Disney Prince Review: Hans and Kristoff, Frozen

Frozen is.......... not a film I look at fondly. I find the movie to be almost a parody of a parody of Disney films like Shrek in some ways. It comes off as a film more focused on telling you it will subvert negative tropes but instead only offers subtle subversion as it goes back to the tropes people have identified as synonymous with Disney films. The music is not as good as it says it is, the story isn't as good as it says it is, and everything people say Frozen is trying to say (about it dealing with anxiety, sexuality, etc) all mean nothing if the actual story is weak. Despite this there are things I like about the film such as the first musical number, Anna's character and her duet with Elsa, and Kristoff is a great character in his own right and the first few minutes are some of my favorite and I would be lying if I said this movie didn't have a taste for atmosphere. It is clear that Frozen WANTS to be the movie it thinks it is but falls apart. Today we are going to discuss both Hans and Kristoff for our Disney Prince review because even though Hans is the only actual prince, Kristoff himself proved to be a very great character and we are going to attempt to go in depth with them as I think both of them highlight the greatest strengths and weaknesses of the film.

Prince Hans, or Disney meets Game of Thrones
"As thirteenth in line for the throne in my own kingdom, I didn't stand a chance. I knew I would have to marry into the throne somehow."

Hans is...... dull, I'm sorry but he is and it is the movie's fault. Hans comes into the film itself as a young ideal archetype of the Disney Prince, he's handsome, charming, a bit goofy and is in love with Anna. He then he gets regulated to the background until he reveals his real intentions as the bad guy and that the whole time he was planning to take over the kingdom either by marrying Elsa or marrying Anna and then killing Elsa. Hans has been remembered for one thing, his scene with Anna where he reveals his true intentions, it was the one thing everyone kept talking about in the movie theater. The problem is that he doesn't do anything. As shocking as it is that Hans is the villain can be, his plan makes little sense and somehow pushes the suspension of disbelief outside the norm. Disney has never been subtle with it's villains, the audience always knows who the villain is and as a result we get into the character's head. With Hans, the only bit of info we have is that his older brothers were jerks to him as well as his dad and this seems like an attempt to make him similar to Scar. The problem is that Hans doesn't feel needed and he isn't handled well. He, and the film are less a subversion of Disney tropes and more of a parody of them. We don't know anything about him, he has a Scar/Gaston/Jafar like character but lacks any character traits, which reveals an aspect about the film: it subverts tropes in Disney that they haven't used in decades.

As a character, Hans is defined by one aspect of his life that I think may have been to parallel Anna; where Anna longs for a relationship with her sibling Hans desire to separate himself from them. The problem is that Hans never feels necessary to the story, the whole thing could have happened without him. His character is someone who reflects the real world of political succession as he can never hope to take his families throne, he is only 13th in line until the actual heir has children and he will be pushed down to fourteenth and so on. Hans is a climber but lacks any real focus, even if his plan is believable he doesn't do anything to further it.

Kristoff, the Everyman Prince

"No Sven, we're not going back! She's with her true love!"

Kristoff is the first main character to show up in the film and I think he comes off as more of an attempt at what the movie was trying to do with subverting classic Disney tropes. Kristoff isn't some dashing hero like Eric or the smooth talking Naveen. He's a character that in a lot of ways mirrors Flynn from Tangled. He comes off as someone who really doesn't have time for the drama of the elite (Hans, Elsa, and Anna) and has work and his own universe to tend to and he's content to just be on his own with Sven. His back and froth with Anna show a more rational approach to Elsa's argument as instead of just saying that she shouldn't marry a man she just met, he actually just proves she doesn't know anything about Hans. He is very much not a hero, not that he isn't a good person but he would rather be alone and it is through his interactions with Anna that he shows who he is. His relationship with Anna is honestly his only real one and in the time they spend together he does fall in love with her and this creates what I think is the best moment for his character. When he hears that Anna's needs what they believe is a kiss of true love to save her, Kristoff takes her to Hans and leaves and when pushed by Sven he reveals that he is in love with her. Kristoff is aware of the reality of his situation, he can't be with Anna; they are from different worlds and she is in love with Hans who she needs to be with to bare minimum save her life. At that moment he is content to go back to being alone and heartbroken, so long as Anna is safe and when he thinks she might be in trouble he forgets his own feelings and goes after her.

Kristoff comes off as someone you can't approach. Like the Trolls say "he's a bit of a fixer upper" but you really just have to get to know him. He doesn't pretend to like people nor is he out to spare your feelings from the truth. He prefers the company of Reindeers over people, saying they'll cheat you and lie to you so it kind of implies that he may have had bad interactions with people before or a product of living with the Rock Trolls for most of his life. He isn't ashamed or embarrassed about who he is and is very open with who he is, something that puts him in opposition with Hans who is all about crafting that careful image.

The Ice Guy, or the Nice Guy?

"It's TRUE LOVE!"

The point of Hans and Kristoff is to ultimately tell the story who Anna chooses romantically to be in love with. The two represent the ideal guy and the real thing. This in itself kind of falls apart because ideally, what the impatient Anna should learn would be that she would pick neither and we would get the actual choice in the sequel. At the same time though the film kind of ruins this by Hans revealing that he never loved Anna and just wanted the throne. The idea that Hans and Anna just aren't really in love with each other I guess wasn't a good enough idea when that would have been a much stronger reveal and would subvert the Disney Trope while at the same time giving something really interesting and heartfelt for the audience.

When I look at Hans and Kristoff, I really think it would have been best if the two of them actually interacted more because they honestly don't feel like they have been pushed as far they could have though the same could be said of most of the characters and themes in the film. What's interesting is the two of them are pretty similar, both hint at bad relationships with people but handle it differently. Hans uses his bad experiences to motivate him to do whatever it takes to not be seen as weak where Kristoff has just decided to interact as little with people as possible. Hans has become what he hates where Kristoff in a lot of ways kind of spits back at whatever bad experience happened to him. They have a sort of Aladdin and Jafar dynamic that way but nothing is every done with it. They are both one of the best and worst things about Frozen, a bold new direction that is more in love with the idea of subversion over actually being subversive.