Details, Themes, and Foreshadowing in Frozen II (and some stuff about the first movie too)

I just watched Frozen II last night with some friends and it was such an incredibly powerful movie. I cried a few times, I think. So now I’m going to analyze it, as I do everything. :D Obviously this is going to be full of a shit-ton of spoilers, so don’t read this if you don’t want that.

Elsa, Anna, Kristoff, and Sven in Frozen II

I should start off with a brief discussion of what the first movie meant to me. I watched Frozen with a friend in law school and Let it Go immediately spoke to me. Yeah, I know, everyone’s sick of it and it was ridiculously overdone there for a while, but the lyrics very specifically evoked my own issues with embracing my own disabilities - depression, ADHD, and chronic pain. It was all about letting go of your shame and fear, letting go of other people’s expectations, throwing away the need to be perfect, and loving yourself on your own terms. I have been that person afraid to show the world who I am before, so I identify with this song very strongly. The one ironic thing is that I actually HATE the cold with a passion (and particularly snow and ice).
I’m not the only one either - plenty of people have called it a disability anthem, a coming out anthem, and a song about growing up and becoming an adult. My friend Michael wrote about its meaning for his own life here.
It’s also pretty awesome that it shows Elsa transforming her outer look purely for herself, not for anyone else.
I’ve heard some people criticize it for a nihilistic worldview, and some argue that a specific scene in Frozen II is anti-Let It Go and shows its worldview as something not to be emulated or admired (I’ll discuss that later), but I think it’s extremely empowering for what it is. It’s not a song intended to speak all situations; it’s a song about embracing yourself just as you are, in that moment. And that’s really wonderful.

The wind is howling like this swirling storm inside
Couldn't keep it in, heaven knows I've tried
Don't let them in, don't let them see
Be the good girl you always have to be
Conceal, don't feel, don't let them know
Well, now they know

Let it go, let it go
Can't hold it back anymore
Let it go, let it go
Turn away and slam the door
I don't care what they're going to say
Let the storm rage on
The cold never bothered me anyway

It's funny how some distance makes everything seem small
And the fears that once controlled me can't get to me at all
It's time to see what I can do
To test the limits and break through
No right, no wrong, no rules for me
I'm free

Let it go, let it go
I am one with the wind and sky
Let it go, let it go
You'll never see me cry
Here I stand and here I stay
Let the storm rage on

I love that the first imagery you see in both movies (once you get past the production credits) is something from nature; in the first film, you see snowflakes, and in the second film, you see autumn leaves. The leaf seems to symbolize a big theme of the movie, namely, change. In the beginning scenes, a lot of people talk about how difficult change is, how hard growing up can be, or about how things are perfect they way they are; yet just as the leaves change color each fall, change happens in our lives and we just have to deal with it. As Olaf says, “How I wish it would stay this way forever. Though, change mocks us” And Elsa sings, “Is something coming? I'm not sure I want things to change at all These days are precious, can't let them slip away I can't freeze this moment, but I can still go out and seize this day.” This theme will come back throughout the movie, including in Olaf’s song “When I am Older.”

Honeymaren, Ryder, and Chief Yelana of the Northuldra in Frozen II

Frozen II starts off with the same song that was used in the first movie. This gorgeous acapella song is called “Vuelie” (which translates to something like “song”) and is based off of an older song called Eatnemen Vuelie (Song Of The Earth). This song is specifically jolk, an indigenous form of music that was actually historically outlawed in Scandinavia. From what I’ve read online, the remaining “Na heya” words don’t mean anything and are lyricless sounds, like “la la” in English.
The second movie does a LOT to try to remedy the overwhelmingly white nature of the first film, which used a song from the indigenous Sami and put blonde Kristoff in a Sami-inspired outfit, but didn’t involve any consultation with the Sami and featured no diversity whatsoever (if you’re someone who’s ranting about how there were historically no non-white peoples in Scandinavia, one, you’re wrong, the Sami have lived there for over 3,000 years and African immigrants started coming to Scandinavia in the 17th century, and two, this is a friggin’ fairy tale movie, it’s not like there was historically a woman who shot ice from her hands either).
For starters, Disney actually partnered with representatives from Sami communities on the movie, bringing experts to their headquarters to talk to the Frozen II animators. They signed a benefits declaration with the representatives stating that the Sami would receive proper representation in the movie and a Sami language version of the film will be released.
The Sami are represented as the fictional Northuldra in the movie, led by their chief Yelena. They have been trapped in the enchanted forest for the last 34 years. They, like the Sami, appear to be reindeer herders. We meet and know multiple of the Northuldra by name during the movie and see several of our main characters interact with them. They’re treated like actual people, not just props. It’s pretty awesome.

