Disney rolled out all kinds of promotional material for its Frozen Fever short this week, which premiered last night with early showings of Cinderella. While we won’t be seeing it until this weekend, we’ve had a lot of fun showing it all off to our toddler. The poster above revealed the snowgies, Disney Animation’s answer to Studio Ghibli’s kodama.
These adorable little mischief makers are apparently a symptom of Elsa’s illness and keen to cause trouble on Anna’s birthday. Our toddler already loves them. Which could be trouble.
They also released the transitional animation with Olaf adopting a glass slipper for a nose.
The new song, “Making Today a Perfect Day,” pulled straight from the short, went live on iTunes Thursday morning. And it’s already been posted on YouTube several times.
But let’s be honest, as exciting as the seven minute short is, it’s been a bit overshadowed by the official announcement of Frozen 2!
The company revealed plans during the Walt Disney Co.’s annual shareholders meeting on Thursday from San Francisco.
The rest of us learned yesterday morning via this adorable tweet from Princess Anna herself…
Last week Disney Animation Studios released several stills from the upcoming short, “Frozen Fever,” set to premiere with Kenneth Branagh’s live action retelling of Cinderella on March 13th. Elsa and Kristoff plan a birthday party for Anna, but on the day of the celebration, the Queen catches, ahem, cold.
The stills show Olaf stuffing some chocolate in his face. Elsa models her Spring dress with the floral imagery we saw when early merchandise related to the short was leaked. There’s a portrait seemingly inspired by Awkward Family Photos. In a nice callback to Frozen, Anna’s Coronation Day bedhead is apparently normal. But I think my favorite is the hand painted “Happy Birthday” hung in the courtyard that’ll resonate with young viewers and inspire some hands on party prep at home.
This week a brief featurette with directors Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee. Check it out and catch a few more glimpses of the thing kids will be crazy about this year.
EMMA: [The Snow Queen] wanted to make Storybrooke her Ice Castle.
The perfect “Wait, what?” Anna carries on about how great this Gold fellow must have been and then David tells her he’s Rumplestiltskin.
ANNA: Did you see these bruises?
ELSA: Have you seen Hans’s eye?
ANNA: Yeah. Totally worth it.
Anna’s wearing the gloves in the family, now.
This scene, with Anna saying, “What is that amazing smell?” instead of Elsa.
The Sound of Music
Anna’s skip-hopping arms wide approach to the town line completes all possible riffs on her costume. She hasn’t moved that way at all through the season. While it didn’t seem wildly out of character, it did take a moment to recognize where they were going with it.
When the ad for The Sound of Music Sing Along aired, we had a good belly laugh.
Star Wars
Holo-Belle more or less crying, “Help me, Obi-Wa… Rumplestiltskin. You’re my only hope.”
Wish Upon a Star
Rumple tempts Belle with a honeymoon in “a magical city called New York.” The opening line of this Olivia Goldsmith novel is, oddly enough, “Once upon a time in a magical city called New York a girl under a spell lived on an island.”
Fantasia
The broom is back. With enough personality to outshine some of the other recurring guests on the show, this bit player from “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” struts its stuff, cracks its knuckles, and reveals the portal back to Arendelle. All while its creepy modified theme music plays in the background.
Bonus: Turns out the house does belong to the Sorcerer after all, validating a lot of fans who called it at the beginning of the season.
The Little Mermaid
One of three freebies, everyone’s favorite predatory subprime magic lender Ursula appears as part of a trio trying to swindle Rumplestiltskin.
Her contribution to the plot against Rumple is a sand dollar bearing the holographic message.
After wrapping Belle in her tentacles, she says, “Such a pretty thing. Seems a shame I’ll have to crack her pipes.” It’s a dialogic stretch to reference the film.
101 Dalmatians
Cruella de Vil, whose costume is a nice mix of mostly animated classic with the makeup of the live action adaptation.
While the green smoke around the Belle-ogram is characteristic of the cloud following Cruella, it apparently wasn’t a big enough clue, so they added a Dalmatian to lead Belle away.
Maleficent
Her raven, Diablo, delivers the ransom message to Rumplestiltskin. At least, his name is Diablo in the animated classic. In the recent reinterpretation, he’s recast as Diaval. It remains to be seen which one they’ll go with.
Maleficent’s costume has undergone a drastic redesign, bringing it in line with the 2014 film.
Once Upon a Time
Some key themes reappeared in this episode. Color coded clothing showed us a Regina who’d do the right thing in blue and a Belle who’d make some shocking choices in grey and black. Rumple stalked around with Geppetto’s parents hanging in the background, reminding us what an evil imp he is.
