Headscratchers / Olaf's Frozen Adventure

Remembering or not remembering Olaf

• In Frozen, Anna can barely remember Olaf (it takes him doing his wide toothless grin for her to recognize why the name is familiar). Yet, in Olaf's Frozen Adventure, we’re told that she made Elsa something Olaf related every Christmas. That’s about 13 years she spent making Olaf drawings for Elsa, but she can’t remember this fact after what looks like just a few years after the last time we see Anna giving Elsa a straw Olaf? I guess it’s also worth noting that Elsa too forgot about the Olaf’s until she found the box in her trunk. So maybe neither Anna and Elsa have very good memories?
  • Perhaps Anna had in her head a vision of Olaf that she made for Elsa, and these Olafs she made were different from the real deal, so it took her a moment to “recognize” him. (And considering how she freaked out at first at the sight of him, that may have also factored in) For Elsa's part, she probably put the box with Olafs in her trunk in the attic after her parents died, when suddenly she had to focus on assuming responsibilities she wasn’t ready to have yet. Three stressful years as the queen / heiress apparent^note depending on whether you believe Elsa became 'Queen Elsa of Arendelle' as soon as her parents were declared dead, or she acted as a regent in her parents' stead until she turned 21 with a big secret to hide could bury the memory of Anna’s Olafs deep in her mind, though she did remember the box she kept the gifts in (more specifically, the art on the box).
  • If Anna made the Olafs every year, then the parents' death and Elsa becoming queen shouldn't affect either of their memories of them much. It probably didn't occur to them that it could count as a tradition until it was blatantly staring them right in the face, making it easier to put two and two together.
  • Plus, context can be important; keep in mind that Olaf started out as a living entity without a nose until Anna took one of Sven's carrots, and there's also the simple fact that she wouldn't have been expecting him to suddenly be anything more than a pleasant image of a childhood memory.
  • I'd argue the fact that Anna remembered Olaf just seconds after being shocked and creeped out by a walking, talking snowman and frantically playing hot potato with his grinning head, is because of all those years making handcraft Olafs and not despite them. And as a previous troper noted, it's not surprising they didn't immediately put two and two together with those craft Olafs, but Elsa did do so as soon as she saw the box, without even having to open it.

Wolves chasing Olaf

• Why would wolves wanna attack Olaf? He's made of snow! No flesh and blood to be found in that "prey". Even if they did attack Olaf thinking he was something to hunt and eat, how exactly would they have killed him? I don't how one could kill an animate Snowman without melting him.
• They probably couldn't kill him, but he may not like being chased, and he was trying to protect the fruitcake. As for why they were chasing him, he may have looked as if he was edible to them, since he's animate and roughly in the shape of a human.