Queen Iduna, Anna, Elsa, and King Agnarr in Frozen II

Next, we get an adorable flashback, with a scene of Anna and Elsa as children with their parents, just like the first movie. This scene takes place before the earliest flashback in Frozen, as Anna still knows about Elsa’s magic and they’re playing together with ice figurines Elsa has made. The girls appear to be the same approximate size/age as they are in the first movie, and they’re wearing the same nightgowns and hair accessories, so it’s possible that this scene actually is meant to take place immediately before the events of Frozen that lead to Anna’s memories of her sister’s magic being taken away.
When they ask their parents about enchanted forests, their father King Agnarr tells them the story of how he became king. From his viewpoint as a child, his father built a dam for the Northuldra people who lived in the Enchanted Forest and during a celebration of the dam between the two peoples, violence unexpectedly broke out. In all the hubub, he loses consciousness and someone unknown carries him to safety. The magic of the enchanted forest covers the entire area with an impassable mist.
Their mother Queen Iduna is pretty quiet throughout all this, which makes more sense later when we find out that she was in fact, Northuldra, and was the mysterious person who saved Agnarr. They never explain /why/ she didn’t tell Agnarr about her past, and this leaves a pretty big hole for the future that could be a good jumping off point for another sequel.
Sidenote: Has anyone else ever noticed that Anna and Elsa almost exclusively wear green, blue, and maroon/lavender shades, aka, colors we see their parents wearing? Anna wears a light creme dress for “Some Things Never Change” but other than that, this rule seems to hold true until Elsa transforms into her “snow queen white” dress.
After the story, Queen Iduna (as portrayed by Evan Rachel Wood, who has one of the warmest and most comforting voices ever) sings “All is Found” to her daughters, about a magic river called Ahtohallan with all the answers. There is SO much foreshadowing in its lyrics, which I’ve annotated below.
Where the north wind meets the sea (This tells us where Ahtohallan is, in the North across the sea)
There's a river full of memory (this ties into the “water has memory” theme of the movie)
Sleep, my darling, safe and sound
For in this river all is found

In her waters, deep and true
Lie the answers and a path for you (This is where Elsa discovers her ancestors’ misdeeds and finds her and Anna’s destiny)
Dive down deep into her sound (Elsa literally follows the sound of the voice)
But not too far, or you'll be drowned (This happens to Elsa, when she goes too deep into the glacier and freezes)

Yes, she will sing to those who hear (Elsa hears the mysterious voice calling her to go North)
And in her song all magic flows
But can you brave what you most fear (In “Into the Unknown” Elsa says quite frankly that she’s scared to follow the voice)
Can you face what the river knows

Where the north wind meets the sea
There's a mother full of memory (Elsa literally sees her mother in the ice cavern and sings with her in “Show Yourself”)
Come, my darling, homeward bound (In “Show Yourself” Elsa talks about how she feels like she’s coming home)
When all is lost, then all is found (Elsa has to temporarily give up her life to find out the truth and find her true purpose)

Anna and Olaf during “Some Things Never Change”

