Except for the Norwegian art and Norwegian architecture and Norwegian period fashion and Norwegian indigenous people, Frozen has nothing to do with Norway and nothing Norwegian was shown!
The film designers made trips to Norway, not other Nordic or Scandinavian countries for research on the art design.
Did the makers of Pinocchio do the same for that film? And yes, Pinocchio, the book by an Italian author, is beloved by Italians. But because of the book, not Disney's film, which alters the story as much as they altered The Ice Queen for Frozen.
We've been through this before, but Norway's culture and essence are only used in the most superficial ways. Sure, there's rosemaling touches, characters have stereotypical names, roofs have steep slopes, and there's that one song that nobody really remembers, but those could easily be swapped out for in almost any location that has winter. Nothing about those elements drives the story; they're all purely surface-level. It's not hard to imagine Studio Ghibli telling the same basic story in a distinctly Japanese setting, for example.
I'd even take it one step farther and say that the vaguely Scandinavian setting works against the story's impact. Sure, the villagers are surprised by unseasonable winter weather, but once they have a chance to break out the warm clothes they already own, they adapt pretty seamlessly. Think how much more shocking and impactful Elsa's same powers would be in a setting with only warm weather, like the open-air thatched huts of Moana's beach.
Frozen really has no meaningful connections to Norway, nor do most of Disney's fairy tale films with their respective settings. Sure, they have little flourishes in the background to make them look a little different from the one prior to it, but none of it really ends up steering the story itself. But that's part of their wide-ranging long-lasting appeal: the stories being told are so universal that the setting doesn't matter; they work for a wide variety of audiences.
There's a reason that these are the films that keep being watched by generation after generation. They work on a basic archetypical level that continues to speak through the ages. But those archetypes don't really have anything to do with their settings, which is why it's so frustrating to see them being used in lieu of something unique that speaks to the diversity of the world's culture, as the park claims to celebrate. Instead of celebrating something unique to a location, we increasingly get a bland universal stand-in with only a tenuous connection to what makes that setting special.
For what it's worth, I thought the exhibit in the stave church showcased the cultural connections in a way that really fit World Showcase well (far better than what I've seen of the BATB sing-along lobby). It highlighted the art, architecture, music, and customs that were represented in the film, highlighting how they were used as inspiration for aesthetic design. The trouble was it seemed like such an afterthought with all the other Frozen influence in the pavilion that it felt more like a desperate plea to fit in, than a genuine educational experience.
