Frozen is an interesting movie to look at regarding the nature of villainy. The movie actually has multiple characters that could fit into the villain slot before the true villain (spoiler alert: it’s Hans) is revealed.
The first potential villain is really Elsa. In the original Hans Christian Andersen story, the Snow Queen is actually a villain, although she really is not a major figure in her own story. I’m pretty sure I also heard that the original plan for this movie was to have Elsa as the villain. However, when the writers heard “Let It Go,” they decided it was too powerful a song to give to the villain and gave her a redemption story instead. That said, I would say that for a large part of the movie Elsa views herself as the villain in her own story, and she does reach a point where she almost becomes a villain.
Then she is attacked, and in her fear, she fights back.
Interestingly, however, the thing that stops her from being a villain is Hans’s comment: “Don’t be the monster they fear you are.” At this point she realizes that she has let her own fear consume her to such an extent that she is actually becoming the villain she thought she was. After this point, Elsa switches from trying to push people away, to simply trying to flee from those around her. She still views herself as dangerous, but she is no longer willing to potentially injure someone in order to keep them away.
The next (slightly less important) villain figure is the Duke of Weselton. I like to call him the decoy villain, because that is essentially the role he fills. Once we establish Elsa (and Anna) as the protagonist(s), there needs to be some form of adversary. Weselton fills the role of antagonist mainly to throw people off the scent of Hans until the big reveal. So we see him calling Elsa a monster, yelling at Anna, and sending his goons to kill Elsa, which are classic villain maneuvers, but he doesn’t become any more of a threat than that. Because soon after his henchmen try to kill Elsa, we have the big Hans reveal, and at that point, he becomes a minor, fairly annoying character.
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| The Duke of Weselton: he is a rather annoying secondary antagonist, but really not much of a threat. |
The third main villain is, of course, Prince Hans of the Southern Isles. I think Hans is really the first of Disney’s new-age, plot-twist villains, or villains that no one suspects until they suddenly turn on the main characters, so he marks a shift in the way Disney presents their villains (Wreck It Ralph, Big Hero 6, and Zootopia follow this pattern as well). To Disney’s credit, I will say that their plot twist did surprise me. I had already figured Hans wasn’t going to be the true love interest (if the promo material showing mainly Anna and Kristoff hadn’t tipped me off, his “sandwiches” comment made it pretty obvious that he was hanging out with Anna mainly to get status and probably money through marrying her), but I was not expecting him to go rogue and try to kill everyone (on a related note, why do the other dignitaries not go check on Anna’s body when Hans says she’s dead, and how is he able to charge Elsa with treason? Even if Elsa did horrible things, she is still the ruling monarch, so I’m pretty sure she actually can’t be accused of treason). The fun thing about Hans as a villain, though, is to watch the subtle hints that the movie drops in advance to foreshadow the big reveal. They really aren’t noticeable if you don’t know they are coming, but if you look for them, they become fairly obvious. Especially during "Love is an Open Door". Look for them next time you watch the film.
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| "I've been searching my whole life to find my own place." |
Frozen is a really good movie (if rather over-hyped), and it is a lot of fun to pick apart the different aspects of this film. I’m excited to discuss it more in class.
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