On this day five years ago, Disney’s Frozen premiered at the
El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, five days before it was officially released in cinemas all over America. Inspired by the Hans Christian Andersen story
The Snow Queen, Frozen told the story of Princess Anna and her attempts to
repair her relationship with powerful but troubled older sister Queen Elsa. Subverting
numerous fairytale clichés to provide a magical celebration of sisterhood, Frozen
captured the imaginations of millions of viewers across the 2013/14 winter
season. It soon became the most successful animated movie of all time, earning almost $1.3 billion worldwide and winning an Oscar for its inescapable signature song “Let
It Go”. In the time since its release, Frozen has become a merchandising behemoth
all over the world, with the soundtrack selling over 10 million copies in 2014 alone. Frozen has been spun off into two animated shorts (Frozen
Fever and Olaf’s Frozen Adventure), and numerous theme park rides and shows, with Anna, Elsa and their friends inspiring numerous pieces of merchandise, ranging from toys to lunchboxes. In
addition, the movie has recently been adapted into a Broadway musical seen by some of the
biggest celebrities in the world. The much-anticipated sequel Frozen 2 will
premiere in exactly one year, having recently moved its release date forward by 5 days (from 27th November 2019 to 22nd November 2019) to
take full advantage of the build-up to Thanksgiving. Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee,
the co-directors of original Frozen, will be back for the sequel, with Oscar-nominated screenwriter Alison Schroeder (Hidden Figures) joining Lee on the writing team. Songwriting duo Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez are writing the songs for Frozen 2, aiming to emulate the record-breaking success of their soundtrack for the original film. Meanwhile, Kristen
Bell and Idina Menzel will reprise their roles as Anna and Elsa, with Josh Gad
and Johnathan Groff also returning to voice Anna’s sidekicks Olaf and Kristoff.
In addition to our four leads, there will be a variety of new characters, with
TV veterans Evan Rachel Wood and Sterling K.Brown being lined up to voice two
of them.
Like most of the great Disney films, Frozen appeals to
viewers of all ages on a variety of levels. Its catchy songs, impressive animation
and colorful characters captured the hearts of youngsters, whilst older audiences
were impressed by its dark and sad undertones, its feminist twists on
traditional princess tropes and its timeless messages about the importance of
family and the power of love over fear. Like most Disney films, Frozen had an
eventful and chaotic journey to the big screen, with numerous twists and turns
in the development process. It took almost 7 decades to come up with a story,
and when this was finalized, the creative team had just 15 months to get the
film ready for release. However, the success of Frozen made all this hard work
worthwhile. In order to celebrate Frozen’s
5th anniversary, here are 25 fascinating facts about the making of
the film and its iconic characters and soundtrack…
25 Fascinating Facts About Frozen
1.
Disney planned to make a film based on The Snow Queen
as early as the 1940s, when it would have been part of a larger anthology film
based on Hans Christian Andersen’s works. However, it was CEO Michael Eisner
who really started pushing for the project to be made, with various versions
consistently in development from the late 1990s. Disney legends such as Glen Keane,
Alan Menken and Linda Woolverton were attached to the project during this gestation period, but
all dropped out at different points, due to the difficulties involved in adapting
the long and episodic source material.
2.
In order to get around these problems, Frozen
made numerous major changes to The Snow Queen. Despite this, some parallels
to Andersen’s story remain if you look closely. The gruff but ultimately
helpful reindeer herder Kristoff fulfills the same role as the robber girl from source material,
whilst the Finn woman and her incredibly hot house may have been an inspiration
for flamboyant sauna owner Oaken. Frozen also put an unusual spin on the evil mirror which starts the conflict in
The Snow Queen. The treacherous Prince Hans
was modeled after a living mirror, with his personality changing depending on
which characters he is interacting with.
3.
The title of the movie was changed from The Snow
Queen to Frozen, following in the footsteps of the successful and
controversial renaming of Tangled and Brave. However, some international versions (such as the German and French releases), retained the title The Snow
Queen, with others (Such as Japan) using translations of the title Anna and
the Snow Queen instead. In Spain, Italy and Portugal, the original and final
titles were combined, and the film was called Frozen: The Snow Queen.
4.
Although the sheer scale of Frozen’s cultural impact
took everyone by surprise, the higher-ups at Disney anticipated that it would
be a hit from an early stage. Plans to make it into a Broadway production were
put in place before the film was released.
5.
Not all the songs from Frozen made it into the
Broadway version. "Frozen Heart", sung by a group of Ice Harvesters at the very
beginning of the film, was cut because it was not sufficiently connected to
Anna and Elsa’s story. However, instrumentals from this song are still included
in the score, and elements of it are used in climactic number “Colder by the
Minute”.
6.
In order to develop the sibling relationship
between Anna and Elsa, the team behind Frozen held a “Sister summit”, where
sisters were invited to talk about their relationship, with anecdotes being used
to form the bond between the two characters.
7.
In The Snow Queen, the protagonists were called
Kai and Gerda. In order to pay tribute to the source material, Anna and Elsa’s
head servants were named after the characters, although these names are only revealed
in the end credits.
8. Director Jennifer Lee had a small role in the
film, voicing Anna and Elsa’s mother. Fellow Disney directors Stephen J. Anderson
(Meet the Robinsons) and Chris Williams (Big Hero 6, Moana) also had cameos as
Kai and Oaken respectively.
9.
“Do You Want to Build A Snowman?” was almost cut,
but it was decided to retain the song at the last minute. There were initial concerns that it sounded too somber, but the team were forced to revise it again when it became too cheery and upbeat.
10.
It is widely known that Elsa was originally
intended to be a villainous character, but was changed into a heroine after the
Lopez’s wrote “Let It Go”. They believed that the song made her too sympathetic
to be a villain, and the story was substantially rewritten afterwards to reflect
this. In the earlier versions of Frozen where Elsa was an antagonist, she would
have been modeled after iconic divas Bette Middler and Amy Winehouse and
voiced by Will & Grace star Megan Mullaly.
11.
When it was decided to make Hans a villain
instead, the writing team introduced a prophecy where the protagonists were
instructed to beware a “ruler with a frozen heart”. Elsa and Anna would assume
that the prophecy would relate to the former, but it would really be referring to
Hans. Although this prophecy was mentioned in the original synopsis for Frozen,
it was discarded late in development.
12.
Anna and Elsa’s bond would have initially been
represented by a snowglobe, but it was eventually decided to make Olaf the embodiment
of their relationship instead. This was because there were too many symbols and
motifs in the movie (such as gloves, doors and ice), so adding an extra one
would have created confusion. Olaf’s status as the symbol of Anna and Elsa’s sisterhood
was explored in more detail in Olafs Frozen Adventure and the Broadway version.
13.
One notable question left unanswered by the film
is “who runs the kingdom until Elsa comes of age?”. In early drafts, it would have
been a female regent who has magic powers, subverting the “villainous advisor” tropes
represented by past Disney villains such as Jafar and Yzma. However, it was
decided that such a character would be superfluous.
14.
Several racier lines were cut from the songs. “For
the First Time in Forever” would have initially featured Anna singing “I hope I don’t vomit in his face” but it was decided that this line would have been too
gross – The Lopez’s daughter came up with the replacement line “I wanna
stuff some chocolate in my face”. For Let It Go, the line “God knows I’ve tried”
was replaced with “Heaven knows I’ve tried”, because this use of God in this
context would have been considered blasphemous.
15.
If you’re wondering why Hans is so skilled at
pretending to be the good guy, then that’s because his voice actor had
experience as a genuine Prince Charming. Santino Fontana played Prince Topher
in the Broadway version of Rogers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella when it opened
in March 2013, conveniently leaving the role shortly after Frozen was released.
16.
The scene where Anna and Elsa fall out (causing Elsa
to lose control of her powers) went through several revisions. Initially, Anna
was merely asking for Elsa to give Hans a job, but it was decided that having Anna
get impulsively engaged to him would pose a greater threat to Anna and Elsa’s
relationship.
17.
The changes to Anna and Hans had an effect on
Anna and Kristoff’s relationship. Anna would have initially been more flirtatious,
but it was decided that this would make no sense if she was engaged to Hans, so
a more combative initial dynamic was used instead.
18. The trading post where Anna first meets Kristoff is called “Wandering Oaken’s Trading
Post and Sauna”. According to the Lopez’s, Lee chose the name because ‘Wandering
Oaken’ is an anagram of ‘Naked Norwegian”.
19.
Olaf was the character most prominently featured
in the Frozen promotional campaign, but his role in the movie was in
doubt for much of the production process. Olaf was initially much more abrasive, but Jennifer Lee changed him substantially when she joined the project,
later saying that the initial scenes written for the character made her want to “kill the ****ing snowman”. The
scene near the end when he helps out Anna was added relatively late to ensure
that he would have a greater role in the story.
20.
A variety of songs were written by the Lopez’s but
eventually discarded, including “Life’s Too Short”, “We Know Better”, “Cool
with Me”, “More than Just the Spare” and “You’re You”. However, some of these
songs have gained a second life in the Frozen universe. Some of the instrumentals for “Life’s
Too Short” were used in the Frozen Fever song “Making Today A Perfect Day”,
whilst a section from “We Know Better” appeared in “Let the Sun Shine On”, the
opening song of the Broadway version.
21.
Josh Gad previously worked with Robert Lopez in
the bad-taste Broadway hit The Book of Mormon, but he was not the only star
from that long-running show to appear in Frozen. Maia Wilson and Lewis Cleale,
who also had roles in The Book of Mormon, voice Kristoff’s troll guardians
Bulda and Cliff.
22.
British comedian Jack Whitehall recorded lines as
one of the trolls, but went uncredited in the finished film. He claimed that he was cut from Frozen, but his character still appears in the movie anyway. Whitehall has since gone on
to gain roles in Disney’s live-action films The Nutcracker and the Four Realms
and Jungle Cruise.
23.
The Troll’s song, ‘Fixer Upper’, was finished in
July 2013, just four months before the film was released (In contrast, ‘Let It
Go’ – the first song from Frozen to be completed - was recorded almost a year before). Several
other songs for the Trolls had been considered and rejected before this,
including one with a boyband theme and one based on getting Anna and Kristoff
to “walk in each other’s shoes”.
24.
Hans’ ability at hiding his true nature makes
him one of Disney’s darker villains, but he would have initially been even more
murderous. Instead of simply trying to kill Elsa, early drafts of the story had
Hans plot to defeat her by triggering an avalanche, fully aware that this would
destroy Arrendelle…
25.
Some changes were made so late that the initial
discarded lines and scenes were included in Frozen merchandise. Most notably,
the novelization of Frozen ended with Kristoff being the one to subdue Hans at
the end, but it was decided that it would be far more satisfying (and feminist!) if
Anna was the one to punch him in the face instead.
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