In the Disney film adaptation, she is introduced as a princess in the fictional Scandinavian Kingdom of Arendelle, heiress to the throne and the elder sister of Anna (Kristen Bell). Elsa has the magical ability to create and manipulate ice and snow.
As for whether Elsa and Anna are white … the Northuldra are modeled on the Sami, an indigenous people scattered across northern Scandinavia and northwestern Russia who have faced a great deal of discrimination, but there's a lot of disagreement about the genetic and linguistic origins of Sami to this day.
It was unexpected, Elsa and Anna are both portrayed in the animated film as two Norwegian princesses from the 1840s — it's highly unlikely that their father, the King, was not white.
While Frozen takes place in the fictional kingdom Arendelle, the kingdom was based on multiple locations in Norway. The team behind Frozen even visited Norway to gain inspiration, and you can see Nordic influence all throughout the movie.
In the Disney film adaptation, Anna is depicted as the princess of Arendelle, a fictional Scandinavian kingdom, and the younger sister of Elsa (Idina Menzel), who is the heiress to the throne and possesses the elemental ability to create and control ice and snow.
"Voices of Young Elsa & Anna" Clip - The Story of Frozen: Making a Disney Animated Classic
What culture is Frozen based off of?
The Frozen movies drew inspiration from the customs and traditions of the indigenous Sami people of Northern Europe. Norway's reindeer herding Sami population has ancient traditions and a strong heritage which Disney wanted to pay homage to.
The Northuldra tribe is inspired by the real-life Sámi natives from the north of Europe, particularly Norway, which Frozen's fictional setting is based on.
As the lies on which the Kingdom of Arendelle is founded start to unravel, we discover that Anna and Elsa's mother, Iduna, is from the Northuldra tribe – she was the mysterious saviour who rescued their father during battle.
Honeymaren, a member of the Northuldra tribe who was trapped in the Enchanted Forest by the curse, could return for Frozen 3 as Elsa's girlfriend based on the two characters' shared chemistry.
Inspired by Disney fairytales' true origins, YouTube channel Movie Munchies translated the princesses' most famous songs into their native languages. For example, Elsa and Anna from Frozen are Norwegian, Jasmine from Aladdin speaks Arabic, and Snow White is German.
(Note: Much of Frozen 2 appears to be a reaction to the reaction the first film received for not including many people of color and for “whitewashing.” The problem with how Frozen 2 handled this is that they really couldn't up and change the race of the lead characters, so instead they just had them retroactively ...
Elysium is the first daughter of Elsa and Jack Frost, protagonists in Frozen and Rise of the Guardians. She is also a Princess of Arendelle and Junior Guardian of Winter. She is the older sister to Elise and is the first heir to the Throne of Arendelle.
Among the main criticisms of Frozen 2 are that a lot of the introduction feels like it's moving the characterization backward, it doesn't hit the emotional depths of the first, and while the story is ambitious, it doesn't quite work in execution.
Kristoff is a Sámi iceman who lives together with his reindeer companion Sven. Albeit preferring a solitary life, he helps Princess Anna of Arendelle to find her older sister Elsa in the North Mountain.
Iduna's single line, "She's ice-cold!" in the first film is provided by Frozen's co-director, Jennifer Lee. Director Chris Buck joked that Iduna and Agnarr did not really die on their voyage and stated that they washed up on an island, had a baby boy, and got eaten by a leopard.
Disney's animated film Frozen was inspired by Sámi culture, and for its sequel, Frozen 2, Walt Disney Animation Studios received consultation from a Sámi working group (“Verddet”) on elements within the film that are inspired by the Indigenous People's homelands.
And even though Kristoff's Sámi heritage is not central to the story of Frozen, it is in part the music by Frode Fjellhiem, in addition to the reindeer and gakti, that should situate the film and the character in an inarguably Sámi—not Old Norse—context.
It's also worth noting that Frozen, like Disney's recent The Princess and the Frog, is set in a diegetic world with overtly Christian — indeed Catholic — elements. (Among other things, The Princess and the Frog is perhaps the only Disney fairy tale culminating in a church wedding in a specific, real-world church, St.
