Frozen (2013 film)
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| Frozen | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by |
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| Produced by | Peter Del Vecho |
| Screenplay by | Jennifer Lee |
| Story by |
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| Based on | The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen |
| Starring | |
| Music by |
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| Edited by | Jeff Draheim |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures |
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Release dates
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Running time
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102 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $150 million[2][3] |
| Box office | $1.276 billion[3] |
Frozen is a 2013 American 3D computer-animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures.[4] It is the 53rd animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale The Snow Queen, the film tells the story of a fearless princess who sets off on an epic journey alongside a rugged iceman,
his loyal pet reindeer, and a naïve snowman to find her estranged
sister, whose icy powers have inadvertently trapped the kingdom in
eternal winter.
Frozen underwent several story treatments for years before being commissioned in 2011, with a screenplay written by Jennifer Lee, and both Chris Buck and Lee serving as directors. It features the voices of Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, Josh Gad and Santino Fontana. Christophe Beck, who had worked on Disney's award-winning short Paperman, was hired to compose the film's orchestral score, while husband-and-wife songwriting team Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez wrote the songs.
Frozen premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California, on November 19, 2013,[5] and went into general theatrical release on November 27. It was met with strongly positive reviews from critics and audiences, with some film critics considering Frozen to be the best Disney animated feature film since the studio's renaissance era.[6][7]
The film was also a massive commercial success; it accumulated nearly
$1.3 billion in worldwide box office revenue, $400 million of which was
earned in the United States and Canada and $247 million of which was
earned in Japan. It ranks as the highest-grossing animated film of all time, the third highest-grossing original film of all time, the eighth highest-grossing film of all time, the highest-grossing film of 2013, and the third highest-grossing film in Japan. With over 18 million home media sales in 2014, it became the best-selling film of the year in the United States. By January 2015, Frozen had become the all-time best-selling Blu-ray Disc in the United States.[8]
Frozen won two Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song ("Let It Go"),[9] the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film,[10] the BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film,[11] five Annie Awards (including Best Animated Feature),[12] two Grammy Awards for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media and Best Song Written for Visual Media ("Let It Go"),[13] and two Critics' Choice Movie Awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song ("Let It Go").[14]
An animated short sequel, Frozen Fever, premiered on March 13, 2015, with Disney's Cinderella.[15] On March 12, 2015, a feature-length sequel was announced, with Buck and Lee returning as directors and Peter Del Vecho returning as producer. A release date has not been disclosed.[16]
Contents
- 1 Plot
- 2 Voice cast
- 3 Production
- 3.1 Development
- 3.1.1 Origins
- 3.1.2 Later efforts
- 3.1.3 Revitalization
- 3.1.4 Writing
- 3.1.5 Casting
- 3.2 Animation
- 3.3 Technology development
- 3.4 Scandinavian and Sámi inspiration
- 3.5 Music and sound design
- 3.6 Localization
- 4 Release
- 4.1 Home media
- 4.2 Trademark infringement lawsuit
- 4.3 Piracy
- 5 Reception
- 5.1 Box office
- 5.1.1 North America
- 5.1.2 Outside North America
- 5.1.3 Commercial analysis
- 5.2 Critical response
- 5.3 Controversies
- 5.3.1 Portrayal of emotions
- 5.3.2 Perceived LGBT parallels
- 5.4 Accolades
- 6 Cultural impact
- 7 Franchise
- 7.1 Sequel
- 8 See also
- 9 References
- 10 Further reading
- 11 External links
Plot
Elsa, Princess of Arendelle, possesses cryokinetic
powers, with which she is able to produce or manipulate ice, frost and
snow at will. One night while playing, she accidentally injures her
younger sister, Anna. Their shocked parents, the king and queen, seek help from the troll
king, who heals Anna and removes her memories of Elsa's magic. The
royal couple isolate the children in the castle until Elsa learns to
control her magical powers. Afraid of hurting Anna again, and with her
ability to control her powers deteriorating, Elsa spends most of her
time alone in her room, refusing even to speak to Anna and a rift
develops between the sisters as they grow up. When the girls are
teenagers, their parents die at sea during a storm.
When Elsa comes of age, the kingdom prepares for her coronation.
Among the guests is the Duke of Weselton, who seeks to exploit
Arendelle for profit. Excited to be allowed out of the castle again,
Princess Anna explores the town and meets Prince Hans
of the Southern Isles; the two quickly develop a mutual attraction.
Despite Elsa's fears, her coronation takes place without incident.
During the reception, Hans proposes to Anna, who hastily accepts.
However, Elsa refuses to grant her blessing and forbids their sudden
marriage. The sisters argue, culminating in the exposure of Elsa's
abilities in an emotional outburst.
Panicking, Elsa flees the castle, while inadvertently unleashing an
eternal winter on the kingdom. High in the nearby mountains, she
abandons her restraint, vowing to never return and building herself a
solitary ice palace. Meanwhile, Anna leaves Hans in charge of Arendelle
and sets out in search of her sister, determined to return her to
Arendelle, end the winter and mend their relationship. While obtaining
supplies, Anna meets an iceman named Kristoff and his reindeer, Sven, and convinces Kristoff to guide her up the North Mountain. On their journey, the group encounters Olaf,
Anna and Elsa's childhood snowman whom the latter recreated and
unknowingly brought to life, who leads them to Elsa's hideaway.
Anna and Elsa reunite, but Elsa still fears hurting her sister. When
Anna insists that Elsa return, she becomes agitated and her powers lash
out, accidentally striking Anna in the heart. Horrified, Elsa forces
Anna, Kristoff and Olaf to leave by creating a giant snow creature named
Marshmallow that chases them away from her palace. As they flee,
Kristoff notices Anna's hair turning white and deduces that something is
very wrong. He seeks help from the trolls, his adoptive family, who
explain that Anna's heart has been frozen by Elsa. Unless it can be
thawed by an "act of true love", she will become frozen solid forever.
Believing that only Hans can save her with a true love's kiss, Kristoff
races back with her to Arendelle.
Meanwhile, Hans, who is leading a search for Anna, reaches Elsa's
palace. In the ensuing battle against the duke's men, Elsa is knocked
unconscious by a falling chandelier and imprisoned in Arendelle. There,
Hans pleads with her to undo the winter, but Elsa confesses that she has
no idea how. When Anna reunites with Hans and begs him to kiss her to
break the curse, Hans refuses and reveals that his true intention in
marrying her is to seize control of Arendelle's throne. Leaving Anna to
die, he charges Elsa with treason for her younger sister's apparent
death.
Elsa escapes and heads out into the blizzard on the fjord.
Olaf comes across Anna and reveals Kristoff is in love with her; they
then escape onto the fjord to find him. Hans confronts Elsa, telling her
Anna is dead because of her. In Elsa's despair, the storm suddenly
ceases, giving Kristoff and Anna the chance to locate each other.
Nevertheless, Anna, seeing that Hans is about to kill Elsa, throws
herself between the two just as she freezes solid, blocking Hans'
attack.
As Elsa grieves for her sister, Anna begins to thaw, since her
decision to sacrifice herself to save her sister constitutes an "act of
true love". Realizing love is the key to controlling her powers, Elsa
reforms by thawing the kingdom and helps Olaf survive in summer. Hans is
deported to the Southern Isles to face punishment for his crimes
against the royal family of Arendelle, while Elsa cuts off trade with
Weselton. The two sisters reconcile and Elsa promises never to shut the
castle gates again.
Voice cast
See also: List of Frozen characters
Top row (l–r): Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel
Bottom row (l–r): Jonathan Groff, Josh Gad and Santino Fontana
- Kristen Bell as Anna, the 18-year-old[17]:13 Princess of Arendelle and Elsa's younger sister[18]
- Livvy Stubenrauch as 5-year-old[17]:2 Anna[19]
- Katie Lopez as 5-year-old Anna (singing)[20]
- Agatha Lee Monn as 9-year-old[17]:9 Anna[21]
- Idina Menzel as Elsa, the 21-year-old[17]:16 Snow Queen of Arendelle and Anna's elder sister[18][22]
- Eva Bella as 8-year-old[17]:2 Elsa[23][24]
- Spencer Lacey Ganus as 12-year-old[17]:10 Elsa[24]
- Jonathan Groff as Kristoff, an iceman accompanied by a reindeer named Sven[25][26]
- Tyree Brown as 8-year-old[17]:1 Kristoff[27]
- Josh Gad as Olaf, a comic-relief snowman that Elsa and Anna created as children who dreams of experiencing summer[18][28][29]
- Santino Fontana as Hans, a prince from the Southern Isles[25]
- Alan Tudyk as the Duke of Weselton[29]
- Ciarán Hinds as Grand Pabbie the Troll King[30]
- Chris Williams as Oaken, the owner of Wandering Oaken's Trading Post and Sauna[31]
- Maia Wilson as Bulda, a troll and Kristoff's adoptive mother[17][32]
- Paul Briggs as Marshmallow, a giant snow monster[33]
- Maurice LaMarche as the King of Arendelle, Anna and Elsa's father[17][32]
- Jennifer Lee as the Queen of Arendelle, Anna and Elsa's mother[34]
Non-speaking characters include Kristoff's reindeer companion Sven, horses and wolves.[35]
Production
Development
Origins
Concept art from Disney's shelved hand-drawn film adaptation of The Snow Queen[36]
Walt Disney Productions first began exploring a possible live action/animation biography film of author and poet Hans Christian Andersen sometime in late 1937 before the December premiere of its film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first feature-length hand-drawn animated film ever made.[37]:10 In March 1940, Walt Disney suggested a co-production to film producer Samuel Goldwyn, where Goldwyn's studio would shoot the live-action sequences of Andersen's life and Disney's studio would animate Andersen's fairy tales.[37]:10 The animated sequences would be based on some of Andersen's best known works, such as The Little Mermaid, The Little Match Girl, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, The Snow Queen, Thumbelina, The Ugly Duckling, The Red Shoes, and The Emperor's New Clothes. However, the studio encountered difficulty with The Snow Queen,
as it could not find a way to adapt and relate the Snow Queen character
to modern audiences. Even as far back as the 1930s and 1940s, it was
clear that the source material contained great cinematic possibilities,
but the Snow Queen character proved to be too problematic. After the United States entered World War II, the studio began to focus on making wartime propaganda, which caused development on the Disney–Goldwyn project to grind to a halt in 1942.[37]:10 Goldwyn went on to produce his own live-action film version in 1952, entitled Hans Christian Andersen, with Danny Kaye as Andersen, Charles Vidor directing, Moss Hart writing, and Frank Loesser
penning the songs. All of Andersen's fairy tales were, instead, told in
song and ballet in live-action, like the rest of the film. It went on
to receive six Academy Award nominations the following year. Back at Disney, The Snow Queen, along with other Andersen fairy tales (including The Little Mermaid), were shelved.[38]
Later efforts
"Hans Christian Andersen's original version of The Snow Queen
is a pretty dark tale and it doesn't translate easily into a film. For
us the breakthrough came when we tried to give really human qualities to
the Snow Queen. When we decided to make the Snow Queen Elsa and our
protagonist Anna sisters, that gave a way to relate to the characters in
a way that conveyed what each was going through and that would relate
for today's audiences. This film has a lot of complicated characters and
complicated relationships in it. There are times when Elsa does
villainous things but because you understand where it comes from, from
this desire to defend herself, you can always relate to her. 'Inspired
by' means exactly that. There is snow and there is ice and there is a
Queen, but other than that, we depart from it quite a bit. We do try to
bring scope and the scale that you would expect but do it in a way that
we can understand the characters and relate to them."