But they brought the Frozen arc full circle visually. Our first glimpse of Arendelle’s royal siblings in “A Tale of Two Sisters” was their clasping hands from behind, Anna on the left and Elsa on the right. The shot’s inverted, or mirrored, at the end of their scene with Elsa on the left this time.
Erin’s Happy Shipper Moments
Kristanna
Not that we got much interaction between the two on screen, but the good news is that once they got back to Arendelle, Anna’s right hook apparently made short work of Hans, and Kristoff and Anna were finally going to get married. Mazel tov!
Captain Swan
To be honest, I had been hoping for the Captain Swan relationship to be more central to the episode. Instead, it fell fourth fiddle to the Arendelle crew, the Rumpbelle dissolution, and the coming of the Queens of Darkness. As the plotline involving Gold having Hook’s heart developed, I fully expected there to be some major touching scene between the two. Instead, we got two minor scenes.
The first of these was in Granny’s Diner when Gold puppeted Hook into telling Emma where the portal was to get Anna out of the way. Emma finally touched him intimately on the face and asked what was wrong, that he was acting strange[ly]. The only response he could make of his own volition was to grab her wrist with a shaking hand. But does she pursue him or this clue that clearly something is truly messed up? No. Jeez, Emma, can’t you see your man is in trouble?! You are a less than stellar girlfriend.
The second was when she reinserts his heart. (Note, there was no romantic anything when Emma and Snow arrive at the clocktower to see Gold about to crush Hook’s heart.) So he asks her to be gentle, but this is Emma, so she just shoves it back in, thinking that it must be like pulling off a band-aid. But as soon as it’s back in, he lays a great, passionate kiss on her. When the kiss breaks (why, oh why, did it have to?), he reiterates that he’s a survivor, and she shyly smiles.
Rumpbelle
This relationship, more than any other, was at the center of the episode. Considering how much damage the writers had done to this ship since the iconic dance in the ballroom, I ended up being rather relieved that Belle finally figured out that Rumple loved power more than anything and kicked him out of town. That said, it was an emotional scene, and Robert Carlyle sold it so well, I actually felt bad for Rumple as he lost Belle, then his magic, and crumpled from the return of his crippled leg.
First, Rumple wakes Belle from a sleep that I can only imagine he put her in magically and tells her that he’s going to take her to the magical land of New York. She goes to pack her bag happily.
Belle saves the day, or at least Hook, by controlling Rumple with his dagger after using the magic gauntlet to reveal to her what Rumple’s greatest weakness is (that’s not good wife behavior). The betrayal is merely in response to the many, many betrayals Rumple has offered her this season. Not even the sort of sweet flashback scene of him trading the gauntlet for her life could redeem him.
So she finally forces him out of town, using the dagger to make him go. It’s painful for both of them (and the audience). We know this won’t be the end of it, since Rumple won’t stay gone for long (you, know, just till March), but Rumple’s going to have to work his hinney off to win her back. She’s gotten wise to his unchanging ways.
Outlaw Queen
I liked that the first thing we saw Regina do this episode was return Marian’s heart, that there was no hesitation. In return, Marian offers to back off if Robin chooses to be with Regina. How civil.
Robin chooses Regina! He points out that though it may be complicated, the most important thing he can model for his son is to live honestly and follow his heart.
Not that it matters, because Plot Conveniences Playhouse presents the relapse of Ingrid’s ice curse, and the only way to save Marian is for her to cross the town line into the non-magical world from which she can never return. But Regina won’t let her go alone–she insists that Robin and Roland have to go with her. Which is honorable and stuff, but very sad for the Outlaw Queen shippers around the world.
Their good-bye is full of feels. Thank goodness Marian couldn’t see that kiss–not that Robin would know that. Ballsy, Robin!
Swan Queen
Emma offers to do shots with Regina after Robin leaves town, but then Henry breaks up their fun with news about The Author (pretentious indeed!). The three of them go to the mansion’s secret room and find the blank storybooks. Emma opts in for Operation Mongoose and reiterates her promise to bring Regina a happy ending.
When we first heard about “Frozen Fever,” a new animated short, netizens speculated that it would be attached to Kennth Branagh’s upcoming live action Cinderella. Disney confirmed this on Wednesday and released the spiffy logo you see above. With both coming at the tail end of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, I really like the fade to green toward the bottom.
Wait, what?! Walt Disney Animation Studios’ all-new short “Frozen Fever,” will open in theatres on March 13, 2015, in front of the new live-action Cinderella.
Directed by Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee, “Frozen Fever” features Anna’s birthday. Elsa and Kristoff want to give her the best celebration ever, but Elsa’s ice powers may put more than just the party at risk. Don’t worry, Olaf’s in it, too, along with a new original song by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez.
This pretty much means we’ll get the opportunity to see how well our toddler handles the movie theater and whether anything airing after Olaf and Anna can hold the same attention. If you’ve missed it, here’s the trailer for Cinderella:
If I were Disney, I would be marketing the crap out of holiday-buffed Frozen merchandise. Put a Santa hat on that stuffed Olaf! Add a red sash and bow to that Anna doll’s green coronation gown! String some bells on that Sven plushie’s antlers! But, alas, I’m just a lowly high school English teacher.
What I can offer is some Frozen-adjacent holiday songs featuring Anna (Kristen Bell) and Elsa (Idina Menzel).
The first comes from Straight No Chaser, a 10-man acapella group, and features Kristen Bell. They’ve done the good deed of adding to the limited number of Christmas songs by writing “Text Me Merry Christmas.” It’s cute, funny, touching, and ever so slightly naughty. It’s video, though quite simple, matches the levity of the song and punctuates the jokes.
The second is an ol’ holiday standard made acceptable for a Disney audience through some lyric tampering–“Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” This one comes from Idina Menzel’s new holiday album and features Michael Buble as her duet partner. The vocals cannot be faulted, but I miss the sauciness of the original lyrics. The video features the amateurish dancing of children. They’re cute, but that’s about it. Weirdly, the whole video is styled like something off of Baz Luhrman’s The Great Gatsby soundtrack, which doesn’t jive with the whitewashed lyrics and cutesy kiddos.
Not even the Magic Kingdom itself can control the power of Frozen. “A Frozen Holiday Wish” is replacing the long running “Cinderella’s Holiday Wish” from Novermber 5th through December 31st, 2014. While Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, and the Blue Fairy used to perform the nightly show at Cinderella’s Castle, this year Elsa, Anna, Kristoff, and Olaf will preside over the spectacle, with Elsa transforming it into a shimmering ice palace amid the traditional fireworks.
Inside the Magic presented a breakdown of the debut show and provided this video for those of us who could not, and cannot, be there in person. Enjoy.
Viewers of this Sunday’s episode of Once Upon a Time will get a look at yet another Frozen character as Anna (Elizabeth Lail) revisits one of her old Arendelle haunts. We’ll see the inside of Wandering Oaken’s Trading Post and Sauna and the helpful Oaken himself, incredible sweater and all.
The good natured merchant will be played by actor Darcey Johnson, whose last project was the short film Drop (2013), a thirteen minute time travel mystery thriller. That’s oddly on theme for the Frozen arc of Once. Johnson has alos appeared in Supernatural and Psych.
Johnson as Barrie in Drop – Johnson in Once Upon a Time – Oaken in Frozen
If you need a refresher, here’s the scene where Anna comes in from the cold and is greeted with the memorable “Hoo hoo. Big summer blow out.”
If you’d asked me a couple years ago, when our toddler was still struggling to push up off the floor and watch Alphas with me, whether we’d ever go to Walt Disney World, I probably would have shrugged and shook my head. I went once as a kid, but it was never a tradition for our family or friends. Of course, that was before Frozen.
Even so, it’s still a little intimidating. Photo opportunities with Elsa and Anna that were supposed to be temporary promotional attractions for the movie’s opening have become permanent fixtures with staggering wait times. At Walt Disney World, while the sisters were still located at Epcot, wait times could be as long as five hours. This summer they moved to the Magic Kingdom where a significantly shorter wait of two hours can be expected. But only if you plan ahead.Disney is, in effect, still scrambling to acclimated to the public’s response to Frozen. “Frozen Summer Fun Live,” including sing-a-longs and Wandering Oaken’s Trading Post for all your merch needs, was extended through this weekend. And Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, and Olaf have been integrated into upcoming Christmas programming. But the big news is that they recently announced what fans have been waiting for, a Frozen ride.
The new attraction, which replaces Maelstrom, will take our guests to Arendelle and immerse them in many of their favorite moments and music from the film. The pavilion will also include a royal greeting location where Anna and Elsa can meet our guests. We think these “Frozen” elements are great complements to the Norway Pavilion, which showcases the country and region that inspired the film.
Replacing Maelstrom, which hadn’t been built when I visited Epcot, has caused some consternation from veteran Epcot vacationers. You can check out #SaveMaelstrom for more details. Industry trade publications suggest that, while some passionate folks will miss it, Maelstrom hasn’t been a popular attraction. The Onion sums it up nicely. “It’s a shame Disney would replace the Maelstrom in favor of a film that so obviously caricatures Nordic countries like that.”
Maelstrom closes on October 5th and the Frozen themed replacement is scheduled to open in 2016. At that point I’ll probably have to seriously revisit the question of the Disney vacation.
This is the most expensive fan fiction ever. – Edward Kitsis
Once Upon a Time‘s newest stars, Elizabeth Lail (Anna) and Georgina Haig (Elsa), graced the most recent cover of TV Guide. The cover story suggested that we might get a look at Hans’s twelve brothers and revealed the name of the reindeer portraying Sven (Jack.) Lail laid out what ultimately leads Anna to Storybrooke:
“Anna is led to believe her parents went on that voyage in search of something that could help control Elsa’s powers, but she’s just not sold on it. She’s determined to find out the truth about their mission. She dearly loves Kristoff but knows she can marry him next month or next year. What matters is her sister.”
Producers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz sat down with The Hollywood Reporter to answer a few questions about season 4. Beyond reassuring fans of both Once Upon a Time and Frozen that both properties would receive commensurate respectful treatment, they let drop a few hints about what’s in store for the sisters. Elizabeth Mitchell is definitely the Snow Queen. Kitsis offered this teaser about the collision of Arendelle and Storybrooke:
It’s much more about Anna — what we love about her is that she’s fearless and she never gives up on the people she loves. She has no problem going off into the middle of the storm to find her sister. What happens when a true believer like that gets in front of the devil himself, Rumplestiltskin, who sees the worst in everyone? What happens with these two kinds of characters? In fact, what happens when Elsa, who is somebody who wanted to run away, meets another character who loves to run away, Emma?
TV Guide also released a video clip from the photo shoot and some personal time with Lail and Haig. Check them out in costume talking about their characters, their costumes, and their favorite fairytales.
Season 4 of Once Upon a Time will premiere Sunday, September 28, at 7cst on ABC with the Frozen-themed episode “A Tale of Two Sisters.”
Master storytellers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz (“Lost,” “Tron: Legacy”) invite everyone to join Emma Swan, Snow White, Prince Charming, The Evil Queen, Hook and all the other resident fairy tale characters as they prepare to defend themselves against a magical force from the past that’s too dark and unpredictable even for Rumplestiltskin – The Ice Queen. – abc medianet
I say this every time, but we love Frozen here. It’s an indellible part of our family. Long after we’re tired of watching it, when our toddler is grown and embarrassed, we’ll unpack the memories and handle them reverently. So it was a relief when producers Kitsis and Horowitz recently sat down with Entertainment Weekly to explain that they love it, too.
Thematically we can say the first half of the season is about how you never give up on the people you love.
They confirmed that the Frozen arc would be discrete. Season 4 will open with Elsa, but the story line will wrap up by midseason. None of the characters will carry over into season 5.
Elizabeth Mitchell’s character is connected both to the world of Arendelle and the world of Storybrooke. While Kitsis did not reveal exactly who she would portray, he did admit that the character was one of the two most popular speculations: Elsa’s mother or Andersen’s original Snow Queen. My money’s still on the latter.
Fan favorite Olaf will not be a part of the show. However, Horowitz did reveal that a fifth character from the movie had been cast. Sven will be played by an actual reindeer.
They plan to show a realistic looking Arendelle. There will be no musical episodes. Like Olaf, they just wouldn’t fit.
While the first episode will be written by Horowitz and Kitsis, the second, titled “White Out,” will be written by veteran Jane Espenson. And Sven isn’t the only surprise. TVLine broke the news that a sixth Frozen character will be joining the cast. Prince Hans will debut in episode 3! Anna’s (Elizabeth Lail) one time love interest was one of the biggest surprises in any Disney movie and he practically belongs in this setting.
So far, only the casting call has gone out. We don’t know who will play the thirteenth in line to the throne of the Southern Isles. But we do know that he’ll have the same closely cropped hair as all of the other royals.
Set photos have begun circulating. Georgina Haig as Elsa looks very good for someone without anime proportions.
And we’re pretty sure Time released an unlabled image of Scott Michael Foster’s Kristoff opposite her.
Disney is, in effect, still scrambling to acclimated to the public’s response to Frozen. “Frozen Summer Fun Live,” including sing-a-longs and Wandering Oaken’s Trading Post for all your merch needs, was extended through this weekend. And Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, and Olaf have been integrated into upcoming Christmas programming. But the big news is that they recently 
episode will be written by Horowitz and Kitsis, the second, titled “White Out,” will be written by veteran Jane Espenson. And Sven isn’t the only surprise. 
The Dinglehopper 