Since the original Frozen movie was released in 2013, its name has become a global phenomenon. Not only that the first movie has grossed more than $1.2 billion worldwide, but its characters became one of the most-known fictional characters of the decade. You practically didn’t have a store where you couldn’t find some merchandise (oat flakes, candies, pieces of clothing, school bags…) with the ice queen Elsa and her sister Anna on them. Frozen became one of Disney’s most-known brands within ten years since it first appeared. Following the 2019’s sequel to the original movie and several short movies, Disey’s CEO Bob Iger recently said that the third movie is in early development, with no release date yet. So, while we’re waiting for more news about the threequel, let’s look at where the world of Frozen is set.
The world of Frozen is set in Arendelle, a Norwegian-inspired fictional kingdom. The name Arendelle is based on Arendal, a Norwegian town located in the county of Agder. The landscape of Arendelle is based on Nærøyfjord in western Norway, while various buildings from Oslo and other cities of Norway inspired the buildings of Arendelle. Ultimately, the kingdom of Arendelle doesn’t exist for real, but the Scandinavian environment and infrastructure heavily inspire its design.
Frozen is the original Disney movie loosely inspired by The Snow Queen fairy tale by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. The movie closely followed Andersen’s story during its early development before being reshaped into a more original movie with only some elements borrowed from Andersen.
Disney continued to be inspired by the Scandinavian culture in the sequel Frozen II as well. The tribe of Northuldra featured in the movie was primarily inspired by the Sámi people living in the cultural region of Sápmi, which stretches over the northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. Disney signed a contract with the Sámi people to represent their culture respectfully. One more interesting fact is that the Northuldra name is derived from the words “north” and “huldra,” a Norse word for “covered” or “secret,” which reflects their status as a people hidden in the Enchanted Forest.
The first Frozen movie was released in 2013 and was one of Disney’s most successful animated projects ever. The movie became the highest-grossing animated movie of all time. It remained in that position until it was overtaken by The Lion King’s live-action remake (which was actually also animated) in 2019. The sequel Frozen II was released in November 2019. It was even more successful commercially, although it did not win the Academy Award compared to the first movie, which won Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song (Let It Go).
The first movie follows Anna on a quest to find her sister Elsa who accidentally uses her ice powers to lock her kingdom into the eternal winter. We met some interesting characters on that journey, including an ice harvester Kristoff, his reindeer Sven, and an adorable snowman Olaf who quickly became the fan-favorite character. It took six years for the sequel to arrive, but it was worth the wait as it also received positive reviews. The sequel follows the group of Elsa, Anna, Olaf, Kristoff, and Sven as they travel to the enchanted forest to unravel the origin of Elsa’s powers.
Disney’s CEO, Bob Iger, recently announced that Walt Disney Animation Studios started working on Frozen 3 and Zootopia 2, while Pixar started the development of Toy Story 5. These announcements were not a surprise since we’re talking about very successful movies that all grossed more than a billion dollars worldwide each. It’s expected that all these sequels will repeat the commercial success of their predecessors, and as for the critical successes, we will need to wait for that. Still, Disney has already got us used to their high-quality animated content.
It’s not officially known if Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee, directors of the first two Frozen movies, will return for the third installment. Still, the cast featuring Idina Menzel, Kristen Bell, Josh Gad, and Jonathan Groff are all expected to return for the threequel. We can’t wait for more news about this because Frozen 3 will surely be one of the most anticipated animated movies of its time.
