The Frozen easter egg everyone missed, secret sacrifices, and my theory on the real reason
Olaf knows his name are just a few of the biggest reveals in Once Upon A Snowman.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers, I'm Jan and today I'm explaining the biggest new Frozen details
we discovered in Olaf's short film on Disney Plus.
Once Upon A Snowman is a Frozen midquel that reveals the origins of Olaf between the time
Elsa creates him and when he meets Anna and Kristoff.
The short film begins during "Let It Go", and as Olaf comes to life we discover it's
actually Elsa's cape and her iconic "the cold never bothered me
anyway" moment which sends him rolling down the mountain setting him on the path that
eventually leads him to Anna.
"I'm alive!
Who said that?"
After pondering the nature of his existence, Olaf wanders over to Oaken's Trading Post.
He hears Kristoff sing "Reindeer Are Better Than People" and arrives just as Anna's leaving.
As Olaf enters, we see Oaken putting up Anna's coronation dress for sale,
which reveals she must have been short of cash and decided to trade her expensive royal
dress in return for the tools and carrots Kristoff couldn't afford plus her winter attire.
This also explains a missing detail from the original movie as to why Anna left Oaken's
wearing a purple skirt rather than the green one she had on originally.
After entering the Trading Post, Olaf remarks on the hidden meaning of its name:
"Wandering Oaken's?
Do you know that if you scramble up those letters, it's an anagram for 'Naked Norwegians'?"
"Mmm?"
This fun little joke appears to be the secret easter egg from the first Frozen movie that
Disney producer Peter Del Vecho said people on the internet hadn't picked up on.
And if you're thinking like me that Olaf didn't learn to read until Frozen 2.
"Okay, Olaf, you're up."
"So much easier now that I can read."
well Disney went right ahead and lampshaded us by acknowledging this inconsistency.
"And I can't even read.
I genuinely don't know how I just did that."
At Oaken's, we also discover where Olaf's love of summertime came from.
"Summer?"
"Mmm-hmm."
"Oh.
I don't know why, but I've always loved the idea of summer."
When the shopkeeper puts a stereoscope on the little snowman's face and shows him a
series of pictures.
"What is this?"
"That would be of summer."
"Summer?
It's beautiful!"
There are some cool easter eggs here and, interestingly, many of the images Olaf sees
appear later in the main Frozen movie when he sings "In Summer".
For example, the red and orange parasol and the green and white striped ball are the same
ones we see in the song when Olaf is imagining himself sunbathing on the beach.
And the slide with the bees and the purple and yellow flowers,
as well as the dandelions in this picture all appear during this moment from "In Summer".
♪ Bees will buzz ♪ ♪ Kids will blow dandelion fuzz ♪
This image of a meadow and bandstand is from the moment in the song where Olaf sings together
with seagulls in a tribute to Bert from Mary Poppins.
And this red chequered blanket pops up in the original film and again in the sequel.
"I've never identified with anything so much in my whole life.
It's like snowmen in summer just belong together."
The short also reveals that Olaf was the original cause of the wolf chase scene in the first
Frozen movie.
The summer sausage that Oaken gives him for a nose attracts unwanted attention from a
pack of wolves, and as he attempts to escape the hungry horde,
he wooshes past behind Anna and Kristoff.
That commotion seems to be why Kristoff stopped the sled in the first movie and that caused
the wolf pack to notice him and Anna and switch to chasing them instead of Olaf.
It's during Olaf's escape from the wolves that he first discovers how he can disassemble
and rearrange himself at will.
"I'm falling apart.
Is this a skill or a flaw?
Skill, skill!"
There's some great physical humour in these scenes and we can see how he learns to control
his stick hands independently of his body, a skill that we first saw him use when he
slapped Kristoff after meeting him in the first film.
"How does this work?
Ow!"
"Stop it, Sven.
I'm trying to focus, here."
The short also reveals Olaf's noble and selfless side when he decides to donate his sausage
nose to a hungry wolf.
"You need this even more than I do."
Chronologically, this is the first example of how Olaf is willing to sacrifice his own
wants and well-being for the sake of somebody else,
as he does later for Anna in the main movie after she's been cruelly abandoned by Hans.
"Love is putting someone else's needs before yours."
"Olaf, you're melting."
"Some people are worth melting for."
And as a token of appreciation for Olaf's sacrifice, the wolf gives the snowman a friendly
warm lick and a cuddle.
"That felt just like a warm hug."
This is Olaf's first experience of the warm hugs he's so fond of telling everyone about
in the Frozen movies.
"I'm Olaf.
And I like warm hugs."
"Good afternoon.
I am Olaf, and...
Please let me finish, and I like warm hugs."
"I like warm hugs."
And as Olaf thinks about that warm hug, we discover that he's able to hear Elsa and Anna's
voices from years ago.
"Do you wanna build a snowman?"
"Do the magic!"
These voices are from the first Frozen when Elsa and Anna were little.
"Do you want to build a snowman?"
"Do the magic!"
My theory on the reason why Olaf can hear these voices from before he was even alive
is because he's made of snow and ice which are, of course, frozen water.
And as was established in Frozen 2, water has memory, and it seems that because Olaf
is made from Elsa's ice magic he's able to connect to her memories.
We then find out that this memory is how Olaf discovers his name.
"I'm Olaf, and I like warm hugs."
Basically, he's recalling the name that Elsa gave to the snowman that she and Anna built
as kids.
"Hi, I'm Olaf, and I like warm hugs."
As the short film ends we see Olaf spot Anna, Kristoff and Sven near the frozen lake and
waterfall in the distance.
He may be nose-less at this moment, but it shows us how he ends up wandering over to
meet them in the first movie.
And now when Anna gives him a carrot for a nose in the main film, Olaf's reaction makes
even more sense after the events of Once Upon A Snowman.
"Are you okay?"
"Are you kidding me?
I am wonderful!
I've always wanted a nose."
So, did you like Olaf's new origin story in Once Upon A Snowman?
And did you spot any other interesting details in the short film?
Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
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Thanks for watching and see ya next time.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!