12 Things You Didn’t Know About Frozen

If you’re anything like us, you’ve probably watched Frozen about 100 million times by now. You might have found every hidden easter egg and know every song lyric by heart, but do you know these amazing behind-the-scenes facts? Read on to find out, and don’t miss Frozen Weekend March 26 and 27 on Freeform!

1. 50 people worked on the technology for the scene where Elsa builds her ice palace. One frame of the scene took 30 hours to render.
 (By contrast, it only takes Elsa about 36 seconds to create the entire palace in the film.)

2. The animators held a “Sister Summit” to understand what sisterly relationships are like.
 This helped make Anna and Elsa’s relationship even stronger in the film.

3. In one version of the film, Hans gifted Anna a snow globe after the coronation, but the idea was dropped for narrative streamlining.
 We can’t decide if a snow globe is a present is better than sandwiches or not. We’re leaning towards sandwich.

4. There was originally a dressing room in between Anna and Elsa’s bedrooms.
 While it would have allowed for the audience to see more interaction between Anna and Elsa, the animators thought it was best to keep the sisters separated after Elsa accidentally hurts Anna with her powers, and nixed it.

5. The official crest of Arendelle is called a crocus.
 It’s a symbol of rebirth and spring. And this whole time we thought it was just a pretty flower.

6. The Duke of Weselton was originally conceived as a royal handler to Anna and Elsa, but as the story progressed, filmmakers changed his character’s role.
 The animators needed to draw attention away from Hans, and the Duke of Weselton was the perfect red herring.

7. Chris Williams, who voiced Oaken, went on to direct Big Hero 6!
 Maybe he added some of Oaken’s loveable nature to Baymax? We think yes.

8. The Snow Queen, the Hans Christian Andersen story on which Frozen is based, was first put into development by Walt Disney in 1939.
 It was most likely going to be a short animated sequence in a movie version of Hans Christian Andersen’s life, but it never was made.

9. When Anna becomes completely frozen, you can see Elsa’s signature snowflake on her iris.
 Pretty cool, right? (Pun 100% intended).

10. Disney artists had to take a crash course in meteorology to learn about snow.
 The animators brought in Dr. Ken Libbrecht a.k.a. Doctor Snow (best nickname ever!) from Cal Tech, to learn about the formation of snow crystals.

11. When Santino Fontana auditioned for the role of Hans, he sang “I Feel Pretty” from West Side Story.
 We need this audition tape. WE NEED TO SEE IT.

12. Elsa has more strands of hair than Rapunzel.
 Rapunzel may have 70 feet of magic glowing hair, but Elsa’s hair contains 420,000 single strands.

Did you learn something new about Frozen? Tell us in the comments below!