‘Frozen 2’: Where to Spot Ariel, Snow White and More Disney Cameos In the Movie
When Frozen 2 came out in 2019, fans were just excited to see the Frozen characters again. It had been six years since Disney’s 2013 classic Frozen, and the shorts Frozen Fever and Olaf’s Frozen Adventure just weren’t enough. So the return of Elsa (Idina Menzel), Anna (Kristen Bell), Olaf (Josh Gad) and Kristoff (Jonathan Groff) made it a $1.4 billion worldwide hit.
You probably weren’t even looking for other Disney characters, you were so happy to see the Frozen gang back. Now that you’ve had time to see Frozen 2 over and over again in theaters, you can own it on DVD, Blu-ray, 4K UHD or digital formats. The bonus features pointed out some fun cameos from other Disney characters, in case you didn’t spot them the first few times.
Two classic and two modern Disney characters are all in one ‘Frozen 2’ scene
Frozen opened with Anna and Elsa as children, when Anna just wanted to build a snowman with her sister. Frozen 2 also opens with the sisters as children. This time they are playing with ice figures inside their house. If you look closely, some of their figures include Dumbo, Baymax, Bolt and Snow White.
Dumbo and Snow White were the stars of Disney classics named after them. Dumbo was the elephant who could fly with his ears. Snow White was the princess who lived with the seven dwarves while on the run from the wicked witch. That was also Disney’s first feature length animated movie. Bolt was the canine star of a 2008 Disney movie. Baymax was the inflatable robot companion in Big Hero 6.
Ariel appears near the end of ‘Frozen 2’
Elsa spends all of Frozen 2 following the siren call. When she finally reaches the voice, it shows her the truth about her parents’ past. While Elsa is seeing the visions of her parents, her father is reading a book by “some Danish author.” That’s Ariel on the cover because he’s reading The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen. Anderson also wrote The Snow Queen which inspired the original Frozen.
The Little Mermaid began Disney’s renaissance in 1989. It was the studio’s first hit animated movie after a very rough ’80s. Alan Menken and Howard Ashman’s songs “Under the Sea,” “Part of Your World” and “Kiss the Girl” were so memorable, the duo wrote songs for Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin too. Ariel’s Frozen 2 cameo comes right before Halle Bailey plays her in Disney’s live-action remake.
‘Sleeping Beauty’ played a role in this sequel too
Aurora herself does not have a cameo in Frozen 2, but something else from her movie does. When Anna, Elsa, Olaf and Kristoff venture out of Arendelle, they enter the Enchanted Forest. The forest adds some color to the kingdom since it’s free of snow, and it bears a striking resemblance to the forest in Sleeping Beauty.
That wasn’t an accident. The Frozen 2 animators drew from Sleeping Beauty artist Eyvind Earle. Earle created the backgrounds and colors of his film’s 2D forest. According to the Frozen 2 Blu-ray, they specifically modeled the Enchanted Forest on Earle’s use of vertical lines and the groupings of trees.
