He is living in Elsa’s ice castle !

OH GOD THEY’RE ALL SO GORGOUES

Elsa’s powers, though focused more specifically on cold, seem to be based on telekinesis, which is why they’re sometimes referred to (not in the movie itself but in some discussions) as cryokinetic powers. She can make things move and break things with her powers, too, which she actually does in the movie. For example, she can close the doors of her ice palace without touching them, she can move snow and air (wind) around, gather sticks for Olaf’s arms, and tear apart iron handcuffs without injury to her hands. Another example is lifting (as in levitating) Anna momentarily in order to put ice skates on her, and perhaps the ultimate example of making things move is making things that move (and think!) on their own, such as her snowmen.

Elsa’s magic is still full of surprises, eh? So I guess she’s probably going to remain single….

And it’s certainly an interesting family in terms of composition, with Kristoff’s brother Sven being a reindeer (actually more like a huge North American caribou than any reindeer that you’re likely to encounter in Norway) and Elsa’s son Olaf (Prince Olaf?) being an immaculately-conceived living snowman. 😉 Hey, where’s Marshmallow?! :O

First of all, it’s just a short, and secondly any difference, especially in Elsa given what she has been through, will be quite noticeable anyway, so I don’t think they’d want to change too many things at once. While what you’re suggesting may be more true to life, artistically there needs to be a balance between the familiar and the new. She has already gone through her big symbolic transformation, and for now she’s just tweaking it. Yes, she’s supposed to be a person and not just a symbol, and if this were a TV series with numerous episodes then I would agree with you, but again it’s just a short designed to promote both the franchise and another movie as a value-added part of going to see the latter–for the same ticket price, you get a Frozen short in addition to the movie you came to see…unless you really only came for the short. 😉 In other words, they’re only going to spend so much time and effort on this–if that’s “lazy” to you, then maybe you expect too much from what is really a promotional freebie.

As for the birthday cake, it doesn’t seem that different from the other large (big party) cakes in the movie, aside from the fact that it is themed with seasonal motifs.

And as for the writing, the short and the movie are American productions, so naturally the primary language of this country would be used, just like how the characters all speak English or are dubbed into the local language of each market. The point is for the audience to understand as the characters do. The book in the movie that I think you’re referring to has ancient runes because it’s an ancient book and/or written by weirdos who study arcane things (heh, magical rock trolls–oh, sure!). Frozen does not take place in an ancient time, and even if it did then whatever the period is would be “modern” and the book would be even more ancient (the point being that this sort of thing has happened before, but long ago because it’s so rare). The same principle applies to the Old Norse used in the chapel during the coronation–it’s “ancient” (albeit only by a few centuries) and traditional (at least according to the canon of the movie), while in real life terms the story takes place in the 19th century, Old Norse would still be considered old, and the characters would normally be speaking the Norwegian language of the time (but because this is a movie, they speak the language of the local movie market instead, the original one being American English, of course).