Once Upon A Time Season 4 Introduced Frozen’s Kristoff

Here’s how the fourth season of Once Upon A Time ventured into Frozen territory with the introduction of Kristoff. ABC’s fantasy drama Once Upon A Time featured many classic fairy tale and Disney characters over the course of its first three seasons – from Peter Pan’s Captain Hook (Colin O’Donoghue) and the seven dwarves of Snow White fame to Pinocchio’s Jiminy Cricket (Raphael Sbarge).

It made perfect sense that the House of Mouse-owned network would eventually turn its attention to one of Disney’s biggest recent hits, Frozen. Released a year before Once Upon A Time’s season 4 premiere, the hugely successful animation was inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale The Snow Queen and tells the tale of the fearless princess Anna (Kristen Bell) as she sets out on an epic journey to find her self-exiled sister Elsa (Idina Menzel) with the help of iceman Kristoff (Jonathan Groff).

Played by Scott Michael Foster, Kristoff made his Once Upon A Time debut in season 4 premiere “A Tale Of Two Sisters” alongside Anna (Elizabeth Lail) and Elsa (Georgina Haig), who first appeared in the season 3 finale. Picking up some time after the events of Frozen, Kristoff and Anna are engaged but their upcoming nuptials are postponed when Anna finds out her and Elsa’s parents set sail for a place called Misthaven (AKA the Enchanted Forest) and follows in their footsteps to discover the purpose of their journey.

Meanwhile, Kristoff and Elsa are left behind in Arendelle and learn Anna’s former beau Hans (Tyler Jacob Moore) is preparing to attack the kingdom. It soon turns out Hans is the least of their problems when they meet Anna and Elsa’s long-lost aunt Ingrid (Elizabeth Mitchell) who tries to drive a wedge between the sisters using her magical powers after Anna returns from Misthaven. Their aunt’s scheming results in Elsa being transported to Once Upon A Time’s Storybrooke and the whole kingdom of Arendelle – including Anna and Kristoff – being frozen for 30 years as part of a spell cast by Ingrid.

A freshly defrosted Anna and Kristoff discover Hans is poised to overthrow Arendelle in Elsa’s absence but – just as the dastardly prince is about to drown the couple – they too are transported to Storybrooke. There, they reunite with Elsa and work with Storybrooke’s residents to prevent Ingrid from casting a powerful spell that will destroy the town. By Once Upon A Time’s mid-season finale “Heroes And Villains,” Storybrooke was saved from Ingrid’s spell and the Frozen trio returned to Arendelle where each got their own happy ending – Elsa after taking the throne from Hans and Kristoff and Anna by finally tying the knot.