Once Upon a Snowman

***Once Upon a Snowman*** is a *Frozen* midquel short film released on October 23, 2020 on Disney+. It takes place during the events of *Frozen* and before *Frozen Fever*, *Olaf's Frozen Adventure* and *Frozen II*.

## Plot

During Elsa's song "Let It Go", Olaf the snowman is brought to life. Before he can do anything however, Elsa releases her cape which flies and knocks him down the mountain side until he crashes into a tree. Not knowing who he is, or why he is alive, Olaf decides to find an identity for himself. He comes upon Wandering Oaken's Trading Post and Sauna (where Kristoff can audibly be heard singing "Reindeer(s) Are Better Than People" from the barn) and gets flattened by the front door by Anna who exits not noticing him and carrying a bag of carrots (which she will eventually give to Kristoff and Sven as payment).

Olaf enters the Post and meets Oaken, who does not seem all that surprised by the appearance of a talking snowman. Olaf asks for a nose, possibly a carrot, for his face, but Oaken explains that he sold the last batch and decides to help him out by trying a variety of other objects. One of the objects is a stereoscope that features images of "Summer". Olaf is immediately taken by it and wants to experience it before settling on a sausage for his nose.

As Olaf happily leaves with his new nose, a pack of wolves suddenly appear and begin to chase him through the snowy tundra, during which Anna and Kristoff can be heard arguing with each other over the concept of love. Olaf passes by them, again unnoticed, which gets the wolves to suddenly shift their attention to them. Olaf continues to slide and witnesses Anna, Kristoff and Sven making a leap across the gorge while ditching their sleigh. Olaf makes it to the bottom where he spots one of the carrots that gets dropped, but it gets crushed by the sleigh.

Olaf's sausage nose breaks, which saddens him. Upon seeing one of the wolves whimpering pitifully at his nose, Olaf gives it to him, believing that he needs it more than him. The wolf happily licks him before leaving. Olaf comments that it felt like a warm hug to which suddenly causes him to remember Anna and Elsa's time playing together as children. Finally realizing who he is, he comments "I'm Olaf and I like warm hugs."

During the credits, Olaf is seen coming across Anna, Kristoff and Sven who will eventually give him his iconic carrot nose.

## Cast

* Josh Gad as Olaf
* Idina Menzel as Elsa
	+ Eva Bella as Young Elsa (archival recording/voice only)
* Kristen Bell as Anna
	+ Livvy Stubenrauch as Young Anna (archival recording/voice only)
* Jonathan Groff as Kristoff
* Frank Welker as Sven
* Chris Williams as Oaken

## Trivia

* This is the second Olaf short since *Olaf's Frozen Adventure* and the third short to be based on *Frozen,*the first being *Frozen Fever.*
* This is the second *Frozen* production not to be released in November.
	+ It is also the second *Frozen* short not to have been directed by Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee. The first was *Olaf's Frozen Adventure*.
* This is also the first *Frozen* media to solely be on Disney+.
	+ It is also the first *Frozen* media not to feature an original song.
	+ This is also the first *Frozen* media that doesn't have the word "'frozen' in the title.
* This short has a handful of inconsistencies.
	+ Anna's body structure seems closer to *Frozen II* than *Frozen*.
	+ The short depicts Oaken and Olaf meeting for the first time when *Olaf's Frozen Adventure* shows it's the first time meeting.
	+ When Anna says "I never knew winter could be so beautiful.", Olaf responds right next to her in the film while in the short, he's very far from her.
	+ Kristoff's sled exploded near Olaf but the film shows Olaf wasn't around the sled.
	+ Elsa's cape flies into the air rather then down the North Mountain like in the short.
	+ When Kristoff argues to Anna about Hans, the sled moves fast in the film while it goes slow in the short.
	+ Olaf leads the wolves to Anna, Kristoff, and Sven and the wolves turn their attention to the gang after hearing Olaf's voice. In the film, however, the wolves did not turn their attention and appeared to be hunting them without Olaf being around.
* This is the first time Anna's winter dress is shown in a short, making her the final main character to have their first film's outfit features. Elsa wore hers in *Frozen Fever* while Kristoff donned his in *Olaf's Frozen Adventure*.
* Some of the pics shows the forest from *Tangled* and the island from *Moana* when Olaf discovers summer.
* This is the second non canon *Frozen* story first being *At Home With Olaf.*
* This is the second Disney media that shows *Let It Go* from someone else's point of view, the first was *Kingdom Hearts III*.

1. ↑ https://twitter.com/mrhyrum/status/1305201107342430214?s=21
2. ↑ Frozen's Olaf to Reveal Untold Secrets in Disney+'s Once Upon a Snowman. Retrieved on September 9, 2020.