Current Events > Prince Hans in Frozen was deliberately deceptive storytelling

(+) Yeah! (+)

This scene:

https://youtu.be/LGdGg9blEf4?t=87

Hans has literally no reason to innocently smile when nobody's looking if he's secretly a sociopathic arse looking to take advantage of whatever he can.

It's always irritated me - the movie itself is not consistent with his character in situations where it needs to be. It's misleading.

He was handled terribly, but still more interesting than the other male character who I can't even remember the name of

It still felt out of nowhere, which I think is okay because it's consistent with the movies theme. Anna is too trusting and naive while Elsa was too distant and cold to people.

Thing is - I'm OK with ridiculous "no actually I'm evil" twists, but for the movie to go out of its way to show Hans as vulnerable and sheepish even when he has literally no reason to act that way (nobody's watching him) is almost fourth-wall-breaking.

WorsCaseOntario posted...

He was handled terribly, but still more interesting than the other male character who I can't even remember the name of

Gruber

lol, the same type of stuff bothers me. it is fourth-wall-breaking. because the actor is literally acting to nobody else but the audience.

i remember a remake of either like, the omen or amityville horror having a scene where everyone leaves a room but the camera goes back in to show us that the cross on the wall is upside-down.

i also really hated the camera effect obsession of post-the ring 2000s or so.

honestly one of the blade movies made me grouchy about this too, they tried to make one of the good guys look like a traitor by him being way more shifty than usual and i think that's the first time i noticed.

Evil people can't be happy?

The thing I find funny is that, as a hero, he was able to defeat the snow giant in a fair fight. Had he been revealed as a villain before, he undoubtedly would have used cowardly/cheating tactics to win that battle.

Wasnt it because they changed the plot midway through and were too lazy to change things previously storyboarded to have happened before the twist?

K181 posted...

Wasnt it because they changed the plot midway through and were too lazy to change things previously storyboarded to have happened before the twist?

Frozen was apparently in draft form for like 20 years before they finally settled on a script, so this wouldn't surprise me.

DarkRoast posted...

This scene:

https://youtu.be/LGdGg9blEf4?t=87

Hans has literally no reason to innocently smile when nobody's looking if he's secretly a sociopathic arse looking to take advantage of whatever he can.

It's always irritated me - the movie itself is not consistent with his character in situations where it needs to be. It's misleading.

Because the movie was retooled halfway into production to make Elsa into a protagonist. The story was originally supposed to be based on the ice queen

K181 posted...

Wasnt it because they changed the plot midway through and were too lazy to change things previously storyboarded to have happened before the twist?

Yes. But they didnt need to make Hans a villain, just indifferent. Like, the kiss doesnt work because he doesnt really love her. Duh. They hardly know each other.

There was a good enough villain with the Duke character. There was no need to make Hans a villain, too.

It's crazy how Disney went from absolutely nailing the setup of the twist villain in Wreck-It Ralph to falling so flat with Frozen's twist villain a year later.