Fans all around the world recall the famous Let It Go scene in Disney’s original Frozen, where Elsa, now fully embracing her ice powers, constructs a magnificent ice castle in the mountains. As Frozen was inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s short story The Snow Queen, Elsa’s palace was originally intended to pay homage to the Snow Queen’s castle. As Frozen’s mythology deepened in its sequel, Frozen II, however, Elsa’s icy domains began bearing striking similarities to the fortress of a famous DC superhero - Superman.
Yes, strange as it might sound, Elsa’s icy world has more than a few things in common with the Man of Steel’s Kryptonian stronghold. Even stranger? This isn’t the first time Disney has borrowed from Superman’s origin story.
Initially, Elsa’s struggle to accept her ice powers bore a strong resemblance to Marvel Comics’ X-Men, and the plight of all mutants to accept the gifts and curses that came with their innate abilities. Once Elsa started to accept her powers, however, the tone of her story shifted to resemble Clark Kent’s own journey of self-discovery. Just as Clark’s journey led him to the arctic in both the comics and movies, Elsa climbs up the North Mountain to make sense of her life. And just as Clark used Kryptonian crystals to build his Fortress of Solitude to live alone, Elsa also originally built her palace to live peacefully by herself.
Much like Clark, Elsa learns that while her castle does offer her a refuge from the world, she can’t stay there forever and rejoins humanity, choosing to use her superhuman abilities to protect others. However, she returns to a different “fortress” in Frozen II when a disembodied voice calls her to Ahtohallun, which turns out to be an isolated glacier.
In this second “Fortress of Solitude,” the comparisons to Superman’s Fortress become more obvious. Just as Superman can communicate with the spirits of dead Kryptonians (particularly his father Jor-El) through artificial intelligence devices, Elsa discovers Ahtohallun contains the spirit of her mother Iduna - the voice who was calling to her. And just as Jor-El helped Clark discover his identity as Superman, a being who could guide humanity into a brighter future, Iduna helps Elsa realize and accept who she truly is, the fifth elemental spirit of Northuldra who can unite people with the magic of nature.
Ahtohallun contains other strong similarities to the Fortress of Solitude. Using the “memory crystals” of his Fortress, Superman can view and study the history of not only Krypton, but other alien worlds and civilizations. Similarly, using the premise that “water contains memory,” Elsa can see frozen recreations of past events, and even uses this to learn how her grandfather killed the Northuldra leader, creating conflict between Arendelle and the Northuldra tribes. Much like the Fortress, Ahtohallun also contains hazards, as Elsa discovers when she ventures into a dangerous area and becomes trapped (not unlike how Superman’s Phantom Zone Projector traps people into an ageless, disembodied state).
Curiously, the Frozen movies aren’t the first Disney films to show inspiration from the Superman comics mythology. Disney’s Hercules, for instance, shows its hero raised as a super strong mortal on Earth before journeying to the Temple of Zeus and learning of his true heritage from his godly father (speaking through a statue of Zeus). Considering Superman stories owe their inspiration to early myths and legends of demigods with extraordinary lineage, it only seems appropriate that aspects of the Man of Steel’s own legend come back to influence re-imagined versions of the classic tales from which DC also drew inspiration.
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