Olaf's Frozen Adventure
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Olaf's Frozen Adventure'' is a 2017 American animated
featurette In the American film industry, a featurette is a kind of film that is shorter than a full-length feature, but longer than a short film. The term may refer to either of two types of content: a shorter film or a companion film. Medium-length film ...
produced by
Walt Disney Animation Studios Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS), sometimes shortened to Disney Animation, is an American animation studio that produces animated feature films and short films for the Walt Disney Company. The studio's current production logo features a s ...
and directed by Kevin Deters and
Stevie Wermers Stevie Wermers-Skelton (born January 28, 1966) is a Disney story artist and director. Together with Kevin Deters, she co-directed the traditionally animated shorts ''How To Hook Up Your Home Theater'' (2007) and ''The Ballad of Nessie'' (2011), ...
. The screenplay was written by Jac Schaeffer, with Josh Gad,
Kristen Bell Kristen Anne Bell (born July 18, 1980) is an American actress, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. List of Kristen Bell performances, Her work includes both film and television, and List of awards and nominations received by Kristen Bell, h ...
,
Idina Menzel Idina Kim Menzel ( ; ; born May 30, 1971) is an American actress and singer. Particularly known for her work in Musical theatre, musicals on Broadway theatre, Broadway, she has been Honorific nicknames in popular music, nicknamed the "Queen of ...
, and
Jonathan Groff Jonathan Drew Groff (born March 26, 1985) is an American actor and singer. Known for his performances on stage and screen, he has received several awards including a Tony Award and a Grammy Award as well as a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Aw ...
reprising their roles from '' Frozen'' (2013). In November 2017, ''Olaf's Frozen Adventure'' premiered in theaters for a limited-time engagement in 3D format preceding the screening of
Pixar Pixar (), doing business as Pixar Animation Studios, is an American animation studio based in Emeryville, California, known for its critically and commercially successful computer-animated feature films. Pixar is a subsidiary of Walt Disney ...
's ''
Coco Coco or variants may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Coco'' (2009 film), a French comedy film * ''Coco'' (2017 film), an American animated fantasy film * '' Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle'' (), a 2020 Japanese anime film ...
'' and made its television debut on ABC in the following December. It received mixed reviews from critics. It was nominated for Best Animated Special Production, Outstanding Achievement for Animated Effects in an Animated Production, and Outstanding Achievement for Music in an Animated Feature Production at the 45th Annie Awards.


Plot

It is the first Christmas season since the gates reopened and Anna and Elsa host a celebration for all of Arendelle. With the townspeople unexpectedly leaving early to prepare for their holiday traditions, the sisters realize that they have no family traditions of their own. Upon hearing Elsa lament that the cause was her childhood isolation,
Olaf Olaf or Olav (, , or differences between General American and Received Pronunciation, British ; ) is a Dutch, Polish, Scandinavian and German given name. It is presumably of Proto-Norse origin, reconstructed as ''*Anu-laibaz'', from ''anu'' "ances ...
and Sven decide to look for traditions and see if any of them are suitable to borrow or adapt. Going through the town, Olaf encounters various family traditions relating to
Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...
,
Hanukkah Hanukkah (, ; ''Ḥănukkā'' ) is a Jewish holidays, Jewish festival commemorating the recovery of Jerusalem and subsequent rededication of the Second Temple at the beginning of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd ce ...
, and
Winter Solstice The winter solstice, or hibernal solstice, occurs when either of Earth's geographical pole, poles reaches its maximum axial tilt, tilt away from the Sun. This happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere (Northern Hemisphere, Northern and So ...
. After a visit to Oaken, Olaf, Sven, and their sleigh full of traditions travel through the snowy tundra only for a piece of coal (from a portable sauna that Oaken had given them) to set the sleigh on fire. They slide down a hill and Olaf and Sven end up separated by a chasm. With only a fruit cake, Olaf attempts to travel through the woods and is attacked by wolves. Meanwhile, Anna and Elsa discover some forgotten items in their attic. Sven returns to Kristoff and informs him (in vain), Anna, and Elsa of Olaf's plight. They gather the residents of Arendelle to go look for Olaf. Elsewhere, Olaf manages to escape the wolves but loses the fruit cake to a hawk and gives it up by a tree not too far from the kingdom. Anna and Elsa find Olaf and cheer him up by revealing that they do have a tradition: Himself. After Elsa and Anna had been isolated from each other, the latter began annually sliding cards and dolls of Olaf under the former’s door. They then all celebrate the holidays together.


Voice Cast

* Josh Gad as
Olaf Olaf or Olav (, , or differences between General American and Received Pronunciation, British ; ) is a Dutch, Polish, Scandinavian and German given name. It is presumably of Proto-Norse origin, reconstructed as ''*Anu-laibaz'', from ''anu'' "ances ...
, a talking snowman who was magically created by Elsa in the first film. *
Kristen Bell Kristen Anne Bell (born July 18, 1980) is an American actress, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. List of Kristen Bell performances, Her work includes both film and television, and List of awards and nominations received by Kristen Bell, h ...
as Anna, Elsa's younger sister and the Princess of Arendelle. *
Idina Menzel Idina Kim Menzel ( ; ; born May 30, 1971) is an American actress and singer. Particularly known for her work in Musical theatre, musicals on Broadway theatre, Broadway, she has been Honorific nicknames in popular music, nicknamed the "Queen of ...
as Elsa, Anna's elder sister and Queen of Arendelle. **
Eva Bella Eva Bella is an American actress, known as the voice of young Elsa (Frozen), Elsa in the Disney film ''Frozen (2013 film), Frozen''. Early life Eva Bella was born around 2004 in Omaha, Nebraska. She has been acting since the age of seven, her fir ...
as Young Elsa *
Jonathan Groff Jonathan Drew Groff (born March 26, 1985) is an American actor and singer. Known for his performances on stage and screen, he has received several awards including a Tony Award and a Grammy Award as well as a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Aw ...
as Kristoff, an ice seller who is accompanied by a reindeer named Sven. * Chris Williams as Oaken, the owner of Wandering Oaken's Trading Post and Sauna. * John de Lancie as Mr. Olsen * Lauri Fraser as Mrs. Olsen * Benjamin Deters as Candy Cane Kid


Production

On February 9, 2016, the short was announced as a television special set to be released on ABC, which would be produced by Roy Conli, and directed by Kevin Deters and
Stevie Wermers Stevie Wermers-Skelton (born January 28, 1966) is a Disney story artist and director. Together with Kevin Deters, she co-directed the traditionally animated shorts ''How To Hook Up Your Home Theater'' (2007) and ''The Ballad of Nessie'' (2011), ...
. The title was revealed during the airing of ''The Making of Frozen: Return to Arendelle'' on ABC in 2016, and it was announced that it would feature original songs by Elyssa Samsel and Kate Anderson, the latter the sister of ''Frozen'' songwriter
Kristen Anderson-Lopez Kristen Anderson-Lopez (born March 21, 1972) is an American songwriter. She is known for co-writing the songs for the 2013 animated musical film '' Frozen'' and its 2019 sequel '' Frozen II'' with her husband Robert Lopez. The couple won the Aca ...
. However, in June 2017, it was announced that the film would instead receive a limited-time theatrical release in front of
Pixar Pixar (), doing business as Pixar Animation Studios, is an American animation studio based in Emeryville, California, known for its critically and commercially successful computer-animated feature films. Pixar is a subsidiary of Walt Disney ...
's ''Coco'', as it was deemed too cinematic for television. It reprises the main cast from the '' Frozen'' (2013) including the return of Josh Gad,
Kristen Bell Kristen Anne Bell (born July 18, 1980) is an American actress, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. List of Kristen Bell performances, Her work includes both film and television, and List of awards and nominations received by Kristen Bell, h ...
,
Idina Menzel Idina Kim Menzel ( ; ; born May 30, 1971) is an American actress and singer. Particularly known for her work in Musical theatre, musicals on Broadway theatre, Broadway, she has been Honorific nicknames in popular music, nicknamed the "Queen of ...
, and
Jonathan Groff Jonathan Drew Groff (born March 26, 1985) is an American actor and singer. Known for his performances on stage and screen, he has received several awards including a Tony Award and a Grammy Award as well as a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Aw ...
.Multiple sources: * * * The music was recorded by an 80-piece orchestra in May 2017. The short was the filmmakers' first musical. They noted the requirement to keep the plot "pretty simple", and commented that they removed anything that diverted too much from that story. The fruitcake jokes in the short are a continuing motif from the filmmakers' previous project '' Prep & Landing''. As they crafted the story, the ''Frozen'' team had barely started sketching out the plot of '' Frozen II''.


Soundtrack

There are four original songs in the film, written by Elyssa Samsel and Kate Anderson, titled "Ring in the Season", "The Ballad of Flemmingrad", "That Time of Year" and "When We're Together". The film's score was composed by
Christophe Beck Jean-Christophe Beck (born in 1968) is a Canadian television and film score composer. He is best known for his collaborations with Disney and its subsidiaries, which include composing the soundtracks of '' The Muppets'' (2011) and '' Muppets Mos ...
and Jeff Morrow. The full soundtrack was released on November 3, 2017, by
Walt Disney Records Walt Disney Records is an American record label owned by the Disney Music Group. The label releases soundtrack albums from the Walt Disney Company's Walt Disney Studios (division), motion picture studios, television shows, Disney Experiences, them ...
.


Release

With the exception of Pixar's first film, ''
Toy Story ''Toy Story'' is a 1995 American animated adventure comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is the first installment in the Toy Story (franchise), ''Toy Story'' franchise and the Firsts in animation, firs ...
'' (1995), which was not theatrically preceded by a short film worldwide, all of Pixar's feature films from ''
A Bug's Life ''A Bug's Life'' (stylized in all lowercase) is a 1998 American animated comedy film directed by John Lasseter from a screenplay written by Andrew Stanton, Donald McEnery, and Bob Shaw, and a story conceived by Lasseter, Stanton, and Joe Ran ...
'' (1998) to '' Cars 3'' (2017) had been preceded by a new in-house Pixar short film during their full initial worldwide theatrical runs until the release of ''
Coco Coco or variants may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Coco'' (2009 film), a French comedy film * ''Coco'' (2017 film), an American animated fantasy film * '' Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle'' (), a 2020 Japanese anime film ...
'' (2017). ''Olaf's Frozen Adventure'', in a 3D format, was chosen to precede screenings of Pixar's ''Coco'' beginning on November 22, 2017. ''Coco'' co-director Adrian Molina said that the short's placement before ''Coco'' was "a little bit of an experiment" given that (at 21 minutes) it was longer than the shorts that typically precede Pixar movies. The week after ''Coco''s release in Mexico, local media noted audiences' strong dislike for the length of the film. A few days later, all Mexican cinemas offered apologies and removed the short from the exhibition. It was reported that some theaters put warning signs up about the length of the short ahead of ''Coco''. ''Olaf's Frozen Adventure'' ended its limited-time run in U.S. screenings on December 8. In the UK, ''Olaf's Frozen Adventure'' was shown before re-releases of '' Frozen'' on November 25 and 26, and December 2 and 3, 2017. On November 23, Disney announced the release of ''Olaf's Frozen Adventure'' on Disney's cable television channels in
Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...
, along with
Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...
, on December 8, and later on Mexican channels
Azteca 7 Azteca 7 (also called El Siete) is a Mexican network owned by TV Azteca, with more than 100 main transmitters all over Mexico. Azteca 7 is available on all cable and satellite systems. Azteca 7 broadcasts entertainment series, movies, and sp ...
and 13. The short made its network television debut on ABC on December 14, 2017, as part of 25 Days of Christmas. It was viewed by an estimated 5.64 million people in the United States.


Critical response

Bill Desowitz of '' IndieWire'' deemed the short as a "bridge" and a "setup" to '' Frozen II''. Nicola Methven of ''
Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily Tabloid journalism, tabloid newspaper. Founded in 1903, it is part of Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), which is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the tit ...
'' felt it would "tide fans over" until the next feature-length installment of the franchise. Writing for KSDK, Patrick Ryan commented it is an "Adventure' worth taking," while Ben Pearson of ''
/Film ''/Film'', also spelled ''SlashFilm'', is a blog that covers movie news, reviews, interviews, and trailers. It was founded by Peter Sciretta in August 2005. The site's reviews appear on Rotten Tomatoes, and as of 2024, two of its leading film cr ...
'' wrote that "When We're Together" had the potential to be 2017's version of "
Let It Go "Let It Go" is a song from Disney's 2013 computer-animated feature film '' Frozen'', whose music and lyrics were composed by husband-and-wife songwriting team Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez. The song was performed in its original show ...
". Marissa Martinelli of ''
Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...
'' criticized the short's commercialism and felt that it was an "increasingly desperate one-man show." Alissa Wilkinson of '' Vox'' reported that audiences in North America have been critical of Disney's promotional strategy of prescreening the short before the main attraction. Additionally, she suggested that the featurette would be better off broadcast to television as originally planned instead.


Accolades

''Olaf's Frozen Adventure'' received three nominations at the 45th Annie Awards. The development of the featurette was nominated for the ''Best Animated Special Production''. Christopher Hendryx, Dan Lund, Mike Navarro, Hiroaki Narita, and Steven Chitwood were nominated for ''Animated Effects in an Animated Production'' for their contributions to the project. Elyssa Samsel, Kate Anderson, and
Christophe Beck Jean-Christophe Beck (born in 1968) is a Canadian television and film score composer. He is best known for his collaborations with Disney and its subsidiaries, which include composing the soundtracks of '' The Muppets'' (2011) and '' Muppets Mos ...
were nominated for Music in an Animated Feature Production for their musical performance incorporated into the featurette.


Home media

The featurette was released as a
Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in the United Kingdom at its head offices in Welwyn Garden City, England. The company was founded by Jack Cohen (businessman), Sir Jack Cohen in ...
-exclusive DVD in the United Kingdom on December 7, 2017 with a digital format release on December 19. A
Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...
/
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...
was released in the US and Canada on November 13, 2018. The 2017 digital format release and the 2018 Blu-ray/DVD release included six additional Disney short films: '' Polar Trappers'' (1938), ''
Winter Winter is the coldest and darkest season of the year in temperate and polar climates. It occurs after autumn and before spring. The tilt of Earth's axis causes seasons; winter occurs when a hemisphere is oriented away from the Sun. Dif ...
'' (1930), '' The Hockey Champ'' (1939), '' The Art of Skiing'' (1941), '' Once Upon a Wintertime'' (1954), and '' Pluto's Christmas Tree'' (1952).


See also

*
List of Christmas films Many Christmas stories have been Christmas film, adapted to feature films and TV specials, and have been broadcast and repeated many times on television. Since the popularization of home video in the 1980s, these films are sold and re-sold every ...


References


External links

* * * {{Portal bar, Disney, Animation, Cartoon 2010s Christmas comedy films 2010s Christmas films 2010s musical comedy films 2010s musical fantasy films 2017 comedy films 2017 computer-animated films 2017 films 2017 3D films American 3D films 3D animated short films American animated fantasy films American animated featurettes American Christmas comedy films American fantasy comedy films American musical comedy films American musical fantasy films Animated Christmas films American animated comedy films Animated musical films 2010s Disney animated short films Films scored by Christophe Beck Animated films set in Scandinavia Frozen (franchise) shorts Films with screenplays by Jac Schaeffer Animated films about sisters 2010s English-language films Films directed by Kevin Deters Films directed by Stevie Wermers English-language comedy short films English-language musical fantasy films English-language musical comedy films English-language Christmas comedy films 2017 musical films American musical short films Films produced by Roy Conli