So, I have several videos from Frozen on my channel that may be of interest. Here is one of the comment conversations I had with someone on it. I won't be partaking in the Skype since I don't have a camera, but this may bring up some talking points.
From my Frozen - Let It Go (Horror Version) video:
Thorberg: Originally Elsa was going to be the villain. And they should have stuck with that plan because she would have been a very interesting Disney villain. The reason why they changed it is because this song made her sound "too sympathetic for a villain". But had they done the song like this they would have been able to pull it off. I would have preferred her as a villain who is confused and suffers from multiple personality disorder rather than a paranoid little queen who doesn't listen to reason.
Me: No kidding. This movie felt like an extended episode of some show. This song sequence could have easily been in the style of Scar's "Be Prepared".
Thorberg: Indeed. Sad that this movie had so much potential and it was thrown away. Hans is also the most boring and poorly written villain since Shan Yu from Mulan (the only thing I liked about Shan Yu is that he looked bad-a**, but not even Hans had that trait). Elsa could have been something completely new, perhaps a villain who is later redeemed since the viewers are obviously expected to sympathize with her. The writers should also have known that keeping all emotions and feelings inside for a decade will eventually lead to some deranged mental status, so Elsa could have easily developed a second personality representing all her fear and anger which would take over her body and inflict terrible vengeance on everyone.
Me: Similar to Fey Fong Wong from Xenogears, if you have played that for the Playstation 1. Unfortunately, I don't think this movie would have been nearly as popular since the majority of young female Disney fans just want something feel-good.
Thorberg: Well, this movie was successful mostly because Disney had already been getting quite a lot of positive reputation after Tangled's success (although Tangled deserved its success, unlike Frozen, Tangled was actually pretty good). So previous successes kind of boosted up Frozen. But I think the movie would have been just as popular, if not more popular, if they would have followed something similar to my earlier comment. After all, was the Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Lion King and The Hunchback of Notre Dame not something completely different and new (even though the Disney princesses are pretty much the same, socially awkward, naïve, well-meaning etc..) ? People seem to forget that the villain is just as important as the hero. Without them, there would be no interesting conflict.
Me: "no interesting conflict" is exactly what I thought at the end of watching Frozen. It was my number 1 complaint, which fell on deaf ears of my wife and daughter. The only villain in this movie was time, which they were racing against to save Anna. The Duke would have made a good one. He could have tried to be overthrowing the leaderless and undefended kingdom. Hans had to be turned into one to give people someone to assign their negative feelings to. He was just the plot-scapegoat. Can't have any unassigned negative feelings!
Thorberg: The original purpose of Hans was simply to be Anna's boyfriend whom she would later dump. He was not intended to be a back-stabbing cruel person, he was just supposed to be an a**hole. I don't think the Duke would have made an interesting villain either. He never had any bad motivations, he was just afraid of Elsa and thought she was a witch of some sort. But Anna didn't seem to bother him at all. I also read somewhere that there was a concept character who was later deleted. The character was a Viceroy who was Anna and Elsa's cousin (or some distant relative, I'm not sure) who would be Anna's source of wisdom and somewhat an advisor. Which would help her with the growing conflict between her sister's mental state and her people suffering from the eternal winter curse. That would have been a good idea since it would also give Anna some more spotlight and make her also seem brave and smart. Because then she would have to save her kingdom and her sister on her own.
Me: You're right about the Duke. Picturing him as the villain is pretty boring. I forgot it is a Disney epic. For a political thriller he would make a good one.
So she was supposed to fall for Hans, then later grow as a character and dump him as she matures and sheds her foolish impulsive actions (like willingness to marry him immediately) in the same way Kiki can only longer talk to Gigi at the end of the movie since she is starting to grow up.
Imagine if Disney gave the Elsa treatment to Darth Vader. They already did it to Maleficent. She was such a good villain, too.
Thorberg: Yes. Anna's character development would in fact include her maturing. Which she did not seem to do in the final release, the only thing that changed was her view on Hans. And the only reason that happened was because he went with the revealing-evil-plot-to-hero cliché when originally Anna was supposed to realize by herself that Hans was a d**k who only cared about her looks and the perks that come with being married to a princess (thus he was also a parody of a typical handsome prince from fairy tales)
