They sure were clues for me, as I strongly suspected Hans from fairly early on. As for the look he gave after falling into the water, he might well have been genuinely smitten with Anna, despite his real intentions and the fact that he didn’t truly care about her or anybody else, and probably couldn’t, being such a sociopath. But even sociopaths can feel desire and even puppy love, so he was rather pleased that in addition to his ambitions having been so easy to achieve thus far, he was going to end up with a cute, pretty, easy-to-manipulate wife, too! Of course later on with Anna about to die and therefore useless to him, he cast her aside like garbage (has a “frozen heart”–no real love for others), but before this he still wanted to find and marry her. There are definitely two sides to how he viewed Anna, but it is not a form of multiple personality disorder, nor is this required–it’s just that he is a bit more complex than most people give him credit for. Note that his bravery and leadership skills are genuine, and that they are not incompatible with the fact that he doesn’t care about anybody. He is a sort of high-functioning sociopath, not unlike many real-world politicians, I suspect.

True enough. The script called for Hans being genuine in the scenes previous to that point, which is how the animators approached the acting choices. Since his internal motivation was pure up until turn-evil-time, there weren’t any subtle clues. One can certainly make up clues, in the same way you can interpret a poem in a lot of ways, but that doesn’t mean the original intention was such.

Your comment of “worst moments in Disney films” got me to thinking, and I’m having a hard time really coming up with anything comparable to this in any of the previous animated movies. Can you think of anything? There were moments that I didn’t “like” in other films, perhaps, but I can’t remember anything that was this badly executed. Only thing that comes close were how some bits of Lilo and Stitch were handled (Stitch seemed to know how to speak English as much as the current situation needed, which irked me some. Still, everything else about that movie redeemed this oversight).

My fellow animator Ferdinand discussed how the villain in Frozen, until the old switcharoo took place, was actually the internal conflict of Elsa, and how impressed he was that they went that direction. Sadly they backslid by the end and had Hans be the catalyst to bring that interesting attempt to a crashing halt, but I agree with you, if more time had been spent on Elsa and her internal conflict I think that would have made a really compelling, very non-traditional villain!

Totally agree. It took me out of the movie because of how badly-executed and frustrating it is. One of the single worst moments in a Disney film that I can think of. And while I’m not discouraging interpretation, I find it troubling that people would be trying to analyze the “subtle clues” even when there’s nothing truly there.

Here’s the first thing that came up in a search for sociopaths: http://www.wikihow.com/Spot-a-Sociopath If we look at that list, there is possibly ONE indicator that Hans falls into that group given how he’s portrayed in the film, and that one is a lousy indicator because “Very charming” could apply to a wealth of people, and the only time he ISN’T charming is at the moment of turning. If one were to go around assuming every charming person you meet is a sociopath, well, that would be a pretty dark life to live…

Gotcha. Well Mr. Hooks is human, so of course he’s not infallible. No one here is. Doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a lot of really wise things to share, or that anyone else doesn’t either. Experts may not be perfect, but they’re still experts.

I always thought he was smiling at his horse after he fell into the water.

Everything makes since now.

DEM MUTTONCHOPS THO. Also, he sings. Gorgeously. *aaaah~* Seriously, his big reveal would have been amazing if he sang a reprise of “Love is an Open Door” [put this in the Broadway version, please!], but yeah, that reveal too. I seriously didn’t see it coming and every time I saw it in the theaters, I just loved the audible GASP that I heard after his huge WHAM line to Anna. Best reveal, honestly.

Also, that WHAM line… would be perfect for break-up cards [if those actually exist] or anti-Valentine’s Day cards.

Hans is a sociopath (according to Jennifer Lee) and you should google how to identify them so you know why they portray Hans in that way.