This week’s post is about the song “More Than Just the Spare,” which is a deleted song from the film Frozen. It was intended to be the introduction of the adult Anna in the film, and she is singing about being the “extra”, but there is more to her than that, and she should be seen as something more than that. My opinion on the song is………… very mixed. While a part of me wishes that they decided to take a more emotional route with Anna and her introductory song, another part of me feels like it does not fit, and the song kind of goes all over the place at times. Maybe I would have liked something that is a mix of this, and “For the First Time in Forever” (which I am sure replaced this song).
The song starts with, “Spare…? Am I really just the spare? I’m not part of the town, not born to be queen, just somebody hopelessly in-between, She’s the scholar, athlete, poet. I’m the screw up, don’t I know it, but then who could ever compare? Of course they’re gonna think I’m just the spare, well, I won’t care.” This talks about her isolation, but in a completely different manner than in the film, because she is being ignored by others because of the fact she is NOT going to be the queen. In the film, it’s just because Elsa ignored her, and nothing else was focused on except for that.
I liked these lyrics, “Someday I’ll find my thing, a thing that’s all my own. That thing that makes me part of something, not just all alone.” It makes Anna more individualistic with her own thoughts, and she was self-reflecting; not connecting anything to romance. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I wanted to get more into Anna’s mind about what she thinks of herself, or what others think of her.
The song ends with these lyrics, “Maybe I don’t have a magic touch, and maybe I don’t have a talent as such. Just this heart with much too much to share, so I’ll never be the heir. But I’m more than just the spare (Sorry!)” It apparently ended with the horse crashing into her, and Hans appears.
Here is what I think about why it was deleted, and it’s pretty simple. They wanted Elsa to look better, and because they wanted to focus more on the romance in the film, to carry the message. This was probably when Elsa was the villain of the film, and she needed to have her moment instead of Anna, regarding the musicals. This is a lot more character-centric than For the First Time in Forever, and it was more emotional (which is what the film needed to be, but that is a whole another story). Despite that, I do think it needed some more polishing, as a part of the song seems…………. a bit rough.
animatedkid 
I really can’t believe I never heard about the deleted songs in this movie before you told me, lol!
Are you looking forward to the Lopezes’ songs for Gigantic?
I am definitely looking forward to Gigantic, and the songs will be interesting. We will probably get more info on D23.
There are so many deleted songs on Frozen, so it’s very easy to not know about all of them (I am sure I don’t know all of them).
I actually think that I would have liked Anna and especially the relationship between her and Elsa more if they had stuck closer to the original concept. The song is far from perfect, but the sentiment feels way more sisterly than anything else in the movie, because it captures to complicated feeling one often has towards a sibling. It is far from the “that is my sister, and I love her no matter what, even if she didn’t talk to me for years” nonsense which actually did end up in the movie. I wish they had allowed some negative feelings in their relationship.
You articulated it better than I could have in the post. I always felt like the sibling dynamic was lacking, because it kind of ignored a big elephant in the room, and it only tied Anna to romance and Elsa, not much about her individual self. I probably would have liked the film more if it stuck to it’s original concept.