The relation between the disaster on Arendelle and the spirits of the Enchanted Forests



Elsa couldn’t manage to ignore the mysterious voice from the north, and she released her magical power and awakened the magical spirits of the Enchanted forest. With the release of her magical power, some disaster sweep Arendelle, and the Arendellians evacuate their town at midnight.

So, who is responsible for this disaster? Spirits of the Enchanted forest? Or Ahtohallan? Maybe some unknown magical force? In this article, we resolve this issue by examining the sound heard in this scene.

Disaster

Elsa, bringing disaster

As a preliminary, let’s wrap up some facts before Elsa wakes up the spirits. The film describes that no one could get in and out of the Enchanted Forest since the mist has covered the whole forest, and the spirits are gone, too.

Elsa pointing to the spirit crystal

After Elsa releases her power, the fire and water disappear, and heavy wind and earthquake come to Arendell. So we might think that these phenomena are somehow related to the ability of each elemental spirit of the Enchanted forest. However, we need to verify two things to insist on this idea.

  1. Are the spirits of the Enchanted Forest truly responsible for this disaster?
  2. If then, how could they come out from the Enchanted forest?

Spirits’ sound

Each spirit has its voice, which is well depicted in the movie.

Gale’s sounds are easy to be recognized. Look at the video above. We hear some whistling sound when Gale moves or reacts. In addition to the above scene, you can hear this whistle when Elsa first meets Gale. Conversely, we can say Gale would be involved in specific scene if we heard this whistle in that scene.

We can expand this idea to examine which spirit is involved in a specific scene: First, identify their sounds, then check if we can hear that sound in a specific scene. If we hear that sound, it is evidence of their presence.

Gale

First, let’s look at Gail (play above video). For Gale, as mentioned, we hear some whistle or twittering bird sound.

Now, see the evacuation scene Sven being flown by. You can hear the same whistle sound of Gale around 1~2 seconds, which proves its presence on this scene. In other words, Gale has intervention in this scene.

Bruni

Next, listen to Bruni’s voice. It does not make a particular sound but a typical salamander sound. You can hear a bump sound near 1s or some growling sound near 4s.

Now, back to the town’s lights being out. You can hear some growling around 1s on the above video, which sounds like Bruni’s growling sound as before. The sound effect heard when the town’s lights are out around 4s in the above video is also similar to Bruni’s sound when it bursts flame to the tree behind Elsa.

Earth giants

When the earth giants sleep or wake up, they make snoring or some snarling sound.

Now see the earthquake scene in the town. It is not easy to recognize due to people’s cries and background sounds. Still, around 3~4s, where Elsa is just falling forward, you can hear the earth giants’ growling or snarling sound shortly.

Water Nokk

Nokk is basically a horse, so it makes a horse sound. Around 4s, it also makes some kinda growling sound as a response to Elsa’s ‘Are you ready?’ question.

Now back to the evacuation scene where the fountain’s water dries up. When the water disappears, we can hear some extra growling sound around 1s, which is similar to Nokk’s. Unlike the other spirits, where sounds can be easily recognized, Nokk’s one is not easy to be identified. Still, you can hear similar sounds in its battle scene on the Dark sea.

That is, we hear the sounds of the spirits of Enchanted forest in the town evacuation scene. If we assume that no other kinds of elemental spirits exist in the Frozen universe, it would mean that this whole mess at midnight is responsible for the spirits from the enchanted forest.

Mist

Mist of the Enchanted forest

However, we have one problem here. The enchanted forest at this stage was still covered up with mists so that no one could get in or out. Then, how did the spirits manage to affect the town? One possibility is that maybe they were able to pass through the mist, or at least they can release their magical power over the mist.

As Elsa crossed the Dark sea with Nokk and headed to Ahtohallan, it seems that the spirits were able to ignore mist. Since they are the onee who built the mist, they might be able to do that. Furthermore, in one of Olaf’s stories in Google assistant’s Frozen stories series, it is also depicted that the spirits can use their ability quite far from Arendelle. Thus, even though we assume the magical spirits are still trapped in the Enchanted forest, they would be able to affect Arendelle with their power over the mist.

Summary

It is likely that the disaster that occurred in Arendelle after Elsa responded to the spirit call is responsible for spirits of the Enchanted forest.

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