Chronological order

• Does Olaf's Frozen Adventure come before or after Frozen Fever?
  • Before. Frozen Fever starts with Elsa still in her blue dress. Later she makes her trademark transformation to her Frozen Fever dress, which is basically the same kind of transformation we see in "Let it Go", plus some upgrade like adding living flowers into dress patterns and making them fly (allowing her to also add some sunflowers to Anna's skirt). We could assume that she practiced since the first movie with her powers and is better now. Elsa's dress in Olaf's Frozen Adventure is not made of ice at all. The novelization says that it's a Christmas gift from Anna. By now, we can assume that adding her icy touch to any dress she wears is a tradition now, since the cape is still made from ice.
  • There's more evidence that it comes after, though:
    • In Frozen Fever, Elsa does not touch Olaf, even if he obviously asks for a hug with his body language. We all know that Elsa is not a very touchy-feely person. Actually the only person touching her freely we ever see is Anna. In Olaf's Frozen Adventure, Olaf gets an "Olaf sandwich hug" where he's side-hugged by Anna and Elsa simultaneously, seemingly because Elsa has become more comfortable with physical contact and she included Olaf into her comfort zone.
    • In Frozen Fever, when Kristoff presents the cake, and says “I love you baby" to Anna, he gets very shy and Anna is rather surprised. So we can assume that is the first time he's ever said that to Anna's face. They don’t even touch each other once in that short. In Olaf's Frozen Adventure, Kristoff is keeping his hand on Anna’s shoulder rather possessively when Elsa creates the cloud to fly Olaf up to the top of her ice Christmas tree, and he flirtatiously brushes up against her when singing his troll ballad at the beginning. Progress, I would say.
    • Elsa’s ability to make objects fly. In Frozen Fever, Elsa could move flowers a short distance. Here, we have lanterns and even Olaf, going as high as the top of a tall Christmas tree.
  • The argument for "Olaf's Frozen Adventure is before Frozen Fever" generally belongs to those who buy into Jennifer Lee's word that "Anna was born on the summer solstice, and Elsa on the winter solstice", and point to the fact that Elsa's coronation took place in July (from Oaken's "a real howler in July, yes?" remark). The only problem with that is that it would mean that Olaf's Frozen Adventure is taking place just days after Elsa's birthday. Which would raise the questions of, why didn't the royal sisters just combine the Yule Bell ringing ceremony and surprise party into the celebrations for Elsa's birthday? And for that matter, why isn't there a single mention of Elsa's birthday during the short?
    • Royal birthdays are usually a big deal, so it wouldn't be surprising if the celebrations were separate. Even less so if Elsa requested something low-key instead of the big party supposed to be part of restoring the Yule Bell ringing tradition. There's also not much reason to bring up the birthday if it's already passed.
  • We know that Frozen takes place in July because Oaken says so ("A real howler in July, yes?"). While this is an oral message we get, the visual one is another story. All Arendelle scenery before and after the Eternal Winter screams spring. Crocuses (c. vernus), the flowers of Arendelle, are in bloom on one windowsill when Elsa ends the eternal winter. Wisteria (w. floribunda) are seen in bloom above Hans at one point during "Love Is an Open Door". These plants bloom in spring. Meanwhile, in Frozen Fever, Anna gets a bouquet of flowers from Elsa and again some are easily recognizable: sunflowers (helianthus annuus), which bloom in summer, and definitely after crocuses and wisteria. And no matter how we try, June can't happen after July, no matter the year.
    • Funnily enough, we are never told onscreen when exactly Anna’s birthday is. We have this knowledge from outside sources like Jennifer Lee’s famous tweet, and a few semi-canon Frozen tie-in books that also use a summer solstice date. But visually, the Frozen saga order fits the order in which these movies were made and suggests that they happen in Spring (Frozen), Summer (Frozen Fever), then Winter (Olaf's Frozen Adventure) of the same year (kinda confirmed by Chris Buck here), and Frozen II happening in autumn three years into Elsa's reign. But with additional info (Oaken’s comment or Anna’s birthday date) this order does not work anymore.
  • The Cut Song "Spring Pageant" establishes that there was at least one draft where the movie took place in Spring. It's possible Disney changed their minds at some point about which season to use and then some details weren't revised in time.
  • Oaken's "howler in July" comment isn't the only indication given of a summer setting in the first movie. He also keeps talking about a "big summer blowout," and a bunch of characters mention it being summertime, such as Kristoff telling Olaf they need Elsa to "bring back summer."
  • The Christmas Special Wiki also states that the short comes after Frozen II. This places the order as being Frozen, Frozen Fever, Frozen II and Olaf's Frozen Adventure. This wasn't officially confirmed by Disney, but considering this short was made by a different team, it's possible that the producer and writer of this short were only told something along the lines of "It's the first holiday since Elsa's coronation, go". The main events of the short could pretty much go anywhere on the official timeline, either after Frozen but before Frozen Fever or after Frozen Fever as is in the release order. Frozen II also affirms the placement of Frozen Fever in the timeline by acknowledging the Snowgies, which is a given since the original team worked on Frozen Fever and had little to no involvement in the conception and development of Olaf's Frozen Adventure although the team who worked on Olaf's Frozen Adventure said they vetted the script and contributed notes, but in terms of actual production, little-to-no.

Why so many identical pairs of gloves?

• So in Elsa's chest in the attic in Olaf's Frozen Adventure, we see she keeps rows and rows of satin gloves. I count 64 pairs there◊, two rows of four with eight per stack. All of them seem go be forearm length gloves. I’m assuming these are post shipwreck because when she was a teenager, her gloves were wrists length and white. But why 65 (counting the pair used for Sir Jorgen Bjorgen's cape)? Why not a dozen or two? Elsa can't really have been going through gloves like candy, could she?
  • Because she's paranoid about not having them, so she stocks up.
  • In the time frame this film is based in (1840-50's), chances are good that those gloves weren't satin at all but kidskin. A lady (especially a princess like Elsa) was expected to have many pairs around because kidskin is very delicate and often wore out.