When a courtier startles her, Elsa accidentally freezes her hands to the banister. This is similar to how Elsa accidentally freezes the window sill in the “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” sequence right before her father gives her her gloves and how she accidentally freezes the fountain when she reflexively grabs the ledge while backing away from the crowd. Ledges are just…tough for Elsa, aren’t they?
This scene also demonstrates how shy and introverted Elsa still is. Pretty much every time we see Anna, she’s interacting with lots of people, but Elsa tends more toward looking out windows and walking down halls dramatically. People still startle her easily. She’s definitely interacting with people more than she used to, but it’s not her comfort zone. This is also evident in the Charades scene, in which she looks just hideously uncomfortable at putting on a performance, even just in front of her family and closest friends.
We also see her in a purple dress in the beginning and a dark purple nightgown during “Into the Unknown.” She seems to wear a lot of colors that her mother wore when she’s trying to act in the queen role. Once her people are safe though, she changes immediately into a light blue outfit and is light blue or white for the rest of the movie - taking on her “true colors,” if you will.
The story proper starts off with essentially a harvest festival scene, set to “Some Things Never Change,” which continually demonstrates the false hope in Anna’s words by showing how things keep changing around her. This continues the trend from the first Frozen movie of playing with expectations and irony. In the first movie, for example, we hear a father talking to his son about how he can’t wait to see the princesses and bets they’re just beautiful, and then the film cuts to a shot of Anna sleeping very heavily, with extremely messed up hair and a very ladylike drool spot.
There’s a lot of ironic foreshadowing in “Some Things Never Change” but it really is mostly a stage-setting song, so I’m not going to analyze all the lyrics in depth, but we definitely have some typical “Thanksgiving” style lyrics in it. “It's time to count our blessings beneath an autumn sky. We'll always live in the kingdom of plenty that stands for the good of the many.”
And can I just say, the moment they said “And I promise you the flag of Arendelle will always fly. Our flag will always fly,” I just KNEW that flag was going down super soon. Sure enough, after “Into the Unknown,” the flag falls and the kingdom erupts in chaos, forcing its people to run away.

I really love that at the end of that song, Anna is carrying her heels and walking barefoot back into the castle. I feel like every woman I know has done that at some point, but it’s not something you ever see in movies really. It’s also a fun call back to the first movie. After Anna dances with the hopping Duke of Weselton, she comes back to Elsa rubbing her feet and they have this little exchange: “Well, he was sprightly.” “Especially for a man in heels.”

Next, we get a cute Charades sequence (which seems to imply that Kristoff lives at the castle now? Although it’s a really big castle and I’m sure he and Anna have separate rooms, it still seems like the most firmly established “living together before marriage” relationship we’ve seen in a Disney movie before). This scene (which you can see here) pokes fun at many of the moments we saw in Frozen, including Elsa’s hip popping swagger at the end of “Let it Go” (she just nods “yup” when Olaf imitates her, while Anna glares at Kristoff), the villainous Hans, and the eccentric shopkeeper Hans (yoohoo!).
Elsa hears the siren call and gets upset, Kristoff tries to propose and fails miserably, then Anna follows Elsa and notes that she can tell her sister is upset because she’s wearing Chekhov’s scarf.

“Into the Unknown” is insanely gorgeous and another example of Idina Menzel’s inhuman singing abilities. As songwriter Kristen Anderson-Lopez said in one interview, “With Idina, if you’re given a Stradivarius, you write to a Stradivarius.” The song starts with a very “Do You Want to Build a Snowman” intro, as Elsa wanders through the castle looking at paintings on the wall, just as Anna did in the first movie during the snowman song. This is a classic “I want” song but more adult and mature than “Let It Go”; Elsa feels like she knows who she is now, someone who deeply loves her family and friends, and she doesn’t want to throw that away, but there’s something inside her that’s pulling her away “into the unknown.” She also talks wistfully in this song about wondering if “there’s someone else like me” out there; she clearly still wants a friend who can understand her magical powers and her struggles with them. And of course, at the end, we get that amazing moment where she just lets her magic out and ice diamonds appear magically in the sky all around Arendelle. These fall and wake up everyone, including the enchanted forest spirits her father talked about, and triggers the fire, water, wind, and earth to drive the citizens out of Arendelle.
Elsa actually reminds me a lot of Vanellope in “Ralph Breaks the Internet” here; she knows there’s something wrong in her life but she can’t put a finger on it. The wrap up to the movie is actually VERY Ralph/Vanellope, as the sisters end up in separate places living their destinies, but they’re still obviously very close and “holding on tight” to each other, just as Ralph and Vanellope are in their movie sequel.
Sidenote: The original is spine-chilling but the Panic at the Disco! cover of this song is also ridiculously amazing.

Baby Agnarr being adorable in Frozen II.