– Producer Peter Del Vecho, on the difficulties adapting The Snow Queen[39]
In the late 1990s, Walt Disney Feature Animation started developing a new adaptation of The Snow Queen after the tremendous success of their recent films during the Disney Renaissance era (1989 - 1999), but the project was scrapped completely in late 2002, when Glen Keane reportedly quit the project[36] and went on to work on another project which became Tangled (2010). Even before then, Harvey Fierstein pitched his version of the story to Disney's executives, but was turned down.[38] Paul and Gaëtan Brizzi, Dick Zondag and Dave Goetz reportedly all had their try on it, but failed.[38] After a number of unsuccessful attempts from 2000 to 2002, Disney shelved the project again.[37]:10–11 During one of those attempts, Michael Eisner, then-chairman and chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Company, offered his support to the project and suggested doing it with Oscar-winning director John Lasseter at Pixar Animation Studios after the then-expected renewal of Pixar's contract with Disney.[40] But negotiations between Pixar and Disney collapsed in January 2004 and that contract was never renewed.[41] Instead, Eisner's successor Bob Iger negotiated Disney's purchase of Pixar in January 2006 for $7.4 billion, and Lasseter was promoted to chief creative officer of both Pixar and Disney Animation.[42][43]
The next attempt started in 2008, when Lasseter was able to convince Chris Buck (who co-directed the 1999 film Tarzan for the studio) to return to Walt Disney Feature Animation from Sony Pictures Animation (where he had recently co-directed the Oscar-nominated 2007 film Surf's Up); that September, Buck pitched several ideas to Lasseter, one of which was The Snow Queen.[37]:6,11 Buck later revealed that his initial inspiration for The Snow Queen
was not the Andersen fairy tale itself, but that he wanted "to do
something different on the definition of true love." "Disney had already
done the 'kissed by a prince' thing, so [I] thought it was time for
something new," he recalled.[44] It turned out Lasseter had been interested in The Snow Queen for a long time; back when Pixar was working with Disney on Toy Story in the 1990s, he saw and was "blown away" by some of the pre-production art from Disney's prior attempts.[37]:6 Development began under the title Anna and the Snow Queen, which was planned to be traditionally animated.[45] According to Josh Gad,
he first became involved with the film at that early stage, when the
plot was still relatively close to the original Andersen fairy tale and Megan Mullally was going to play Elsa.[46] By early 2010, the project entered development hell once again, when the studio again failed to find a way to make the story and the Snow Queen character work.[47][48]
Revitalization
On December 22, 2011, following the success of Tangled, Disney announced a new title for the film, Frozen, and a release date of November 27, 2013.[49] A month later, it was confirmed that the film would be a computer-animated feature in stereoscopic 3D, instead of the originally intended hand-drawn animation.[36] Anderson-Lopez and Lopez joined the project and started writing songs for Frozen in January 2012.[50]:44:00 On March 5, 2012, it was announced that Buck would be directing, with Lasseter and Peter Del Vecho producing.[51]
After Disney decided to advance The Snow Queen into
development again, one of the main challenges Buck and Del Vecho faced
was the character of the Snow Queen, who was then a villain in their
drafts.[38]
The studio has a tradition of screening animated films in development
every twelve weeks, then holding lengthy "notes sessions" in which its
directors and screenwriters from different projects provide extensive "notes" on each other's work.[52][53][54]
Buck and Del Vecho presented their storyboards to Lasseter, and the
entire production team adjourned to a conference to hear his thoughts on
the project.[38] Art director
Michael Giaimo later acknowledged Lasseter as the "game changer" of the
film: "I remember John saying that the latest version of The Snow Queen
story that Chris Buck and his team had come up with was fun, very
light-hearted. But the characters didn't resonate. They aren't
multi-faceted. Which is why John felt that audiences wouldn't really be
able to connect with them."[38]
The production team then addressed the film's problems, drafting several variations on The Snow Queen
story until the characters and story felt relevant. At that stage, the
first major breakthrough was the decision to rewrite the film's
protagonist, Anna (who was based on the Gerda character from The Snow Queen), as the younger sibling of Elsa, thereby effectively establishing a family dynamic between the characters.[38][55]
This was unusual in that relationships between sisters are rarely used
as a major plot element in American animated films, with the notable
exception of Disney's Lilo & Stitch (2002).[37]:13
To fully explore the unique dynamics of such relationships, Disney
Animation convened a "Sister Summit," at which women from all over the
studio who grew up with sisters were asked to discuss their
relationships with their sisters.[37]:14
Writing
In March 2012, Jennifer Lee, one of the screenwriters of Wreck-It Ralph, was brought in as the film's screenwriter by Del Vecho.[56][57] Lee later explained that as Wreck-It Ralph was wrapping up, she was giving notes on other projects, and "we kind of really connected with what we were thinking."[58]
According to Lee, several core concepts were already in place from
Buck and Del Vecho's early work, such as the film's "frozen heart" hook: "That was a concept and the phrase ... an act of true love will thaw a frozen heart."[58] They already knew the ending involved true love in the sense of the emotional bond between siblings, not romance, in that "Anna was going to save Elsa. We didn’t know how or why."[58] Lee said Edwin Catmull,
president of Disney Animation, told her early on about the film's
ending: "First and foremost, no matter what you have to do to the story,
do it. But you have to earn that ending. If you do[,] it will be great.
If you don't, it will suck."[52]
Before Lee was brought on board, another screenwriter had made a
first pass at a script, and Anderson-Lopez and Lopez tried to write
songs for that script but none worked and all were cut.[50]:9:07
Then "the whole script imploded," which gave the songwriters the
opportunity "to put a lot of [their] DNA" into the new script that Lee
was writing.[50]:30:32
The production team "essentially started over and ... had 17 months,"
which resulted in a very "intense schedule" and implied "a lot of
choices had to be made fast."[58]
The earlier versions differed sharply from the final version. In the
original script the songwriters first saw, Elsa was evil from the start;
she kidnapped Anna from her own wedding to intentionally freeze her
heart, then later descended upon the town with an army of snowmen with
the objective of recapturing Anna to freeze her heart properly.[50]:8:42
By the time Lee came in, the first act included Elsa deliberately
striking Anna in the heart with her freezing powers; then "the whole
second act was about Anna trying to get to Hans and to kiss him and then
Elsa trying to stop her."[58]
Buck revealed that the original plot attempted to make Anna sympathetic
by focusing on her frustration as being perceived as the "spare" in
relation to the "heir," Elsa.[59] The original plot also had different pacing, in that it was "much more of an action adventure" than a musical or a comedy.[56]
One major breakthrough was the composition of the song "Let It Go" by
songwriters Lopez and Anderson-Lopez, which forced the production team
to reconceptualize and rewrite Elsa as a far more complex, vulnerable,
and sympathetic character.[55] In The Daily Telegraph
's words, instead of the villain envisioned by the producers, the
songwriters saw Elsa as "a scared girl struggling to control and come to
terms with her gift."[60] Lee recalled: "Bobby and Kristen said they were walking in Prospect Park
and they just started talking about what would it feel like [to be
Elsa]. Forget villain. Just what it would feel like. And this concept of
letting out who she is[,] that she's kept to herself for so long[,] and
she's alone and free, but then the sadness of the fact [sic] that the last moment is she's alone. It’s not a perfect thing, but it's powerful."[58]
Del Vecho explained that "Let It Go" changed Elsa into a person "ruled
by fear and Anna was ruled by her own love of other people and her own
drive," which in turn caused Lee to "rewrite the first act and then that
rippled through the entire movie. So that was when we really found the
movie and who these characters were."[54]
Another major breakthrough was developing the plot twist that Prince Hans would be revealed as the film's true villain only near the end.[54]
Hans was not even in the earliest drafts, then at first was not a
villain, and after becoming one, was revealed to be evil much earlier in
the plot.[54]
Del Vecho said, "We realized [what] was most important [was] if we were
going to make the ending so surprising[,] you had to believe at one
point that Hans was the answer ... [when] he's not the answer, it's
Kristoff ... [I]f you can get the audience to leap ahead and think they
have figured it out[,] you can surprise them by turning it the other
way."[54] Lee acknowledged that Hans was written as "sociopathic" and "twisted" throughout the final version.[58] For example, Hans mirrors
the behavior of the other characters: "He mirrors [Anna] and he's goofy
with her ... [T]he Duke [of Weselton] is a jerk, so he's a jerk back.
And with Elsa he's a hero."[58]
It was difficult to lay the foundation for Anna's belated turn to
Kristoff without also making Hans' betrayal of Anna too predictable, in
that the audience had to "feel ... her feeling something but not quite
understanding it ... Because the minute it is [understood,] it
deflated."[58] At one point, Anna openly flirted with Kristoff upon first meeting him, but that was changed after Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn pointed out that it would confuse and annoy viewers since Anna was already engaged to Hans.[61]
Lee had to work through the issue of how to write Anna's personality,
in that some of her colleagues felt Anna should be more dysfunctional
and co-dependent, like Vanellope von Schweetz in Wreck-It Ralph.[56]
Lee disagreed with that position, but it took her almost a year to
figure out how to convincingly articulate "this is what Anna's journey
is. No more than that. No less than that."[58] In the end, Lee successfully argued Anna's journey should be presented as a simple coming-of-age story,
"where she goes from having a naive view of life and love – because
she's lonely – to the most sophisticated and mature view of love, where
she's capable of the ultimate love, which is sacrifice."[56]
Lee also had to let go of some ideas that she liked, such as a scene
portraying Anna and Elsa's relationship as teenagers, which did not work
because they needed to maintain the separation between Anna and Elsa.[56]
To construct Anna and Elsa's relationship as sisters, Lee found inspiration in her own relationship with her older sister.[58][62] Lee said her older sister was "a big inspiration for Elsa,"[58] called her "my Elsa" in an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, and walked the red carpet with her at the 86th Academy Awards.[53] Lee explained, "[h]aving to ... lose each other and then rediscover each other as adults, that was a big part of my life."[58]
The production team also turned Olaf from Elsa's obnoxious sidekick into Anna's comically innocent sidekick.[58]
Lee's initial response to the original "mean" version of Olaf had been,
"Kill the f-ing snowman," and she found Olaf by far "the hardest
character to deal with."[58]
The problem of how exactly Anna would save Elsa at the film's climax was solved by story artist
John Ripa. At the story meeting where Ripa pitched his take on the
story, the response was silence until Lasseter said, "I've never seen
anything like that before," which was followed by a standing ovation.[37]:31
Along the way, the production team went through drafts where the
first act included far more detail than what ended up in the final
version, such as a troll with a Brooklyn accent who would have explained the backstory behind Elsa's magical powers, and a regent for whom Lee was hoping to cast comedian Louis C.K.[58]
After all those details were thoroughly "over-analyzed", they were
excised because they amounted to a "much more complex story than really
we felt like we could fit in this 90-minute film."[58] As Del Vecho put it, "the more we tried to explain things at the beginning, the more complicated it got."[63]
Casting
Actress Kristen Bell was cast as the voice of Anna on March 5, 2012.[25][51]
Lee admitted that Bell's casting selection was influenced after the
filmmakers listened to a series of vocal tracks Bell had recorded when
she was young, where the actress performed several songs from The Little Mermaid, including "Part of Your World".[64]
Bell completed her recording sessions while she was pregnant, and
subsequently re-recorded some of her character's lines after her
pregnancy, as her voice had deepened.[65]
Bell was called in to re-record dialogue for the film "probably 20
times," which is normal for lead roles in Disney animated films whose
scripts are still evolving.[66]
As for her approach to the role of Anna, Bell enthused that she had
"dreamed of being in a Disney animated film" since she was four years
old,[25]
saying, "I always loved Disney animation, but there was something about
the females that was unattainable to me. Their posture was too good and
they were too well-spoken, and I feel like I really made this girl much
more relatable and weirder and scrappier and more excitable and
awkward. I'm really proud of that."[67]
Frozen is "a bit of a feminist movie for Disney. I'm really
proud of that. It has everything, but it's essentially about sisterhood.
I think that these two women are competitive with one another, but
always trying to protect each other – sisters are just so complicated.
It's such a great relationship to have in movies, especially for young
kids."
– Idina Menzel, on her impression of Frozen[64]
Idina Menzel, a Broadway veteran, was cast as Elsa. Menzel had formerly auditioned for Tangled, but did not get the part. However, Tangled
's casting director, Jamie Sparer Roberts, preserved a recording of
Menzel's performance on her iPhone, and on the basis of that, asked her
to audition along with Bell for Frozen.[68] Before they were officially cast, Menzel and Bell deeply impressed the directors and producers at an early table read; after reading the entire script out loud, they sang "Wind Beneath My Wings" together as a duet, since no music had been composed yet.[22][55][68] Bell had suggested that idea when she visited Menzel at her California home to prepare together for the table read.[68][69]
The songwriters were also present for the table read; Anderson-Lopez
said "Lasseter was in heaven" upon hearing Menzel and Bell sing in
harmony, and from that moment forward, he insisted, "Kristen Bell and
Idina Menzel have to be in the movie!"[50]:32:07 Lee said, "They sung [sic] it like sisters and what you mean to me[,] [a]nd there wasn't a dry eye in the house after they sang."[54] Between December 2012 and June 2013, the casting of additional roles was announced, including Jonathan Groff as Kristoff,[26] Alan Tudyk as the Duke of Weselton, Santino Fontana as Prince Hans, and Josh Gad as Olaf.[29]
Following Lee's extensive involvement in Frozen 's development process and her close work with director Buck and songwriters Lopez and Anderson-Lopez,[39] studio heads Lasseter and Catmull promoted her to co-director of the film alongside Buck in August 2012.[52][70] Her promotion was officially announced on November 29, 2012,[71] making Lee the first woman to direct a full-length animated motion picture produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios.[55] She primarily worked on story while Buck focused on animation.[39][54]
Lee later stated that she was "really moved by a lot of what Chris had
done" and that they "shared a vision" of the story, having "very similar
sensibilities".[52]
By November 2012, the production team thought they had finally "cracked" the puzzle of how to make the film's story work,[37]:155
but according to Del Vecho, in late February 2013, it was realized that
the film still "wasn't working", which necessitated even more rewriting
of scenes and songs from February through June 2013.[63][72][73]
He explained, "we rewrote songs, we took out characters and changed
everything, and suddenly the movie gelled. But that was close. In
hindsight, piece of cake, but during, it was a big struggle."[63]
Looking back, Anderson-Lopez joked she and Lopez thought at the time
they could end up working as "birthday party clown[s]" if the final
product "pull[ed] ... down" their careers[50]:19:07 and recalled that "we were really writing up until the last minute."[74]
In June (five months before the already-announced release date), the
songwriters finally got the film working when they composed the song "For the First Time in Forever", which, in Lopez's words, "became the linchpin of the whole movie."[50]:19:24
That month, Disney conducted test screenings of the half-completed film with two audiences (one made up of families and the other made up of adults)[72] in Phoenix, Arizona,[62] at which Lasseter and Catmull were personally present.[58][75] Lee recalled that it was the moment when they realized they "had something, because the reaction was huge."[75] Catmull, who had instructed Lee at the outset to "earn that ending," told her afterwards, "you did it".[58]
Animation
Similar to Tangled, Frozen employed a unique artistic style by blending together features of both computer-generated imagery (CGI) and traditional hand-drawn animation.[76]
From the beginning, Buck knew Giaimo was the best candidate to develop
the style he had in mind – which would draw from the best Disney
hand-drawn classics of the 1950s, the Disney Little Golden Books, and mid-century modern design – and persuaded him to come back to Disney to serve as the art director for Frozen.[37]:33 Buck, Lasseter, and Giaimo were all old friends who had first met at the California Institute of the Arts,[37]:33 and Giaimo had previously served as the art director for Disney's Pocahontas (1995), which Buck had worked on as a supervising animator.[77]
To create the look of Frozen, Giaimo began pre-production research by reading extensively about the entire region of Scandinavia and visiting the Danish-themed city of Solvang near Los Angeles, but eventually zeroed in on Norway in particular because "80 percent" of the visuals that appealed to him were from Norway.[78] Disney eventually sponsored three research field trips.[79] Animators and special effects specialists were dispatched to Jackson Hole, Wyoming,
to experience walking, running, and falling in deep snow in a variety
of types of attire, including long skirts (which both female and male
personnel tried on);[39][78][79][80] while lighting and arts teams visited an Ice Hotel in Quebec City, Quebec to study how light reflects and refracts on snow and ice.[63]
Finally, Giaimo and several artists traveled to Norway to draw
inspiration from its mountains, fjords, architecture, and culture.[79][81]
"We had a very short time schedule for this film, so our main focus was
really to get the story right but we knew that John Lasseter is keen on
truth in the material and creating a believable world, and again that
doesn't mean it's a realistic world – but a believable one. It was
important to see the scope and scale of Norway, and important for our
animators to know what it's like," Del Vecho said.[82] "There is a real feeling of Lawrence of Arabia scope and scale to this," he finished.[82]
During 2012, while Giaimo and the animators and artists conducted
preparatory research and developed the film's overall look, the
production team was still struggling to develop a compelling script, as
explained above. That problem was not adequately solved until November
2012,[37]:155 and the script would later require even more significant revisions after that point.[63][72]
As a result, the single "most daunting" challenge facing the animation
team was a short schedule of less than 12 months to turn Lee's
still-evolving shooting script into an actual film.[37]:155 Other films like Pixar's Toy Story 2
had been successfully completed on even shorter schedules, but a short
schedule necessarily meant "late nights, overtime, and stress."[37]:155 Lee estimated the total size of the entire team on Frozen to be around 600 to 650 people, "including around 70 lighting people[,] 70-plus animators," and 15 to 20 storyboard artists.[83]
Del Vecho explained how the film's animation team was organized: "On
this movie we do have character leads, supervising animators on specific
characters. The animators themselves may work on multiple characters
but it's always under one lead. I think it was different on Tangled,
for example, but we chose to do it this way as we wanted one person to
fully understand and develop their own character and then be able to
impart that to the crew. Hyrum Osmond, the animator on Olaf, is quiet
but he has a funny, wacky personality so we knew he'd bring a lot of
comedy to it; Anna's animator, Becky Bresee, it's her first time leading
a character and we wanted her to lead Anna."[39][55][84] Acting coach Warner Loughlin was brought in to help the film's animators understand the characters they were creating.[80]
In order to get the general feeling of each scene, some animators did
their own acting. "I actually film myself acting the scene out, which I
find very helpful," said animation supervisor Rebecca Wilson Bresee.
This helped her discover elements that made the scene feel real and
believable.[85]
Elsa's supervising animator was Wayne Unten, who asked for that role
because he was fascinated by the complexity of the character.[86] Unten carefully developed Elsa's facial expressions in order to bring out her fear as contrasted against Anna's fearlessness.[86] He also studied videos from Menzel's recording sessions and animated Elsa's breathing to match Menzel's breathing.[80]
Regarding the look and nature of the film's cinematography, Giaimo was greatly influenced by Jack Cardiff's work in Black Narcissus.
According to him, it lent a hyper-reality to the film: "Because this is
a movie with such scale and we have the Norwegian fjords to draw from, I
really wanted to explore the depth. From a design perspective, since I
was stressing the horizontal and vertical aspects, and what the fjords
provide, it was perfect. We encased the sibling story in scale." Ted D. McCord's work in The Sound of Music was another major influence for Giaimo. It was also Giaimo's idea that Frozen should be filmed in the CinemaScope aspect ratio, which was approved by Lasseter.[84] Giaimo also wanted to ensure that Norway's fjords, architecture and rosemaling
folk art, were critical factors in designing the environment of
Arendelle. Giaimo, whose background is in traditional animation, said
that the art design environment represents a unity of character and
environment and that he originally wanted to incorporate saturated
colors, which is typically ill-advised in computer animation.[84]
For further authenticity, a live reindeer named Sage was brought into
the studio for animators to study its movements and mannerisms for the
character Sven.[87][88]
Another important issue Giaimo insisted on addressing was costumes,
in that he "knew from the start" it would be a "costume film."[37]:77 To realize that vision, he brought in character designer Jean Gillmore to act as a dedicated "costume designer".[89]
While traditional animation simply integrates costume design with
character design and treats clothing as merely part of the characters,
computer-generated animation regards costume as almost a separate entity
with its own properties and behaviors[89] – and Frozen required a level of as-yet untried detail, down to minutiae like fabrics, buttons, trim, and stitching.[37]:76 Gillmore explained that her "general approach was to meld the historic silhouettes of 1840 Western Europe (give or take), with the shapes and garment relationships and details of folk costume in early Norway, circa 19th century."[89] This meant using primarily wool fabric with accents of velvet, linen, and silk.[37]:75
During production, Giaimo and Gillmore "ran around" supplying various
departments with real-world samples to use as references; they were able
to draw upon both the studio's own in-house library of fabric samples
and the resources of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts' costume division in Fullerton, California.[89] The film's "look development artists" (the Disney job title for texture artists[90]:58–59)
created the digitally painted simulation of the appearance of surfaces,
while other departments dealt with movement, rigging and weight,
thickness and lighting of textile animation.[89]
During production, the film's English title was changed from The Snow Queen to Frozen, a decision that drew comparisons to another Disney film, Tangled. Peter Del Vecho explained that "the title Frozen came up independently of the title Tangled. It's because, to us, it represents the movie. Frozen
plays on the level of ice and snow but also the frozen relationship,
the frozen heart that has to be thawed. We don't think of comparisons
between Tangled and Frozen, though." He also mentioned that the film will still retain its original title, The Snow Queen, in some countries: "because that just resonated stronger in some countries than Frozen. Maybe there's a richness to The Snow Queen in the country's heritage and they just wanted to emphasize that."[39]
Technology development
Test animation demonstrating snow effects employed in the film
The studio also developed several new tools to generate realistic and
believable shots, particularly the heavy and deep snow and its
interactions with the characters. Disney wanted an "all-encompassing"
and organic tool to provide snow effects but not require switching
between different methods.[91]
As noted above, several Disney artists and special effects personnel
traveled to Wyoming to experience walking through deep snow.[78] Dr. Kenneth Libbrecht, a professor from the California Institute of Technology, was invited to give lectures to the effects group on how snow and ice form, and why snowflakes are unique.[78]
Using this knowledge, the effects group created a snowflake generator
that allowed them to randomly create 2,000 unique snowflake shapes for
the film.[85]
Another challenge that the studio had to face was to deliver shots of
heavy and deep snow that both interacted believably with characters and
had a realistic sticky quality.[91]
According to principal software engineer Andrew Selle, "[Snow]'s not
really a fluid. It’s not really a solid. It breaks apart. It can be
compressed into snowballs. All of these different effects are very
difficult to capture simultaneously."[78] In order to achieve this, software engineers used advanced mathematics (the material point method) and physics, with assistance from mathematics researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles[92][93] to create a snow simulator software application called Matterhorn.
The tool was capable of depicting realistic snow in a virtual
environment and was used in at least 43 scenes in the film, including
several key sequences.[55][91][92][94] Software engineer Alexey Stomakhin referred to snow as "an important character in the film,"[92] therefore it attracted special attention from the filmmakers.[78]
"When you stretch it, snow will break into chunks. Since snow doesn't
have any connections, it doesn't have a mesh, it can break very easily.
So that was an important property we took advantage of," explained
Selle. "There you see [Kristoff] walking through and see his footprints
breaking the snow into little pieces and chunk up and you see [Anna]
being pulled out and the snow having packed together and broken into
pieces. It's very organic how that happens. You don't see that they're
pieces already – you see the snow as one thing and then breaking up."[91]
The tool also proved to be particularly useful in scenes involving
characters walking through deep snow, as it ensured that the snow
reacted naturally to each step.[78]
Other tools designed to help artists complete complicated effects included Spaces, which allowed Olaf's deconstructible parts to be moved around and rebuilt, Flourish, which allowed extra movement such as leaves and twigs to be art-directed; Snow Batcher,
which helped preview the final look of the snow, especially when
characters were interacting with an area of snow by walking through a
volume, and Tonic, which enabled artists to sculpt their characters' hair as procedural volumes.[91] Tonic
also aided in animating fur and hair elements such as Elsa's hair,
which contains 420,000 computer-generated strands, while the average
number for a real human being is only 100,000.[78] The number of character rigs in Frozen is 312 and the number of simulated costumes also reached 245 cloth rigs, which were far beyond all other Disney films to date.[21][85]
Fifty effects artists and lighting artists worked together on the
technology to create "one single shot" in which Elsa builds her ice
palace. Its complexity required 30 hours to render each frame, with 4,000 computers rendering one frame at a time.[95][96]
Besides 3D effects, the filmmakers also used 2D artwork and drawings
for specific elements and sequences in the film, including Elsa's magic
and snow sculptures, as well as freezing fountains and floors.[91][94] The effects group created a "capture stage" where the entire world of Frozen
gets displayed on monitors, which can be "filmed" on special cameras to
operate a three-dimensional scene. "We can take this virtual set that's
mimicking all of my actions and put it into any one of our scenes in
the film," said technology manager Evan Goldberg.[85]
The setting was principally based on Norway, and the cultural influences in the film come from Scandinavian culture.[97] Several landmarks in Norway appear in the film, including the Akershus Fortress in Oslo, the Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim, and Bryggen in Bergen. Numerous other typical cultural Scandinavian elements are also included in the film, such as stave churches,[97] trolls,[17]:6 Viking ships, a hot spring, Fjord horses,[98] clothes,[78] and food such as lutefisk.[17]:43[99] A maypole is also present in the film, as well as the brief appearance of runes in a book that Anna and Elsa's father opens to figure out where the trolls live.[17]:6
A scene where two men argue over whether to stack firewood bark up or
bark down is a reference to the perennial Norwegian debate over how to
stack firewood properly.[17]:59[100] The film also contains several elements specifically drawn from Sámi culture,
such as the usage of reindeer for transportation and the equipment used
to control these, clothing styles (the outfits of the ice cutters), and
parts of the musical score.[101][102] Decorations, such as those on the castle pillars and Kristoff's sled, are also in styles inspired by Sámi duodji
decorations. During their field work in Norway, Disney's team, for
inspiration, visited Rørosrein, a Sámi family-owned company in the
village Plassje that produces reindeer meat and arranges tourist events.[103] Arendelle was inspired by Nærøyfjord, a branch of Norway's longest fjord Sognefjorden, which has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site;[104]
while a castle in Oslo with beautiful hand-painted patterns on all four
walls served as the inspiration for the kingdom's royal castle
interior.[105]
The filmmakers' trip to Norway provided essential knowledge for the
animators to come up with the design aesthetic for the film in terms of
color, light, and atmosphere. According to Giaimo, there were three
important factors that they had acquired from the Norway research trip:
the fjords, which are the massive vertical rock formations, and serve as
the setting for the secluded kingdom of Arendelle; the medieval stave
churches, whose rustic triangular rooflines and shingles inspired the
castle compound; and the rosemaling folk art, whose distinctive paneling
and grid patterns informed the architecture, decor, and costumes.[84]
Music and sound design
Main article: Frozen (soundtrack)
Christophe Beck composed the film's score.
The songs for Frozen were written and composed by the husband-and-wife songwriting team of Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, both of whom had previously worked with Disney Animation on Winnie the Pooh (2011) (also produced by Del Vecho, who then hired them for Frozen[72]) and before that, with Disney Parks on Finding Nemo – The Musical (2007).[22][106][107] Lopez first heard Disney Animation's pitch while in Los Angeles working on The Book of Mormon,
but Disney was so eager to get both of them on board that the
production team traveled to New York City to also pitch the film in
person to Anderson-Lopez (who was busy raising the couple's two young
daughters).[108] Lopez believes Disney was particularly interested in his wife's strong story talent.[109] The decision, of course, was easy: "Whenever Disney asks if you want to do a fairy tale musical, you say yes."[109]
About 23 minutes of the film are dedicated to their musical numbers.[110][111] Because they live in New York City, collaborating closely with the production team in Burbank required two-hour-long transcontinental videoconferences nearly every weekday for about 14 months.[81][107][112][113] For each song they composed, they recorded a demo in their home studio (with both of them singing the lyrics and Lopez accompanying on piano), then emailed it to Burbank for discussion at the next videoconference.[114] Lopez and Anderson-Lopez were aware of the fact that their work would be compared to that of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman from the Disney Renaissance era, and whenever they felt lost, they asked "What would Ashman do?"[115] In the end, they wrote 25 songs for the film, of which eight made it into the final version.[115] One song ("For the First Time in Forever") had a reprise
and the other ("Let It Go") was covered by Demi Lovato over the final
credits, for a total of ten songs. Seven of the 17 that did not make it
were later released on the deluxe edition soundtrack.
In February 2013, Christophe Beck was hired to score the film, following his work on Paperman, a Disney animated short film released the year prior to Frozen.[116] It was revealed on September 14, 2013, that Sámi musician Frode Fjellheim's Eatnemen Vuelie would be the film's opening song, as it contains elements of the traditional Sámi singing style joik.[117] The music producers recruited a Norwegian linguist to assist with the lyrics for an Old Norse song written for Elsa's coronation[118] and traveled to Trondheim, Norway,[115] to record the all-female choir Cantus, for a piece inspired by traditional Sámi music.[118]
Under the supervision of sound engineer David Boucher, the lead cast
members began recording the film's vocal tracks in October 2012 at the Sunset Sound recording studio in Hollywood before the songs had been orchestrated, meaning they heard only Lopez's demo piano track in their headphones as they sang.[119] Most of the dialogue was recorded at the Roy E. Disney Animation Building in Burbank under the supervision of original dialogue mixer Gabriel Guy, who also mixed the film's sound effects.[66] Some dialogue was recorded after recording songs at both Sunset Sound and Capitol Studios; for scenes involving Anna and Elsa, both studios offered vocal isolation booths where Menzel and Bell could read dialogue with line-of-sight with one another, while avoiding "bleedthrough" between their respective tracks.[66] Additional dialogue was recorded at an ADR
facility on the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank (across the street
from the Disney Animation building) and at the Soundtrack Group's New
York studio,[66] since the production team had to work around the busy schedules of the film's New York-based cast members like Fontana.[120]
Lopez and Anderson-Lopez's piano-vocal scores for the songs along with the vocal tracks were sent to Salem, Oregon-based Dave Metzger for arrangement and orchestration;[119][121] Metzger also orchestrated a significant portion of Beck's score.[107]
For the orchestral film score, Beck paid homage to the Norway- and Sápmi-inspired setting by employing regional instruments, such as the bukkehorn, and traditional vocal techniques, such as kulning.[118]
Beck worked with Lopez and Anderson-Lopez on incorporating their songs
into arrangements in the score. The trio's goal "was to create a
cohesive musical journey from beginning to end."[118]
Similarly, Beck's scoring mixer, Casey Stone (who also supervised the
recording of the score), worked with Boucher to align their microphone
setups to ensure the transitions between the songs and score were
seamless, even though they were separately recorded on different dates.[119] The final orchestrations of both the songs and score were all recorded at the Eastwood Scoring Stage[119][122] on the Warner Bros. studio lot in Burbank by an 80-piece orchestra, featuring 32 vocalists, including native Norwegian Christine Hals.[118]
Boucher supervised the recording of Anderson-Lopez and Lopez's songs
from July 22 to 24, 2013, then Stone supervised the recording of Beck's
score from September 3 to 6 and 9 to 10. Boucher mixed the songs at the
Eastwood stage, while Stone mixed the score at Beck's personal studio in
Santa Monica, California.[119]
Regarding the sound of Frozen, director Jennifer Lee stated
that sound played a huge part in making the film "visceral" and
"transported"; she explained, "[i]n letting it tell the story
emotionally, the sound of the ice when it's at its most dangerous just
makes you shudder."[123] The complete silence at the climax of the film right after Anna freezes was Lasseter's idea, one he "really wanted".[123] In that scene, even the ambient sound that would normally be there was taken out in order to make it feel unusual.[123] Lee explained "that was a moment where we wanted everything to feel suspended."[123]
To obtain certain snow and ice sound effects, sound designer Odin Benitez traveled to Mammoth Mountain, California, to record them at a frozen lake.[81] However, the foley work for the film was recorded on the foley stage on the Warner Bros. lot by a Warner Bros. crew.[66][122]
The foley artists received daily deliveries of 50 pounds (22.6 kg) of
snow ice while working, to help them record all the necessary snow and
ice sounds for the film.[66]
Because the film's visuals were finalized so late, five separate
versions of nearly every footstep on snow were recorded (corresponding
to five different types of snow), then one was later selected during
mixing to match the snow as rendered in the final version of each scene.[66]
One issue that the production team was "particular" about was the sound
of Elsa's footsteps in the ice palace, which required eight attempts,
including wine glasses on ice and metal knives on ice; they ended up
using a mix of three sounds.[66]
Although the vocals, music, sound effects, and almost all the dialogue were all recorded elsewhere, the final re-recording mix to Dolby Atmos format was performed at the Disney lot by Casey E. Fluhr of Disney Digital Studio Services.[66][122]
Localization
Like other Disney media products which are often localized through Disney Character Voices International, Frozen was translated and dubbed into 41 languages (compared with only 15 for The Lion King).[124] A major challenge was to find sopranos capable of matching Menzel's warm vocal tone and three-octave vocal range in their native languages.[124][125]
Rick Dempsey, the unit's senior executive, regarded the process of
translating the film as "exceptionally challenging"; he explained, "It's
a difficult juggling act to get the right intent of the lyrics and also
have it match rhythmically to the music. And then you have to go back
and adjust for lip sync! [It]...requires a lot of patience and
precision."[126]
Lopez explained that they were told by Disney to remove complex
wordplay and puns from their songs, to ensure the film was easily
translatable and had globally appealing lyrics.[127] For the casting of dubbed versions, Disney required native speakers in order to "ensure that the film feels 'local'."[126]
They used Bell and Menzel's voices as their "blueprint" in casting, and
tried to match the voices "as much as possible," meaning that they
auditioned approximately 200 singers to fill the 41 slots for Elsa
alone.[126]
For nearly 15 dubbed versions, they cast Elsa's singing and speaking
parts separately, since not all vocalists could act the part they were
singing.[126]
After casting all the other roles for all 41 languages, the
international cast ended up including more than 900 people, who voiced
their roles through approximately 1,300 recording sessions.[128]
Release
Peter Del Vecho, producer; Jennifer Lee, writer and director; and Chris Buck, director, at the film's premiere at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California
Frozen was released theatrically in the United States on November 27, 2013, and it was accompanied by the new Mickey Mouse animated short film, Get a Horse![129] The film's premiere was at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California, on November 19, 2013,[130] and had a five-day limited release there, starting from November 22, before going into wide release.[131][132]
Prior to the film's release, Lopez and Anderson-Lopez's "Let It Go" and "In Summer" were previewed at the 2013 D23 Expo; Idina Menzel performed the former live on stage.[133] A teaser trailer was released on June 18, 2013,[134][135] followed by the release of the official trailer on September 26, 2013.[136][137][138] Frozen was also promoted heavily at several Disney theme parks including Disneyland's Fantasyland, Disney California Adventure's World of Color, Epcot's Norway pavilion, and Disneyland Paris' Disney Dreams! show;[4][139][140] Disneyland and Epcot both offered meet-and-greet sessions involving the film's two main characters, Anna and Elsa.[141] On November 6, 2013, Disney Consumer Products began releasing a line of toys and other merchandise relating to the film in Disney Store and other retailers.[142]
On January 31, 2014, a sing-along version of Frozen was released in 2,057 theaters in the United States. It featured on-screen lyrics, and viewers were invited to follow the bouncing snowflake and sing along with the songs from the film.[143][144][145] After its wide release in Japan on March 14, 2014, a similar sing-along version of Frozen
was released in the country in select theaters on April 26. In
Japanese-dubbed versions, Japanese lyrics of the songs appeared on
screen for audiences to sing along with the characters.[146] A sing-along version of the film was released in United Kingdom on November 28, 2014.[147]
Home media
Frozen was released for digital download on February 25, 2014, on Google Play, the iTunes Store, and Amazon Video.[148] It was subsequently released by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on Blu-ray Disc and DVD on March 18, 2014.[149] Bonus features for the Blu-ray release include[150][151] "The Making of Frozen", a three-minute musical production about how the film was made,[152]
"D'frosted", an inside look at how Disney tried to adapt the original
fairy tale into an animated feature, four deleted scenes with
introduction by the directors, the original theatrical short Get a Horse!, the film's teaser trailer, and "Let It Go" (End Credit Version) music videos by Demi Lovato, Martina Stoessel, and Marsha Milan Londoh;[153][154] while the DVD release only includes the Get a Horse! theatrical short, "Let It Go" musical videos and the film's teaser trailer.[150]
On its first day of release on Blu-ray and DVD, Frozen sold 3.2 million units, becoming one of the biggest home video sellers in the last decade, as well as Amazon's best-selling children's disc of all time.[155] The digital download release of the film also set a record as the fastest-selling digital release of all time.[156][157] Frozen
finished its first week at No. 1 in unit sales in the United States,
selling more than three times as many units as other 19 titles in the
charts combined, according to the Nielsen's sales chart.[158] The film sold 3,969,270 Blu-ray units (the equivalent of $79,266,322) during its first week,[159] which accounted for 50 percent of its opening home media sales.[158] It topped the U.S. home video sales charts for six non-consecutive weeks out of seven weeks of release, as of May 4, 2014.[160] In the United Kingdom, Frozen debuted at No. 1 in Blu-ray and DVD sales on the Official Video Chart.[161] According to Official Charts Company, more than 500,000 copies of the film were sold in its two-day opening (March 31 – April 1, 2014).[162] During its three first weeks of release in the United Kingdom, Frozen sold more than 1.45 million units, becoming the biggest selling video title of 2014 so far in the country.[163] Frozen
has sold 2,025,000 Blu-ray Disc/DVD combo sets in Japan in 4 weeks,
becoming the fastest-selling home video to sell 2 million copies,
beating the previous record of 11 weeks by Spirited Away. Frozen
also holds the records for highest number of home video units sold on
the first official day of sales and in the first official week of sales
in Japan.[164] As of the end of 2014, the film earned $308,026,545 in total US home media sales.[165] It is one of the best-selling home media releases, having moved over 18 million units as of March 2015.[166]
Following an announcement on August 12, 2014, a sing-along reissue of Frozen was released via DVD and digital download on November 18, 2014.[167][168][169][170]
Trademark infringement lawsuit
In late December 2013, The Walt Disney Company filed a trademark
infringement lawsuit in California federal court seeking an injunction
against the continued distribution of the Canadian film The Legend of Sarila produced by 10th Ave Productions and CarpeDiem Film & TV and distributed by Phase 4 Films, which had been retitled Frozen Land.[171] Disney alleged that less than three weeks prior to the release of Frozen, Phase 4 theatrically released The Legend of Sarila,
which garnered "minimal box office revenues and received no significant
attention"; and to trade off the success of Disney's animated film,
Phase 4 had "redesigned
the artwork, packaging, logo, and other promotional materials for its
newly (and intentionally misleadingly) retitled film to mimic those used
by [Disney] for Frozen and related merchandise".[172] While film titles cannot be trademarked by law, Disney cited a number of alleged similarities between the new Phase 4's Frozen logo and Disney's original one.[173][174] By late January 2014, the two companies had settled the case; the settlement stated that the distribution and promotion of The Legend of Sarila
and related merchandise must use its original title and Phase 4 must
not use trademarks, logos or other designs confusingly similar to
Disney's animated release.[174][175][176]
Phase 4 was also required to pay Disney $100,000 before January 27,
2014, and make "all practicable efforts" to remove copies of Frozen Land from stores and online distributors before March 3, 2014.[174][175]
Piracy
According to piracy-tracking site Excipio, Frozen was the second most-pirated film of 2014 (behind The Wolf of Wall Street), with over 29.9 million illegal downloads via torrent sites.[177]
Reception
Box office
Frozen earned $400.7 million in North America, and an
estimated $873.5 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of
$1.274 billion.[3] Calculating in all expenses, Deadline.com estimated that the film made a profit of over $400 million.[178] It is the eighth highest-grossing film[179] (and was the fifth highest at its peak), the highest-grossing animated film,[180][181] the highest-grossing 2013 film,[182] the highest-grossing Walt Disney Pictures release, and the third highest-grossing film distributed by Disney.[183] The film earned $110.6 million worldwide in its opening weekend.[184]
On March 2, 2014, its 101st day of release, it surpassed the $1 billion
mark, becoming the eighteenth film in cinematic history, the seventh
Disney-distributed film, the fifth non-sequel film,[185] the second Disney-distributed film in 2013 (after Iron Man 3), and the first animated film since Toy Story 3 to do so.[186]
Bloomberg Business
reported in March 2014 that outside analysts had projected the film's
total cost at somewhere around $323 million to $350 million for
production, marketing, and distribution, and had also projected that the
film would generate $1.3 billion in revenue from box office ticket
sales, digital downloads, discs, and television rights.[187]
North America
Frozen became Fandango's top advance ticket seller among original animated films, ahead of previous record-holder Brave,[188] and became the top-selling animated film in the company's history in late January 2014.[145] The sing-along version of the film later topped the best-selling list of the movie ticketing service again for three days.[145] Frozen
opened on Friday, November 22, 2013, exclusively at the El Capitan
Theatre in Hollywood for a five-day limited release and earned $342,839
before its wide opening on Wednesday, November 27, 2013.[189] During the three-day weekend it earned $243,390, scoring the seventh largest per-theater average.[190] On the opening day of its wide release, the film earned $15.2 million,[191] including $1.2 million from Tuesday late-night shows,[192] and set a record for the highest pre-Thanksgiving Wednesday opening, ahead of Tangled ($11.9 million).[193] It was also the second largest pre-Thanksgiving Wednesday among all films, behind Catching Fire
($20.8 million). The film finished in second place over the traditional
three-day weekend (Friday-to-Sunday) with $67.4 million, setting an
opening weekend record among Walt Disney Animation Studios films.[194] It also scored the second largest opening weekend among films that did not debut at #1.[195][196] Female audiences accounted for 57% of Frozen 's total audiences on the first weekend, while family audiences held a proportion of 81%.[196][197] Among films that opened during Thanksgiving, it set new records; three-day ($67.4 million from Friday to Sunday)[198] and five-day ($93.6 million from Wednesday to Sunday).[199] It also achieved the second largest three-day[200] and five-day[201] Thanksgiving gross among all films, behind Catching Fire.[202]
During its second weekend of wide release, Frozen declined 53% to $31.6 million, but jumped to first place, setting a record for the largest post-Thanksgiving weekend, ahead of Toy Story 2 ($27.8 million).[203] Frozen became the first film since Avatar to reach first place in its sixth weekend of wide release.[204] It remained in the top 10 at the box office for sixteen consecutive weekends[205][206] (the longest run by any film since 2002[181]) and achieved large weekend grosses from its fifth[207] to its twelfth weekend (of wide release), compared to other films in their respective weekends.[208] On April 25, 2014, Frozen became the nineteenth film to gross $400 million in North America and the fifteenth to do so without a major re-release.[209]
In North America, Frozen is the nineteenth highest-grossing film,[210] the third highest-grossing 2013 film,[211] the fourth highest-grossing animated film,[212] the highest-grossing 2013 animated film, the fifth highest-grossing 3-D film,[213] and the second highest-grossing Walt Disney Animation Studios film.[214] Excluding re-releases, it has the highest-grossing initial run among non-sequel animated films (a record previously held by Finding Nemo)[215][216] and among Walt Disney Animation Studios films (a record previously held by The Lion King).[217]
Outside North America
Frozen is the fifth highest-grossing film,[218] the highest-grossing animated film,[218][219] and the highest-grossing 2013 film.[220] It is the highest-grossing animated film in South Korea, Denmark, and Venezuela.[221][222][223] It is also the highest-grossing Walt Disney Animation Studios film in more than 45 territories,[216]
including the Latin America region (specifically in Mexico and Brazil),
the UK, Ireland, and Malta, Russia and the CIS, Ukraine, Norway,
Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and China.[224][225][226][227]
The film made its debut outside North America on the same weekend as
its wide North American release and earned $16.7 million from sixteen
markets.[196] It topped the box office outside North America for two weekends in 2014; January 10–12 ($27.8 million)[228] and February 7–9 ($24 million).[229] Overall, its largest opening weekends occurred in China (five-day opening of $14.3 million),[230]
Russia and the CIS ($11.9 million, including previews from previous
weekend), where the film set an opening weekend record among Disney
animated films (ahead of Tangled),[231] and Japan (three-day opening of $9.73 million).[232][233] It set an opening weekend record among animated films in Sweden.[234]
In total earnings, the film's top market after North America is Japan
($247.6 million), followed by South Korea ($76.6 million) and the United
Kingdom, Ireland and Malta ($65.7 million).[235][236] In South Korea, Frozen is the second largest foreign film both in terms of attendance and gross,[237] the largest Disney release[181] and the first animated film to earn more than ten million admissions.[238] In Japan, it is the third highest-grossing film of all time, the second highest grossing imported film (behind Titanic) and the highest-grossing Disney film.[239] It topped the country's box office for sixteen consecutive weekends[235] until being surpassed by another Disney release, Maleficent.[240]
Commercial analysis
Ray Subers, writing for Box Office Mojo, compared the film to Disney's 2010 animated feature Tangled by saying that the film's story was not as "immediately interesting" and its marketing was aimed at boys (similar to that of Tangled).[241]
Noting that the 2013 holiday season (Thanksgiving and Christmas) lacked
compelling content for families, Subers predicted that the film would
"play well all the way through Christmas" and end up grossing $185
million in North America (similar to Wreck-It Ralph).[241] Boxoffice noted the success of previous Disney's animated films released during the holiday season (Tangled and Wreck-It Ralph), but argued that the cast might not attract audiences due to the lack of major stars.[242] They issued a $170,000,000 North America box office forecast for the film.[242] Chris Agar from ScreenRant expressed a similar opinion; he cited a string of recent box office successes of the studio, and thought that Frozen would fill a void of kid-friendly films in the marketplace, but did not expect it to surpass Catching Fire in terms of box office gross.[243]
Clayton Dillard of Slant Magazine commented that while the
trailers made the film seem "pallid," positive critical reviews could
attract interest from both "core demographics" and adult audiences, and
therefore he believed Frozen stood a good chance of surpassing Tangled 's Thanksgiving three-day opening record.[244] Brad Brevet of Ropeofsilicon.com described the film's marketing as a "severely hit and miss" campaign, which could affect its box office performance.[245] After Frozen
finished its first weekend with a record $93.6 million during
Thanksgiving, most box-office watchers predicted that it would end up
grossing between $250 and $300 million in North America.[246] Breitbart suggested that with "strong buzz" and "huge family audience support," Frozen would "easily break the $130 million" mark in North America.[247] At the time, Box Office Mojo reissued a $250 million box office gross prediction for North America.[196] Box Office Mojo
noted that it would be "the exclusive choice for family audiences" and
attributed its successful opening to strong word-of-mouth and the
studio's marketing, which highlighted the connection between Frozen and Disney's previous successful releases like Tangled and Wreck-It Ralph, as well as the elements of humor.[196]
In an interview conducted in early December 2013, Disney's distribution
executive Dave Hollis praised the efforts of the filmmakers and the
studio's marketing team: "For a company whose foundation is built on
animation, an opening like this is really great."[197] He further commented that audiences could be "very targeted with a message", and that Frozen aimed at a general audience instead of any one particular audience segment.[197]
When Frozen became a box office success, Bilge Ebiri of Vulture analyzed the film's elements and suggested eight factors that might have led to its success. He thought Frozen managed to capture the classic Disney spirit of the Disney Renaissance films and early classics such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Cinderella.[246]
He also wrote that the film has Olaf, a "wisecracking, irreverent"
sidekick with mild humor which is "a requirement of modern animated
kids' movies," and its "witty, catchy" songs were "pretty good."[246] Furthermore, Ebiri noted that Frozen
was a "revisionist" film that didn't "have a typical villain"; Elsa,
the person who should be the villain didn't turn out to be a villain,
but "a girl who's having trouble." She was the one who "[created] most
of the challenges [for] the film's more typical heroes – Princess Anna."[246]
The story of two sisters who were separated as they grew up held
real-life overtones for many audience members who had siblings, and the
struggle of Elsa to overcome the shame and fear of her powers was also
relatable.[246]
Finally, he identified several factors which he believed attracted
female audiences: two strong female characters; a twist on the usual
romantic subplot, when the traditional "Prince Charming" – Hans – turned
out to be a gold-digging villain; and the "act of true love" which
saved Anna was her own sacrifice in saving Elsa.[246]
Scott Davis of Forbes credited the film's commercial success to its marketing aimed at both sexes, and to the success of its soundtrack.[248]
The commercial success of Frozen in Japan was considered to be a "phenomenon"[44] which received widespread media coverage. Released in that market as Anna and the Snow Queen,[249][250]
the film increased its gross each week in its three first weeks of
release, and only started to drop in the fourth; while other films
usually peak in the opening week and decline in the latter ones.[251] Frozen has received over 7 million admissions in Japan as of April 16,[249] and nearly 18.7 million admissions as of June 23.[252] Many cinemagoers were reported to have watched both the original and the Japanese-dubbed version.[250] Japan Today also reported that the local dubbed version was "particularly popular" in the country.[249] Gavin J. Blair of The Hollywood Reporter
commented on the film's earnings in Japan: "Even after its $9.6 million
(￥986.4 million) three-day opening, a record bow for a Disney animation
in Japan, few would have predicted the kind of numbers Frozen has now racked up."[252] Disney's head of distribution Dave Hollis said in an interview that "It's become very clear that the themes and emotions of Frozen transcend geography, but what's going on in Japan is extraordinary."[253][254]
"Frozen 's success doesn't benefit from a general appetite for American films in Japan" (as reported by the International Business Times),[255] but according to Akira Lippit of the USC School of Cinematic Arts,
there were several factors that constituted this phenomenon: besides
the fact that animated films "are held in great regard in Japan, and the
Disney brand name with all of its heritage is extremely valuable", "the
biggest reason is the primary audience ... 13- to 17-year-old teenage
girls."[253] He further explained that audiences of this age range have a vital role in shaping Japanese pop culture and "Frozen
has so many elements that appeal to them, with its story of a young
girl with power and mystique, who finds her own sort of good in
herself."[253] He compared the film's current situation with a similar phenomenon which occurred with Titanic
in 1997, "when millions of Japanese teen girls turned out to watch
Leonard[o] DiCaprio go under – several times," and thought the same
would happen with Frozen.[253] Another reason that contributed to the film's success in the market was that Disney took great care in choosing "high quality"[255]
voice actors for the Japanese-dubbed version, since Japan's pop music
scene had an important role particularly with teenage audiences.[253] Orika Hiromura, Disney Japan's marketing project leader for Frozen, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal:
"We really put effort into finding actors who could not only play the
role but also belt out the tunes as well. We found the perfect match in Takako Matsu and Sayaka Kanda, and they really added a whole new dimension to the storytelling."[146]
When asked about the success of Frozen, director Chris Buck stated: "We never expected anything like this. We just hoped to make a movie that did as well as Tangled! I hoped the audience would embrace it and respond to it, but there's no way we could have predicted this."[44]
He cited a number of reasons for the film's popularity: "There are
characters that people relate to; the songs are so strong and memorable.
We also have some flawed characters, which is what Jen[nifer Lee] and I
like to do – we essentially create two imperfect princesses."[44] He also said that what people could infer from the film had "blow[n] [him] away."[44] As Frozen
approached the first anniversary of its release, Menzel mentioned the
film's continuing popularity in an October 2014 interview: "It’s just a
remarkable thing. Usually you do a project and it has its moment. This
just feels like it keeps going."[256]
Critical response
Frozen opened to highly positive reviews,[7] with several critics comparing it favorably to the films of the Disney Renaissance, particularly The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King.[30][257][258][259] Some journalists felt that the film's success marked a second Disney Renaissance.[260][261]
The film was praised for its visuals, themes, musical numbers,
screenplay, and voice acting, especially that of Kristen Bell, Idina
Menzel, and Josh Gad.[262] The "Let It Go" musical sequence was also particularly praised by critics.[263][264][265] The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes
reports that 89% of critics gave the film a positive review based on
214 reviews, with the site's consensus being: "Beautifully animated,
smartly written, and stocked with singalong songs, Frozen adds another worthy entry to the Disney canon."[266] Metacritic, which determines a normalized
rating out of 100 from the reviews of mainstream critics, calculated a
score of 74 based on 43 reviews, indicating "generally favorable
reviews."[267] CinemaScore gave Frozen an "A+" on an A+ to F scale, based on polls conducted during the opening weekend.[197][268] Surveys conducted by Fandango
among 1,000 ticket buyers revealed that 75% of purchasers had seen the
film at least once, and 52% had seen it twice. It was also pointed out
that 55% of audiences identified "Let It Go" as their favorite song,
while "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" and "For the First Time in
Forever" held proportions of 21% and 9%, respectively.[145] Frozen was named the seventh best film of 2013 by Richard Corliss of Time[269] and Kyle Smith of the New York Post.[270]
Alonso Duralde of TheWrap
wrote that the film is "the best animated musical to come out of Disney
since the tragic death of lyricist Howard Ashman, whose work on The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast
helped build the studio's modern animated division into what it is
today." He also said that "while it lags the tiniest bit on its way to
the conclusion, the script... really delivers; it offers characters to
care about, along with some nifty twists and surprises along the way."[30] Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter observed Frozen as a true musical and wrote, "You can practically see the Broadway musical Frozen
is destined to become while watching Disney's 3D animated princess
tale." McCarthy described the film as "energetic, humorous and not too
cloying, as well as the first Hollywood film in many years to warn of
global cooling rather than warming, this tuneful toon upgrades what has
been a lackluster year for big studio animated fare and, beginning with
its Thanksgiving opening, should live up to box office expectations as one of the studio's hoped-for holiday-spanning blockbusters."[271] Kyle Smith of the New York Post
awarded the film 3.5 out of 4 stars and praised the film as "a great
big snowy pleasure with an emotionally gripping core, brilliant
Broadway-style songs and a crafty plot. Its first and third acts are
better than the jokey middle, but this is the rare example of a Walt
Disney Animation Studios effort that reaches as deep as a Pixar film."[272] Scott Mendelson of Forbes wrote, "Frozen
is both a declaration of Disney's renewed cultural relevance and a
reaffirmation of Disney coming to terms with its own legacy and its own
identity. It's also a just plain terrific bit of family entertainment."[273]
The Los Angeles Times extolled the film's ensemble voice talent and elaborate musical sequences, and declared Frozen was "a welcome return to greatness for Walt Disney Animation Studios."[257] Entertainment Weekly 's Owen Gleiberman
gave the film a "B+" grade and labeled it as a "squarely enchanting
fairy tale that shows you how the definition of what's fresh in
animation can shift."[258] Richard Corliss of Time
stated that: "It's great to see Disney returning to its roots and
blooming anew: creating superior musical entertainment that draws on the
Walt [Disney] tradition of animation splendor and the verve of Broadway
present."[274] Richard Roeper wrote that the film was an "absolute delight from start to finish."[275] Both Michael Phillips of Chicago Tribune and Stephen Holden of The New York Times praised the film's characters and musical sequences, which also drew comparisons to the theatrics found in Wicked.[276][277] Emma Dibdin of Digital Spy
awarded the film five out of five stars and called the film "a new
Disney classic" and "an exhilarating, joyous, human story that's as
frequently laugh-out-loud funny as it is startling and daring and
poignant. Hot on the heels of the 90th anniversary, it's impossible to
imagine a more perfect celebration of everything Disney is at its best."[278] Frozen was also praised in Norwegian Sámi media as showcasing Sámi culture (which historically has faced attempted eradication by the Norwegian state) to a broad audience in a good way. Composer Frode Fjellheim was lauded by Norwegian Sámi President Aili Keskitalo for his contributions to the film, during the President's 2014 New Year's speech.[279][280]
Scott Foundas of Variety
was less impressed with the film, describing it as "formulaic", though
he praised its voice acting and technical artistry: "The tactile,
snow-capped Arendelle landscape, including Elsa's ice-castle retreat is Frozen 's other true marvel, enhanced by 3D and the decision to shoot in widescreen – a nod to the CinemaScope richness of Sleeping Beauty and Lady and the Tramp...
