in before. It’s like they weren’t even the same guy. In fact, Frozen didn’t need to pick someone to be a villain because it already had one: Queen Elsa.
I know that sounds contradictory to how she is especially when you compare her to what she was going to be like, but by making her as good as gold, she is in fact already the best twist villain there is in Disney lore. And it’s funny that people joke that her and Wreck-It Ralph would make a great couple because she IS just like Ralph. She really is just misunderstood.
I am also aware that everything I mentioned can also be interpreted as subtle hints to being evil, but for a twist villain to work, they have to make you suspicious. Nothing about Hans translates as suspicious and if he was meant to be interpreted that way, I am very much afraid that it was not well done. I speak as an artist, the way the hints were presented was all wrong I also speak as someone who knows what the red flags in a guy look like. The prince doesn’t have any of them.
Also, the Duke Weseltown is the perfect foil to Elsa as a bad guy who really is bad. He embodies those who jump to the conclusion that those who are different are evil, dangerous, broken or all of the above because they’re either ignorant or opportunistic. Yet underneath it all, they are very weak, pathetic and spiteful.
So there was really no need to make Hans evil at all. I could even argue that it would have even more valuable to girls if Hans was good, but just not the one. A relationship can fail while the two people involved are both still good. The whole theme of Frozen is misunderstanding and letting go of the things in your life that bring you pain. In my mind, Hans had to understand that he doesn’t need to look for love so desperately nor does he have to settle for the lack of love he gets at home. People will take a liking to him naturally when he is just his good kind self and even then, it takes time and some people just aren’t compatible with him in any way. That and it is perfectly fine to select who you want to keep in your life.
I know that Hans is meant to be the guy we’re supposed hate, but... seeing all his flaws as a twist villain just makes me feel bad for him. He is a great character who was put in the wrong role and it’s something I see happen all too often. A lot of great characters who should have been good guys go bad out of nowhere and that sours the story or the flipside happens (I’m looking at you Vegita from Dragon Ball).
Now, I’m not saying Frozen is ruined now that I identified it’s flaw. I just don’t think it’s a perfect movie. Like I said, the entire theme of Frozen was misunderstanding and the point of clearing misunderstandings is that usually, there is no bad guy. Just good people who made mistakes.
Overall, I can finally rate Frozen appropriately as a 6/10. It’s a good but not great story though you can still learn even from its mistake which is not every story needs a great big bad. It started strong, but it could have ended better.
Here is the video by Aldone who made me pinpoint the flaw in the film.
Anyway, this is all my opinion. Thank you for listening and as always, stay safe.
PS: I will not review Frozen 2 because I didn’t like it at all and I don’t find it right to review a film I can’t say anything nice about.