Anna has some of the best, most common sense filled quotes in the entire movie. “Excuse me, I climbed the North Mountain, survived a frozen heart and saved you from my ex-boyfriend. So, you know, I’m coming.”
“If you don’t want me to follow you into fire, then don’t run into fire!”
The scene where they’re driving off to the Enchanted Forest and Olaf is spouting off stupid facts (most of which are…inaccurate. Although apparently some turtles really can take in oxygen through their butts, although I wouldn’t go so far as to call it “breathing”!) reminds me a lot of Shrek II when Donkey is harassing Shrek and Fiona on the ride to Far Far Away.
The Enchanted Forest reveal with the four stones in front is really beautiful (and reminiscent of the funeral stones for their parents that were shown in the first movie). Although Kristoff and Olaf just bounce off the mist (really hysterically), it just takes a touch of Elsa’s hand to part it and clear the way through. This may be because of their Northuldra heritage or may be because of her greater destiny as the “fifth” spirit intended to bridge the worlds of magic and humans (did anyone else get some MAJOR Fifth Element vibes in this movie?)
I really enjoy Olaf’s “Samantha? I don’t even know a Samantha.” then “SAMANTHA!” shouting down a mysterious hole in the earth moment. Also, his song “this will all make sense when I am older” was little and tiny but was probably the most relatable lyric in the entire movie! Who hasn’t felt that way?
I love that Anna recognizes Lieutenant Matthias from his portrait at the castle, framing his face with her fingers to help her place him. This calls back to her “friendship” with all the portraits and paintings there, developed during her lonely childhood when Elsa kept away from her. This was also slightly foreshadowed earlier when we saw Elsa singing to various paintings during “Into the Unknown.” The frame fingers also seems to point to the end of the movie, where Matthias is reunited with his sweetheart and showing off a photograph they took together.

When Elsa somehow freezes memories in the forest (which is…never quite explained - were the memories just hanging out in the fog this whole time?), the sisters discover that their mother is Northuldra by finding Chekhov’s scarf on a young girl, who’s carrying their father to safety. There’s then a really beautiful sequence where the Northuldra sing Vuelie again and form a spiral with their arms, until the chief reaches out to the girls to ceremonially welcome them to the tribe. Later, all our heroes befriend various members of the tribe, in a lovely scene that reminds us that people in cartoon are capable of having friends outside of their immediate circle. Also, Olaf is still asking the big questions about life while the kids of the tribe decorate him with various things
So presumably their mother Iduna never told their father that she was Northuldra or that she saved him. Whyyy???? That doesn’t seem healthy for a marriage, and she probably could have helped them figure out answers for Elsa if she had ever mentioned that and told him about her background.
A lot of Elsa’s actions in the initial sequence in the forest are explained later as “calming” the spirits. She definitely manages to calm down the adorable fire salamander by befriending him, after initially blasting all the fire with lots of ice (his name is apparently Bruni, but is never mentioned in the movie). “Gale” as Olaf names her, calms down at some point after Elsa blasts her with power, but I didn’t tie those things directly together when I watched it (will have to check for it again when I watch it a second time).
Elsa does later “calm” the water by managing to ice power her way through the sea and lassoing a friggin water horse in one of the coolest sequences in the whole film. But I never did see a moment where Elsa calmed the earth? She just stayed away from the Earth giants and hid. Did I miss something there? I don’t think anyone ever “calmed” the Earth giants at all, Anna and Olaf stayed quiet to keep from waking them and then Anna woke them up to break the dam, but nothing ever seemed to actually get them to stop being destructive forces in the forest.
Kristoff’s song “Lost in the Woods” is both one of the funniest songs I’ve ever seen in any cartoon ever and also deeply moving. You just don’t really see male love interests sing about their love like this these days. All the lyrics are basically designed to punch apart toxic masculinity, in the most 80s-tastic, Queen and Whitesnake referencing way possible. Having Jonathan Groff sing Kristoff and also all the reindeer chorus voices is also a really funny answer the “Why didn’t Broadway star Jonathan Groff have a full song?” complaints about the first movie.
The scene where Anna and Elsa found their parents’ ship actually made me gasp aloud. I did not expect that. When Elsa uses her powers to see their parents at the time of their death, I just was like - nooooo whyyyyy - this is only going to upset you forever. But the sight of their ice selves holding each other as they perish is dreadfully romantic, if horrible.
However, how did they ever find out their parents’ ship even was destroyed if the ship wasn’t anywhere near where they thought it was when it went down???
I was nearly crying throughout all of “Show Yourself,” as it was so gorgeous and heart-rending. Elsa’s eagerness to find her destiny is so identifiable. It also is possibly the queerest song Disney has ever put out, as she appears to be singing a love song to a woman for 75% of it, until it’s revealed that she actually is the fifth spirit and “the voice was inside her all along.” MAJOR MOANA VIBES. But also seriously, these lyrics are really intimate and personal and almost sensual, just look at them!
And then she had strong emotions and did a wardrobe and hair change because that’s just what she does. But I love it. I love it all. I love that she gets to sing with her mother again, I love that she ends up at the center of the snowflake like in the “Let it Go” sequence where she’s building the castle, and I love that at the very end of the song, she basically becomes the siren call herself.

Every inch of me is trembling and not from the cold
Something is familiar like a dream I can reach but not quite hold

I can sense you there like a friend I've always known
I'm arriving and it feels like I am home

I have always been a fortress, cold secrets deep inside
You have secrets too but you don't have to hide

Show yourself - I'm dying to meet you
Show yourself -It's your turn
Are you the one I've been looking for all of my life
Show yourself - I'm ready to learn

I've never felt so certain - All my life I've been torn
But I'm here for a reason - Could it be the reason I was born

I've always been so different, Normal rules did not apply
Is this the day, Are you the way, I finally find out why

Show yourself - I'm no longer trembling
Here I am - I've come so far
You are the answer I've waited for all of my life
Oh, show yourself - Let me see who you are

Come to me now; open your door
Don't make me wait one moment more
Come to me now; open your door
Don't make me wait one moment more

(Where the north wind meets the sea)
(There's a river full of memory)
Come, my darling, homeward bound
I am found

Show yourself - Step into your power
Throw yourself into something new
You are the one you've been waiting for all of your life
Show yourself - Ah, ah, ah, ah

Kristoff is feminist partner, reindeer-riding goals.

How perfect is it that Ahtohallan is a glacier, a “river of ice”? I don’t know how we could have ever expected anything different. When you think of how it’s described really, it’s the only thing that makes sense.
In the memories cavern in Ahtohallan, Elsa sees her younger self singing “Let it Go” and gives a chagrined look, hand over her eyes. I think that’s really an indication of her own more mature outlook on life now rather than a flat out rejection of the themes expressed in Let It Go; her priorities are different now that she’s learned to live her life without fear by loving her family and friends. This also HAS to be a little shout-out to all the parents out there who got so ridiculously sick of the song.
Elsa also sees a scene of her mother and father interacting as young children. Her father says he’s reading a book by a Danish author (and apparently it features a picture of a mermaid on the front, although I missed seeing that at the time). This is an obvious call out to Hans Christian Andersen, who wrote The Snow Queen, which Frozen is extremely loosely based upon.
To summarize a long, multiple-part story, in very few words, a magic mirror breaks in the sky and spreads across the land, falling into the eyes and hearts of various people and making them only see bad and evil in the world. It falls into the eye of Kai, a young boy, and makes him hate his formerly close friend Gerda. The only thing that’s beautiful to him now are snowflakes. Kai ends up running away with the magic Snow Queen to her ice castle, who kisses him twice, to numb him to the cold and to make him forget Gerda and his family (a third kiss would kill him). Gerda goes on a very long journey to find Kai and goes through many Odyssey-style adventures. She eventually finds him in the Snow Queen’s domain, trapped in the middle of a frozen lake, where he is trying to form ice chips into a word; if he figures out the word, he will be freed and given a pair of skates. Gerda weeps to see Kai and embraces him; her warm tears and love remove the mirror splinter from his eye and he remembers her and loves her again. They dance, which makes the ice chips turn into the word he needs to escape from the frozen lake. And then they leave. You can read the whole Snow Queen story here.
There are lots of similarities in the stories, but obviously, Frozen is very very different. The mirror splinter in the original story gets into people’s hearts and freezes them, just like ice gets into Anna’s heart. The sudden break between close friends Gerda and Kai when the splinters get into Kai’s heart in the story resembles the sudden break between Elsa and Anna as children when Elsa accidentally hurts her sister while playing. Friendly reindeer and a snow queen living in an isolated ice palace live in both. Gerda goes on a journey to rescue her friend Kai when he disappears, just like Anna journeys to rescue Elsa. Her love rescues Kai, just as Anna’s love rescues Elsa.
Okay, so Olaf’s disintegration obviously has to be a reference to the “snap” in Avengers: Infinity War, right? There’s no way that wasn’t purposeful.
It’s incredibly heart-breaking to see such a positive character as Anna reach her lowest point, after she believes both her sister and her friend Olaf are dead. The song “The Next Right Thing” addresses suicide and depression more straightforwardly than any other kid’s movie I’ve ever seen; it’s truly impressive, particularly since Kristen Bell (who voices Anna), has been very open about her own struggles with depression and anxiety.
The reparations plot line in this movie, in which Anna determines that the dam her grandfather built to trick the Northuldra must be destroyed to free the enchanted forest, even if it means the destruction of her own kingdom, is really deep and dark and I’m honestly wondering how many kids in the theater actually understood the ramifications of it. It’s a deeply radical idea in many ways.
To be fair though, it had already been established that Elsa, Anna, and Co. couldn’t leave the forest either, so this was also their only way of going home, and Anna was sure that her people were out of the kingdom and safe (as one of the last orders Elsa gave before they left on their journey was “don’t let them go back into Arendelle.” Who did she order to do that, by the way? Was it Oaken? It felt familiar but now I can’t recall).
Kristoff is feminist goals. He runs up to save Anna from the earth giants and immediately says “I’m here, how can I help?” instead of trying to stop her or take over the situation. When she later apologizes for leaving him to follow and try to protect Elsa, he simply says, “It’s okay, my love is not fragile.” I already REALLY loved Kristoff for breaking the Disney “prince” mold by being tall, broad-shouldered, and scruffy, with a big nose, but he is just such a genuinely good person that I can only love him even more now.
The ending where he, Olaf, and Sven dress up for Anna’s coronation and he says “You get this for one hour” before Anna ruffles his hair and says “I prefer you in leather anyway” both illustrates how perfect they are together as a couple and also is possibly the most sexual double entendre ever in a Disney movie.

Anna’s new Frozen II outfit at Disney World.

At the end of the movie, Matthias reunites with his sweetheart and they show off a photograph they’ve taken together, which Matthias specifically says he didn’t know about before he was trapped in the enchanted forest. I felt this insertion of such an obviously modern invention takes the viewer out of the fairy tale atmosphere a bit, but it does help date the movie. The earliest photographs came out in the late 1830s, so I’m guessing the events of Frozen are around the 1840s or so. This is supported by sandwiches being mentioned in the first movie, as sandwiches weren’t really around under that name until the 1760s or so and they didn’t gain popularity outside of pubs and taverns until the 1800s.
In addition, we know Arendelle is probably in Norway or Scandinavia somewhere, not just because of all the cultural references evident in the movies, but because in “Olaf’s Frozen Adventure,” a woman literally mentions that she makes a giant cookie map of Norway every year for Christmas. That definitely seems like something you would only do if you actually lived in the country somewhere.
There’s so much symmetry between the movie. Frozen II’s starting structure is EXTREMELY similar to Frozen. First, we get an intro flashback with the main characters as kids with their parents and some sort of heavily foreshadowing song (Frozen Heart in the first, All is Found in the second), then a stage-setting song where a lot of characters sing as they set up/celebrate some big event (For the First Time in Forever, Some Things Never Change), then some accident happens with Elsa that instigates trouble or danger for the people in Arendelle (she freezes the kingdom accidentally, she accidentally awakens the enchanted forest spirits which chase all the people out of the kingdom), then our main characters start out on a journey to solve the problem.
Frozen’s main plot really gets underway when Elsa freezes Arendelle accidentally out of fear; Frozen II’s main plot ends with Elsa saving Arendelle with her ice powers out of love. Elsa believes Anna is dead towards the end of Frozen and Anna believes Elsa is dead towards the end of Frozen II; both of them are completely crushed by the loss of their sister.
The post-credits scene in Frozen II features Olaf telling the story of the movie in his ridiculous abbreviated style to Marshmallow (the giant snowman from Frozen) and all the tiny snowball creatures from Frozen Fever (which for SOME REASON is not on Disney+, what the heck).
Apparently the day Frozen II came out, the characters of Elsa and Anna at Disneyworld were immediately changed into their movie-ending outfits, Elsa’s snow queen dress and Anna’s queen garb. Seems a little silly to do it that quickly, as it probably spoiled people on vacation who hadn’t seen the films yet, but - at least the outfits are pretty?

