Frozen Embracing Norway

networkpro

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
Yes
I thought Arendelle being in Norway was an established fact, honestly, seeing as the filmmakers went to Norway to study their culture and architecture.

Its Theme park Jihad ... a homogenized 1 acre representation of an entire country includes animated characters! The horror! Next thing they might think of is Character meet and greets.
 

DisneyDodo

Well-Known Member
I thought Arendelle being in Norway was an established fact, honestly, seeing as the filmmakers went to Norway to study their culture and architecture.

Technically, this is the first semi-explicit reference to Arendelle being located in Norway. However, it is established fact that Arendelle was inspired by Norway. (I personally believe that the latter is sufficient to warrant the presence of the Frozen IP in the Norway pavilion, but most people on here seem to require the former).
 

aladdin2007

Well-Known Member
Technically, this is the first semi-explicit reference to Arendelle being located in Norway. However, it is established fact that Arendelle was inspired by Norway. (I personally believe that the latter is sufficient to warrant the presence of the Frozen IP in the Norway pavilion, but most people on here seem to require the former).

My hope is down the road this feature will maybe move them (if anyone there even cares anymore) to include more Norway specific touches or references somehow into the ride itself etc. Because aside from architecture and costumes, nothing was left about Norway, everything has been over saturated with princess stuff. Inside the stave church yes there are references, but that is not enough.
 

jt04

Well-Known Member
So many are so heavily invested on this forum concerning the meme that Frozen has nothing to do with Norway.

And another meme fails with time. :cool:
 

Jeremy Geertsema

Well-Known Member
We just saw the new Frozen featurette prior to seeing a preview of Coco.

At one point when the townsfolk are singing about their Christmas traditions, one of them says (and I'm paraphrasing) that they bake cookies in the difficult shape of Norway, and then show a huge cookie in the shape of Norway coming out of the oven.

It seems they are positioning Arendelle as a city in Norway, rather than as its own country.
How did you get to see the it early?!
 

MisterPenguin

President of Animal Kingdom
Premium Member
Man, the guy or gal that wrote the Norway cookie joke likely didn't think about it this hard. Heck, they've probably never even been to Epcot.

Oh... I think they knew exactly what they were doing. I don't know how anyone related to Frozen hasn't heard the outcry of some who reject its presence in the Norway pavilion. This is a rather direct response to that.
 

MisterPenguin

President of Animal Kingdom
Premium Member
This ^. From my understanding it is cannon that it takes place in "a Norwegian land". I didn't think this was ever in question.

Even though I'm on the "C'mon, it's in Norway" side of the debate, I need to acknowledge that, based on the movie itself, it's Norweg-ish and not explicitly Norwegian.

Now, it's indisputable that the animators went to Norway and incorporated full-on Norwegian fashion and architecture into the film. But, they didn't slavishly copy exact Norwegian things. Just like the town is set in Arendelle and not the real town of Arendal, the film is set in a fictionalized Norway; only, they didn't say Norway. And when they put in FEA and the Sommerhus, it was the imagineers' turn to go to Norway so as to make the architecture as really real Norwegian as possible for the sake of the pavilion.

What I don't get is how some people are perfectly fine with Snow White being German and Pinocchio being Italian even though those movies don't explicitly say "Hey, we're in Germany/Italy!"; but, they have trouble with a clearly Norwegian-ish film being in Norway without it saying, "Hey, we're in Norway."

Well, now, the film is saying, "Hey, we're in Norway!"
 
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NearTheEars

Well-Known Member
I thought Arendelle being in Norway was an established fact, honestly, seeing as the filmmakers went to Norway to study their culture and architecture.

Not if you read the FEA threads here before and after it opened. The powers that be here all agreed that Frozen had no connection to Norway in any way, shape or form...
 

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
I thought Arendelle being in Norway was an established fact, honestly, seeing as the filmmakers went to Norway to study their culture and architecture.
No, Norway provided aesthetic inspiration but it was not the established setting. The story is in no way rooted in a specific location. Accurate details are important to the type of digital animation that Disney does because you need lots of definition to properly render a scene, you cannot create the impression of a setting with moody watercolor paintings.

Specifically setting the Kingdom of Arendelle in Norway contradicts that research and connection. Norway was not a collective of different political entities that were only relatively recently unified.

What I don't get is how some people are perfectly fine with Snow White being German and Pinocchio being Italian even though those movies don't explicitly say "Hey, we're in Germany/Italy!"; but, they have trouble with a clearly Norwegian-ish film being in Norway without it saying, "Hey, we're in Norway."
Because setting is not what many are taking issue with but subject and authorship.
 

RSoxNo1

Well-Known Member
Even though I'm on the "C'mon, it's in Norway" side of the debate, I need to acknowledge that, based on the movie itself, it's Norweg-ish and not explicitly Norwegian.

Now, it's indisputable that the animators went to Norway and incorporated full-on Norwegian fashion and architecture into the film. But, they didn't slavishly copy exact Norwegian things. Just like the town is set in Arendelle and not the real town of Arendal, the film is set in a fictionalized Norway; only, they didn't say Norway. And when they put in FEA and the Sommerhus, it was the imagineers' turn to go to Norway so as to make the architecture as really real Norwegian as possible for the sake of the pavilion.

What I don't get is how some people are perfectly fine with Snow White being German and Pinocchio being Italian even though those movies don't explicitly say "Hey, we're in Germany/Italy!"; but, they have trouble with a clearly Norwegian-ish film being in Norway without it saying, "Hey, we're in Norway."

Well, now, the film is saying, "Hey, we're in Norway!"
I don't think people want the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train in the Germany pavilion either. Frozen is a European fairy tale and rides based on European fairy tales typically belong in Fantasyland. The angle that they took for the meet and greet justifies it's placement in World Showcase. The "angle" that they took for the ride does not.
 

Slov72

Member
I hope people realize that Norway as an independent and whole country is fairly new. In the past, especially the middle ages, there were multiple kingdoms within the modern border of Norway. Norway also spent a very long time as parts of Sweden and or Denmark. Having a fictional kingdom falling within the Norwegian culture is really not much of a stretch.
 

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