At D23 there were some Frozen III teasers, and online communities seems to have organized all the relevant videos etc. about it in one place. So here I just wanna discuss some things I've seen here and there because frankly, some of the things presented is worth commenting on.
SPOILERS BELOW FOR:
- Frozen I, Frozen II, Frozen Fever, Olaf's Frozen Adventure
- Once Upon A Time
- Tangled: the Series
- Zootopia 2
- Toy Story 5
- Big Hero 6
- Frozen III's promotional content
- Once (2007)
New lore
A new "evil snow queen" character seems to be shown, and she grabs a crystal-shaped object that is transformed from a shape-shifting snowflake when meeting Elsa and Anna. So, essentially here we have more magical/mythical lore... and the question is how it will end up being developed.
Here's why this matters: The last time Disney introduced new lore into the Frozen franchise was in Frozen II, and some audiences (including me) found it a bit rushed and not that well-developed. The lore in Frozen II included a glacier named "Ahtohallan" that all the memories to the past. It had supposedly given Elsa her magical powers as a gift for her mother's heroism.
Now, the question becomes, where the heck does the new evil character with magical powers in Frozen III come from? What are the origins of her magic? A previous Disney tweet says there was a mythical new family member; but if this was a family member, how did she get her powers if Ahtohallan kept such immaculate records?
So I don't know how this will turn out exactly, but I have a feeling that this is really hard to actually tightrope. If Ahtohallan intended to give more people magical powers than just Elsa, how did Anna get it? Is the villain Elsa's older sister? Did Ahtohallan's database code (or rather, cold) make an off-by-one error in doing this?
It seems like we're destined for a retcon here.
Plot
I've already said that there is a lot of new lore going on in Frozen III, and that it needs to be well-developed. But at first sight, all the characters from the trailer do seem to preserve the original characters, though, which is good. Kristoff wants to be careful but ends up grabbing a bunch of flowers (see Frozen Fever). Olaf grabs a bunch of random objects and is very naive (see Frozen and Frozen Fever). So [oh, it opened...] that's a first...
But another trend here seems to be the fact that there is just a lot going on everywhere—There's the Kristanna wedding but also Olaf's getting a love interest. New family members. The sisters trying to untangle another magical mystery? Perhaps even ties back to the lore in Frozen II?
With many subplots it's easy to get Tangled up. But the reality is, large amounts of subplots are becoming increasingly common for whatever mystical reason. Frozen (what a surprise!) first had the ice harvesters appearing just after Vuelie plays, and then it suddenly switches to the scene with Elsa and Anna. There's also the trolls and coronation, but that's pretty much tied to the family's stories in general, as they directly influence the plots and are tied together coherently. So there's not a lot of alternating here, except the fact of how Kristoff is introduced that is eventually tied together. This is a great example of the use of dissonance (There are indeed, however, many cultural concerns of this approach, as Kristoff is indicated visually to look different, and the filmmakers used indigenous elements on him without consultation. The visual artist, Brittney Lee, even said that Kristoff's design was partly because he was "a bit of an outsider.")
Things like Big Hero 6, however, gets more complicated. The characters are dealing with major life transitions, grief, and a small number of different mysteries. Frozen 2 and Zootopia 2 were at least more coherent, but they still have irrelevant subplots that become important later. Zootopia 2 was both an exploration of Judy and Nick's relationship and some housing displacement issues besides main mystery. Worse, Toy Story 5 features many, many different smaller investigations and strict subplots, and critics regard it as weak for this reason. (I personally think, however, that it was used well as it was all tied together at the end, and nothing was unused.)
But that doesn't change the fact that recently, those subplotted movies are getting tied together less obviously as time moves forward.
The question becomes whether there's a slippery slope here: If the subplots are getting just a little bit less coherently written each time, perhaps Frozen III may fall into a degenerate mess. And given the lack of planning in the Frozen II screenwriting process, this may actually happen. I certainly hope not! This also applies on a smaller scale with irrelevant comic relief and dialog (which seemed to happen at least a bit in the teaser).
Regarding the plot itself, an important aspect of Frozen III will almost certainly be Elsa and Anna's relationship. But what we notice is that throughout Frozen II and possible Frozen III, Anna is forced to handle issues that are caused by Elsa's magic. So what will Elsa do in return? This has gone unanswered for a bit, especially after Frozen II and the number of Frozen content decreased. Some more post-Frozen III shorts like Frozen Fever or Olaf's Frozen Adventure that explores the relationships of the family would work well after Frozen III, especially if it shows how Elsa is actively trying to make Anna comfortable and how the siblings help each other process the traumatic memories of the things that happened.
