Frozen (2013)

The 2013 animated film Frozen was released to critical acclaim and commercial success, sparking interest in related media to expand the Frozen universe. By June 2014, the film's reliance on Norway for visual inspiration had resulted in a significant increase in tourism in that country, with a 37% increase in tourists from the United States in the first quarter of 2014 (in comparison to the previous year's first quarter).^[7][8] Tour operators (including Adventures by Disney) responded by adding more Norway tours.^[7]

When asked about future sequels, Del Vecho explained in March that Buck, Lee and he "work very, very well together, so I believe we will be developing a new project. But I don't know what that is right now."^[9] In late April, Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan F. Horn said that "we haven't really talked about a sequel" because the studio's current priority is the planned Broadway musical, which will require "four or five" additional songs to be written by Lopez and Anderson-Lopez.^[10][11] When asked in May about a sequel during an interview with CNBC's David Faber, Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger said that Disney would not "mandate a sequel" or "force storytelling", because to do so would risk creating something not as good as the first film.^[12] In the same interview, Iger also expressed the hope that the Frozen franchise "is something that is kind of forever for the company" similar to The Lion King."^[12] In June, Lee confirmed that chief creative officer John Lasseter had expressly granted her and Buck the freedom to explore whatever they were "passionate about": "We don't know what it is yet ... We're actually going to start from scratch. It’ll be something completely brand new."^[13]

On August 5, 2014, Variety reported that Lee had selected her next project: a screenplay adaptation of Madeleine L'Engle's 1962 novel A Wrinkle in Time, for which Disney already holds the film adaptation rights.^[14] However, Lee will continue to participate in Disney Animation's development process (i.e. giving notes on other projects, the same process by which she became involved with Frozen in the first place).^[14]

On November 28, 2014, in an interview with The Daily Telegraph, when asked about the possibilities of a Frozen sequel and a stage show, Idina Menzel mentioned "they're all in the works." She also talked about her involvement in these projects: "Ah, yeah sure... Not the stage show – I don't know what will happen with that – but the movie hopefully. We’ll see. I'm just going along for the ride."^[15][16][17] However, on December 1, when the subject came up again during an interview on the Today show on the NBC network, Menzel said, "You know, I have no idea. I just assumed that because it's so successful that's what they're up to!"^[18][19][20]

In a March 2015 interview with BuzzFeed about Frozen Fever, the directors addressed and refuted the recurring rumors about a possible feature-length sequel.^[21] Buck joked about how whenever they saw such rumors, he and Lee would ask each other, "Are we?"^[21] Around the same time, Lasseter reiterated to Variety his philosophy as to sequels (while discussing Toy Story 4): "We do not do any sequel because we want to print money[.] We do it because each of these films was created by a group of filmmakers, and to my mind, they are the owners of that intellectual property. So we look at it with the simple question: Is there another story we can tell in this world? And that desire has to come from the filmmaker group. Sometimes, the answer is an obvious yes. And sometimes it's, 'I love the characters and I love the world, but I don't have an idea yet.' And sometimes it's just, 'that movie is a great movie,' and the filmmaker wants to move on and do something else. And that's fine, too."^[22]

Frozen tells the story of Anna and Elsa (2 princess sisters). Elsa possesses magical ice powers and while the 2 are close at birth they grow isolated when Elsa accidentally hurts Anna. Years later, Elsa's powers become exposed when she freezes the kingdom and she leaves Arendelle. Anna goes after her sister and along with Kristoff (an ice harvester), Olaf (a snowman) and Sven (Kristoff's best friend) she sets out to free her kingdom and reunite with Elsa.

Frozen II (2019)

On March 12, 2015, at Disney's annual meeting of shareholders in San Francisco, Iger, Lasseter, and actor Josh Gad (the voice of Olaf) officially announced that Frozen 2 was in development at Disney, with Buck and Lee returning as directors and Del Vecho returning as producer.^[5][23] Lasseter explained that at Disney Animation, "as with Pixar, when we do a sequel, it is because the filmmakers who created the original have created an idea that is so good that it's worthy of these characters."^[23] In the case of Frozen, the directors had "come up with a great idea for a sequel and you will be hearing a lot more about it, and we're taking you back to Arendelle."^[23] According to the Los Angeles Times, there was "considerable internal debate" at Disney over whether to proceed with a Frozen sequel at Disney Animation, but the unprecedented success of the first film apparently swayed Disney executives towards making a sequel.^[24] A month later, Buck disclosed during a visit to Australia that the directors already had an idea for the sequel's ending, but they are still working on the story that will eventually culminate in that ending.^[25][26] He acknowledged their awareness of the challenge they have undertaken: "How do we live up to the phenomenon of the first one? There's a lot of pressure. And we'll put that on ourselves too; we'll be very demanding about how good this one has to be."^[25]

In November 2015, Del Vecho, while visiting Duke University as the parent of a first-year Duke student, explained in an interview published in the Duke student newspaper that his days are currently divided between two things: "handling the Frozen franchise" and "working up ideas for the development of Frozen 2" with the directors.^[27] When asked what to expect from the sequel, Del Vecho stated: "We're excited by the ideas we have, but it's too early to talk about them. We wouldn't be making a sequel if we felt that we didn't have a story to tell that was equal to or greater than the original."^[27]

In March 2016, Kristen Bell, the voice of Anna, was asked if she had started recording for the Frozen sequel while doing promotional interviews for The Boss.^[28] She replied: "Not yet. We're just about to. They’ve just written it and they're still doing tweaks, but I think we should be recording this month. The story is great, and they exude quality .... It took them a while because they wanted to figure out what story they needed to tell and what would be important and engaging and I think they found it."^[28] In September, Bell explained in another interview that her earlier comments were mistaken, and she had not yet recorded lines for the sequel because Disney Animation was "still putting the finishing touches on the script," but in the meantime, she had already recorded lines and songs for other Frozen-related projects, like Olaf's Frozen Adventure.^[29]

In April 2017, it was announced that the sequel would be released on November 27, 2019.^[30]

In August 2017, it was announced that Frozen II would be released on Disney+ alongside Toy Story 4 and The Lion King.^[31]

In March 2018, Anderson-Lopez in an interview about Broadway's Frozen, for which she and her husband wrote the new featured songs, confirmed that they had already recorded a song for the sequel with Bell, the voice of Anna.^[32]

In July 2018, it was announced that Evan Rachel Wood and Sterling K. Brown had entered talks to join the cast in undisclosed roles.^[33] In August 2018, Allison Schroeder, the screenwriter of Hidden Figures and most recently, Disney's Christopher Robin was hired to assist screenwriting duties with Jennifer Lee after Lee assumed the role of chief creative officer of Disney Animation, succeeding Lasseter.^[34]

On November 1, 2018, Variety reported that Disney advanced five days the premiere of the film, which was initially scheduled for November 27, 2019 and now would be released on November 22, 2019.^[35] The teaser trailer was released on February 13, 2019.

Untitled third Frozen film (TBA)

On February 8, 2023, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that the franchise would continue as he announced Frozen III was in the works.^[36]

Untitled fourth Frozen film (TBA)

Months later on November 16, 2023, during the opening ceremonies of World of Frozen at Hong Kong Disneyland, Bob Iger announced that Frozen IV was also being developed.^[37]

Frozen Fever (2015)

Frozen Fever is a short sequel that was released in early 2015. The short film was teased during The Story of Frozen: Making a Disney Animated Classic by Lasseter.^[79] Lee and Buck returned as directors and Del Vecho and Aimee Scribner as producers of the short, featuring a new song by Lopez and Anderson-Lopez. The short involves Elsa and Kristoff throwing a birthday party for Anna, but Elsa's icy powers put the party at risk.^{[80][81][82][83]} Frozen Fever debuted in theaters with Disney's Cinderella on March 13, 2015.^[84][85] The short film was released on the Walt Disney Animation Studios Short Films Collection DVD/Blu-ray Combo Pack on August 18, 2015.^[86] It was also included on the DVD, Blu-ray, and digital HD releases of Cinderella on September 15, 2015.^[87]

Myth: A Frozen Tale (2019)

Myth: A Frozen Tale is a virtual reality short directed by Jeff Gipson, first debuted alongside Frozen II.^[88] Evan Rachel Wood portrays an Arendelle mother narrating a story of the four elementals. The VR short was released for the Oculus Quest on June 11, 2020,^[89] while a "flat" version was released to Disney+ on February 26, 2021.^[90]

Once Upon a Snowman (2020)

The short film Once Upon a Snowman was released exclusively on Disney+ on October 23, 2020, featuring the voice of Josh Gad as Olaf. The short details Olaf's origin from the moment he was created by Elsa during "Let It Go", to his first meeting with Anna, Kristoff and Sven in the original film.^[91]

Olaf's Frozen Adventure (2017)

A Frozen holiday special Olaf's Frozen Adventure premiered in 2017. It is directed by Kevin Deters and Stevie Wermers-Skelton (Prep & Landing, Prep & Landing: Operation: Secret Santa), and is produced by Roy Conli (Tangled, Big Hero 6).^[92] Teased during the airing The Making of Frozen: Return to Arendelle, the 21-minute special received a limited time^[93] theatrical release, premiering in theaters with Pixar's Coco on November 22, 2017, and made its television debut on ABC on December 14 the same year.^[94] The DVD/Blu-ray for the short film was released in the US and Canada on November 13, 2018.^[95]

At Home with Olaf (2020)

Disney released a series of short clips centered entirely around Olaf on their YouTube and Twitter pages on April 6, 2020. The shorts feature Josh Gad reprising his role as Olaf, and were animated by Hyrum Osmond and a few other animators, from their homes.^[96] These shorts were made during the COVID-19 pandemic.^[97] The series ended on May 13 of that year with a special musical montage short entitled I Am with You. The latter contains clips from other Disney animated films, such as Dumbo, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Hercules, Wreck-It Ralph, the original Frozen, and more.^[98] 21 shorts were released in total.

Olaf Presents (2021)

Olaf Presents was released on Disney+ on November 12, 2021, to coincide with Disney+ Day. The series of shorts center on Olaf narrating Disney stories "as only he can".^[99] The series is inspired by a scene in Frozen II in which Olaf recapped the entirety of the first film in 90 seconds. The five recapped films in the series are The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, The Lion King, Tangled and Moana.^[100]

Into the Unknown: Making Frozen II (2020)

A documentary series about the making of Frozen II was launched on Disney+, entitled Into the Unknown: Making Frozen II,^[101] starting on June 26, 2020.^[102] Throughout six episodes, the series follows the production crew and voice cast of Frozen II in the film's final year of development. It was directed by Megan Harding, and produced by Lincoln Square Productions. Harding aimed to represent the production process honestly and the crew filmed for 115 days.

Frozen (2013)

• "Frozen Heart"
• "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?"
• "For the First Time in Forever"
• "Love Is an Open Door"
• "Let It Go"
• "Reindeer(s) Are Better Than People"
• "In Summer"
• "Fixer Upper"

Frozen Fever (2015)

• "Making Today a Perfect Day"

Olaf's Frozen Adventure (2017)

• "Ring in the Season"
• "The Ballad of Flemmingrad"
• "That Time of Year"
• "When We're Together"

Frozen: The Broadway Musical (2018)

• "Dangerous to Dream"
• "Monster"
• "What Do You Know About Love?"
• "True Love"
• "I Can't Lose You"

Frozen II (2019)

• "All Is Found"
• "Some Things Never Change"
• "Into the Unknown"
• "When I Am Older"
• "Lost in the Woods"
• "Show Yourself"
• "The Next Right Thing"

At Home with Olaf (2020)

• "I Am With You"

The Frozen soundtrack was also very successful becoming the best-selling album of 2014 with over 10 million copies sold and "Let It Go", becoming the fifth best-selling single of 2014. A radio program titled Frozen Radio is another format used to provide Frozen and other Disney songs to listeners. Additionally, a song titled "The Making of Frozen" was written as a featurette for the DVD/Blu-ray release of Frozen.

In addition to the songs from the film, the Broadway stage production added 11 songs and 3 reprises, including a "Let It Go" reprise as the finale. In 2019, for the North American tour, a new song "I Can't Lose You" was added to replace "For The First Time in Forever (reprise)". This change was then implemented to the Broadway production beginning February 18, 2020.

Disney on Ice

On May 20, 2014, it was reported that Feld Entertainment's Disney on Ice was planning an ice skating show based on Frozen with assistance from the film's producers and directors, and that the show would start touring in September 2014 starting in Orlando, Florida, with a cast of 39.^[104] The show's world premiere was presented on September 4, 2014, at Orlando's Amway Center.^[105][106] Feld Entertainment disclosed in November that they had sold 250,000 tickets on the day they first became available and expected that over one million people would have seen the Frozen show by the end of 2014.^[107]

The show includes a traditional "Ice Follies PinWheel" while still performing difficult ice skating jumps. All the popular songs from the movie are included. About Figure Skating Expert Jo Ann Schneider Farris gave it 5 stars.^[103]

Broadway stage musical (2018)

"The first priority [for Disney Theatrical in 2016], I have to tell you, is when you have a property that is as beloved and music-based as "Frozen," that has to get an enormous amount of my attention. To say, How do we take this and make a sophisticated, adult evening of theater out of it? Because, as we know with our hits, they have been for that audience that includes the sophisticated theater-goer."

— Tom Schumacher, interview with Southern California Public Radio in November 2014^[108]

In January 2014, Iger stated that Disney Theatrical Productions is in early development of a Broadway stage musical adaptation of Frozen.^{[109][110][111]} No specific date has yet been set for this adaptation. "We're not demanding speed," Iger said. "We're demanding excellence."^[109][112]

During Disney's February 2014 earnings call, Iger congratulated "all those involved with Frozen" and reiterated that it would "be going to Broadway."^[113]: 4 He also noted that Frozen "has real franchise potential" and predicted that "You will see Frozen in more places than you've certainly seen today."^{[113]: 8, 13}

At the end of March 2014, Del Vecho confirmed that there had been "discussions on how we can support the [film's] characters at other locations [and] [w]e are also discussing making a theatrical [musical] version of Frozen, but these things take time."^[9] In late June, Anderson-Lopez and Lopez said there will be a musical based on Frozen within "a few years".^{[114]: 45:40}

In an October 2014 interview, Thomas Schumacher, the president of Disney Theatrical Group, disclosed that discussions about a musical had begun even before the film was released almost a year earlier.^[115] After watching Frozen at a pre-release midnight screening, he texted Lasseter at 1:30 a.m. with "When can we start?" and got a call back from Lasseter within 60 seconds.^[115] Schumacher explained: "My job is to corral the writers of the movie. I'm already talking to directors, and I have a design concept, and we have to begin to fashion this idea. It doesn't need to be fast. It needs to be great."^[115]

On 13 February 2015, Schumacher issued a terse statement confirming that the songwriters were working on the show and that Lee would be writing the "book" of the stage version (the musical equivalent of a script), then stressed that "no other staffing or dates have been announced".^[116]

On July 23, 2015, The New York Times reported that among various projects, the songwriters were "writing about a dozen new songs" for the Frozen musical.^[117]

On February 9, 2016, Disney Theatrical announced that the musical was scheduled to open on Broadway in spring 2018.^[118] At that time, Disney also confirmed that several additional people were now part of the musical's creative team, including Timbers as director, as well as Stephen Oremus, Peter Darling, Bob Crowley, and Natasha Katz.^[118] Two days later, it was confirmed that the musical would first go through a pre-Broadway tryout in August 2017 at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.^[119] In April 2016, it was reported that Betsy Wolfe had been cast as Elsa,^[120] but a Disney spokesperson said on April 26 that no roles have been officially cast.^[121]

On April 25, the songwriters mentioned to an interviewer that they were about to head into a developmental lab next week for the musical.^[121] Anderson-Lopez explained that while "the movie only has seven-and-a-half songs ... we’ve written about 23" for the musical," in the sense that they doubled the number of original songs and then there are reprises of those.^[121] Lopez explained that the musical would follow the same story as the film, but they were adapting all the iconic moments from the film to the musical theatre environment.^[121] It was later reported that the musical's first developmental lab was held over two weeks during May 2016 in New York City, with Betsy Wolfe as Elsa, Patti Murin as Anna, Okieriete Onaodowan as Kristoff, and Greg Hildreth as Olaf, and that Iger himself attended the lab at one point.^[6] However, Disney had not yet committed to a cast for the Denver tryout production.^[6]

On September 27, 2016, Disney announced the new creative team: Michael Grandage is the director and Christopher Oram is the scenic designer. Christopher Gattelli had been previously announced as choreographer. (Alex Timbers and Bob Crowley are no longer involved.) The musical opened on Broadway at the St. James Theatre.^[122] On March 11, 2020, the day before Broadway shut down due to the pandemic, the Broadway production closed after 26 previews and 825 performances.

Box office performance

Frozen earned $400.7 million in North America, and an estimated $880 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $1,280,802,282. Calculating in all expenses, Deadline Hollywood estimated that the film made a profit of over $400 million. It is the sixteenth-highest-grossing film (formerly the fifth-highest at its peak), the third highest-grossing animated film (formerly the highest at its peak), the highest-grossing 2013 film, the third highest-grossing Walt Disney Pictures release, and the tenth highest-grossing film distributed by Disney. The film earned $110.6 million worldwide in its opening weekend. 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, the second Disney-distributed film in 2013 (after Iron Man 3), and the first animated film since Toy Story 3 to do so.

Critical response

Meet-and-greets

Elsa and Anna doing a Meet and Greet at Disneyland in 2013.

The meet-and-greets with Anna and Elsa at Disneyland and Epcot had been initially sponsored by The Walt Disney Studios as short-term temporary attractions starting from November 2013 to promote the film, but in February 2014, Disney Parks decided to extend them indefinitely in response to unprecedented demand.^[175] By the beginning of March, wait time was reportedly as long as four or five hours to see Anna and Elsa, which fueled outside speculation about whether Disney Parks would respond with additional Frozen-specific attractions.^[176] After wait times at Norway pavilion in Walt Disney World's Epcot reportedly reached six hours,^[177] in mid-April the Anna and Elsa meet-and-greets were finally moved to Princess Fairytale Hall at Magic Kingdom, where park guests could use the new FastPass+ reservation system (part of Disney's MyMagic+ project) to bypass the lengthy wait time.^[178][179] Jezebel.com commented on the phenomenon, "Word has it that those characters are like the Beatles now, attracting large crowds of screaming females."^[136] However, as of April 2014, there have not been any plans for Anna and Elsa to join the Disney Princess line-up, though Disney Store confirmed that it was still possible the characters would be added to that franchise in the future.^[149] When later asked about the situation with the meet-and-greets, Buck said, "Oh, it's crazy."^[180] He saw the four-hour-long line himself during a Disneyland visit in the summer of 2014, and tactfully declined a fellow visitor's suggestion to introduce himself to the huge crowd.^[180] In September 2014, a FastPass system was added to the Anna and Elsa meet-and-greet at Disneyland.^[181]

In Christmas 2014, Hong Kong Disneyland opened a Frozen meet-and-greet in Fantasyland featuring Anna and Elsa. It requires a reservation ticket (similar to Disney Fastpasses) to meet them due to the high popularity of the film. There was also a puppet show about Olaf's search for summer in Fantasyland.

Meet-and-greets with Anna and Elsa were introduced for the Christmas season in 2014 (mid-November 2014 to early January 2015) at Disneyland Paris in the Princess Pavilion. Reservation tickets were issued each morning for a limited number of slots. Due to queue lengths and poor guest behavior, the meet-and-greets were discontinued in early 2015 and have only returned irregularly, and unannounced, in the Disneyland Hotel.

Events and celebrations

Disney Cruise Line activities

On January 22, 2015, it was announced that in the summer of 2015, Frozen themed activities will be added to select Disney Magic and Disney Wonder itineraries of the Disney Cruise Line. This includes a new Frozen-themed deck party, and, on the Magic, a new Frozen scene added to the Disney Dreams stage show. In addition, Anna, Elsa and other Frozen characters will be doing meet and greets on all the ships.^[196]

Attractions

Frozen Northern Lights

Disney launched a franchise extension called Frozen Northern Lights in 2016. This brand extension includes animated shorts, book series and a TV special, plus potential characterized toys courtesy of LEGO Friends.^[4][231]

The extension's book series launched the extension on July 5, 2016, with its first book, Journey to the Lights, published by Random House by author Suzanne Francis and is 224 pages in length. The film's main characters attempt to restore the Northern Lights' glimmer and face Little Rock, the series' new protagonist.^[4]

A spin-off collection of four shorts developed by LEGO aired on Disney Channel, titled:

1. Race to Lookout Mountain^[232] (a.k.a. Race to Lookout Point)^[233]
2. Out of the Storm^[234]
3. The Great Glacier^[235]
4. Restoring the Northern Lights^[236]

They later aired as a whole on December 9, 2016. Titled LEGO Frozen Northern Lights (also known as Frozen: Magic of the Northern Lights in the UK and Lego Frozen Northern Nights elsewhere^[237][238]), the shorts were compiled as a special and featured the returning voice talents of Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, and Josh Gad.^[4][239] The special received 2.01 million viewers and ranked fifth for the night on cable.^[240]