That's almost but not quite enough to make up for the somewhat slack
plotting and the generic nature of the main characters. Neither princess
here is a patch on Tangled 's babe-in-the-woods Rapunzel, while
both Hans and Kristoff are cut from pretty standard-issue hero cloth
until a reasonably surprising third-act twist somewhat ups the ante.
Only Olaf is unimpeachable: Get this snowman a spinoff feature to call
his own."[281] The Seattle Times
gave the film two out of four stars, stating that "While it is an often
gorgeous film with computer-generated fjords and ice sculptures and
castle interiors, the important thing that glues all this stuff
together – story – is sadly lacking."[282] Joe Williams of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch also criticized the story as the film's weakest point.[283] Writing on Roger Ebert's website, Christy Lemire gave a mixed review in which she awarded two-and-a-half stars out of four.[284] Lemire praised the visuals and the performance of "Let It Go," as well as the positive messages Frozen sends.[284]
However, she referred to the film as "cynical" and criticized it as an
"attempt to shake things up without shaking them up too much."[284] She also noted the similarity between Elsa and another well-known fictional female who unleashes paranormal powers when agitated, Carrie White.[284]
Controversies
Portrayal of emotions
Allegations of sexism
occurred following a statement by Lino DiSalvo, the film's head of
animation, who said to Fan Voice's Jenna Busch: "Historically speaking,
animating female characters are really, really difficult, because they
have to go through these range of emotions, but you have to keep them
pretty."[285][286][287] However, a Disney spokesperson later told Time
that DiSalvo's quote was widely misinterpreted, stating that he was
"describing some technical aspects of CG animation and not making a
general comment on animating females versus males or other characters."[285][287]
Director Lee also said that DiSalvo's words were recklessly taken out
of context, and that he was talking in very technical terms about CG
animation. "It is hard no matter what the gender is. I felt horrible for
him," she said.[288]
In an August 2014 interview, DiSalvo re-emphasized what he had been
trying to explain all along when his statements were taken out of
context – the difficulty with turning any kind of animated character from a series of sketches on a 2D emotion model sheet
into a properly rigged 3D character model: "Translating that emotional
range onto a CG character is one of the most difficult parts of the
process. Male. Female. Snowman. Animal."[289]
He added, "The really sad thing is people took that ... catchy headline
and they just repopulated it everywhere. People didn't get back to me
for comments and the sad thing is that's the way the [I]nternet works.
They don't want the truth."[289]
Perceived LGBT parallels
Several viewers outside the film industry, such as evangelical pastors[290][291][292] and commentators,[293] argued that Frozen promotes normalization of homosexuality, while others believed that the main character, Elsa, represents a positive image of LGBT youth, viewing the film and the song "Let It Go" as a metaphor for coming out.[294][295] These claims were met with mixed reactions from both audiences and the LGBT community.[294]
When asked about perceptions of a homosexual undertone in the film, Lee
said, "We know what we made. But at the same time I feel like once we
hand the film over, it belongs to the world, so I don't like to say
anything, and let the fans talk. I think it's up to them."[296]
She also mentioned that Disney films were made in different eras and
were all celebrated for different reasons, but a 2013 film would have a
"2013 point of view".[295][297]
Accolades
Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee and Peter Del Vecho at the 41st Annie Awards ceremony.
Main article: List of accolades received by Frozen (2013 film)
Frozen was nominated for various awards and won a number of
them, including several for Best Animated Feature. The song "Let It Go"
was particularly praised. The film was nominated for two Golden Globes at the 71st Golden Globe Awards and won for Best Animated Feature, becoming the first Walt Disney Animation Studios film to win in this category.[10] It also won two Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song ("Let It Go"),[9] the BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film at the British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA),[11] five Annie Awards (including Best Animated Feature),[12][298] and two Critics' Choice Awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song ("Let It Go").[14] It received other similar nominations at the Satellite Awards,[299] and various critics' groups and circles. At the 57th Annual Grammy Awards, the Frozen soundtrack won the Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media and was nominated for Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media (with credits going to Christophe Beck as composer); the song "Let It Go" won the award for Best Song Written For Visual Media, with credits going to Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez as songwriters and Idina Menzel as performer.[13][300][301][302]
Cultural impact
Cosplayers posing as Anna and Elsa.
During the spring and summer of 2014, several journalists observed that Frozen was unusually catchy in comparison to the vast majority of films, in that many children in both the U.S.[303][304][305][306][307][308] and the UK[309][310][311][312] were watching Frozen
so many times that they now knew all the songs by heart and kept
singing them again and again at every opportunity, to the distress of
their hapless parents, teachers, and classmates. Among the celebrities
who have disclosed that they are the parent of a Frozen-obsessed child are UK prime minister David Cameron[313] as well as actors Amy Adams,[314] Ben Affleck,[315] Kevin Costner[316] and Vince Vaughn.[317] When Terry Gross brought up this phenomenon with songwriters Lopez and Anderson-Lopez in an April 2014 interview on NPR, they explained there was simply no way they could have known how popular their work on Frozen would become.[318] They were "just trying to tell a story that resonated" and "that didn't suck."[318]
In May, columnist Joel Stein of Time magazine wrote about his young son Laszlo's frustration with the inescapable "cultural assault" of Frozen at preschool and all social and extracurricular activities, and how he had arranged for a Skype call with lead actress Bell after Laszlo began asking why the film was made.[319] When Laszlo asked whether Bell knew when she made Frozen that it would take over kids' lives, she replied: "I did not know that people would not let it go. No pun intended."[319] In a December 2014 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Lee acknowledged that she had transitioned from thanking people when they expressed their appreciation for Frozen to having to apologize when they said "we're still listening to those songs" (with their children).[320][321][322]
Lee also said that she used the film and its strong female characters
to inspire her own daughter, who had experienced bullying at school, and
admitted that she herself as a child was bullied as well;[320] thus, they had managed to be true to themselves like Anna and Elsa.[320]
In a 2014 mid-year report of the 100 most-used baby names conducted by BabyCenter, Elsa was ranked 88; it was the first time the name had appeared on the site's chart.[323]
Sarah Barrett, managing director of the site, explained that while the
film's popular heroine is called Anna, "Elsa offers a more unique name
and is also a strong female role model."[324] Many parents revealed that their choices of name were "heavily influenced" by the siblings. Vice president of Disney UK
Anna Hill later commented that "We're delighted that Elsa is a popular
name for babies and it's lovely to hear that for many families, it is
actually their siblings who have chosen it," and that "Elsa's fight to
overcome her fears and the powerful strength of the family bond" were
relatable to many families.[324] On 2014 year-end lists issued by Google, Frozen was the most searched movie of 2014.[325][326] On the Google Play Store, Frozen and its soundtrack album were also named Movie of the Year and Album of the Year respectively, i.e. the best-selling title in their respective areas.[327] Frozen was also the second most illegally downloaded film title of 2014 via BitTorrent file sharing protocol, with around 30 million downloads.[328][329]
After Disney announced in March 2015 that a feature-length sequel was in development, Agence France-Presse[330] and the Toronto Star[331] both published stories gently mocking the horror of parents everywhere at the news that another Frozen "sensory and financial assault" was in the pipeline.
Franchise
Main article: Frozen (franchise)
The directors, composers, producers, and several of the film's stars at a
presentation at the 2015 D23 Expo to celebrate the film's success
In January 2014, Iger announced that Frozen would be adapted into a Broadway stage musical.[332][333][334] In the space of a single business quarter, Iger went from speaking of Frozen 's "franchise potential" (in February 2014)[335]:8,13 to saying that it was "probably" one of Disney's "top five franchises" (in May 2014).[336][337] The film's massive popularity resulted in an unusually severe merchandise shortage in the United States[338][339][340][341][342] and several other industrialized countries in April 2014,[343][344][345][346][347][348][349][350] which caused resale prices for higher-quality limited-edition Frozen dolls and costumes to skyrocket past $1,000 on eBay.[340][341] By the time the merchandise shortage was finally resolved in early November 2014 (nearly a year after the film's release),[351] Disney had sold over three million Frozen costumes in North America alone.[352]
Wait times for the meet-and-greets at Disney Parks soon regularly
exceeded four hours and forced management in February 2014 to
indefinitely extend what was originally intended as a temporary film
promotion.[141][338] Disney Parks later put on a temporary event (Frozen Summer Fun) at Disney's Hollywood Studios,[353] then announced on September 12, 2014, that the Maelstrom ride at Epcot's Norway pavilion would be closed and replaced with a Frozen-based attraction to open in early 2016.[354][355] By August 2014, the publisher Random House had sold over 8 million Frozen-related books.[356] Tour operators, including Adventures by Disney, added more Norway tours in response to rising demand during 2014.[357][358]
Meanwhile, the producers of Once Upon a Time (made by Disney-owned ABC Studios) independently conceived of and obtained authorization from both ABC and Disney for a Frozen-inspired crossover story arc in the show's fourth season, which was first revealed at the end of the show's third season in May 2014, which was broadcast in fall 2014.[359][360][361] On September 2, 2014, ABC broadcast The Story of Frozen: Making a Disney Animated Classic, a one-hour "making of" television special.[362][363][364] At the end of the special, Lasseter announced that the production team would be reuniting to make Frozen Fever, a short film which debuted in theaters with Disney's Cinderella on March 13, 2015.[365][366][367][368] On September 4, 2014, Feld Entertainment's Disney on Ice presented the world premiere of a touring ice skating show based on the film at Amway Center in Orlando, Florida.[369][370]
Sequel
In November 2014, Idina Menzel claimed that a feature-length sequel was in development.[371][372][373] However, on December 1, when the subject came up again during an interview on the Today show on the NBC network, she said, "You know, I have no idea. I just assumed that because it's so successful that's what they're up to!"[374][375][376] On March 12, 2015, Disney officially announced that a feature-length sequel to Frozen was in development with Buck and Lee returning as directors, and Del Vecho returning as producer.[16] In a May 2015 interview, Buck said, "We have lots of things to figure out but at least we know where we are going."
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