I’m feeling like Elsa right now when I got a chance to interview Directors Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee about life after making Disney’s Frozen plus that award-winning song “Let It Go” that all moms I’m sure of want to strangle them for lol. They both chatted with us about life after Frozen, their new short Disney Frozen Fever and so much more! Slide on in to check out what they had to say! Happy Wednesday everyone! xoxo
What’s life been like since Frozen?
Jennifer: We thought we be less busy, but we’re not. So…
Chris: I still buy shirts at TJ Max. Hasn’t changed…
Jennifer: I still find myself going, ‘I have to buy another dress?’ So yeah. So nothing’s changed, really.
Chris: It’s been overwhelming, the year. We still get Youtube sent to us. Mash-ups. All this kind of stuff. It doesn’t end. Sorry. We’ll get serious right away.
Starting with the Reddit Round Table. Reddit Round Table is where a woman wrote in saying that she was in a bad place, and was going to commit suicide, and saw Frozen and was inspired by Elsa and her journey, and she said, ‘I’m still here. Thank you.’
So, you know, we’re overwhelmed by that. There are autistic kids that watch Frozen that parents tell us they don’t sit still for anything, and they watch Frozen, and they relate to Olaf. Just a few weeks ago, a friend of ours working at a nursing home, said a senior citizen just wasn’t really doing much. And she watched Frozen. And then she started drawing again, because she used to draw when she was younger. And she was drawing the Frozen characters. And her husband was just so grateful she was coming back to life. So you get those stories and we go, ‘Oh, wow.’ And that’s how I think our life has changed, in that regard. We always knew that these films had some influence and power, but this one certainly—I’ve never experienced anything like this. So you really do…
Jennifer: …it’s…
Chris…kind of…
Jennifer…still a surprise every day. It’s still surprising us.
On being sick of hearing the song “Let It Go”
Jennifer: No. I have to correct that, because it was a joke about we actually have parents coming up to us going, ‘Thanks.’ You know? And so we just go, ‘Sorry.’ Like, ‘Kidding.’ What are you going do? I always say I think when I’m very old, the last thing left in my head will be “Let it Go,” and that’s just fine with me.
Chris: Because there was a Youtube “Choke Frozen.” Have you seen that one? And it was just a woman and she was dealing with the snowed in daughter and you just hear in the background, ‘Let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go.’ It’s very funny.
On Ana waking up with wild bed head
Jennifer: Growing up, in a lot of these fairy tales, they show the lead female character waking up! And she always wakes up, like, ‘Ahhh!’ You know, with birds waiting for her and stuff. And I always woke up with a rat’s nest on my head.
Now that Elsa’s free to do that, we wanted to flip it. But of course we had to the hair again, because that’s how she sleeps. So it was more just showing that the dynamic was now. They were back to that place where they could be playful and…
Chris: There’s even a little bit of drool.
Jennifer: He drooled. I didn’t. He drooled, so that was for him.
Chris: That’s funny.
On Elsa sneezing snowmen
Jennifer: One of our story artists, he was one of the head story artists on Frozen. We were brainstorming whatever could be. Blue sky, anything. It would be nice to focus on Elsa more, because she’s free; we’d love to play with her magic in a different way, and he just said what if she’s got a cold, and the cold wreaks havoc. We just went crazy. It got ridiculous at some points. And a sneeze does this, and blowing your nose does that. We had all of these crazy…Does she know? Does she not know? You felt it when, when he suggested it. We all just went yes.
What’s next for Frozen?
Jennifer: We just finished the short about 2 weeks ago
Chris: Finished the sound. We really didn’t have much of a break [after Frozen] before we started on this…
Jennifer: But we’re working on the Broadway musical, and we’re kind of in that place of where we get to stop for second and then dream again. We don’t know what we’re going to come up with.
Chris: Because we’re also involved with things at the parks and all that. There’s the Frozen Fun that’s at California Adventure. We’re very Frozen busy. But the nice thing is is that they’re actually asking us because we know these character so well. There are things that we tried, but didn’t work with our characters, so it’s always nice to give them that heads up. Like, don’t go down that road because it just gets kind of sticky.
Remember guys, you can only see Frozen Fever when you purchase a ticket to see Cinderella, in theaters this Friday! Check out the trailer!
