Frozen and Frozen 2 both have serious problems when it comes to lore and world-building, and that's because the movies are too confusing - even for Disney. The internal logic of Frozen is best not thought about too much, as diving into the rules of the series regarding things like the origins of Elsa's ice powers only reveals the cracks in the series' storytelling. Disney made a mess trying to simplify the complexities of the first Frozen, and in an attempt to fix it with Frozen 2, they made it even worse.

The original Frozen film doesn't really attempt to explain how Elsa inherited her ice powers, with the movie's magical trolls mentioning that she was born with them. However, in the era of fan theories and explainer videos, that simple answer wasn't enough for many of the film's viewers. In an attempt to expand on the lore of the original Frozen, Frozen 2 takes an in-depth look at how Elsa got her powers, involving the likes of elemental spirits, magical voices, and inter-kingdom conflicts. It almost seems like Frozen 2 was created solely to make up for the fact that Frozen ignored the backstory of Elsa. As it turns out, though, putting lore to the wayside was not Dinsey's original idea.

Related: Disney's New Frozen Sequel Reveals A Frozen 3 Story Problem

A now-archived Crave Online interview with Frozen producer Peter Del Vecho reveals that the creators didn't originally ignore the backstory of Elsa's powers; rather, they embraced it. The original plan for Frozen was very different, with the film opening with a big prophecy that set up the film and its world. However, the writers of Frozen soon realized that the film's lore got more confusing the more they explained it. Once it was decided to simplify Elsa's origins, the writers chose to simply have the trolls explain that she was born with her powers rather than spend a significant chunk of the movie providing exposition. So, although Disney did originally have an explanation for the origins of Elsa's powers, it was so confusing and convoluted that they eventually decided to scrap the whole thing and nearly ignore her backstory in its entirety. That is, until they tried to walk back this decision in Frozen 2 - making everything much worse.

The Fifth Spirit Made Frozen 2's Story Problems Worse

Frozen 2 Water Spirit Nokk

Frozen 2 spent a significant portion of its run attempting to fix the holes in Frozen's simple story, but it only bogged the movie down. Frozen 2's fifth spirit and the lore surrounding it is overly complex, with the movie mostly revolving around a conflict between Arendelle and Northuldra that has to be explained through expository dialogue and scenes that take place in the past due to this major moment never being mentioned in the first movie. Disney even realized that Frozen 2 was too complicated for kids in test screenings, causing them to cut significant scenes and shorten the movie overall. So, even though the mission of Frozen 2 was to explain the lore of Elsa and Arendelle, large chunks of this backstory were cut from the film by Disney. What is left is a confusing, hard-to-follow mess that feels less like a compelling story and more like a YouTube explainer video.

Although Disney originally had an idea for the mythology of Elsa's ice powers, once they made the decision to simplify it, they should have stuck with it. Instead, Disney ended up making a sequel that was so complicated that it proved even Disney itself wasn't sure what was going on. Frozen was better when Elsa's powers were simple, and sadly, Frozen 2 couldn't leave those questions unanswered.