(Image: Disney)
In the 1930s, Walt Disney tried to make a film adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's story "The Snow Queen," but never put it into production. It took his company 70 years to complete the project, which culminated in the hugely successful movie Frozen.
I have two young daughters, so it was inevitable that I would eventually watch Frozen. When I finally did, I was surprised to find that the main character is not Elsa, blonde-haired snow queen, but her sister Anna.
In a recent television special about the film, Disney's producers revealed another surprise about Elsa: in an earlier script, they had planned for her to be the main villain of the story. Kirsten Acuna writes for Business Insider:
Elsa's character looked completely different. She originally had light blue skin and short, spiky blue hair. She even had a coat made out of living weasels.
"Elsa was going to be the complete antagonist," says director and screenwriter Jennifer Lee in the book "The Art of Frozen." "They kept calling her the 'villain.' But there came a point where we said, 'We can't use that word anymore.' You care about someone who's been forces to hide who they are. Elsa's not a villain, she just makes some bad choices because she's in a very difficult situation."
The filmmakers decided to change Elsa after writing her signature song "Let It Go":
"We knew in this moment that she would go through a transformation," said Lopez. "From repressed to letting her powers out ... trying to get away from society and be who she really was."
-via 22 Words