Relationship Spotlight: Kristoff & Anna (Frozen)

 

As I was rewatching Frozen before writing my review, I was struck by how similar their relationship is to Mindy and Danny from The Mindy Project.  It’s not just the basic format:  initial bickering, and friendship before romance.  Like I said when I wrote about Danny and Mindy, these aren’t exactly new narrative concepts.  But it’s more than that – when you get down to the details, the parallels run deep.

 

Let’s see here.  She’s a smart and eager but immature young woman with idealized misconceptions about true love.  He’s a rough-around-the-edges curmudgeon who needs people more than he acknowledges.  They often get on each other’s nerves, but they’re able to make pretty astute observations about one another, and they always come through when it really matters.  It’s a relatively balanced relationship, since they’re both flawed people who help each other – yes, I’m aware that princess trumps ice merchant, but his wilderness knowhow means his skillset comes in handy far more than hers on their mission, so it evens out.  Sound familiar?  (Oh my gosh, and Olaf is totally Morgan!  I’m calling it – Frozen is a family-friendly Mindy Project in microcosm.  Someone make adorable fan art of it.)

 

There’s a lot to like with this duo.  I love Anna’s pluckiness and determination even she doesn’t know what she’s doing – like misguidedly attempting to scale a mountain – and Kristoff’s bemused, deadpan reactions.  I love when she surprises him and comes up with a solution before he does, like during the wolf attack.  I love her scandalized responses to his less-than-sunshiny tendencies; one of my favorite exchanges in the whole movie is when Kristoff wants to tell the summer-obsessed Olaf what happens to snowmen in warm weather, and Anna’s insistence that he doesn’t burst Olaf’s bubble.  It’s such a simple, tiny moment, but so representative of both characters.

 

But for the absolute pinnacle of Anna-Kristoff interactions, I have to single out their discussion about Hans.  I adore that this film throws shade on the fairy-tale idea of getting engaged to someone you just met, and both of them are hilarious in this scene.  Even though Kristoff’s interrogations prove Anna doesn’t know much of anything about her intended, she’s entirely unfazed, assertively giving his last name as “of the Southern Isles” and his eye color as “dreamy.”  And her reaction to Kristoff’s hypothetical scenario about Hans picking his nose (“All men do it,” he tells her) is hysterical.

 

This scene is a great demonstration of their relationship.  They’re arguing, but already, they have such a seamless give-and-take with one another.  They can spar without a hint of hesitation, and each has a temperament so unlike the other, but they’re both still drawn to each other.  Plus, despite the attempts to provoke Anna, I get the idea that Kristoff is trying to help her in his own slightly-grumpy way.  He’s trying to show her the foolishness of her hasty engagement, not just to show her up, but also in the hopes of keeping her from an ill-advised marriage.

 

In short:  they’re fantastically funny together, they’re a great mix of sour and sweet, they help each other out, and they both become better people through the other’s influence.  Is there anything that’s not to like?