Elsa’s new Frozen II outfit at Disney World.

Stray Thoughts: Frozen has some deliberately obscure references in it. I had forgotten how many Arrested Development references are in it! And I just noticed a new cultural reference I hadn’t picked up on before! While watching it over again today to help with this post, I noticed a specific exchange in which villagers in Arendelle argue over whether firewood should be stacked with the barn side up or down. I googled this, and apparently it’s a reference to a big debate in Norway from earlier in 2013 (frozen came out in November 2013) on this very topic. You can read all about it here!
Fun fact: Frozen II is the first official sequel to a Disney Princess movie and only the third official sequel in the Disney canon (after The Rescuers Down Under and Ralph Breaks the Internet). The many direct-to-video sequels of the 90s and early 2000s apparently were made by a slightly different arm of Disney that isn’t operating or recognized today. You could read ALL about it here.
ADDED 11/30: I just learned from listening to an episode of “Into Frozen II” which features Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, the songwriting power couple behind both movies, that the grief in “Do the Next Right Thing” was partially inspired by the experience of co-director Chris Buck, whose son Ryder tragically died during the press junket for the first movie when he was hit by a car, and music producer Andrew Page, who lost his daughter Esmee in the years between the two movies. In addition, there’s a Northuldra character in Frozen II named Ryder (who helps Kristoff with his reindeer proposal attempt); I have to believe that’s an intentional tribute to Ryder Buck.
ALSO, I just read in an article that the four note siren call in Frozen II is based off of the Dies Irae, a Latin hymn best known for being used in the Catholic Mass for the dead. This hymn is apparently rather famously quoted or used as inspiration in various songs, including bits of Rent, Phantom of the Opera, and Sweeney Todd! And the siren call is also based off of a Scandinavian form of singing “kulning,” which is a shepherdess’s call.
UPDATE 12/2: Y’all, my brother made a youtube video discussing Elsa’s “Superman problem” and it’s really interesting! You can go watch it over here!
UPDATE 12/25: I’m re-watching the first Frozen now and in retrospect, Anna’s final fate as Queen of Arendelle was foreshadowed in the costumes from the very beginning.

Elsa: In the first movie, Elsa almost always wears light blue, except on coronation day. On coronation day, her dress is green with accents of gold, blue, and pink, and she wears a long magenta cape; her blue color is still there, but it’s overwhelmed by other priorities. She’s also more covered up with more thick fabric then ever before or since; when Elsa actually is feeling comfortable with her magic, she tends to wear much lighter fabrics, likely to indicate her comfort with cold (“the cold never bothered me anyway.”). She wears a very light blue nightgown as a child until she’s told to hide her magic, at which point she still wears blue, but in heavier fabrics and layers. After her magic is exposed at her coronation ball and she runs away, she changes her dress to a light blue with sheer fabrics.

In Frozen II, she never wears anything as heavy as her coronation gown and wears light fabrics, but starts out the movie in a purple dress and a purple nightgown, which seems to indicate her trying to balance her true self (light blue) with her queen self (pink/magenta). Once she starts off on the journey “into the unknown” she wears light blue again. In the end, she’s in a light, very sheer white dress with purple diamond accents.

Anna: In the first movie, Anna ALWAYS wears shades of green and pink/magenta, although the amount of each color in her outfit varies. Green tends to be he main color, with touches of pink, but as she sets off on her adventure portion, she changes into a magenta cloak, a blue skirt, and a black bodice with just a few green and gold accents to it. The blue is an unusual color for Anna, and seems to indicate her focus on finding Elsa (who usually wears blue).
In frozen II, Anna herself wears pink/magenta throughout but doesn’t wear any green until the end of the movie when she’s crowned Queen of Arendelle, at which point she’s covered in it, indicating that she’s reached her true place.
From looking at pictures of the castle servants in Arendelle, the castle, and the banners and flags hung up at Elsa’s coronation, it appears that Arendelle’s main color is actually green, with purple accents. Thus, it was always Anna’s destiny to become Arendelle’s queen, just as it was always Elsa’s destiny to become the fifth spirit and the snow queen far up North.