Frozen (2013)
Inspired by the 1844 fairy tale The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen.
Intro song (“Vuelie”). A young iceman named Kristoff and his reindeer Sven help iceman mine ice (“Frozen Heart”). Meanwhile, in the Arendelle, Princess Elsa possesses magical powers allowing her to control ice and snow, often using them to play with her younger sister Anna. After Elsa accidentally injures Anna with her magic, their parents—the King and Queen—take them to a colony of stone trolls led by Grand Pabbie, who heals Anna but erases her memories of Elsa's magic. Grand Pabbie warns Elsa that she must learn to control her powers, and that fear will be her greatest enemy. The sisters are isolated within the castle, whose gates are closed off to the public. Out of fear of her increasingly unpredictable powers, Elsa ceases all contact with Anna, causing them to become emotionally distant. The King and Queen are lost at sea while the sisters are teenagers and presumed dead (“Do You Want to Build a Snowman?”).
Three years later, at the age of 21, Elsa is due to be crowned queen on Coronation Day. The castle gates are opened for the first time in years to the public and visiting dignitaries. Anna is excited to finally be free from isolation while Elsa fears that her subjects will discover her magic and fear her (“For the First Time In Forever”). Anna meets Prince Hans of the Southern Isles and the scheming Duke of Weselton. Elsa’s coronation proceeds without incident, but she remains distant from Anna. Anna and Hans develop a romantic connection during the festivities (“Love Is An Open Door”), and he impulsively proposes to her, but Elsa objects when they seek her blessing. Hurt and confused, Anna protests, begging Elsa to explain her fear and isolation. The emotional strain causes Elsa to accidentally unleash her powers before the court. Branded a monster by the Duke, Elsa flees to the North Mountain, where she finally acknowledges her powers, building an ice palace to live a hermit life (“Let It Go”). Unbeknownst to Elsa, her magic has caused Arendelle to fall under an eternal winter.
Anna ventures to find Elsa and end the winter, leaving Hans in command. After getting lost in the cold, she meets Kristoff and Sven at the Oaken Trading Post and recruits them to take her to the mountains (“Reindeer(s) Are Better Than People”). An attack by wolves damages Kristoff's sleigh beyond repair. Forced to continuing the journey on foot, Anna and Kristoff meet Olaf, a talking snowman unknowingly created by Elsa, who offers to guide them to her (“In Summer”). When Anna's horse reports back to Arendelle without her, Hans sets out to find her along with the Duke's minions, whom the Duke secretly gives orders to kill Elsa.
When Anna reaches the ice palace and reveals to Elsa what has become of Arendelle, a horrified Elsa confesses she does not know how to undo her magic. Her fear causes her powers to manifest themselves once more, and she accidentally freezes Anna's heart, mortally injuring her. In desperation to keep Anna safe, Elsa creates a giant snow monster named Marshmallow, who chases Anna, Kristoff and Olaf away. Realizing the effects of Elsa's spell on Anna, Kristoff takes her to the trolls, his adoptive family, who tease Anna about dating Kristoff (“Fixer Upper”). Grand Pabbie reveals that Anna will freeze solid unless "an act of true love" reverses the spell. Kristoff and Olaf race Anna back home so Hans can give her true love's kiss. Hans and his men reach Elsa's palace, defeating Marshmallow, who falls into a chasm, and capturing Elsa.
Anna is delivered to Hans, but rather than kissing her, Hans reveals he was actually planning to seize the throne of Arendelle by eliminating both sisters. Hans locks a heartbroken Anna in a room to die and then manipulates the dignitaries and the Duke into believing that she died from Elsa's spell. He orders the queen's execution, only to discover she has escaped her detention cell. Anna is freed by Olaf, and they venture into the blizzard outside to meet Kristoff, whom Olaf has revealed is in love with her. Hans confronts Elsa outside, claiming that she killed Anna, causing Elsa to break down and abruptly stop the storm. Moments before Hans can kill Elsa, Anna leaps in the way and freezes solid, stopping Hans. Devastated, Elsa hugs and mourns over her sister, who thaws out, her heroism constituting "an act of true love” (“Vuelie”).
Realizing that love is the key to controlling her magic, Elsa dispels the eternal winter, and gives Olaf a flurry small cloud to experience warmth. Hans is arrested and banished from Arendelle for his treason while Elsa cancels the trade agreement with Weselton to get back at the Duke. Anna gives Kristoff a new sleigh and the two kiss. The sisters are reunited, and Elsa promises never to lock the castle gates again (“Do You Want to Build A Snowman”).
In a post-credits scene, Marshmallow, having survived the fall, finds Elsa's discarded crown and places it on top of its head.
TRIVIA
To fully explore the unique dynamics of the kind of relationships, Disney Animation convened a "Sister Summit," at which women from all over Disney Animation who grew up with sisters were asked to discuss their relationships with their sisters.
Visual Style
Similar to Tangled, Frozen employed a unique artistic style by blending together features of both CGI and traditional hand-drawn animation.
The fictional kingdom of Arendelle was principally based on Norway, specifically Nærøyfjord, a branch of Norway's longest fjord Sognefjorden. Several landmarks in Norway appear in the film, including the Akershus Fortress in Oslo, the Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim, and Bryggen in Bergen.
The culture influences in the film come from both Norway and Scandinavian culture. Clothing melded the historic silhouettes of 1840 Western Europe with the shapes and garments of folk costumes in Norway which primarily used a wool fabric with accents of velvet, linen, and silk.
Numerous other typical cultural Scandinavian elements are also included in the film, such as stave churches, trolls, Viking ships, a hot spring, Fjord horses, clothes, and food such as lutefisk.
The film also contains several elements specifically drawn from Sámi culture, such as the usage of reindeer for transportation and the equipment used to control these, clothing styles (the outfits of the ice cutters), and parts of the musical score.
Animators experienced walking, running, and falling in deep snow in a variety of attire as well as studied how light reflects and refracts on snow and ice.
A live reindeer named Sage was brought into the studio for animators to study its movements and mannerisms for the character Sven.
Technology
Matterhorn, a snow simulator software application, that allowed for heavy and deep snow that both interacted believably with characters and had a realistic sticky quality.
A snowflake generator that randomly created 2,000 unique snowflake shapes
Spaces, a program used to allow Olaf’s deconstructible parts to be moved around and rebuilt
Flourish, a program which allowed extra movement such as leaves and twigs to be art-directed
Snow Batcher, which helped preview the final look of the snow, especially when characters were interacting with an area of snow by walking through a volume
Tonic, which enabled artists to sculpt their characters' hair as procedural volumes. Tonic also aided in animating fur and hair elements such as Elsa's hair, which contains 420,000 computer-generated strands, while the average number for a real human being is only 100,000.
This is the final Disney animated feature film to use Old Rendering before switching to Hyperion Rendering.
Attraction(s)
Frozen Ever After (Epcot Disney World)