Evolving Villains

As I described earlier in my second blog "What makes a Great Villain?", Disney villains are iconic figures in film. They not only have amazing outfits and comical henchmen, but are also masterminds when coming up with schemes and dastardly plots to ruin the protagonist “once and for all”. Since the beginning of Disney’s film empire, they have followed similar guidelines when designing their villains. For instance, most films designate who the villain is from the start by either having them create the conflict early on or they show them scheming to take down the protagonist. This happens in films such as The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, and even 101 Dalmations. But now, Disney has changed up their typical routine villain design and has created this new-age villain, where the villain doesn’t typically reveal their true self until the end of the movie. One of the most well-known examples of this is Prince Hans from Disney’s Frozen. When Hans is first introduced, he and Anna literally bump into each other (in the cutest way possible) and the audience assumes that he is her prince charming. As the movie progresses, Hans shows no signs of evil or villainy when Elsa runs off and Anna rushes to find her, which just throws the audience off even more once he reveals his true intentions at the end to Anna. He even left to find Anna after it was only her horse that returned to Arendelle and saved Elsa’s life from the Duke’s evil henchmen. The only hint that Disney gives about Hans’ true identity is in his song with Anna, “Love is an Open Door”, where he says “I was thinking the same thing! 'Cause like I've been searching my whole life to find my own place…”.

Here is where many viewers believe that Hans gave a little away about his plans to take over Arendelle, but for those who have never seen the movie before, it’s just another line in a song. Many argue that Hans is one of the most sinister and evil villains in Disney history because his reveal was such a surprise and scandal. In a review from The Atlantic about Frozen, they describe Hans as a “greedy, throne-usurping would-be killer”. When he leans in to kiss and save Anna, viewers are led to assume that the movie is about to end and all will live happily ever after (although the whole involvement of Kristoff would be very confusing). But, everything collapses once he says “Oh, Anna, if only there were someone who loved you.” I still remember watching this scene for the first time in theatres with my cousin, and we both gasped. I guess a part of me was a little relieved, though, when I realized that Hans was the villain because I loved Kristoff and Sven so much that I didn’t want them to be just left out “in the cold”. For an alternate view, an article from the website Cracked wrote about how Hans isn’t really the villain, but how it was actually the trolls who masterminded the whole surprise at the end by changing Hans’ mind so that Anna and Kristoff would be together. With Disney constantly evolving and changing, it only makes sense that they would want to change up their characters too, but does this mean that they might alter the way they design other things in their movies? I guess we will have to wait and find out.