Frozen hidden details: the cameo, the villain Elsa and real Norway
Frozen hidden details include a guest from another Disney film, a real country hiding in the scenery and a song that changed the whole story. Disney's 2013 musical took decades to reach the screen, and the version we know is very different from earlier drafts.
Here are the cameos, production facts and design choices that are easy to miss.
Several of them explain why the finished film feels so different from the fairy tale it started from, and why Elsa became the character audiences fell for.
Frozen hidden details: Rapunzel at the coronation
During For the First Time in Forever, as Anna runs past guests arriving for Elsa's coronation, watch for a couple who look familiar. They are Rapunzel, with the short hair she has at the end of Tangled, and Eugene Fitzherbert, also known as Flynn Rider. Tangled co-director Nathan Greno reportedly had to check with an animator to confirm it was them.
Elsa was once the villain
Frozen is loosely inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's 1844 tale The Snow Queen, which Disney tried and abandoned several times from 1937 onwards. In early drafts Elsa was a straightforward villain; one version had her kidnap Anna from her own wedding.
Making Anna Elsa's younger sister was the breakthrough. Then Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez wrote Let It Go, which made Elsa vulnerable and sympathetic. Writer Jennifer Lee said the song led her to rewrite the first act, and the change rippled through the whole film.
Arendelle is based on real Norway
The kingdom of Arendelle is fictional, but it borrows from real places that the filmmakers studied. Look closely and you can spot echoes of them in the architecture and landscape.
- Akershus Fortress in Oslo.
- Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim.
- The wooden wharf buildings of Bryggen in Bergen.
- The Naeroyfjord, one of Norway's narrowest fjords.
- Stave churches and rosemaling, the painted folk decoration seen on walls and costumes.
Sami culture and Sven
Kristoff's life with his reindeer draws on Sami culture, and the film's music includes elements inspired by it. To animate Sven convincingly, the studio brought a live reindeer in for animators to study. Sven's grunts and snorts come from veteran voice performer Frank Welker, who was not credited.
Hans was a late addition
Prince Hans did not exist in early drafts. He was added as a late twist, and Jennifer Lee described him as sociopathic and twisted. Olaf also changed: he started as Elsa's obnoxious sidekick before becoming Anna's innocent companion.
The snow was its own invention
Disney built a snow simulation tool called Matterhorn to make the snow behave realistically, and it was used in at least 43 scenes. The effects team also built a snowflake generator that produced 2,000 different flake shapes. Frozen won Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song for Let It Go.
The film was nearly very different in look as well as story. Development began in 2008 under the title Anna and the Snow Queen as a traditionally animated film before the studio switched to computer animation. Alongside its two Oscars it won a Golden Globe, a BAFTA and two Grammy Awards.
Questions people ask
Is Rapunzel in Frozen?
Yes. Rapunzel and Flynn Rider appear briefly as guests at Elsa's coronation during For the First Time in Forever.
Was Elsa originally a villain?
Yes. Early drafts made her the antagonist, until the sister story and Let It Go changed the character.
Where is Arendelle based on?
Norway, including Akershus Fortress, Nidaros Cathedral, Bryggen and the Naeroyfjord.
What story is Frozen based on?
It is loosely inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen.