Frozen Fever

Frozen Fever is a 2015 American computer-animated musical fantasy short film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is based on the 2013 feature film Frozen, and tells the story of Anna's birthday party given by Elsa with the help of Kristoff, Sven, and Olaf. Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee again served as the directors with Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, and Josh Gad reprising their roles from the first film.

Frozen Fever
Film poster
Directed by
Produced by
Story by
  • Chris Buck
  • Jennifer Lee
  • Marc E. Smith
Starring
Music byChristophe Beck[1]
Edited byJeff Draheim
Production
company
Distributed byWalt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Release date
Running time
7 minutes[2]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Production on Frozen Fever began in June 2014 and took six months to complete. The film debuted in theaters alongside Walt Disney Pictures' Cinderella on March 13, 2015. It received positive reviews from critics, along with praise for its new song "Making Today a Perfect Day" by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez.

Plot

Elsa plans to give Anna a surprise birthday party with the help of Kristoff, Sven, and Olaf; but while Anna is led on a party treasure hunt by a string that winds through the kingdom, Elsa has caught a cold, and unknowingly produces a group of "Snowgies" with each sneeze, who begin to dismantle the birthday party's decorations while Kristoff tries to stop them. While Elsa takes Anna on the hunt, Kristoff, Sven, and Olaf try to control the snowmen and fix the decorations in time for Anna and Elsa's return. Meanwhile, Elsa's condition rapidly worsens and she becomes delirious with fever. After Elsa nearly falls off a clock tower, Anna convinces her to rest. They walk back to the castle where Elsa apologizes to Anna for "ruining" another birthday, but Anna reassures her that she didn't ruin anything. As Anna goes to lead Elsa to bed, the doors to the castle open to reveal Kristoff, Olaf, Sven, and a mountain of tiny snowmen, who surprise Anna. Elsa sneezes again and finally sees more tiny snowmen that she produced. Despite Anna's protests, Elsa concludes the party by blowing into an alphorn. However, she sneezes into the horn, forming a giant snowball that inadvertently hits Hans overseas (and into a cart of manure, as he was cleaning out the stables as punishment for his attempt on Elsa's life). Elsa rests in bed under Anna's care while she points out that taking care of her beloved big sister is the best birthday present ever. Olaf, Kristoff, and Sven escort the small snowmen to Elsa's ice palace, where they stay with her snow-giant doorkeeper Marshmallow.

Cast

Production
Frozen Fever's directors, Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee
Frozen Fever's producers, Peter Del Vecho and Aimee Scribner
Both photos were taken at the 2015 D23 Expo in Anaheim, California.

On September 2, 2014, during the ABC airing of The Story of Frozen: Making a Disney Animated Classic, Walt Disney Animation Studios' then-chief creative officer John Lasseter announced that a Frozen short film with a new song would be released in the future.[3] On the same day, Variety announced that the short would be released in early 2015 under the title Frozen Fever, with Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee returning as co-directors, Peter Del Vecho returning as producer and a new song by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez. Olaf the snowman would also make an appearance in the short.[4][5][6] On December 3, 2014, it was announced that Aimee Scribner would be a co-producer and that Frozen Fever would debut in theaters alongside Walt Disney Pictures' Cinderella on March 13, 2015.[7][8] In late December, the co-directors told the Associated Press "There is something magic about these characters and this cast and this music. Hopefully, the audiences will enjoy the short we're doing, but we felt it again. It was really fun."[9] Around the same time, Dave Metzger, who worked on the orchestration for Frozen, disclosed he was already at work on Frozen Fever.[10]

The short features the song "Making Today a Perfect Day", by Anderson-Lopez and Lopez.[11] At the premiere of Cinderella and Frozen Fever at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California, on March 1, 2015, Josh Gad told USA Today, "I want to apologize to parents everywhere for the fact that children are going to be singing a whole new Frozen song[.]"[12]

The creators started brainstorming possibilities for the short film in June 2014.[13] After early discussions about Olaf, head story artist Marc Smith pitched the idea of what might happen if Elsa had a cold, which became the basis for the short's plot.[13] The directors began working on the short in June and by August were back in the recording studio with the cast to lay down vocal tracks. The production of Frozen Fever took six months.[14] All of the animators from Frozen wanted to come back to animate at least one shot on Frozen Fever, resulting in a large number of animator credits for a short film. They struggled to squeeze the animation phase of the short's production into a tight time slot in fall 2014 after animation wrapped on Big Hero 6 and before the studio's animators had to start working on subsequent features.[15][16] It was during this time period that the directors began to realize how much they missed the Frozen characters; they began to discuss the ideas that evolved into a full-length sequel, Frozen II (2019).[17]

Release and reception

Frozen Fever premiered in theaters alongside Walt Disney Pictures' Cinderella on March 13, 2015.[7] It was released on Digital HD and Disney Movies Anywhere on August 11, 2015, and was released on the Walt Disney Animation Studios Short Films Collection DVD/Blu-ray Combo Pack on August 18, 2015.[18] It was also included on the Blu-ray, DVD, and digital HD releases of Cinderella on September 15, 2015.[19] On November 9, 2015, it was released on an exclusive DVD copy of its own, courtesy of Tesco stores across the UK.[20]

USA Today's Claudia Puig rated the short three stars out of four, and described the new song ("Making Today a Perfect Day") as "pleasant". She concluded that although the short "is not as exhilarating and inventive as the original, it's still a treat to see an abridged tale of these two sisters in a warmhearted spinoff."[11] Writing for BBC, Natalie Jamieson called the new song "catchy and fun".[21] Dan Kois of the Slate called the film "a real bummer, the first recent misfire from Disney's shorts program, and thus the first serious misfire from the Lasseter-led Disney."[22] The Daily Telegraph's Robbie Collin praised the song "Making Today a Perfect Day", stating that "it's a lip-smacking confection, dusted with pure icing sugar, and suggests that songwriters Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez are capable of coming up with something special for the forthcoming feature-length Frozen sequel."[23]

CraveOnline's Witney Seibold wrote that the film "is a celebration of the very kind of conspicuous consumerism that Disney is always smearing the landscape with."[24] Mike Scott of The Times-Picayune wrote that "with its blend of sweetness, silliness and tunefullness, this animated Disney short is satisfyingly consistent in vision and in spirit with the original Frozen."[25]

References
  1. "'Frozen Fever' to Feature Music by Christophe Beck". Film Music Reporter. February 6, 2015. Archived from the original on February 7, 2015. Retrieved February 12, 2015.
  2. "Exclusive First Look at Disney's 'Frozen Fever' Trailer". ABC News. Archived from the original on August 16, 2015. Retrieved October 7, 2015.
  3. Butler, Karen (September 2, 2014). "'Frozen' characters to return for a new short film, says Disney". United Press International. Archived from the original on September 3, 2014. Retrieved September 3, 2014.
  4. Graser, Marc (September 2, 2014). "'Frozen' Characters to Return in 'Frozen Fever' Animated Short". Variety. Archived from the original on September 4, 2014. Retrieved September 2, 2014.
  5. Zakarin, Jordan (September 2, 2014). "Disney's New 'Frozen' Short Film Will Premiere in Spring 2015". TheWrap. Archived from the original on September 3, 2014. Retrieved September 3, 2014.
  6. Breznican, Anthony (September 2, 2014). "'Frozen Fever': Disney to bring back Elsa and Anna for animated short". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on February 20, 2015. Retrieved September 3, 2014.
  7. Ford, Rebecca (December 3, 2014). "'Frozen' Short Film to Screen in Front of Disney's 'Cinderella'". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on December 3, 2014. Retrieved December 3, 2014.
  8. Graser, Marc (December 3, 2014). "'Frozen Fever' Short to Debut in Front of Disney's 'Cinderella'". Variety. Archived from the original on December 9, 2014. Retrieved December 3, 2014.
  9. Kennedy, Mark (December 23, 2014). "'Frozen' Is Named Top Entertainer of the Year by AP". New York. Associated Press. Archived from the original on January 2, 2015. Retrieved December 24, 2014.
  10. Stabler, David (December 24, 2014). "'Frozen' arranger working on sequel, 'Frozen Fever'". The Oregonian. Archived from the original on January 2, 2015. Retrieved January 2, 2015.
  11. Puig, Claudia (February 28, 2015). "'Frozen Fever' will warm kids' hearts". USA Today. Archived from the original on March 1, 2015. Retrieved March 2, 2015.
  12. Alexander, Bryan (March 2, 2015). "Josh Gad apologizes to parents for unleashing new Frozen song". USA Today. Archived from the original on March 4, 2015. Retrieved March 3, 2015.
  13. Desowitz, Bill (March 12, 2015). "Immersed in Movies: Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee Talk 'Frozen Fever'". Indiewire. Archived from the original on September 20, 2015. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
  14. Tanswell, Adam. "Frozen Fever – Behind the Magic!". National Geographic Kids. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 29, 2015.
  15. Taylor, Drew (March 11, 2015). "'Frozen Fever' Is a 'Thank You' to Fans, Say Directors Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck". Moviefone. Archived from the original on March 13, 2015. Retrieved March 14, 2015.
  16. Miller, Daniel (February 20, 2015). "Software behind 'Big Hero 6' pushes envelope on computer animation". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on February 23, 2015. Retrieved February 27, 2015.
  17. Weintraub, Steve (November 29, 2019). "'Frozen 2' Filmmakers on Making the First Disney Musical Sequel". Collider. Collider Inc. Retrieved November 29, 2019.
  18. Doty, Meriah (June 4, 2015). "'Frozen Fever' (and Easter Eggs!) Coming Soon on Disney Shorts Blu-ray (Exclusive)". Yahoo! Movies. Archived from the original on June 4, 2015. Retrieved June 4, 2015.
  19. Evry, Max (June 12, 2015). "Cinderella Blu-ray and Digital HD Announced, Watch Alternate Opening". ComingSoon.net. Archived from the original on June 26, 2015. Retrieved July 5, 2015.
  20. "Frozen Fever (Tesco Exclusive DVD)". Tesco Direct. November 9, 2015. Archived from the original on December 8, 2015. Retrieved December 1, 2015.
  21. Jamieson, Natalie (March 2, 2015). "Frozen Fever: Seven things we learnt from its seven minutes". BBC. Archived from the original on March 3, 2015. Retrieved March 3, 2015.
  22. Kois, Dan (March 12, 2015). "Excited About the New Frozen Short Playing With Cinderella? Let It Go—It's a Mess". Slate. Archived from the original on September 27, 2015. Retrieved October 9, 2015.
  23. Collin, Robbie (March 20, 2015). "Frozen Fever: 'a lip-smacking confection'". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on November 1, 2015. Retrieved October 9, 2015.
  24. Seibold, Witney (March 13, 2015). "'Frozen Fever' Review: More is Much Less". CraveOnline. Archived from the original on December 8, 2015. Retrieved October 9, 2015.
  25. Scott, Mike (March 11, 2015). "Disney's 'Frozen Fever' animated short offers a sweet warm-up act for 'Cinderella' audiences". The Times-Picayune. Archived from the original on September 16, 2015. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
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