Western Animation / Frozen II

Spoilers for Frozen II will remain tagged as usual. However, being a sequel to Frozen, this page does contain unmarked spoilers for that film. You Have Been Warned!

Let go of the past. Answer the call.

"Elsa... the past is not what it seems. You must find the truth. Go north across the enchanted lands and into the unknown."

— Pabbie

Frozen 2, stylized as Frozen II,^note both numeral renderings of the number two have been used by Disney, but although the logo uses the Roman numeral, Disney goes with the Arabic numeral in official usage is the sequel to Frozen and the second full-length feature film of the Frozen franchise, the 58^th entry in the Disney Animated Canon, and the first non-direct-to-video sequel to one of its musical films. Set three years after the first film, Queen Elsa, Princess Anna, Kristoff, his pet reindeer Sven, and talking snowman Olaf leave the kingdom of Arendelle and face dangers in a new land, discovering more about magic (including just how and why Elsa got her powers) and the history of Arendelle.

It was released on November 22, 2019, making it the last animated Disney film of the 2010s. It was dubbed into 46 languages, including Northern Sami. This makes it the third Disney film to receive a special dubbing dedicated to the culture that inspired it, following the Zulu dub of The Lion King and the Tahitian, Māori, and Hawaiian dubs of Moana.

A making-of series, Into the Unknown: Making Frozen II, premiered on Disney+ in June 2020. An animated series, Olaf Presents, expands on the scene of Olaf recapping the events of the first film by having him portray the events of other Disney Animated Canon films in a similar manner.

A third film is currently in development.

Previews: Teaser, Trailer 1, Trailer 2.

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Frozen II provides examples of:

Tropes A to C

• 11th-Hour Costume Change: Elsa gets a magical upgrade to her dress before she saves Arendelle from being flooded.
• Actually Pretty Funny: While playing charades, Olaf is acting the word "Elsa" by doing an exaggerated impression of her Supermodel Strut from "Let It Go", and Kristoff immediately gets the answer. Elsa's reaction is a "Yeah, that's fair" shrug.
• Adapted Out:
  • Most of the book releases completely leave out the entire climax of the film, such as Elsa's temporary death and Anna becoming the new queen.
  • The trailer contains a sentence (cut from the movie) from Grand Pabbie warning Anna about Elsa losing herself in magic.
• Adorably Precocious Child: When Elsa conjures ice toys for the kids in Arendelle, a little girl asks Elsa for a sextant (Elsa is surprised but manages to do it).
• Affectionate Parody: Kristoff's solo song, "Lost in the Woods", is one big love letter to '80s power ballads and the common cliches in their music videos, including dramatic angles and lighting, loud guitar twangs, soulful close-ups of his face superimposed onto the shot, and using a hanging pinecone like a studio microphone. To top it all off, it's a sort of fantasy sequence in which Sven and the reindeer of the forest are singing with him part of the time as backing vocalists.
• Alchemic Elementals: Bruni is a Fiery Salamander, giant stone golems take the place of Gnome, the Nokk takes the place of Undine and "Gale" seems to be an invisible Sylph.
• All There in the Manual: It's never fully explained in the movie why the main characters can go through the mist on their way into the Enchanted Forest but fail when they try to go out. The line "A bridge has two sides, and Mother had two daughters" turns out to be key. Tie-in books confirm that when the characters pass through successfully, it's because Anna and Elsa — the two sides of the bridge — are holding hands and working together. When the characters try to go back, they're trying to work separately, and so fail.
• All There in the Script: The salamander's name, Bruni, is never used once in the film. The water horse, the Nokk, is similarly unnamed.
• Anger Born of Worry: Both Anna and Elsa express this towards each other after Anna almost suffocates during the encounter with the enchanted flames.
  Elsa: Anna, you can't just follow me into fire!
  Anna: If you don’t want me to follow you into fire, then don't run into fire!
• Apocalyptic Log: When Elsa and Anna find the wreck of their parents' ship, Anna immediately starts looking for the sealed waterproof compartment built into all Arendelle ships. Inside the compartment, she finds a map of the ship's intended journey and a handwritten note from their mother on the map.
• Arc Symbol: Four symbols representing the classical elements (fire, water, earth, and air) appear throughout the film. These symbols appear as floating icicles when Elsa awakens the spirits, as well as on stone formations in front of the Enchanted Forest, on Iduna's shawl, and in the glacier of Ahtohallan.
• Arc Words:
  • "Water has memory." Spoken by Olaf.
  • "The next right thing." First spoken by Pabbie and repeated a couple of times by Anna.
  • "Go too far and you'll be drowned."
• Ascended Fridge Horror: It's been theorized that, when Elsa dies, Olaf will die too. The movie confirms it by showing it: Olaf and Anna realize that Elsa is dead because he starts disintegrating.
• Attack of the Town Festival: The spirits attack Arendelle the very same night as the Harvest Festival.
• Audible Sharpness: Anna notices something sneaking up on the group from behind at the end of the teaser trailer. She yanks Kristoff's sword out of its sheath and charges. It happens so fast that you might as well have only realized what happened by hearing the metallic sound that comes when the sword gets unsheathed and swung.
• Audience Surrogate: Played for Laughs with Mattias during Olaf’s recapping of the first film’s events. He is shown to be genuinely invested in the tale despite Olaf’s Bad "Bad Acting" and his reactions to the events ^note such as shedding Manly Tears at the part where Anna is frozen, or his Big "WHAT?!" reaction to the reveal of Hans's villainy mimic those commonly seen in audiences during the first film itself.
• Bad "Bad Acting":
  • Elsa is terrible at charades. Her movements cause Anna to just yell out the facial expressions she's making. When Anna discovers that the word was something that should've been easy to act out ("ice") and sees Elsa by the window with their mother's cape, she knows something's weighing on Elsa's mind.
  • Olaf recaps the events of the previous film to the Northuldra in a needlessly exaggerated manner. Everyone watches with confusion save for Mattias, who is emotionally invested in the story.
• Bestiality Is Depraved: Played for Laughs; in the song "Some Things Never Change", Kristoff practices proposing by going down one knee, holding a ring. However, he happens to be facing his reindeer, prompting the background characters to avert their eyes or just look alarmed. One covers the eyes of a nearby child.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Kristoff saves Anna from being stepped on/crushed by the earth giants.
  • Elsa stops the flood from destroying Arendelle.
• Big Dam Plot: King Runeard built a dam for the Northuldra, which has built up enough water that were it to break, much of Arendelle would be washed away. The climax involves the sisters learning that King Runeard built it in order to weaken the inhabitants of Northuldra before subduing them under his rule. Anna, realizing this crime has to be righted and that this is why the spirits have made people evacuate Arendelle, provokes the Earth Giants into destroying the dam that her grandfather built, and Elsa freezes the wave of water before it floods Arendelle.
• Big "WHAT?!": During Olaf's recap of the first movie, Mattias does one when Olaf reveals Prince Hans is the villain.

• Bookends:
  • Frozen began with Anna and Elsa being separated and their relationship becoming increasingly strained because of it, but ended with them finally reuniting and rekindling their bond. Frozen II ends with the sisters choosing to go their separate ways, though their relationship remains strong despite the distance this time.
  • One of the first thing the sisters are seen doing together in Frozen is building a snowman. One of the last thing they are seen doing together in this movie is rebuilding Olaf after his Disney Death.
  • The film begins with Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, Sven & Olaf playing charades. The epilogue has Anna inviting Elsa from the Forest for a game of charades.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: Kristoff borrows Anna's "Wait, what?" catchphrase, which he had already done once at the end of the first film.
• Broken Pedestal: Anna and Elsa clearly have different feelings for their grandfather after seeing that he attacked the Northuldrans.
• BSoD Song: "The Next Right Thing" is about Anna struggling to pull herself together in her darkest hour, after learning of her grandfather's betrayal of the Northuldra people, realizing her sister Elsa has died in Ahtohallan, and having to watch Olaf fade away without Elsa's magic to maintain him.
• Call-Back:
  • When Anna talks to Olaf early in the movie, the two of them are relaxing on a red-and-white plaid blanket, which is identical to the one that Olaf is seen lying on in the first movie during his Imagine Spot while singing "In Summer".
  • Elsa isn't convinced that Anna can handle the journey to Ahtohallan, since she lacks ice powers. Anna counters by reminding Elsa about her deeds in the first movie:
    Anna: Excuse me, I climbed the North Mountain, survived a frozen heart, and saved you from my ex-boyfriend, and I did it all without powers.
  • The first movie shows Anna spending most of her childhood playing alone and imagining talking to the pictures. So she recognizes Mattias from them easily in this one.
  • When Elsa turns to ice, she goes through similar steps and poses as Anna when she suffered this fate at the end of the first film, such as holding and looking at her slowly freezing hands in the same way and freezing completely in similar pose, with one of her arms raised.
  • When Olaf introduces himself to the Northuldra, he mentions that he doesn't wear clothes because he finds them restricting. Later in the movie, he finally wears some clothes and they look incredibly awkward on him.
  • The way Kristoff twirls Anna around when she accepts his proposal is very similar to how he twirled her in the first movie before their Big Damn Kiss.
• Chekhov's Gun: At one point, Anna notices that Elsa is wearing her mother's shawl. After they first encounter the Northuldrans, Elsa places the shawl around Anna's shoulders. Yelena recognizes the shawl as being from Northuldra, which leads to Elsa and Anna discovering that their mother was the Northuldran girl who saved their father.
• Chekhov's Gunman: The Earth Giants play almost no role in the movie despite appearing twice prior to the climax of the film except for characters to remark on their imposing size. During the climax, Anna comes up with the plan to destroy the damn by upsetting the giants and hopefully getting them to smash the dam in the process of trying to trample her. It works, and once the dam falls, the giants stop attacking and their hostility vanishes.
• Childhood Friend Romance: Agnarr and Iduna met as children during Arendelle's expedition into the Enchanted Forest. However, Agnarr wasn't aware that Iduna was the Northuldran girl he met until she revealed it to him in their adulthood.
• Citywide Evacuation: After Elsa sings "Into the Unknown", an intense wind rips through Arendelle, all of the water evaporates, and all of the fires go out. Elsa realizes that an earthquake is the next logical step and orders everyone to evacuate the city before it hits.
  Elsa: The air rages, no fire, no water, the earth is next.
• Clarke's Third Law: In the epilogue, Destin Mattias sees photography as a type of Magic.
• The Cloudcuckoolander Was Right: Although most of Olaf's trivia is accurate but irrelevant, his statement that water has memory turns out to be quite significant.
• Comically Missing the Point: Olaf, when Anna remembers his "water has memory" statement:
  Anna: Olaf, what's that thing you were saying?
  Olaf: You mean my theory about advancing technologies being both our savior and our doom?
  Anna: No, not that, the other...
  Olaf: Oh, the one about cucumbers?
• Company Cross References:
  • In the prologue with a young Anna and Elsa playing with snow figurines, two of them look like Baymax and Dumbo.
  • During the game of charades, Olaf acts out "mouse", which he conveys by imitating Mickey Mouse, complete with the distinctive ears and nose, as well as Mickey's most famous pose.
  • Young Agnarr says he's reading a book by "some Danish author" implying Hans Christian Andersen. It's confirmed when you can see the book in question has a silhouette of the famous image from The Little Mermaid's poster of Ariel sitting on a rock surrounded by water.
  • During "When I Am Older", Olaf wanders into a rather dark part of the forest where eyes glare out at him from the shadows, and it's eerily reminiscent of Snow White's trek through the forest in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
  • During the post-credits scene, Olaf recounts his revival by sitting up with arms forward and saying "I live," which mimics a scene in Mulan where Mushu combines the same line and pose.
• Continuity Nod:
  • In the prologue, when Agnarr tells Elsa and Anna about when he went to an enchanted forest, Anna responds, "Wait, what?"
  • During the charades game:
    • Anna tries to get them to guess "villain":
      Olaf: Hans! [Anna gestures to Olaf, indicating he's close]
      Elsa: Unredeemable monster!
      Kristoff: Greatest mistake of your life!
      Olaf: Wouldn't even kiss you!
    • Olaf reads the slips of paper telling him what to act out, and says "This is so much easier now that I can read." This is a reference to him being unable to do so in "Frozen Fever".
    • Olaf reconstructs himself into various shapes for Kristoff to guess. Included in the montage is his imitation of the Supermodel Strut Elsa does at the end of "Let It Go."
  • Anna knocks on Elsa's door with the same rhythm she did as a child in the first movie.
  • Kristoff is seen distributing blankets to the villagers after they evacuate the village, much like Hans did in the first film.
  • When they meet the Northuldra, Olaf dramatically retells the events of the original movie — complete with General Mattias acting as the Audience Surrogate.
  • After "Show Yourself", Elsa is surrounded by water memories, several of which are scenes from the first movie. She has a bit of a giggle at her trademark "Let It Go" pose, and dismissively shatters an image of Hans.
  • During the group's journey to the Enchanted Forest, they pass by the North Mountain, with Elsa's ice castle still on top of it.
  • Elsa is able to remake Olaf, much as she did in the first movie. Before she does, she asks Anna, "Do you want to build a snowman?"
  • In The Stinger, Olaf retells the events of this film to Marshmallow and the Snowgies, who were shown moving into Elsa's ice castle in Frozen Fever. Marshmallow is even still wearing the crown he picked up in the stinger of the first movie.
• Contrasting Sequel Setting: The colorful autumn setting stand in contrast to the snowy landscapes of the first film.
• Cool Sword: Literally, in this case. The teaser trailer has Anna wielding a regular-looking sword. In the film proper, Anna wields a sword of ice, taken from one of the water-turned-ice "memories".
• Costume Evolution: All of the returning main characters get new outfits.
  • Elsa's main costume has switched from the sparkly dress she wears for the majority of the first film and most of her appearances in the franchise's various spin-offs to a new outfit comprised of an icy blue bodysuit with a skirt, boots, and a decorative blue coat on top. This shows she's ready for travel.
  • Anna's main costume has switched from a blue dress to more of a dark Adventurer Outfit-looking maroon long coat, and leggings and boots of her own. This shows she's ready for travel and, despite her usually playful nature, is ready to be serious as called for by the situation.
  • We also see Elsa in a new nightgown. It's purple with an overlay of ice, showing her power and affinity for her magic.
  • After "Show Yourself", Elsa's outfit changes into a magical white dress with sparkling jewels and a soft purple gradient, showing she's more fully embraced her magic.
  • Anna appears in a queen dress at the end of the movie, similar to Elsa's coronation dress from the first movie. The heavy fabrics and royal colors show her maturity and responsibility.
• Cover Innocent Eyes and Ears: In an early scene, Kristoff practices his proposal to Anna using Sven the reindeer as a stand-in, to shocked reactions from passers-by who misunderstand what he's doing; one woman covers her child's eyes.
• Cover Version: The credits feature cover versions of "Into the Unknown", "All is Found" and "Lost in the Woods", which were respectively performed by Panic! at the Disco, Kacey Musgraves and Weezer.
• Creepy Cave: After falling down a waterfall, Anna and Olaf find themselves trapped in a dark, gloomy cave, paralleling Elsa's descent into the glacier at the same time. This is where Olaf dies and Anna has her near-Despair Event Horizon moment.
• Crowd Song: "Some Things Never Change" is sung by Anna, Elsa, Olaf, Kristoff, and the chorus of Arendelle's citizens.

Tropes D to G

• Darker and Edgier: The first movie already had sombre themes, but this one manages to up the ante by a fair bit. One point of the whole film is how things eventually change and people have to adapt to it. We have war, two major characters suffering a Disney Death that takes some time to get fixed without hints that they'll be revived, and the movie uses that extended time to explore grief further and in more detail than previously. Olaf - a character symbolic of joyous and innocent childhood love - dissolves in the arms of Anna, who not only mourns him as her friend, but knows that his death also means that her sister is dead, too. This is shortly after she finds out that her kingdom must be destroyed, and the usually optimistic and unflappable Anna, left without everything and everyone she's ever had, comes close to despair.
  I've seen dark before,
  But not like this.
  This is cold.
  This is empty.
  This is numb.
  The life I knew is over.
  The lights are out.
  Hello, darkness.
  I'm ready to succumb.
• Dark Reprise: The score "Ghosts of Arendelle Past" contains a dramatic instrumental reprise of "Dive down deep into her sound. But not too far, or you'll be drowned." from "All Is Found" at the end of it when Elsa freezes in Ahtohallan.

• Deathly Dies Irae: Four wordless notes of "dies irae" are a leitmotif throughout the film, scored by Christophe Beck, songs by Robert and Kristen Anderson-Lopez. Elsa is the only one who hears a mysterious voice singing the notes to her, hinting it could be a lure into danger or death. It's heard throughout "Into the Unknown" when she sings about her conflicted feelings and the temptation to follow the voice to learn truths about herself. It recurs in "Show Yourself" when she goes to Ahtohallan and joins in singing the notes back to the voice. When Elsa goes deeper into a cavern to gain further understanding of the voice and the past, she sees betrayal and death, and it's so cold that she's temporarily killed when she's frozen solid.
• Defeat Equals Friendship: The Nokk tries to drown Elsa, but she creates ice reins and takes control, riding the Nokk to Ahtohallan. At the end of the movie, the Nokk voluntarily bows to allow her to dismount more easily, and readily comes when she calls and allows her to freeze the water horse in order to ride on land.
• Determined Expression: Elsa wears this expression — furrowed brow, narrowed eyes and lips — while using ice magic on ocean waves. She fails on her first attempt and tries again.
• Didn't Think This Through: Anna grabs an ice sword from one of the ice sculptures around them when they find themselves threatened in the forest, and brandishes it defiantly. When Kristoff asks her what she intends to do with that sword, she answers she has no idea. Then she unconsciously points it at Mattias when she wonders why he looks familiar, which he takes as a sign of attack which almost leads to a battle between the two factions.
• Did You Get a New Haircut?: When Kristoff meets with Elsa once she returns from Ahtohallan, where she learned about her nature and the origins of her ice powers, gaining even more power in doing so, and from her Disney Death, he asks if she cut her hair or something. Elsa (who is now wearing an elaborate white dress, has let her hair down completely, is riding a magical water horse, and looks happier than we have ever seen her) answers "or something".
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: Anna gives Olaf the last warm hug as he disintegrates in her arms after Elsa turns to ice. Fortunately, both he and Elsa get better later.
• Diegetic Switch: In the prologue, Iduna sings a lullaby, "All Is Found", to the princesses. The song continues as the movie's title appears and transitions to the present day.
• Digging Yourself Deeper: Kristoff's fumbling attempts to propose to Anna repeatedly result in him saying things that upset her more and more.
• Disney Acid Sequence: "Lost in the Woods" begins when Kristoff sings a reprise of "Reindeers Are Better..." from the first film, and the camera spins, and suddenly, Sven starts speaking with the voice Kristoff often gives him, and then the tone shifts to a cheesy '80s music video, with all the reindeer providing background vocals.
• Disney Death: Elsa is turned into pure ice during the climax and has her powers removed from the world, which in turn causes Olaf to disintegrate. After Anna destroys the dam, Elsa is restored back to life, and she later uses her powers to revive Olaf as well.
• Disney Villain Death: King Runeard apparently dies falling over the cliffs by the dam. Interestingly we don't know he is the villain until far later.
• Doesn't Trust Those Guys: King Runeard doesn't trust the Northuldra, since they practice magic.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: When they're exploring the shipwreck, we're told that all Arendelle's ships have a waterproof compartment built to withstand a wreck where a message can be stored in case of disaster directly implying the equivalence of today's black box flight recorder. The similarity is hammered home by Olaf making the traditional joke about wondering why they don't just build the whole vessel to be wreck-proof.
  • The movie is set in autumn and during the big opening musical number we see the characters having a feast. Later, we see that King Runeard and the army of Arendelle betrayed the indigenous Northuldra people with whom they had just pretended to made a peaceful pact, sparking a war between the two forces. This appears to take influence from three separate historical events that transpired during the 1600s: the first Thanksgiving between the Plymouth Colony settlers and the Native Americans, Standish's raid where a group of Plymouth soldiers murdered several Native Americans under the ruse of negotiating a treaty, and King Philip's War where an alliance of Native Americans went to war with Plymouth and the other settler colonies whom had mistreated them.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Downplayed and played for laughs; after one of Kristoff's failed attempts to propose to Anna, Sven is about to open his mouth, but Kristoff lifts his hand to shut him up, muttering, "Don't patronize me".
• Dramatic Irony: King Runeard built the dam and killed the Northuldran leader out of racist views of the Northuldra and fear of their connection with the magic of their lands. Not only did this kill him, but it inadvertently led to his only son marrying a Northuldran woman and his oldest mixed-heritage granddaughter would be born with magic powers.
• Dreamworks Face: Done by Elsa once again in this◊ promotional image.
• Dual-Meaning Chorus: "Show Yourself" is initially a plea from Elsa for the mysterious voice to reveal its identity. In the final refrain, it refers to Elsa learning that she needed to accept who she is.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Near the end of "Into the Unknown", some of the ice creations that come to life around Elsa form those of the four beings who represent the elemental spirits.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Elsa stays in the Enchanted Forest, but still writes to Anna and visits Arendelle regularly. The others including Mattias and the other guards return home to Arendelle, and Anna becomes the new queen.
• Elemental Embodiment:
  • Earth is represented by giant stone golems.
  • Water is represented by the Nokk, a water horse.
  • Fire is represented by a Fire Salamander named Bruni.
  • Wind is represented by the stuff it blows around or the rare case where it becomes a twister. Olaf nicknames the breeze "Gale", whose presence is usually indicated with swirling autumn leaves.
• Element No. 5: Subverted. There are five symbols on the Northuldran shawl: the four classical elements, and one more between the four. However, the fifth spirit is not an element, but rather a bridge between the magical and the mundane. This bridge turns out to be the sisterhood of Elsa and Anna, two children of love between a Northuldran and an Arendellian.
• The Eleven O'Clock Number: "The Next Right Thing" is the final major song in the film, before the epic climax.
• Enchanted Forest: An enchanted forest that was magically cut off from the rest of the world when Elsa and Anna's father was very young, and to which the heroes journey in this film.
• Establishing Character Moment: "Some Things Never Change" serves as this for the three main human characters:
  • Anna is an optimistic, nurturing person who likes to take care of others, and can cope with almost any change as long as she has her family and loved ones. The song starts with her comforting Olaf that lots of things may change, but they can take comfort in having each other. She later learns to cope with losing everything, including her home and her whole family, and to find her own leadership skills before taking on the role of queen in her own right, rather than seeing herself primarily as her sister's support.
  • Kristoff wants to propose to Anna, but is awkward and not good with communicating with people the way he does with his reindeer.
  • Elsa is happy where she is, but is feeling restless, not sure whether or not she wants things to change. She soon afterward chooses to follow a voice in hopes of finding a different destiny and more about her magic.
• Evolving Attack: In the journey to discovering that she is half the bridge between humanity and magic, 24-year-old Elsa unlocks two additional abilities — extracting memories from water and sensing the presence of other elementals. Other than that, her magic is noticeably stronger seeing that small gestures conjure thicker and bigger ice/snow shapes. She also has more finesse, as can be seen in the very detailed sculptures she recreates from her memories of people.
• Exact Words: The legends describe Ahtohallan as a "river full of memory". No one said it has to be a running river.
  Elsa: Glaciers are rivers of ice... Ahtohallan is frozen.
• Exposed to the Elements: It's a good thing that Elsa's immunity to cold is already well-established, as she's seen leaving her coat and boots behind, keeping only skimpy clothing to affront a stormy, chilly sea (which she partially freezes) and later threading through a glacier barefoot. Lethal hypothermia would be a more than a guaranteed thing for anybody else.
• Face Death with Dignity: As shown through the ice sculpture showing Agnarr and Iduna's final moments, they were shown hugging each other tight and bracing themselves as they get submerged along with their ship.
• Fading Away: Olaf dissolves slowly into a pile of snow, snowflakes floating into the air. He dissolves into octagonal snowflakes, which don't exist in nature, but this is justified by him being made of a magic kind of snow that also doesn't melt in summer temperatures
• Fairytale Motif: A minor plot point is the love story between Elsa and Anna's parents, which is a lot like The Little Mermaid. Their mother, Queen Iduna, was a native of Northuldra, a culture very different from that of Arendelle, much like the sea kingdom is to the land. Like the little mermaid, Iduna rescues Agnarr, the prince of this foreign land, falls for him, and leaves her own kingdom and people for his so they can be together. This gets a nod when a young Iduna asks a young Agnarr about a book he is reading, which is heavily implied to be The Little Mermaid by the picture of a mermaid on the cover and Agnarr's comment that the book is by a Danish author.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Northuldra is a fantasy counterpart to the Sámi people.
• Fiery Salamander: The fire elemental is a small, adorable lizard called Bruni that can move at remarkable speed and produces vivid purple flames from its body.
• Finger Framing: Anna does this to Mattias, recognizing him from a castle portrait.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: Having been cut off from the world for 34 years and change, Mattias and his fellow guardsmen are shown to be adjusting to society in the epilogue and find some of its technology astounding.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: Elsa, by virtue of her powers, has always been immune to cold. When she starts shivering and breathing mist, something is seriously wrong. Despite the warnings, she jumps further down into Ahtohallan and the cold memories of treachery and betrayal it contains freeze her solid only seconds later.
• Flashback: The movie opens with a flashback to Young Anna and Elsa being told a story about the Enchanted Forest by their parents which leads to another flashback of their father, still a young prince, traveling to visit a group of Northuldrans in the Enchanted Forest when a battle suddenly breaks out between Arendelle and Northuldra which angers the spirits who cut off the forest from the rest of the world. That flashback ends with Iduna singing a lullaby to Anna/Elsa which then segues into the present with a fly-over to adult Elsa on a balcony.
• Forced into Their Sunday Best: At one point, Kristoff and Olaf are seen wearing formal clothes. Both reluctantly and only temporarily. Olaf ditches his outfit within minutes.
  Kristoff: One hour. You have me for one hour.
  Anna: That's okay. I prefer you in leather anyway.
  Olaf (already out of the outfit): I'm shocked you can last an hour.
• Foreshadowing: Has its own page alongside the first movie.
• Fourth Wall Psych:
  • At one point during "Some Things Never Change", it looks like Olaf is singing to the audience, but then it's revealed he's singing to a group of children walking by.
  • In the stinger, Olaf narrates the events of the movie, at first apparently addressing the audience, but then it's revealed that he's talking to Marshmallow and the snowgies.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • Some of the ice figures that Anna and Elsa are playing with at the beginning of the film are shaped like Baymax, Bolt, Dumbo and Snow White.
  • When they're playing charades in the palace library, on the wall behind the sofa you can see some portraits. The second portrait from the left is indeed Mattias, which is how Anna would later recognize him when they meet in the forest.
  • When Elsa experiences memories as ice sculptures in Ahtohollan, she sees a young Iduna asking a young Agnarr what book he's reading. He replies "some new Danish author" strongly implying Hans Christian Andersen which is confirmed seconds later as he lifts the book and you can see a silhouette of Ariel on the cover.
• Futile Hand Reach: When she sees the memory of her grandfather about to strike the unsuspecting Northuldra leader In the Back, Elsa desperately reaches for them. Too bad, she can't even move from where she's standing, and this is a memory anyway.
• Gaia's Vengeance: The elemental spirits cut off the Enchanted Forest from the rest of the world after a war broke out between Arendelle and Northuldra within the woods, and after Elsa chases the disembodied voice, start attacking Arendelle.
• Girls vs. Boys Plot: Early in the movie, Anna, Elsa, Olaf and Kristoff are playing charades, with the boys' team handily winning due to how easy it is for Olaf to take on different shapes (successively doing a unicorn, ice cream cone, castle, Oaken, teapot, mouse, and Elsa). Anna looks disgruntled and says Olaf shouldn't be allowed to rearrange himself.
• Given Name Reveal: The late king and queen's names, Agnarr and Iduna, who were not named in the first film, were revealed here.
• Godzilla Threshold: Once Anna realises that the dam is the cause of all their problems, she goes to wake up the stone giants to trick them into destroying it.
• Go Out with a Smile: As Olaf is reduced to a flurry of snow, Anna holds him in her arms and he smiles.
• Grand Finale: During interviews, the filmmakers have stated that with this sequel, they've told a complete story that started with the original Frozen.
• Grief Song: As the story reaches its Darkest Hour, Anna sings the absolutely heartbreaking "The Next Right Thing" after Olaf dies in her arms and Elsa freezes solid.
  Can there be a day beyond this night?
  I don't know anymore what is true
  I can't find my direction, I'm all alone
  The only star that guided me was you
  How to rise from the floor
  When it's not you I'm rising for?
• Group Hug: Near the end, Anna, Elsa, Olaf, Kristoff, and Sven all share a hug.

Tropes H to M

• Happy Ending Override: A major theme, especially in the first act. All the characters love how their lives are following the first movie, but gradually come to realise that nothing lasts forever and that a new adventure is coming that might change everything.
• Hard Truth Aesop: Nothing lasts forever, no matter how rock solid it seems. Even the people who love you the most may still leave you, either because they have no choice (e.g., because they die) or because they realise their true place is elsewhere. Cherish them while they are with you, but be ready to let them go.
• Hate Crimes Are a Special Kind of Evil: Elsa learns that her grandfather, King Runeard, started the conflict between the Northuldra and the kingdom of Arendale when he murdered their leader in cold blood because of his suspicion of magic.
• Headbutt of Love:
  • Iduna touches her forehead with young Elsa's, before laying her down to sleep.
  • The two sisters briefly press their foreheads together when reuniting after Elsa has been revived.
  • Elsa does one with the Nokk before turning it to ice so she can ride it in the very end.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • Elsa has one when she discovers that her parents were trying to find the secret behind her powers when their ship wrecked, killing them.
  • Anna's occurs when Elsa and Olaf both die.
• High Heel Hurt: While walking home after a day out in the city, Anna — the practical, more tomboyish sister — pulls off her high-heeled pumps. Elsa, who is more classically feminine, keeps walking in hers. It's an interesting microcosm of their roles and relationship.
• Hollywood Torch: Anna creates a very effective one out of nothing more than a simple piece of damp driftwood, which she sets instantly alight with a shower of sparks from a couple of (probably equally damp) rocks.
• Ice Magic Is Water: Subverted. Elsa's ice magic, although able to manifest frozen "memories" by invoking the water around her, is distinct from the water magic used by the Nokk spirit, but still related. Ahtohallan, the "river of memory", is revealed to be a glacier (a river of ice), and the memories inside take the same form as those Elsa has frozen.
• I Choose to Stay: In the end, Elsa decides to remain in the Enchanted Forest while Anna takes rule over Arendelle, to help solidify the bond between the two peoples.
• I Hate Past Me: Downplayed. Elsa winces in embarrassment upon seeing an apparition of her past self singing "Let It Go."
• I Kiss Your Hand: In the trailer, Iduna kisses little Elsa's hand.
• Inelegant Blubbering: Anna’s Tears of Joy turn into this when reuniting with Elsa since she feared she’d lost her sister. She continues doing it when Kristoff proposes to her.
• In the Back: King Runeard kills the Northuldra king from behind, when he had no reason to have his guard up.
• In the Blood: Played with; unlike Elsa, Iduna didn't have any actual magical powers, but she was close enough to the elemental spirits that she was able to persuade them to help her rescue Agnarr and leave the forest.
• Ironic Nursery Tune: Discussed Trope, as Elsa and Honeymaren recall the lyrics to "All Is Found":
  Elsa: Dive down deep into her sound... [Honeymaren joins her] But not too far or you'll be drowned...
  Honeymaren: Why do lullabies always have to have some terrible warning in them?
  Elsa: I wonder that all the time.
• Irony:
  • Anna does her best not to make any noise while she and Olaf are floating around the stone giants to avoid waking them. Yet later she has to shout at the top of her voice to wake them up.
  • When Olaf is talking about being upset by what Elsa just did to them, he tells Anna she's a good listener... right before she notices the giants and covers his mouth to keep him from waking them up.
  • The sisters keep telling the other not to put themselves in dangerous situations — although each one keeps doing it herself. Elsa admonishes Anna for running into fire to help her, and Anna points out that Elsa ran into fire herself. Anna admonishes Elsa for running head first into danger and putting herself at risk, but once it seems Elsa has died the first thing Anna does is wake up the stone giants and put herself at risk. Made especially ironic because Anna had believed Elsa more capable than her or anyone else, and that the giants were too risky even for the snow queen, but the revelation that the dam is hurting people and needs to be destroyed and Elsa's death and consequential incapacity motivate her to take that risk. Highlighted with the exchange where Anna begs Elsa to let her stay by her side because she wants to protect her, while Elsa insists that crossing the Dark Sea would be too dangerous for her:
    Anna: Remember the song? "Go too far and you'll be drowned." Who will stop you from going too far?
  • On a heartwarming note, the first movie had Elsa and Anna growing up in the same castle, but with immense emotional distance between them. The end of this movie has Anna ruling in Arendelle and Elsa living with the Northuldra, but the fact that they're not only keeping contact but frequently visiting one another means that emotionally, they're closer than ever.
• Is This What Anger Feels Like?: After Elsa conjures an ice boat sending Anna and Olaf away, Olaf comments that he's sensing anger. As it turns out, it's his own anger, which he has trouble recognizing and understanding at first.
• It's All My Fault: Elsa feels immense guilt when she, Anna, and Olaf discover their parents' shipwreck near the Dark Sea, and find out that they died trying to find a way to help Elsa.
• It Was with You All Along: "Show Yourself" is about Elsa searching within Ahtohallan for the source of the voice, only to learn it's the living memory of her mother encouraging her realize that she's always been searching for herself.
• "I Want" Song:
  • "Some Things Never Change" is a zig-zagged example for the three main characters. All of them are happy with what they have now, but each expresses a desire for something:
    • Kristoff is the most straightforward example. He wants to take his relationship with Anna to the next level and sings about his plans to propose.
    • Elsa is implied to want some sort of change, but is conflicted and unsure because she's already so happy and is afraid of what one could bring.
    • Anna's wish is for something she's grateful to have now after years of longing, and which she loses later in the film: her family. She explains that she is willing to face almost any situation or change, so long as she has them.
  • "Into the Unknown" has elements of this. Among her many mixed emotions, Elsa longs to go into the unknown and find where she truly belongs.
  • "Show Yourself" talks about Elsa's wish for answer, making it a retrospective "I Want" song; "All my life I've been torn/But I'm here for a reason/Could it be the reason I was born?"
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: When Matthias learns from Anna that his old love Halima never got married, he replies, "Oh wow. Why didn't that make me feel better?"
• Lampshade Hanging: When exploring the shipwreck where Anna and Elsa's parents died, it's explained that each Arendellian ship has a secret compartment that's waterproof. Olaf lampshades this by asking why don't they make the whole ship waterproof.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Much of the first movie's plot, including the notorious reveal of the true nature of Hans, is right in the promotional material for this sequel.
  • In the trailer, Anna sums up her deeds in the first movie, "I climbed the North Mountain, survived a frozen heart, and saved [Elsa] from my ex-boyfriend."
  • The charades scene, which was released as a clip before the film came out, spoils Hans' villainous reveal. Anna tries to get Elsa, Kristoff, and Olaf to guess "villain." They say, "Hans," "Unredeemable monster!" and "Wouldn't even kiss you!"
  • In one part of the film, to distract the residents of the forest, Olaf reenacts all of the major scenes from the entire first movie, including Hans' true nature. However, he does not say his name.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: During "Some Things Never Change", Olaf faces the camera as he sings the line "You all look a little bit older." It makes sense in-context as him addressing the other characters, but it's also as if he's acknowledging the six-year gap between the first Frozen movie and this one.
• Leitmotif:
  • Elsa's five-note motif returns from the previous movie.
  • The spirit in the north is represented by its four-note call, which is worked into "Into the Unknown", which is about Elsa hearing and resisting the call. It also naturally reappears in "Show Yourself", which is about Elsa finding and addressing the spirit — and as she comes to understand the spirit's true nature and approaches union with it, she herself begins echoing the same four notes.
  • Anna gets a new leitmotif in this movie, the beginning of "The Next Right Thing"'s chorus. It starts appearing in the score even before she sings "The Next Right Thing".
• Letting Her Hair Down: Used for the same symbolism as the first movie. Elsa begins with her hair braided just as it was in the latter half of the first film, and she's still not entirely happy, feeling restless and somewhat unfulfilled, which is twisted together with her fear of changing her already-happier-than-it-used-to-be life — this situation being the subject of "Into the Unknown". The braid continues to hang until the scene where she is standing alone ready to challenge the ocean, at which point she unbraids it into a loose ponytail. And as she reaches Ahtohollan and begins to sing "Show Yourself", she undoes the ponytail and now her hair is completely unbound for the first time ever, reflecting how she's finally completely and truly free from all fear and self-doubt.
• Little Known Facts: On the trip to the Enchanted Forest, Olaf attempts to entertain the rest of the group by telling them a bunch of did-you-knows. Most of which are true or close enough ^note Olaf is way off on the blinking 4 million times a day and while the real-life homeopathic claim of water memory is untrue, that fact that Olaf is restored with his memories and personality intact shows that in this world where elemental magic exists, water does have some kind of magical quality to it.
• Magical Native American: Subverted. Anna and Elsa ask if the indigenous Northuldra^note Which are technically fantasy Sámi but portrayed as similar to Native American stereotypes are magic, but their father emphasizes that they are regular people who've simply adapted to living in a magical land. The mystical qualities of nature are an important part of their spirituality, but none of them have any kind of special powers.
• Magic Fire: The fire spirit's fire is purplish-pinkish as a result of its magic.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: This film moves Kristoff into this territory, pulling a retcon on all the times he spoke for Sven in a funny voice, and hinting he may (albeit unknowingly) be some form of shaman channeling Sven.
• Mistaken Declaration of Love: When Kristoff puts on an elaborate display to propose to Anna complete with butterflies and maple seeds flurrying around him, he realizes he was actually proposing to Yelana. She dryly declines and informs him that Anna left with Elsa.
• Moment Killer: One of Kristoff's bungled proposal attempts takes place on the sled, while Anna seemed quite ready for an intimate moment. His poor choice of words leads her to be offended and they end up fighting.
• Mood Whiplash: Elsa reaches Ahtohollan and gets to sing with a memory of her mother, and is overjoyed. A few minutes later, she learns about her grandfather's treachery and is turned to ice, effectively dying.
• More Diverse Sequel: Compared to its predecessor which had an all-white cast this film has a prominent minority supporting character in the form of Lt. Destin Mattias and prominently features clearly indigenous people.^note Kristoff, who was present in the first movie, was already Sami, but not as clearly indigenous as the Northuldra in this film are.
• Mythology Gag: Young Agnarr says he is reading a book by "some Danish author", clearly a reference to Hans Christian Andersen, who wrote "The Snow Queen", which served as the inspiration for the franchise.

Tropes N to R

• Natural Elements: The classical elements (earth, fire, water, air) are associated with the Enchanted Forest and have elemental spirits associated with each one.
• Nature Spirit: The elemental spirits each represent one of the four classical elements of nature: water, earth, air, and fire.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Once the story establishes that "water has memory", Elsa gains the ability to create ice sculptures that are guided by the memory contained in the water to show a frozen image of the past with whispers of sound. This provides the writers with a means for giving the characters critical information about past events.
• Nice to the Waiter: King Runeard and Prince Agnarr are remembered by the Arendellian soldiers trapped in the woods as being kind and benevolent leaders, to the point that they are still revered decades later. Agnarr in particular seemed to be loved by the soldiers, as Mattias accepts Elsa and Anna as royalty based on their resemblance to their father.
• No Antagonist: Played with. The closest thing the film has to a direct antagonist is Anna and Elsa's grandfather, who died long before the events of the first film and only appears in flashbacks, but his actions still plague the land in the form of the dam and the curse around it, and it's only when Runeard's work and legacy are destroyed that the land is free.
• No Ontological Inertia: When Elsa becomes frozen alive, Olaf disintegrates because he is a creation of her powers.
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore: Elsa decides to stay in the forest with the other spirits, meaning she and Anna are once again separated and no longer live together. But no matter what happens, their bond never breaks. They write to each other and Elsa visits often.
• Numbered Sequels: Frozen II.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Olaf when he gets spooked when he is attacked by the elements during his "When I Am Older" song.
  • Elsa is worried when she starts to freeze in Ahtohollan.
• Old Shame: Done in-universe, where Elsa cringes when she sees a snow image of herself singing "Let it Go".
• Parental Bonus:
  • When Olaf and Kristoff are forced to wear formal clothes, Kristoff says he'll only wear it for an hour, and Anna comments that she likes him better "in leather, anyway." Younger audience members likely will only hear it as her saying she prefers him the way he usually dresses. Older viewers will chuckle at the Double Entendre associated with "wearing leather"
  • The aforementioned 80's power ballad spoof, "Lost in the Woods." Many kids must have wondered why their parents were suddenly laughing.
• Passing the Torch: Anna is crowned the new queen of Arendelle when Elsa decides to leave for the forest.
• Politically Correct History: The Northuldra, who are based on the indigenous Sami people (who in real life are visually diverse, sometimes pale-skinned and blond-haired, sometimes dark-skinned and dark-haired), conform more to American ideas of what an indigenous people would look like: almost all dark hair and tanned skin.
• Power Incontinence: Early in the movie, when Elsa is startled, ice bursts from her hands, temporarily trapping them to the railing she was leaning on. Despite all the control she learned from finally being able to use her powers openly, it seems she still has inadvertent 'hiccups'. It's just that they no longer matter to anyone.
• Previously on…: Upon meeting the Northuldrans, Olaf recaps the entire first film in 90 seconds to them. He does this again after the credits to Marshmallow and the Snowgies regarding the events of this film.
• Punny Name: Olaf decides to call the wind spirit "Gale".
• Purple Is Powerful: Every queen in the movie wears purple. Queen Iduna wears primarily purple in the flashback showing her and the king tucking the sisters in, and Queen Elsa wear purple to the Harvest Festival and in her nightgown. Anna also has a purple sash in her Harvest Festival dress and the color is later incorporated into the outfit she wears as Queen in the epilogue.
• Rearrange the Song:
  • A remix of "Vuelie," the opening song from the first movie is played in the teaser trailer. This becomes a full, in-universe song towards the beginning of act two, as it's a traditional song of the Northuldrans.
  • In the second full trailer, there are various motifs of songs that feature in the sequel, as songwriter Kristen Anderson-Lopez even quoted on Twitter.
  • "Into the Unknown", Elsa's first act song, has a pop-rock cover by Panic! at the Disco.
• Refusal of the Call: Subverted. "Into the Unknown" begins with Elsa saying how she's already had enough adventure, is happy with her family by her side, and doesn't want to risk losing it. However, as the song progresses, Elsa admits that she doesn't feel comfortable with her current role and decides to pursue the call.
  Elsa: Or are you someone out there who's a little bit like me?
  Who knows deep down I'm not where I'm meant to be?
  Every day's a little harder as I feel your power grow
  Don't you know there's part of me that longs to go... into the unknown.
• The Reveal:
  • Queen Iduna is not only one of the Northuldra, she saved Agnarr's life when they were children, but because he didn't see who saved him and she snuck back to Arendelle hidden under a cloth in the back of a cart, no one ever knew or recognized her until her shawl is identified. It was also her singing out to Gale which Elsa hears as the Voice.
  • Elsa was born with ice powers because of Iduna's selfless and compassionate act of saving Agnarr, which inspired the creation of spiritual bridge.
  • Anna is also the product of that heroic act, the other half of that bridge between magic and humanity.
  • King Runeard was the one who started the fight between Arendelle and the Northuldra because he let his distrust and suspicion control him.
• Running Gag:Kristoff repeated failed attempts at proposing to Anna, which are either not noticed because Anna has something else on her mind, lead to a fight because he accidentally offended her, or simply failed because he left without telling her. He finally succeeds in the end.

Tropes S to Z

• Say My Name: Elsa shouts Anna's name right before turning into an ice statue.
• Scenery Porn: The movie features highly-detailed environments, including an autumnal forest covered in leaves that are rendered individually, a mountain range where the grassy path and the snow on the rocky peaks are illuminated by the varying shades of the colorful dawn. Elsa riding the Nokk across a near-glassy North Sea definitely qualifies.
• Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You: Anna grabs a sword and slashes towards the camera at the end of the teaser trailer.
• Self-Deprecation: When Elsa experiences memories as ice sculptures, she cringes and looks away in embarrassment when she sees an echo of herself during the first film's "Let It Go" sequence.
• Self-Soothing Song: Anna sings "The Next Right Thing" to help herself overcome the depression caused by Elsa's apparent death. Notably, this is not a happy song but rather one of grim resolve.
• Sequel Logo in Ruins: The color appears to be draining out of it; alternatively, it's thawing. Either way, it reflects the Gaia's Vengeance crisis the heroes face.
• Serial Escalation: "Show Yourself" takes many elements from "Let It Go" in the first movie and escalates them:
  • Elsa once again is elated to receive a lesson in being herself after going off alone to someplace dark and cold. This time it's portrayed as unambiguously positive and her emotional response to it as entirely healthy, as contrasted with the desperate, irresponsible, and almost manic-depressive undertones of her isolation on the mountain in "Let It Go".
  • She also once again lets her hair down (all the way down this time, no braids).
  • And she once again conjures an even more awesome new dress for herself. In terms of color scheme, last time she went from the dark colors of her coronation dress to sparkling light blue; this time she goes from there to an even brighter dazzling white.
• Shipshape Shipwreck: Despite some damage from collapsed parts of the ship and a broken mirror, the shipwreck is still mostly intact.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: To undercut the seriousness of the situation, Olaf dies when Elsa dies.
• Shoo the Dog: Elsa sends Anna and Olaf sliding away from her before trying to cross the Northern Sea intending to protect them.
• Shout-Out:
  • During the "Lost in the Woods" scene, three reindeer faces appear behind Kristoff and join him in singing. In keeping with the sequence's parody of '80s power ballads, it's a reference to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody◊.
  • When the gang first meets Gale, the wind blows on Olaf's lower body in a way that clearly references the iconic photo of Marilyn Monroe where her skirt blows up.◊
• Shown Their Work: The water-horse spirit that Elsa fights and subdues is the Nøkk, a part of Scandinavian folklore and myths. They were considered dangerous spirits that appeared near lakes during foggy days shaped like a majestic white horse. If a person tried to ride one they'd be unable to get off and the Nøkk would jump into the water and try to drown the rider.
• The Simple Gesture Wins: After a few wordy and grandiose attempts at proposing to Anna fail, Kristoff does a short one at the end that she accepts.
• Sins of the Father: In Elsa and Anna's case, sins of the grandfather. King Runeard was a power-hungry backstabber whose treachery is the point of origin for the separation between Arendelle and the Northuldra. It's up to Anna to make reparations by destroying the dam he built, and from there, Elsa and Anna lead the communities together towards peaceful coexistence.
• Song of Many Emotions:
  • In "Some Things Never Change," Anna, Elsa, Kristoff and Olaf express their love for each other, they are happy with what they have, a bit sad about the passing of time and apprehensive of the change they feel coming, but determined to live out their happy moments while they can.
  • "Into the Unknown" expresses Elsa's doubts and conflicting emotions: her fear of making mistakes and losing her beloved family, her annoyance and anger at the persistent voice, her longing to find out where it would take her, her sadness that she won't find that out as she refuses to follow the voice, her hope that there might be someone else like her, her sorrow and fear at the nagging feeling that she is not where she's meant to be, and her joy at the thought of following the voice into the unknown.
• Sorry That I'm Dying: Olaf realizes he's dying and tells Anna, "I'm sorry. You're gonna have to do this next part on your own."
• The Stinger: At the end of the credits, Olaf comically sums up the film's climax to Marshmallow and the Snowgies.
• Suddenly Ethnicity: Anna and Elsa learn that their late mother, Queen Iduna, was ethnically Northuldra, but she was light-skinned enough to pass for Arendellian. She actively concealed her heritage for fear of prejudice after the Northuldra and Arendelle fought.
• Suddenly Speaking: Sven and some reindeer are able to talk and sing with Kristoff during "Lost in the Woods". He reacts with appropriate surprise.
• Survival Mantra: Anna manages to break herself out of her Heroic BSoD after Elsa and Olaf's deaths by repeatedly telling herself (through song) to "do the next right thing".
• Supermodel Strut:
  • Parodied. During the charades game, Olaf acts out "Elsa" by imitating her confident, hip-swaying strut from the last part of the "Let It Go" song.
  • Later, Elsa encounters a memory of herself from the same scene. She cringes hard.
• Taken for Granite: The deepest part of the glacier of Ahtohallan holds memories of betrayal that are so cold, even Elsa isn't immune and she turns into a solid ice statue, like Anna does in the first movie. Elsa is freed when Anna has the dam destroyed, showing the spirits that Arendelle accepts responsibility for their betrayal.
• Take That!: When playing charades, Anna's miming for "villain" is interpreted by Elsa, Olaf, and Kristoff to mean Prince Hans, who they respectively refer to as an "unredeemable monster", the "worst mistake of your [Anna's] life", and "wouldn't even kiss you [Anna]!" These comments can be interpreted as a jab at viewers who tried whitewashing Hans' villainy and were hoping for him to get a Heel–Face Turn in this film. Additionally, when exploring Ahtohallan, Elsa comes across a memory of Prince Hans meeting Anna, and contemptuously smashes him.
• A Tale Told by an Idiot: On meeting the Northuldra, Olaf attempts to explain the situation by recapping the events of the first movie, none of which answers anyone's questions, even to people who can follow along. Naturally, this leaves the situation even more confused.
• Tears of Joy:
  • Elsa cries a little when she approaches Ahtohallan and when she sees her mother's image inside it.
  • Anna is so excited at the end of the film that she begins crying when she sees Elsa is alive again and reunites with her, when they rebuild Olaf together, and then when Kristoff proposes to her.
  • Sven also weeps with joy as Anna accepts Kristoff’s proposal.
• Technicolor Fire: Bruni, the Fiery Salamander ignites in a purple-pinkish fire, reinforcing its supernatural quality.
• The Tell: Anna recognizes that Elsa wears their mother's scarf when she's worried.
• Tempting Fate:
  • In "Some Things Never Change," Anna explains that she copes with change by hanging on to some things that stay the same, especially the relationships with her loved ones. In the same song, Elsa proclaims "the flag of Arendelle will always fly," a sentiment Anna echoes. Anna, Elsa, Olaf, and Kristoff all sing about "holding on tight" to each other. The flag of Arendelle soon comes down when Elsa accidentally awakens the elemental spirits. Later in the movie, Kristoff and Elsa both leave the group and go off on their own, and then Elsa and Olaf both die, with Olaf's melting signaling to Anna that Elsa has died too.
  • Olaf ends "When I Am Older" with the proclamation, "This is fine." Immediately afterward, Gale attacks.
• Thriving Ghost Town: At the beginning of the movie, the entire population of Arendelle City needs to be evacuated. On the hill in the aftermath, there's no more than a few hundred people, and it's specifically stated that everyone got out. While Europe at the time was home to a number of tiny kingdoms and city-states, Arendelle is an extreme case even in that context.
• Time Skip: According to press release, the sequel takes place three years after the end of the first movie. This is confirmed in the film itself, where Anna and Elsa say that their parents died six years ago; in the original film, it had been three years since the Queen and King were lost at sea. It is a plot point that Anna is now legally old enough to ascend as Arendelle's monarch.
• Title Drop: "Ahtohallan is frozen."
• Title-Only Chorus: The chorus of "Into the Unknown" consists of the song's title repeated three times.
• Token Minority: The first film received criticism for its lack of minority characters. Now, the Northuldra (based on the Sami people), are major characters, Arendellian crowds are more diverse, and one speaking Arendellian character, Mattias, is black.
• Token Minority Couple: Mattias, the only speaking black character, has a Ship Tease with a black woman around his age.
• Trailers Always Lie: Downplayed, but the shot from the teaser of Anna grabbing Kristoff's sword and turning to attack someone or something following them never happens in the movie. Kristoff never even carries a weapon of any sort, although Anna picks up one from an ice sculpture when the group finds themselves threatened.
• Trailers Always Spoil: The promos for the home media release completely spoil the whole climax of the movie and even include parts from the epilogue. They show the sisters reuniting after Elsa's Disney Death, Elsa riding the Nokk, the dam breaking while Anna is running on it, Elsa icing the tidal wave, Kristoff's proposal, and Anna as the new queen.
• Trauma Conga Line: Many characters are hit hard here, especially Anna. She starts by discovering that her sister is still keeping secrets from her and plans to go on a potentially dangerous journey on her own. Then Kristoff leaves without a word. Then she gets to witness her parents' death through an ice memory. Then, Elsa breaks her promise to her to remain together and pushes her and Olaf away, and, shortly after, she learns that her grandfather betrayed the Northuldra, and realises that Elsa is dead when Olaf dies too.
• Travel Montage: Has one as Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, Olaf, and Sven are traveling to Northuldra.

• Trojan Horse: The dam is thought to be a gift from King Runeard to the Northuldra. It's later revealed that he knew it would weaken their land.
• Truth in Television: Anna's mindset during her Despair Event Horizon not only shows her depression, but her song "The Next Right Thing" has her deal with it by "chunking", an approach where someone copes with a daunting task by taking baby steps, which is used increasingly in real life to address depression.
• Wacky Marriage Proposal: Apparently, a standard Northuldra proposal involves standing atop some rocks while surrounded by a herd of reindeer, waiting for your beloved to be brought into earshot, and then asking the question at the top of your lungs while blue butterflies and Norway maple seeds are flung up around you.
• Walk on Water: Zig-zagged when Elsa tries to cross the stormy Dark Sea. As with the original movie, her ice powers can flash-freeze the water directly underneath her feet, but in turbulent waters she can only freeze the surface of waves into stepping stones (rather than being able to freeze its entirety as she did with the Arendellian fjord) and instead opts to dive through them. Once Elsa tames the Nokk, the elemental spirit of water, she simply rides it across the ocean surface.
• Wanderlust Song: While "Into the Unknown" starts out sounding like a Refusal of the Call, it soon transforms into this when Elsa admits that she's not where she's meant to be and hopes to learn more about herself and her magic by following the voice.
• We All Die Someday: When attempting to propose, Kristoff accidentally exacerbates the worries of Anna, who's been recently warned her beloved sister's in danger, and when she asks "You think we're going to die?", he ends up fumbling his attempt to get back on track by saying "We will die at some point."
• Wham Line: This gem reveals King Runeard's true nature.
  Soldier: King Runeard, I'm sorry I don't understand.
  Runeard: We bring Arendelle's full guard.
  Soldier: But they have given us no reason not to trust them.
  Runeard: [turns to the Soldier with a cold glare] The Northuldra follow magic. Which means we can never trust them. Magic make people feel too powerful, too entitled. It makes them think they can defy the will of a king!
• Wham Shot:
  • Agnarr and Iduna's shipwreck being found on the coast of the Northuldra's forest, and NOT the Southern Seas as Anna and Elsa had been led to believe for 6 years.
  • Elsa's hands starting to freeze once she reaches the deepest part of Ahtohallan. It isn't long before the rest of her body starts freezing.
• What's Up, King Dude?: The royal sisters both help clean up after the Harvest Festival. Queen Elsa makes ice toys for children and Princess Anna works together with townspeople to set things up. Princess Anna is particularly involved, eating and dancing with the villagers, and she even dates a homeless ice-harvester.
• The World Is Just Awesome: When the heroes enter the Enchanted Forest, Elsa is absolutely mesmerized by its beauty which foreshadows her decision to stay in the forest in the end.

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"When all is lost, then all is found."

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