Visuals
The new teasers seem to give off a ✨ fantastical ✨ tone in terms of animation style. The story telling seems to introduce a lot of new elements, but the textures don't seem as hyperrealistic as Frozen II, which IMHO is good and very fitting for a Frozen movie. The pink hearts during the new Samantha song also looks great.
There's also some other cultural things I thought of at the beginning. The Northern Lights (interacting with the blue crystal) is used to introduce the characters to the otherworldly scope in which we face the new potential villain. From my prior reading, Kristoff (although the elements were not well-written in the first movie), the Northuldra, and the opening song Vuelie (that goes like na-na-na-hey-a-na...) are all inspired by the Sámi people, which are the only recognized indigenous group in Europe. Now, the Sámi actually have a legend about the Northern Lights:
https://www.beneathnorthernlights.com/the-boy-who-teased-the-northern-lights/
Broadly, some Sámi (this is a Northern Sámi legend, but I can't speak for all the people there) believe that that the Northern Lights symbolizes the souls of deceased elders that aren't to be teased, and if so the Northern Lights will come down and hurt you. So the Northern Lights are clearly some things to be respected, especially after how Frozen already uses some Sámi elements.
So this is where Disney needs to be careful (for those deep in the fandom: do they still have a treaty with the Sámi a la Frozen II?).
Otherwise, though, I think the visuals at the beginning scene is pretty good. You see a lopsided snowflake changing shapes that eventually forms into a crystal, and immediately something feels off about it. By the time the Northern Lights come down from the sky to the crystal, I knew danger would be coming, which really builds a horror feeling (listen to Beethoven's 7ths, Movement 2 if you want to know what feeling I'm talking about).
Regarding Elsa and Anna's dresses, which a lot of people seem to be talking about, I'm not a huge fan of the colors but it seems to work well with the environment's colors and story at that point, so I'll give it a pass. Elsa's braided again, which I like, but the symbolism in the hair would start to seem backwards according to some. I'm not concerned about though; I think braided Elsa is more original, true to herself, and free.
Tropes and reusal
The most obvious connection we can see is that the evil snow queen's design seems to be reused from Disney's original designs for Elsa before they changed the entire story a few months before release.
But if we look further than that, some of the ideas shown in the teaser are already explored elsewhere.
Tangled: the Series explores a story where a magical counterpart controlled by someone who turns evil can lead to more chaos. And the evil snow queen grabbing the blue crystal is visually similar to Cassandra snatching the Moonstone. The show Once Upon A Time, which directly includes Frozen characters, even explored the possibility of an evil snow queen, Ingrid. I have not watched that show, but did do some research on it a couple of months ago, and it seems that some people on Reddit says its execution is a bit cluttered. And from reading Fandom pages, I believe that is the case, at least plot-wise. (Compare a variety of pages on Once Upon A Time's Fandom to the description of the indie movie Once (2007) on Wikipedia, and you'll see how the plot is complicated, even on a local perspective within each episode.)
The characters also seem to behave in pretty expected ways in the teaser, with Olaf's curiosity and grabbing flowers and other things resembling when Olaf grabbed the Snowgies in Frozen Fever.
So exactly what will the Frozen III filmmakers bring to the table? Only time will tell. My biggest hope is that the sisterly relationship between Elsa and Anna is further explored, as I believe that's the biggest focus of the franchise. It's also my hope that the different subplots and elements will be tied together in a coherent, united way at the end.
More personal yap
So... am I hyped?
**Updated 8/18/2026 to reflect my current status.**
Well, before I would've said no, but right now it seems like I am. The animation looks better when a full version of the trailer without distortion was uploaded onto YouTube.
But still, I see Frozen III pretty critically, especially after my criticisms for Frozen II. Doesn't change the fact that Disney will do whatever they'll do, and perhaps surprise or disappoint the audience. I hope the former, and am excited about the movie (now that I've seen the proper trailer on 8/18/26!)
Now you may ask I'm a freshman in high school after the first week, how do I get all this time to write the post? Well, I really really like writing. But also, I've gotten very ahead last night by doing a lot of classwork and homework for next Monday in advance. I'm enrolled in UT Austin's OnRamps classes which implies that I do, in fact, have the ability to access most of the coursework directly, and even submit assignments early (Guess who read about the properties of fields in advance from Evan Chen's Napkin.) So yeah. I'm ahead.
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