Frozen Is Cool! Elsa the Snow Queen Rules!

When I first saw Zootopia, I enjoyed it tremendously, and even though I figured it would have another surprise villain, since that has been the trend lately with Wreck-It Ralph, Frozen, and Big Hero 6, I was not at all surprised to find out that it was Bellwether. It was a great twist, but I was not surprised because I noticed or realized some subtle clues that made me suspect her.

Bellwether is a perfect, and literal, representation of the popular phrase “a wolf in sheep’s clothing.” On the surface, she appears to be a sweet, meek, finicky, albeit overworked, sheep doing all she can to help the city. But beneath her exterior is a ruthless, prejudiced, and embittered mind. Years of discrimination and lack of consideration from her predator coworkers, especially from her boss, Mayor Leodore Lionheart, caused her to develop a vengeful, scheming, diabolical personality that was devoted against all predators, hidden behind her seemingly meek disposition.

Like a lot of mysteries with hidden culprits and the last few surprise Disney villains (e.g.; Hans, Callaghan), I figured that the villain of Zootopia had to be the one you least expected, someone who hid his or her true colors of prejudice and hatred by acting just the opposite as a cover. Keeping this in mind, I just thought that Bellwether seemed too nice, too sweet, and too helpful at times. In short, she just seemed way too good and way too perfect. This demeanor, along with her tiny stature and generally harmless appearance, made it extremely easy for no one to suspect that she was the mastermind of the savage predators conspiracy. For a lot of villains or culprits, this is the best kind of cover for them to use in order to divert attention away from themselves. If they acted rude or grumpy, that would make them an easy target for suspicion since they wouldn't be acting too different from their real selves. There are a lot of small-minded or closed-minded people in the world who still believe that appearances and behavior make someone just who they seem to be while others aren't if they don't fit these descriptions. And due to the prejudice and closed-mindedness of many citizens of Zootopia, this further provided Bellwether with an advantage of getting away with her plans.

The strongest point I can make about Bellwether being the hidden villain was that the oppression and abuse she endured from Lionheart gave her a motive. Lionheart treated her like a stooge rather than an actual assistant, showing almost no appreciation for what she did and appearing to not want her around for important moments. These moments include when he rudely pushes her away from Judy and blocks her when he and Judy are being photographed, and when he piles book after book in her arms about important matters, coldly telling her to “just take care of it.” Lionheart then adds, “Please” at the end of his demanding request, but then he orders her around again by telling her to clear his afternoon.

While not bigoted like Bellwether, these moments portray Lionheart as a glory hound who dislikes incompetence, gets very annoyed and impatient when Bellwether fumbles, makes mistakes, or forgets things, cares greatly about his reputation as the mayor, and dumps the majority of the work on her while he takes all the credit. For the latter part, Lionheart probably gives her job after job to do, many of which she doesn't finish in time because he immediately gives her something new to do, which increases his impatience with her. Along with these points, the fact that he gave Bellwether the small, crammed boiler room as her office and merely scribbled out “Dad” and wrote “Assistant Mayor” on the mug he gave her shows that he has almost no respect for her. Lionheart has also been known to call Bellwether by the derogatory name of “Smellwether” when he is annoyed or mad at her, including when she initially forgets to cancel his afternoon appointments.

All throughout the film, Bellwether still acted nice and sweet, even cool, like it was no big deal when Lionheart bossed her around and took credit for the things she would do. But all of this was just a facade to keep her true nature and scheme under wraps. She may have acted cool on the surface, but someone who acts like her while being abused and oppressed, inside them they truly hate the abuser and their mistreatments. Inside them is an infernal of rage, hatred, and sinister schemes. I think she already disliked predators before she was working for Lionheart, but his abuse towards only increased her hatred towards them, making her decide to try and get rid of them entirely. Furthermore, someone like Bellwether who cannot stand such treatment would plot to ruin and get rid of their predecessor. And we know that her harmless demeanor and appearance was a great cover up for her schemes. She was a master organizer who also made it so that the crimes were never directly connected to her.

Within Zootopia, there is a subtle, yet “easy to miss if you don't look fast”, clue that foreshadows Bellwether’s villainy in the end. When she helps Judy and Nick look into the traffic camera system, on her desk is a sticky note with the name “Doug” and a phone number. As we see near the end of the film, this is the very same Doug, who is a ram, producing the night howler serum, and he is the one shooting the predators with this serum to make the animals turn savage.

Once we get to the point that shows Doug making the serum and talking to one of his accomplices, with him admitting that he shot Emmitt Otterton with the serum, I knew that he was immediately responsible for the savage outbreaks, and that Woolter and Jesse, two more rams, were also in on the scheme. Simultaneously, however, I believed that there was someone else who was the true mastermind of the whole conspiracy. More so, it had to be a prey animal since predators were the only animals going savage, suggesting that they were being attacked by preys due to prey and predators being natural enemies.

The final clue I noticed/thought about Bellwether being the villain was when she finds Judy and Nick at the museum. Prior to this, we saw that the train chase scene involved three rams: Doug, Jesse, and Woolter. So I figured that there were possibly only rams, or at least other sheep, involved in this plot, and that it had to have included Bellwether. Before then, I took every other clue I recognized about her into account. And of course, when she arrives at the museum, she is accompanied by two more rams. I knew that they weren’t the rams from the train chase since they couldn't have gotten there in time, but they still could have alerted other rams and Bellwether about what was happening. That explains how Bellwether knew where Judy and Nick were and where they were going. And then when she tried to take the case of evidence from them, and a third ram showed up at the museum doors? That’s when I knew the ploy was broken and that Bellwether was behind everything.

Like many past Disney villains, Bellwether’s overconfidence and arrogance is ultimately her downfall when she believes that her scheme will still go without fail when she shoots Nick, hoping he will kill Judy so that she has no witnesses. Though she is angered by her failure when the two reveal that they were acting, Bellwether’s arrogance is finally brought down when she threatens to frame them, only to learn that Judy had recorded her entire confession. Finally, justice is met in the end when the ZPD arrive and arrest Bellwether and her accomplices for their crimes.

And so there you have it about former assistant mayor, then former mayor Dawn Bellwether, who is the big baaa-d sheep of the awesome film Zootopia!

I think my all-time favorite funny moment with Olaf is when he gets impaled because of how reacts to it: calm, casual, and since he clearly can't feel the pain, he just laughs it off, like it's nothing serious. Even before, he doesn't look where he's going and just walks into the icicle and only notices when he finishes talking.

However, while it may be a funny moment, it's actually a subtle and somewhat scary foreshadowing of the moment when Elsa strikes Anna in the chest.

See the "striking" similarities between the two scenes?

First of all, the icicle is a result of Elsa's magic, and is very sharp. So then when Anna gets hit, the impact of Elsa's ice probably feels like a sharp icicle to her.

Secondly, Olaf gets pierced in his midsection, approximately in the spot where the heart would be located. And the heart is approximately in the center of the chest, just the spot where Anna gets hit.

Need I say more? ;)

Another Heroic Prince...Not!

When I saw Frozen for the first time, one of the things I liked most about it was how Hans was revealed to be the main villain. One of the most interesting features about him as a Disney villain is that he does not come off as one right from the moment when he is first introduced. Whenever I first saw many older Disney films, I was usually able to determine the villains right from the very beginning based on their appearances and traits, such as having scary facial expressions or bad tempers (which also includes shouting or raising their voices a lot). The physical appearances of these villains also include dark colors in their clothing and/or hair. In the case with Hans, however, he puts on a facade as a charming, caring, and noble prince for about two-thirds of the film, until he is alone with Anna and reveals his true nature at last. But he only reveals this to her, and continues his facade with the royal dignitaries until the end, when his crimes are exposed. At this point, one can realize that it's not just Anna and everyone else in Arendelle whom Hans has fooled, but the audience as well. His real nature is hidden so subtly and almost unexpectedly throughout the film, making him one of the sneakiest and most sinister Disney villains. Additionally, since Hans does not at all have a sinister appearance like other Disney villains, this further adds to his deception.

By far one of the most unique features about Hans being a villain is that he is a prince. In many fairy tales with royalty, including those from Disney, the prince is usually the hero of the story and is almost always the protagonist or deuteragonist...but not Hans! In fact, when he and the Duke of Weselton are first introduced in the film, they were set up to be implied as the heroic prince and the villain, respectively. But instead, they turned out to be the real villain and the red herring. While he initially appears to be and acts like a typical prince, Hans is later revealed to be a master manipulator and has excellent, dangerous power over it by fooling Anna, Elsa, and all of Arendelle and its guests. Like many villains, Hans is hungry for power, admiration, and respect, and especially so because he is the youngest of thirteen princes in his own kingdom. Knowing that he would never have a chance to rule the Southern Isles due to him being the (much) youngest, he concocted a scheme to marry into monarchy. He visits Arendelle to try and woo Elsa over since she is the heir, then marry her in order to rule the kingdom alongside her. But he moves onto Anna instead and decides to kill Elsa later in order to have full power over Arendelle with Anna as his consort.

When and after his true nature is revealed, it is clear that Hans's goal is to become king and gain the love, respect, trust, and admiration from people he never had after being left in his brothers' shadows since his childhood. Besides being very manipulative with his convincing facade, Hans's most powerful trait is his vast intelligence, due to his cunning, convincing, and incredible ability to lie and get away with it. He is proven to be quick-thinking, resourceful, and extremely diligent, since he is able to fool the entire kingdom without fail. Hans can be very arrogant, as shown in the scene when he reveals his entire plot to Anna as she freezes right before his eyes. Furthermore, his taunting to Anna, along with the scene where he lies to Elsa about her having killed Anna before he tries to kill her, shows that Hans takes pleasure in tormenting his victims, making him one of Disney's most sadistic villains. Unlike many Disney villains, Hans constantly has to change his plot accordingly with the shifting events that take place over the course of the film, particularly due to Elsa and her newly revealed magical nature. Once his dark side comes out, he decides to kill Elsa openly to look like a hero in the eyes of Arendelle's citizens, further hoping to gain their trust and admiration for saving their kingdom. His sadism is also displayed in the scene where he explains his whole plan to kill Elsa to Anna, since he clearly shows excitement for the upcoming praise.

Subtleties in Hans's Scenes

Throughout Frozen, there are subtleties of Hans's real nature in many of his scenes before it is finally revealed in the second half. Since I did not read about the film's plot before I saw it, I was definitely stunned when Hans was revealed to be the true villain! Some people may have been confused and angry at those sudden turn of events. However, this revelation did not happen "out of the blue." Once people have seen the movie and know that Hans is the villain, it becomes hard to miss several moments in the film that subtly mask Hans's true intentions. Eventually, when viewers are able to see these moments, it's not hard to realize that they were intentional all along and hidden very well by the filmmakers.

Now I have seen different users make their own posts to show the subtleties in Hans's scenes, but I wanted to do one of my own. Here are some of the best examples, including gifs of a few of those scenes.

To Sum It All Up

Unlike what Scar did in The Lion King, Hans's goal wasn't to take over a kingdom full of people who hated him, but to be a respected and beloved king. Also, unlike for Scar, marriage was his only option to try and become king, because he has far too many brothers before him to rule the Southern Isles. Although Hans is clearly shown to be capable of committing murder, if he murdered all of his brothers, it would only and extremely likely arouse suspicion towards him, and then he'd never have a chance to become king at all. He needed to come up with a plan that could help him achieve his goal, but one that could still cover his dark motives and not make people suspicious of him. And because he has terrific skills in deceiving and manipulating people, he realized how he could use those to his advantage in fulfilling his ambition.

So when he learned of Elsa's impending coronation, he jumped at the chance to attend just to woo and marry her. But he realized he had to change his course because of how Elsa kept her distance from people almost all the time. So then his plan was to marry Anna and kill Elsa after they married so he and Anna would become king and queen. Regarding how he would murder Elsa, Hans would have done it in a way so that his true colors remained hidden from outsiders. Remember he tells Anna that, after they had married, he would have staged an "accident" for Elsa. For the two times that he nearly kills Elsa, they manage to (or nearly) hide the truth behind them. The first time, he fires the arrow at her chandelier, making it look like he was intervening and almost killed her by accident. Then during the second time, before Anna intervenes, he had lied that Elsa killed Anna, so he sentenced her (Elsa) to death as punishment. Hans doesn't reveal what he would have done with Anna after that point, but given the fact that he left her to die after she returned, there is a chance that he would have eventually gotten rid of her, too.

Hans's plan once again changed after Elsa revealed her powers and cursed the kingdom to the eternal winter, then when Anna decided to go after her. Although he wanted to go with Anna to make sure nothing befell her and eliminate Elsa once she was found, things still worked to his advantage, as a feared queen with dangerous abilities would be easier to kill with no severe consequences. At the same time, being left in charge of the kingdom in Anna's absence allowed Hans to gain everybody's trust as a leader through his seemingly benevolent and caring ways. Even though he truly never cared for anyone but himself, he needed and wanted people on his side so that they would back him up for any potential repercussion, and because he is a terrific manipulator and liar, he earned that very quickly. When the Spanish dignitary tells him that he is all Arendelle has left, he realizes his plan has worked and he no longer needs either Anna or Elsa.

Subsequently, after Anna returns, he leaves Anna to freeze, then announces to the other dignitaries that they managed to marry before she died. After they tell Hans that Arendelle now looks to him for leadership, the first thing he does is charge Elsa with treason and death. When he comes across her in the fjord after she escapes from her cell, he successfully lies to her about Anna, so her state of grief and distraction gives him the perfect chance to kill her. Hans also decides to do it in the open so that the dignitaries and citizens will view him as the hero and savior of Arendelle. But in the end, fortunately, like all Disney villains, justice is met when Anna is saved and Elsa removes the winter, finally exposing Hans's lies and he is sent back home to his kingdom to be punished for his crimes.

Conclusion

Based on everything I have said and seen in the film, I have to say that Hans is one of the best Disney villains created in a very long time. While I thought Frozen was a fresh and exciting story for a fairy tale by not having romantic love as the main plot, Hans helped strengthen my love for film because he was a very different and unexpected type of villain from Disney. As I feel that Disney is not usually so subtle with the portrayals of their characters who turn out to be the villains, it was only a terrific idea for them to portray their villain for Frozen in a very different way, especially because he fools the audience as well as the other characters. Frozen is definitely one of the best Disney films I have seen in a long time, and I hope that will remain popular in the years to come. :)

This quote is the one of the worst things Hans could ever say to Anna.

Before this, he tells Anna he would never shut her out. Since it was done to her by Elsa, someone she loves dearly, Hans claims he would do just the opposite. He gives Anna false hope and belief in him, especially believing that he loves her.

Now that Elsa's secret is out, Anna is the only one who still believes in Elsa and understands her motives. And here Hans asks her this question to make it sound like he is truly concerned about her facing Elsa. It just sounds so convincing and genuine of him, which continues to gives Anna false belief and hope.

Once Hans reveals his true nature, we realize the irony and hypocrisy of this quote. Because of his convincing facade, Hans manipulated Anna and nearly all of Arendelle into trusting him. Then of course, once he reveals himself to Anna, he hurts her by taunting her and locking her in the library to let her freeze to death.

So if you think about it carefully, it is actually an indirect foreshadowing to himself, for when his true colors are finally revealed. And once you realize that, it actually seems kind of scary.

All of the songs in Frozen have some symbolic meaning to them, but "Frozen Heart" definitely has a lot of meanings even just from a few words of the lyrics. Being the opening song, "Frozen Heart" seems to describe Elsa and her powers of ice and snow. But if you think more carefully and listen to it several times, it actually appears to be more of a narration and foreshadowing of the entire story. 

The first verse seems to be a description of Elsa's powers: she was born with them, there is beauty in them (being a wonderful sight to little Anna), but also great danger (from the moment she strikes Anna). These are the two sides of this magic, with "the force" being Elsa herself since she has that power. The lines also seem to refer to Elsa as a person: as she grows up, she becomes a beautiful woman and remains a loving sister to Anna (by staying away to protect Anna), but she also sees herself as a force of destruction to Arendelle. Because of this, Elsa shuts Anna out and represses her magic and true personality out of fear. This makes it seem like she becomes a cold and heartless person, or have the said "frozen heart worth mining"...even though she still loves Anna and longs to be with her again.

The second verse seems to be a message to Anna, telling her that she has to reach out to Elsa. She has to take the risk to go after Elsa after she runs away in order to save her sister from herself. By the time she finds Elsa and her palace, Anna finally understands why Elsa had been distant as they grew up. Seeing the beauty of Elsa's magic, but also the danger it can create, makes Anna realize that Elsa shut herself out in order to maintain safety for other people. Even after this truth comes out, Anna still loves Elsa and is probably the only person in Arendelle who does not fear her. Furthermore, to get through to Elsa and have her come home, Anna has to split the metaphorical "ice" that grew in Elsa's "frozen heart" by showing her love. In this case, it is sibling love, and Anna shows just that by sacrificing herself before Hans can kill Elsa. From Anna's act, which thaws (or "breaks") her frozen heart, Elsa is able to realize that love is the key to controlling her powers. With love in mind, Elsa breaks the eternal winter curse over Arendelle. It can be said that love is the key because it is the warmest emotion of all and truly prevails over fear.

As the next couple of verses are short, they can all be combined to represent Elsa and her magic. While "Let it go" is a very obvious reference to her signature song, "Watch your step" refers to the fact that has Elsa literally has to watch her steps by watching every single one of her emotions in order to keep her powers in check. And while her powers make her strong at the right times, even physically, if she lets fear, stress, or unhappiness overcome her too much, she can and will lose complete control of her powers and only unleash strong danger. The biggest examples of this are when she freezes all of Arendelle and strikes Anna in her heart.

The last two verses are almost a word-for-word repeat of those at the beginning at the song, with a couple of changes. "There's beauty and there's danger here" is most likely another reference to the beauty and danger in Elsa's powers. Finally, "Beware the frozen heart" could be represented as a warning about Elsa, as well as a foreshadowing (and danger) to when Anna's heart is struck and frozen by Elsa, but also as the proper closing to the song and introduction to the story.

So while the song seems to be a foreshadowing reference to Elsa and her powers, some of it may also be an allusion to Hans in conjunction with Anna's remark at the end of the film: "The only frozen heart around here is yours." This means that "Beware the frozen heart" also acts as a warning of Hans's true nature. Before this line, the lyrics in the middle of the song can also refer to Hans's character and Elsa's powers simultaneously: