Disney+'s Once Upon a Snowman reveals why Frozen's Olaf loves summer, and also includes a clever reference to the previous Olaf short.
The Frozen short Once Upon a Snowman reveals why Olaf loves summer, and also includes a subtle reference to the previous Olaf film. Written and directed by Dan Abraham and Trent Correy, the 8-minute production follows the first steps of the beloved franchise character, all the while answering questions about his sunny personality.
Voiced by Josh Gad, Olaf is a well-documented summer enthusiast. Years after first being created by Anna and Elsa, the snowman meets them as adults in Frozen and expresses his ironic love for summer. In the toe-tapping musical number "In Summer," Olaf imagines what a snowman like himself would do in warm weather, with the joke being that he doesn't understand the concept of melting. For the 2020 short Once Upon a Snowman, set during the events of Frozen, Disney shows how Olaf deals with "a crisis of identity," and how he grew to appreciate the conceptual wonderland that is summer.
Olaf first learns about the concept of summer at Wandering Oaken's Trading Post. The snowman admits that he needs a "sense of self," as he's unsure if he's a Fernando type or maybe a Trevor. For Olaf, the first step to self-acceptance is the placement of a proper nose, and he subsequently tries on numerous items that don't fit his snowman body shape. But when Oaken places a view master on Olaf's nose, the snowman becomes enthralled by his first experience with summer visuals. "What is this?" Olaf says, as he checks out images of beaches, blue skies, and even butterflies. Mother Nature has seemingly performed inception on the unassuming snowman, and so he's immediately hooked. "I've never identified with anything so much in my whole life," says Olaf, who is now approximately three minutes old.
There's a deeper meaning to the Once Upon a Snowman summer sequence, as it makes a clever connection to the previous short, Olaf's Frozen Adventure. In the 2017 film, Olaf is chased by wolves after acquiring holiday fruitcake, and then loses his holiday treat when a hawk swoops down and takes it. There's an emotional payoff by the end, as Olaf learns that his very existence inspired a holiday tradition for Anna and Elsa. Plus, Mother Nature provides a gift by having the hawk drop the fruitcake down to the snowman.
In the 2020 prequel, Olaf is given a summer sausage nose and then gets chased by wolves. Later on, he decides to feed his nose to one of the hungry animals, and so the summer is conceptually the narrative MacGuffin; a concept or idea that pushes the story forward. Olaf gives to the outdoors in Once Upon a Snowman, and he's rewarded in Olaf's Frozen Adventure. The concept of summer - or the concept of hope - is what motivates Olaf.
Olaf's love for summer in the Frozen franchise serves as a practical way to connect with Disney's target demographic. Younger audiences can laugh at the snowman's fascination with warm weather, all the while knowing he can't physically survive in a climate that's not freezing cold. Of course, it's also endearing to see a charismatic snowman figuratively melt when imagining what could be; a tragicomic twist that complements some of the darker themes in Frozen 2.
