Is it just me or did all the scenes between A & K seem completely forced in F2? The beginning charades scene when Anna said I love u for the first time, at least the first time the audience hears it, felt really off and didn’t seem natural. That seemed like a KB moment instead of Anna. I mean they were hardly friends in F1 and now in F2 he wants to propose at the beginning of the movie. Wait, what!?
Yes, and this is my primary problem with KA. It’s seemed forced and tacked on from the very beginning.
I’ve been watching film for a long time now and I know what makes an onscreen relationship work. It’s film, so there’s always a need for suspension of disbelief. In other words, it’s not necessary for me to see every last interaction of a couple to understand how they came to be attracted to each other. It’s okay to skip some steps if the chemical building blocks are there.
Here’s an example…Howard Hawk’s masterpiece ‘To Have and Have Not’
Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall. Here’s one single shot from the film.
Think maybe there’s a little chemistry going on here?
It helps that the actors were hot for each other - in fact they got married and stayed that way until he died. One of the great love stories of golden age Hollywood.
One more example, because it’s one of the classic scenes in all of cinema. Do yourself a favor and watch this one. Then put some Bacall in your game. She’s one of the best there ever was.
Link to pure Bacall Badassery
Now I don’t intend to compare Kristoff to Bogart here, that would be silly. What I’m illustrating is that chemistry is real, relationship development is real and if it isn’t there - then I don’t buy the pairing. Simple as that.
Here’s another one, where the couple wasn’t even the canon pair…
And these two people never kissed, had sex or were an item. This is how you build a pair that people can ship and ship easily. Not that easy is the goal, but with development and the right spark between characters and their actors - making them love interests just happens naturally.
This is not what we see with KA, without a lot of headcanon. Kristoff, a great character in Frozen 1 was helpful and kind, giving and loving (in his own way) by being ‘big brother’ protective of Anna on their journey to the North Mountain. He was also stubborn, moody, a complainer (not that he didn’t have things to complain about) and a grouch. It’s this point-counterpoint, back and forth that works so well with cinema relationships. It’s essentially the ‘enemies to lovers’ trope. It works with Bogie and Bacall and it worked in Frozen 1, right up to the kiss. The kiss seemed too soon, forced even, for their relationship and certainly for Anna who had already been engaged just hours earlier to the first man she’d ever met. So Kristoff is the second man she ever met and she’s ready to kiss him too? I almost felt like they’d spent the entire movie making the point that you shouldn’t run off with the first person who makes eyes at you…Anna seemed to understand that and then minutes later she’s swapping spit with someone else.
Then comes Frozen Fever and OFA and then Frozen 2 where the Kristoff that I like in the first movie just disappeared….replaced by a stand-up comic and his silent partner - like a smelly Penn and Teller. Gone was the Kristoff that had a life, life goals, happiness in his own skin and an identity. The character became the 3rd Wheel (Chris Buck’s words), the comic relief, and we were to assume, Anna’s boyfriend.
If there was anything left of the original Kristoff, in Frozen 2 he died completely - in a fire. I won’t go into it all, because if you’ve followed me for any length of time you’ve heard me list the F2 Kristoff offences in excruciating detail. I’ll just leave you with this last quote from Joe Hogarty, Walt Disney World News Today…
“In this movie, Kristoff basically spends most of his time doing that tired old shtick of proposing to a girl, Anna, and either being overly nervous about it, or constantly being interrupted by someone. By the fourth time he does this, your eyes will roll completely in the back of your head. “ Source