Have you rewatched Frozen? The plot is Shockingly, Stupidly Bad.
- Luke Cau
- Oct 25, 2023
- 3 min read
As one does, I’ve been watching every animated princess movie. Along the way, I’ve rediscovered Little Mermaid and Moana. They both have issues in their third act, leaving a foul taste in
your mouth on the first watch- but upon rewatch, they’re a jolly good time.
The hot take today: Disney Frozen 2010 is bad, like Brave bad.
Why is Frozen so awful? Well, it’s a plotting problem.
The plotting after Let it Go changes inorganically and gets a little finicky. Here’s the progression:
Else hides her powers from Anna.
Anna found out, then Elsa ran away.
“Let’s go find Elsa!”
“Oh, she doesn’t wanna go with us.” That plot’s finished.
New plot: “Ah, I’m dying. Let’s go find the love cure.”
New search continues until the villain reveal at the end.
Then a second reveal pulls a Last Jedi; This nuanced but impromptu love theme comes out of nowhere in the climax peek. More on that later.
While by no means awful, Frozen’s plot is quite choppy, and you really feel that. It feels as if the script was in rewrites by a different screenwriter. But the production team, those crafty devils, just finished the film between drafts. Choppy, sloppy, and has some knock-on effects.
The Active Effects of Poor Plotting, pt. 1(of 1)

You’re mainly hit by this poor plotting with our antagonist, Hans. Anyone could point to him as a comically evil twist villain. More so, if he never had that reveal, every action he takes would have been the same. This includes letting Anna die.
Let’s assume he’s normal, not a villain. He just met her, he doesn’t love her. From what we can see, he’s a nice guy. When his loveless kiss didn’t cure Anna, sure he’d go after the killer sister who’s escaping. It’s an empty twist. The writers went back and planted some seeds to make the twist work. But it wasn’t initially written that way. He would have been more compelling as the tragic third in this movie’s rom-com situation.
Another effect- The love of a sister saves the day rather than the love of a random man. It’s a nice touch. Now, there’s a good portion of the film that focuses on Anna and Kristof. Giving more in-world time to develop their relationship would strengthen this reversal.
That reveal does have an actual problem though-
It’s an unnatural close to Elsa’s arc.
She goes from hiding her true self and fearing what others will think to “Oh, they found out, so now I won’t hide who I am anymore” (Let It Go). But we don’t see a change from that song. She’s still self-loathing, isolated in her room, afraid of interacting with others.
Elsa stays this way from the movie’s first scene to the climax’s final part. Then there’s this “love of a sister is the way to control my powers all along.” And this is a fine message, but it doesn’t feel built to. The song Let It Go suggests her character arc should be about finding pride in your identity and letting go of fear. This is a much stronger theme implied in the song but not a character progression seen throughout the film. Frozen's plot is bad.
The REAL revelation: The Frozen Truth:
With a quick Google search, turns out the film was sped through between drafts. The result is a slapdash princess movie with princesses who aren’t great role models… I’ve seen it three times. The first two I enjoyed it, but this time, comparing it to other Disney princess movies, it’s definitely weaker.
Is Frozen Disney’s worst princess movie? No! It’s not even the worst Frozen movie. Love that salamander fella, though. More of him, please. Hey, when is Frozen 3 coming out? Frozen 4 release date anyone? Gotta have me some more Elsa Frozen.
I mentioned before I’ve been watching through EVERY PRINCESS MOVIE. I’ll link to every princess's official ranking below as soon as I’ve finished subjecting myself to this voluntary torture.
If you're a princess at heart, it might also excite you to know how bombastic the Barbie movie is. If you gotta see another Disney high-profile, high-budget goof- we have an article on Disney+ Boba Fett, guy who likes a town. Check em out.
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