FROZEN

“What if Anna and Elsa never knew each other?”

Anna and Elsa from Frozen feature in this entry to Disney’s series featuring their popular animated films reimagined with alternate premises. Accidents when they were young caused both Anna and Elsa to forget Elsa’s powers and their relationship. Elsa grows up in the palace, and Anna is raised in a bakery on a mountainside, unaware of her royal status. Key moments from the film are still featured but with reworked pivotal status, as is some narration with strong nods to a certain viral song: “the cold never bothered her, anyway.” The novel adds some depth to the worldbuilding, such as by naming and describing members of the palace staff, although no one returning or new adds great substance to the story. This outlandish, convoluted timeline leaves the sisters even more lonely than in the animated film’s plot but still with a bond of sisterhood that apparently transcends physical separation with innate yet inexplicable yearnings and feelings. In the end, it’s (authorized) fan fiction—exactly what some fans crave. Characters’ ethnicities follow the portrayals in the movie original.

Let this one go.