Our Favorite Movie Easter Eggs: Frozen, The Polar Express, Elf and more!

December 26th 2014, 12:47am

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

These days part of the fun of watching a movie in theaters or at home with the ability to freeze frames, is finding the hidden Easter eggs hidden within. For the history buffs out there, the origin of the cinematic Easter egg dates back to THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW. Supposedly one day on the set, the cast decided to have a traditional Easter egg hunt, as you do, but some of the eggs were never found and actually appeared in frames of the movie! So if you're obsessed with finding hidden messages, jokes, and ways to make you look smart in front of your friends, check out these Easter eggs!

Understandably some of these have been around for a while, but some may be new to other readers; there’s no expiration date on sharing so enjoy and have fun!

**POSSIBLE SPOILERS**

FROZEN – Not All Men Eat Boogers

Remember this time last year when FROZEN took over the world? The hugely successful Disney movie was not without its sense of humor of course as noted in the film’s final credits. So in the movie as Anna and Kristoff are headed up North Mountain she admitted that she’s in love with Hans. Kristoff scoffs and points out that she barely even knows him saying "What if you hate the way he eats? What if you hate the way he picks his nose…and eats it? All men do it."

The filmmakers didn't want to take any risks and inserted the disclaimer which reads:

The views and opinions expressed by Kristoff in the film that all men eat their own boogers are solely his own and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Walt Disney Company or the filmmakers.

Because it's Christmas time, let’s rock out:

THE POLAR EXPRESS – 1.21 gigawatts of spirit

So how does Santa's train, The Polar Express, travel to and from the North Pole in one night? Easy, with a Flux Capacitor of course! During the scene where Smokey and Steamer are juggling the cotter pin, you can see the Flux Capacitor on the left side of the engine cab. This is "what makes time travel possible" according to BACK TO THE FUTURE directed by Robert Zemeckis, the same director at work here, adapting Chris Van Allsberg's popular children's book.

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE – Anything by Richard Strauss?

In Stanley Kubrick's A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, when Alex is in the record store he walks by the shelves of records, you can clearly see the soundtrack to 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. 2001 of course was also directed by Kubrick. It’s not very subtle but there’s nothing wrong with a little shout out to previous achievements.

Let's hear a sample:

PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE – Eat your heart out Robert Mitchum

I think if I didn’t have video evidence of this one; it would sound too strange if you haven’t seen the movie. Paul Thomas Anderson’s PDL is one of my favorite movies and brings with it maybe Adam Sandler’s greatest performance. This egg occurs during the scene when Barry Egan (Sandler) is on the phone with a Healthy Choice representative, who has told him that the frequent flier miles he wants to redeem from a Healthy Choice promotional gimmick will take 6-8 weeks to process. So he doesn’t take kindly to the news and punches the map on the wall of his office.

The bruises on his hand clearly spell out “LOVE”, which makes sense considering he was collecting the frequent flier miles to fly to Hawaii with his new girlfriend Lena (Emily Watson). That and one of the original titles for the film was "Punch-Drunk Knuckle Love".

ELF – Whew! He still has both of his eyes

While it may not be a true egg in a sense, this cameo was a sweet little surprise. Peter Billingsley, who played Ralphie in A CHRISTMAS STORY (and also executive produced IRON MAN…really), makes a cameo in the film ELF. He plays Ming Ming the elf and as seen in the scene below, inadvertently reveals to Buddy that he’s actually a human.