Reindeer(s) Are Better Than People facts for kids

"Reindeer(s) Are Better Than People" is a 50-second song from the 2013 Disney animated film Frozen, originally performed by actor and singer Jonathan Groff in his vocal role as Kristoff. Groff returned with a shorter version in the 2019 film Frozen II.

Synopsis

This song happens after Oaken tries to make Kristoff pay more money than he has on his person at the moment for his carrots (for Sven), pickaxe, and rope. They can't reach a compromise, and Kristoff calls Oaken a crook. Oaken does not like being called a crook, so he tosses Kristoff out into the cold. Kristoff then seeks shelter with Sven in a nearby stable.

This song illustrates Kristoff's unique relationship with Sven. He is a shy, isolated man who can only be himself when around his pet reindeer. From Director notes "Kristoff’s only friend is his reindeer Sven and he rejects the human race in favor of his pet (“every one of them’s bad,” he sings in ‘Reindeer Are Better Than People’)".

International versions

The Korean language version sung by Jung Sang-yoon appeared on the Gaon Music Chart's download sub-chart; however, it did not appear on the main Gaon Singles Chart.

The Italian version, along with the whole Italian adaptation of the movie, was awarded best foreign dubbing worldwide.

As the sequel features a short reprise of the song, a version in these three languages was recorded for the second movie. As with Moana with Tahitian, Māori and Hawaiian versions, the Sami version was an exceptional dubbing made specifically for the movie, due to the inspiration it took from Sami culture.

Since 2013, some local TV stations have been dubbing the movie in their local languages. Namely: Abkhaz, Albanian, Arabic, Kabardian, Karachay-Balkar, Persian and Tagalog.

Charts

Reindeers Remix

A deleted song dubbed Reindeer(s) Are Better Than People (remix) was designed as a joke song for Kristoff to perform during the credits, as Lopez and Anderson-Lopez felt sad that Jonathan Groff had not been given a real song. They reasoned that his character is not the type to have burst into song that way, and though he becomes a lot more confident and self-assured after the troll song "Fixer Upper", by that time the film becomes action-packed and can't afford to slow down for another song.

When asked the question "I was wondering, you know, because I think I had talked to you earlier and you were like, wow, we had this great, amazing Broadway singer and he, you know, just wasn’t used that much in the movie", Robert Lopez responded: "Well, we hope to rectify that for Frozen, the musical. If we — if we do get a chance to write that, and we hope to with Disney, we’ll give Kristoff a proper song. But that reindeer song was sort of written, you know, because Kristoff had Sven and he could really only talk to Sven, and Sven’s this reindeer and he was doing Sven’s voice at the same — it was just kind of weird. And he didn’t — until the very last act of the film, it wouldn’t have made sense for him to break out into a real song".

To AwardsDaily, Robert said "We wanted to write something for [Groff’s character] Kristoff… In the beginning we knew that the songs we wrote for the external characters, the secondary characters, were the ones that seemed to be staying. And the ones that we wrote for Anna seemed to keep getting cut as Anna changed and changed and changed. So we wanted to write something for Kristoff. And we wanted to write something for Jonathan Groff. We always assumed we’d write a little bit more. But his character kept denying real songs". Kristen added "In the deluxe version of the soundtrack…there’s something called the “Reindeer Remix,” which was a remix of “Reindeers Are Better Than People.” An expanded version that we wrote, half as a joke, and half as...“Wouldn’t it be fun to put this in the credits? To give Jonathan Groff a chance to do what Jonathan Groff does".

Composition

In half of the song, Kristoff sings the song as a duet between himself and "Sven" (with Sven's part merely being Kristoff using a goofy voice). The Rainbow Hub described it as "a Gilbert-and-Sullivan style operetta." AMommyStory described it as " a cute little ditty ". ShepFromTamp argues "The closest the movie comes to [the folksy] theme [of Frozen Heart] ever again is Kristoff’s “Reindeer(s) Are Better Than People.”" The Huntington News described it as "folksy". TunesReviews describes it as a "short quip". AwardsDaily said "It feels like more of a ditty and less of a production number".

Certifications