Frozen (Disney film)



"My power flurries through the air into the ground My soul is spiraling in frozen fractals all around And one thought crystallizes like an icy blast: I’m never going back, the past is in the past!"

Frozen is Disney's 53rd entry in its animated canon line-up, based on Hans Christian Andersen's longest Fairy Tale "The Snow Queen". It's animated in 3D using computer-generated imagery.

The movie has gotten a lot of attention as the source of the song "Let It Go", sung by Idina Menzel. The song made such an impact that, in the words of Co-Director Jennifer Lee, "the minute we heard the song the first time, I knew that I had to rewrite the whole movie."

Released on November 27th, 2013, Frozen quickly became the highest grossing animated film yet made.

A series of children's books entitled Anna & Elsa was spun off from the movie and began being released in early 2015.

Not to be confused with the 2010 drama/thriller film of the same name.


 * Adaptational Villainy: Played straight with Hans and inverted with the trolls.
 * All Trolls Are Different: The rock trolls are more like silicon-based Hobbits with a penchant for matchmaking and musical numbers than the usual hulking brutes that bear the name.
 * Anti-Villain: Elsa, who is only "villainous" by accident and out of fear.
 * Award Bait Song: "Let It Go", which ended up winning the 2014 Academy Award for Best Song.  Its potential was understood from the moment it was first played for the production team: they rewrote the entire movie into a completely original story because it was entirely too positive and life-affirming to be a Villain Song and they didn't want to lose it.
 * Characters As Device: Hans is the mirror from The Snow Queen in human form, always reflecting the emotions of people around them back at them. Even confirmed by Word of God.
 * Closed Door Rapport: Anna and Elsa during the opening "growing up" Montage/musical number.
 * Composite Character: Elsa is a composite of the Snow Queen and Kai.
 * Corrupt Corporate Executive: The Duke of Weaseltown Weselton, for sufficiently medieval values of "corporate" and "executive".
 * Demoted to Extra: Gerda and Kai were the heroine and damsel in The Snow Queen.
 * Development Hell: Oh my Lord. This film is over 15 years in the making! Disney planned to produce this in the 90's as a hand-drawn feature, but they scrapped it during their change in management and their shift to CG features starting with Chicken Little and only just recently picked it up again.
 * Extremely Short Timespan: Once we're out of the growing-up Montage/musical number, the main action seems to take place in the space of about 24-48 hours.
 * Fairy Tale
 * False Widower:
 * Freudian Excuse:
 * Freudian Excuse:


 * Gender Flip: Kristoff is based on The Robber Girl.
 * God Save Us From the Queen: While The Snow Queen is built around playing this trope straight, this story is a definite subversion.
 * Hate Sink: since this story almost is a case of No Antagonist, the Duke of Weselton provides a handy dose of ineffective annoyance.
 * An Ice Person: Elsa, of course, as the Snow Queen of this tale.
 * Incredibly Lame Pun: Hans Kristof Anna Sven.
 * Laser-Guided Amnesia: Applied to the young Anna by the rock trolls, making her forget Elsa's accidental attack on her.
 * Massive-Numbered Siblings: Hans is the youngest of thirteen brothers.
 * The Matchmaker: Every last rock troll.  They get an entire production number about Shipping Anna and Kristof.
 * Meaningful Name: Olaf, the Comic Relief:  "Oh, laugh".
 * Meet Cute: Princess Anna meeting Prince Hans as she trips past him into a rowboat.
 * The Mole:
 * Named After Somebody Famous: Hans Kristof Anna Sven.
 * Nearly-Normal Animal: Kristof's reindeer Sven appears to be a Mostly-Normal Animal, but he shows signs of having human or near-human intelligence.
 * Non-Human Sidekick:
 * Sven the reindeer to Kristof.
 * Olaf to both Kristof and Anna.
 * Outnumbered Sibling:
 * Power Incontinence: Take it easy on the Ice-9 there, Elsa. This trope is the prime mover for the whole plot.
 * Also occurs in the sequel novels to a lesser extent, during a picnic with her friends Anna realizes Elsa (who was busy helping her subjects) needs her when it suddenly starts snowing.
 * Prince Charming: From the moment we first see him, Prince Hans is the classic embodiment of this type as traditionally presented by Disney, right down to a typical Meet Cute moment with Anna.
 * Raised by Rock Trolls: Kristof.
 * Running Gag: "Weaseltown".
 * Shout-Outs:
 * "Marshmallow", the giant snowman created by Elsa to defend herself, is a reference to the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.
 * Olaf's dance with the seagulls is a shout-out to Bert's dance with the penguins in Mary Poppins.
 * The first "sand man" he passes in the same number is clearly inspired by the classic "Coppertone" girl ads.
 * The map that falls out of the book in which the King looks for the location of the trolls is clearly inspired by the map of the Lonely Mountain found in The Hobbit.
 * There is a Merida doll in Anna's bedroom.
 * Snowlems: Olaf is clearly Type I.  Marshmallow is hard to categorize; created by Elsa to defend herself, it clearly has Type III aspects.  But it doesn't seem to be inherently evil -- just protective of its creator.
 * Subverted Trope: This movie is filled with subversions of the "expected" features of Disney films, which is probably one reason why the Moral Guardians who seem to think that Disney is theirs freaked out over it.
 * True Love's Kiss: Invoked and averted six ways to Sunday. Everyone assumes that to reverse her curse, Anna will need a kiss from her Meet Cute Prince Hans.
 * Villain Song: Averted by "Let It Go", which makes it very clear the apparent villain is just as much a victim as anyone else.
 * Wacky Wayside Tribe: The rock trolls.  And the merchant on the mountainside.
 * Winter Royal Lady: Elsa.
 * You Fail Biology Forever: The trolls dismissing head injuries as trivial and easy to fix compared to damage to the heart.  Then again, this is a fairy tale, and this may be as much a metaphorical moral as a literal diagnosis.
 * Youngest Child Wins: