Frozen (2013 film)

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Frozen

Theatrical release poster Directed by Chris Jennifer Lee Peter Del Vecho Jennifer Lee Chris Jennifer Shane Morris The Snow by Hans Christian Andersen Kristen Idina Jonathan Josh Santino Fontana Christophe Beck Jeff Draheim Walt Disney Walt Disney Animation Studios Walt Motion Pictures Disney Pictures Buck Lee Buck

Produced by Screenplay by Story by

Based on

Queen

Starring

Bell Menzel Groff Gad

Music by Editing by Studio

Distributed by

Studios

Release dates Running time Country

November 19, 2013(El Capitan Theatre) November 27, 2013(United States) 108 minutes[1] United States

Language Budget Box office

English $150 million[2][3] $271,793,888[3]

Frozen is a 2013 American computer animated musical epic 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. Loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale The Snow Queen, and featuring the voices of Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, Josh Gad, and Santino Fontana; the film tells the story of a fearless princess who sets off on an epic journey alongside a rugged, thrill-seeking mountain man, his loyal pet reindeer, and a hapless snowman to find her estranged sister, whose icy powers have trapped the kingdom in eternal winter. Frozen underwent several story treatments for several years, before being commissioned in 2011, with a screenplay written by Jennifer Lee, and bothChris Buck and Lee serving as directors. 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 penned the songs. The film premiered at the El Capitan Theatre on November 19, 2013, and went into general theatrical release on November 27.[5] Upon its release,Frozen was a box office success and received critical acclaim, with several film critics considering it to be the best Disney animated musical since the studio's renaissance era.[6][7]

Plot[edit]
Eight-year-old Elsa, princess of Arendelle, possesses cryokinetic powers. One night while playing, she accidentally injures her five-year-old sister Anna. The king and queen seek help from the troll people who heal Anna and remove her memories of her sister's powers. In order to protect Elsa and keep her powers a secret, the royal family locks themselves away in their castle. Elsa, who was being kept away from people for their safety, spends most of her time hiding in her room, creating a rift between the two sisters as they grow up, one that is strained again after their parents die at sea during a storm. Three years later, the people of Arendelle prepare for Elsa's coronation ceremony. Among the dignitaries is the Duke of Weselton, a tradesman who wants to exploit Arendelle for profit. Excited that the castle's gates will finally open to the public, Anna explores the town and meets Prince Hans of the Southern Isles, with the pair quickly developing a mutual attraction for each other. Elsa's coronation goes off without incident, and the two sisters begin to bond again at the reception. During the reception, Hans proposes to Anna, who hastily accepts. Elsa, however, refuses to grant her blessing on the marriage, setting off an argument between the sisters, which culminates in Elsa's abilities being exposed to the guests. Panicked, Elsa flees, inadvertently unleashing an eternal winter on the kingdom in the process. Free of her secret and far from Arendelle, she builds herself an ice palace and unknowingly brings to life her and Anna's childhood snowman, Olaf. Anna sets out on horseback on her Fjord horse in search of Elsa, determined to return her to Arendelle, end the winter, and mend their relationship. While getting supplies, she meets mountain manKristoff and his reindeer Sven. Anna convinces Kristoff to guide her to the North Mountain in search of her sister. The group encounters Olaf who leads them to Elsa's hideaway. Anna and Elsa are reunited, but while Anna tries to persuade her elder sister to return, Elsa still harbors fears of hurting Anna. Elsa becomes agitated and accidentally strikes Anna in the heart with her powers. Desperate to get Anna to leave, Elsa creates a giant snow creature that throws them out. As they flee, Kristoff notices that Anna's hair is turning white, and decides to take her back to his adoptive family of trolls. Grand Pabbie reveals that only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart, otherwise Anna will freeze forever. Kristoff races back to Arendelle, believing a kiss from Hans will save her. Meanwhile, Hans, who had gone on a search for Anna, encounters Elsa and brings her back to Arendelle after she is knocked unconscious during a skirmish with Weselton's men, shackling her in the dungeon for her own protection. Hans pleads with Elsa to undo the winter, but Elsa admits she is unable to control her powers. When Anna is reunited with Hans and begs him to kiss her to break the curse, Hans refuses, revealing his true plan of marrying Anna to seize control of Arendelle's throne. Leaving Anna to die, Hans charges Elsa with treason for her sister's apparent death. Elsa escapes and heads out into the blizzard on the fjord. Olaf finds Anna and reveals Kristoff is in love with her. The two then travel together onto the fjord to find him. Hans confronts Elsa and tells her Anna is dead because of her actions. In Elsa's despair, the storm immediately stops, giving Kristoff and Anna the chance to reach each other. However Anna, seeing that Hans is about to kill Elsa, throws herself between the two and subsequently freezes solid, blocking the blow. As Elsa grieves for her sister, Anna begins to thaw, her decision to sacrifice herself to save her sister constituting an "act of true love." Realizing love is the key to controlling her powers, Elsa is able to thaw the kingdom and even provide Olaf with the means to survive outside of winter. Hans is sent back to the Southern Isles to face punishment for his attempt of assassination, and Elsa cuts off trade with Weselton. Elsa reconciles with Anna and promises to never close the palace again, and while Anna and Kristoff share a kiss, Elsa uses her powers to entertain the residents of Arendelle.

Voice cast[edit]

Kristen Bell as Anna, princess of Arendelle and Elsa's younger sister[8] Idina Menzel as Elsa, the Snow Queen and Anna's older sister[8][9] Jonathan Groff as Kristoff, a mountain man, who owns a reindeer named Sven [10][11] Josh Gad as Olaf, a humorous snowman with intentions of experiencing summer [8][12][13] Santino Fontana as Hans, a prince from the Southern Isles[10] Alan Tudyk as the Duke of Weselton[13] Ciarn Hinds as Pabbie the Troll King[14] Chris Williams as Oaken, the owner of Wandering Oaken's Trading Post and Sauna[15] Maia Wilson as Bulda, a troll[16]

Jack Whitehall as a troll[17] Maurice LaMarche as the King of Arendelle, Anna and Elsa's father[16] Livvy Stubenrauch as Young Anna[18]

Development[edit]
Origins[edit]
In 1943, Walt Disney and Samuel Goldwyn had considered the possibility of collaborating to produce a biography film of author and poet Hans Christian Andersen, where Goldwyn's studio would shoot the live-action sequences of Andersen's life and Disney would create the animated sequences. The animated sequences were to include stories of Andersen's works, such as The Little Mermaid, The Little Match Girl, The Snow Queen, Thumbelina, The Ugly Duckling, The Red Shoes and The Emperor's New Clothes. Walt and his animators were having hard troubles about The Snow Queen, as they couldn't find a way to adapt and relate the Snow Queen character to modern audiences. Even as far back as the 1940s, Disney's animation department saw great cinematic possibilities with the source material, but the Snow Queen character proved to be too problematic. This, among other things, led to the cancellation of the Disney-Goldwyn project. 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.[19]

Later efforts[edit]
"Hans Christian Andersens original version of The Snow Queen is a pretty dark tale and it doesnt 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 todays 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 othe r 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[20]

In the late 1990s, Walt Disney Feature Animation started on their own adaptation of The Snow Queen after the tremendous success of their recent films, but the project was scrapped completely in late 2002, when Glen Keane notoriously quit the project.[21] Even before then, Harvey Fierstein pitched his version of the story to the Disney executives, but was turned down. Dick Zondag and Dave Goetz all had their try on it, but failed. Disney shelved the project again. Michael Eisner, then-CEO and chairman of The Walt Disney Company, offered his support to the project and suggested doing it with John Lasseter at Pixar Animation Studios, when the studios would get their contracts renewed.[19] The project was revived again around 2008 when Chris Buck pitched Disney his version of the adaptation.[22] At the time, the project went under name of Anna and the Snow Queen, and was planned to be traditionally-animated.[23] By early 2010, the project entered development hell once again, when the studio failed to find a way to make the story and the Snow Queen character work. [24][25]

Revitalization[edit]
On December 22, 2011, following the success of Tangled, Disney announced a new title for the film, Frozen, and a release date, November 27, 2013, and a different crew from the previous attempt.[26] A month later, it was confirmed that the film would be a computer animated feature in stereoscopic 3D, instead of the intended hand drawn animation.[21] On March 5, 2012, it was announced that Chris Buck would be directing, with John Lasseter and Peter Del Vecho producing.[27] 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, which in that earlier version of the story, was a villain. Buck and Del Vecho presented their storyboards to John Lasseter, with the entire production team adjourned to a conference to hear Lasseter's thoughts on this work-in-progress. Production designer Michael Giaimo, recalled; "That was the game changer...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." The production team then addressed the film's problems, drafting several different variations on the Snow Queen story until the characters and story felt relevant. Finally, the team decided to rewrite the film's protagonist, Anna (who was based on the Gerda character from The Snow Queen), as the younger sibling of Elsa, effectively establishing a family dynamic between the characters. [28]

Production[edit]
Actress Kristen Bell was cast as the voice of Anna on March 5, 2012.[27][29] 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."[30] 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. [31] When asked on her approach to Anna, Kristen Bell replied, "I'm really excited to show it to people. I became a part of the kind of movie I wanted to see as a kid," she said. "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." [32]
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[30]

Idina Menzel, a Broadway veteran, was cast as Elsa. She and Bell impressed the directors with a duet at an early table read. [9][28] Between December 2012 and June 2013, additional casting roles were announced; including Jonathan Groff as Kristoff,[11] Alan Tudyk as the Duke of Weselton, Santino Fontana as Prince Hans, and Josh Gad as Olaf.[13] On November 30, 2012, it was announced that Jennifer Lee, one of the screenwriters of Wreck-It Ralph, had joined Buck as co-director.[33] The filmmakers hired Lee initially as a screenwriter, following her work on Wreck-It Ralph. Lee then became heavily involved with the film's pre-

development process, working closely with director Chris Buck and songwriters, Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez.[20] Following the announcement, Jennifer Lee became the first woman to direct a full-length animated motion picture produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios.[28]

Animation[edit]
The film's animators visited an Ice Hotel in Quebec, Canada to study how light reflects and refracts on snow and ice. For the film's setting, the animators used the landscape of Norway and the feel of the winter season of Wyoming for inspiration.[34] "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 remarked. "There is a real feeling of Lawrence of Arabia scope and scale to this," he finished. Back at the studio, Del Vecho explained the film's production: "On this movie we do have character leads, supervising animators on specific characters. The animators themselves may work on multiple characters but its 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 hed bring a lot o f comedy to it; Annas animator, Becky Bresee, its her first time leading a character and we wanted her to lead Anna.".[35] Several landmarks in Norway are included in the film, including the Akershus Fortress in Oslo, the Nidaros Cathedral inTrondheim and Bryggen in Bergen. Several other typical cultural Norwegian things are included in the film, such as a Stave church, trolls, Viking ships, clothes and food such as lutefisk. The movie also contains several elements specifically drawn from northern and central Norway's indigenous Smi culture - such as reindeer and the equipment used to control these, clothing styles, and parts of the musical score. [36][37] Regarding the look and nature of the film's cinematography, the film's art director Michael 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 Giamo; "The juxtaposition of character and environment and the counterpart of how they played in terms of cinematography was brilliant in that film." It was also Giamo's idea thatFrozen should be filmed in CinemaScope, which was approved by Lasseter.[38] 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 animation, noted 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.[35] A live reindeer was brought into the studio for animators to study its movements and mannerisms for the character, Sven. During production, the film's English title was changed from The Snow Queen to Frozen, a decision that drew comparisons to Tangled. Peter Del Vecho explained that "the title Frozen came up independently of the title Tangled. Its 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 dont 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 foreign countries: "because that just resonated stronger in some countries than Frozen. Maybe theres a richness to The Snow Queen in the countrys heritage and they just wanted to emphasize that."[20]

Music[edit]
Main article: Frozen (soundtrack) 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 Walt Disney Animation Studios on Winnie the Pooh.[9][39] Lopez and Anderson-Lopez's "Let It Go" and "In Summer" were previewed at the 2013 D23 Expo, with the former being performed by Idina Menzel.[40]In February 2013, Christophe Beck was hired to score the film, following his highly acclaimed work on Paperman, a Disney animated short film released the year prior to Frozen.[41] Kristen Bell also confirmed that there will be a duet between her and Menzel. [10] It was also revealed on September 14, 2013 that Smi musician Frode Fjellheim's Eatnemen Vuelie will be the film's opening song. This song contains elements of the traditional Smi singing style joik[42][43] For the orchestral film score, composer Christophe Beck gave homage to the Norway- and Spmi-inspired setting, employing regional instruments such as the bukkehorn and traditional vocal techniques, such as kulning.[44] The music producers recruited a Norwegian linguist to assist with the lyrics for an Old Norse song written for Elsa's coronation, and also traveled to Norway to record the all-female choir Cantus, for a piece inspired by traditional Norwegian music.[44] The score was recorded by an 80-piece orchestra, featuring 32 vocalists, including native Norwegian Christine Hals.[44] 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."[44]

Release[edit]
Frozen was released theatrically on November 27, 2013 in the United States, and was accompanied by the Mickey Mouse animated short film, Get a Horse! [45] The film was promoted heavily at several Disney theme park including Disney California Adventure's World of Color, Epcot's Norway pavilion, and Disneyland Paris' Disney Dreams! show.[46][47] The film's premiere was at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California on November 19, 2013.[48]

Reception[edit]
Box office[edit]
As of December 18, 2013, Frozen has earned $170,193,888 in North America, and $101,600,000 in other countries, for a worldwide total of $271,793,888.[3] The film earned $110.6 million worldwide on its opening weekend. [49] North America Frozen became Fandango's top advance ticket-seller among original animated films, outselling previous record-holder Brave.[50] The film 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.[51] During the three-day weekend it earned $243,390, scoring the seventh largest per-theater average.[52] On the opening day of its wide release, the film earned $15.2 million [53] (including $800,000 from Tuesday previews)[54] and set a record for the highest pre-Thanksgiving Wednesday opening, ahead of Tangled ($11.9 million).[55] 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. [56] Among films that opened during Thanksgiving, it set new records; three-day ($67.4 million from Friday to Sunday)[57] and five-day ($93.6 million from Wednesday to Sunday). [58] It also achieved the second largest three-day[59] and five-day[60] Thanksgiving grosses among all films, behind Catching Fire.[61] It eventually scored the second largest opening weekend among films that didn't open at first place. [62][63] During its second weekend of wide release, Frozen declined 53% to $31.6 million, but moved ahead of Catching Fire and jumped to first place; it scored the largest post-Thanksgiving weekend ever, ahead of Toy Story 2 ($27.8 million).[64] Outside North America Frozen had its debut on the same weekend as its wide North American release and earned $16.7 million from sixteen foreign markets. [63] Overall, its largest opening weekends occurred in Russia and the CIS ($11.1 million), where the film set an opening-weekend record among Disney animated films (ahead of Tangled),[65] France and the Maghreb region ($9.16 million) and the UK, Ireland and Malta ($7.69 million). [66]

Critical response[edit]
Frozen received widespread critical acclaim,[7] with several critics have compared the film favorably to the films of the Disney Renaissance, particularly The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and The Lion King.[14][67][68][69] The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 89% of critics gave the film a positive review based on 161 reviews, with an average score of 7.8/10, making it the highest-rated family film in 2013. The site's consensus reads: "Beautifully animated, smartly written, and stocked with singalong songs, Frozen adds another worthy entry to the Disney canon."[70] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a score of 74 based on 43 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews."[71] According to CinemaScore polls conducted during the opening weekend, the average grade cinemagoers gave Frozen was an "A+" on an A+ to F scale.[72][73] Frozen was named the seventh best film of 2013 by Richard Corliss of Time[74] and Kyle Smith of The New York Post.[75] Alonso Duralde of The Wrap hailed the film as "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 studios modern animated division into what it is today." He also elaborated 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."[14] Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter observes 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."[76] 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."[77] Scott Mendelson of Forbes enthused; "Frozen is both a declaration of Disneys renewed cultural relevance and a reaffirmation of Disney coming to terms with its own legacy and its own identity. Its also a just plain terrific bit of family entertainment. "[78] The Los Angeles Times extolled the film's ensemble voice talent and elaborate musical sequences, and declared Frozen as "a welcome return to greatness for Walt Disney Animation Studios."[67] 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." [68] Richard Corliss of Time also lauded the film, writing that, "It's great to see Disney returning to its roots and blooming anew: creating superior musical entertainment that draws on the Walt tradition of animation splendor and the verve of Broadway present."[79] Richard Roeper acclaimed the film as an "absolute delight from start to finish."[80] 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.[81][82] Emma Dibdin ofDigital 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."[83] However, the film was not without its criticisms. Scott Foundas of Variety, wasn't as equally impressed with the film, but nevertheless commended the film's voice acting and technical artistry: "The tactile, snow-capped Arendelle landscape, including Elsas ice-castle retreat is Frozen's other true marvel, enhanced by 3D and the decision to shoot in widescreen a nod to theCinemaScope richness of Sleeping Beauty and Lady and the Tramp." 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."[85] Joe Williams of St. Louis PostDispatch also criticized the story as the film's weakest point.[86]

Portrayal of female emotion

Allegations of sexism occurred[87][88][89] after head of animation for Frozen, Lino DiSalvo, said: "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 and they're very sensitive too you can get them off a model very quickly. So, having a film with two hero female characters was really tough, and having them both in the scene and look very different if they're echoing the same expression; that Elsa looking angry looks different from Anna being angry." Some media commentators took this to mean that a difficulty exists due to a limited range of facial variation for recent Disney female cartoon characters because of the need to keep them "pretty." A Disney spokesperson 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."