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Olaf's Frozen Adventure

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Olaf's Frozen Adventure
Olaf's Frozen Adventure theatrical release poster depicting Sven and Olaf
Theatrical release poster
Directed by
Screenplay byJac Schaeffer
Produced byRoy Conli
Starring
CinematographyAlessandro Jacomini
Edited by
  • Jeremy Milton
  • Jesse Averna
Music by
Layouts byCory Rocco Florimonte
Production
companies
Distributed byWalt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Release date
  • November 22, 2017 (2017-11-22) (with Coco)
Running time
21 minutes[2]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Olaf's Frozen Adventure is a 2017 American animated featurette produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and directed by Kevin Deters and Stevie Wermers. The screenplay was written by Jac Schaeffer, with Josh Gad, Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, and Jonathan Groff 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's Coco 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

[edit]

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 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, Hanukkah, and Winter Solstice. 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. As they all celebrate the holidays, the hawk drops the fruit cake on Olaf. Upon getting the fruit cake back, Olaf declares it "A Christmas miracle!"

Voice Cast

[edit]

Production

[edit]

On February 9, 2016, the short was announced as a television special set to be released on ABC,[3] which would be produced by Roy Conli, and directed by Kevin Deters and Stevie Wermers. 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. However, in June 2017, it was announced that the film would instead receive a limited-time theatrical release in front of Disney/Pixar'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, Idina Menzel, and Jonathan Groff.[4]

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.[5]

Soundtrack

[edit]
Olaf's Frozen Adventure
Soundtrack album by
Various artists
ReleasedNovember 3, 2017
RecordedMay 2017
Length25:40
LabelWalt Disney
Producer

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 and Jeff Morrow. The full soundtrack was released on November 3, 2017, by Walt Disney Records.[6]

Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
No.TitlePerformer(s)Length
1."Ring in the Season"
1:58
2."The Ballad of Flemmingrad"Jonathan Groff0:44
3."Ring in the Season" (Reprise)Menzel1:16
4."That Time of Year"
  • Gad
  • Menzel
  • Bell
  • Cast
3:03
5."That Time of Year" (Reprise)Gad0:52
6."When We're Together"
  • Menzel
  • Bell
  • Gad
  • Groff
2:50
7."Olaf's Frozen Adventure" (Score Suite)
  • Christophe Beck
  • Jeff Morrow
4:27
8."The Ballad of Flemmingrad" (Traditional Version)Groff3:06
9."Ring in the Season" (Instrumental Karaoke Mix)
  • Elyssa Samsel
  • Kate Anderson
1:58
10."That Time of Year" (Instrumental Karaoke Mix)
  • Samsel
  • Anderson
3:02
11."When We're Together" (Instrumental Karaoke Mix)
  • Samsel
  • Anderson
2:49
Total length:25:40

Release

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Pixar feature films are typically preceded by short films for their theatrical releases.[7][8] Olaf's Frozen Adventure, in a 3D format, was chosen to precede screenings of Pixar's Coco beginning on November 22, 2017.[4] Coco co-director Adrian Molina said that the short's placement before Coco was an "experiment" given that (at 21 minutes) it was longer than the shorts that typically precede Pixar movies.[9] The week after Coco's release in Mexico, local media noted audiences' strong dislike for the length of the film.[10][11][12] A few days later, all Mexican cinemas offered apologies and removed the short from the exhibition.[13] It was reported that some theaters put warning signs up about the length of the short ahead of Coco.[14] Olaf's Frozen Adventure ended its limited-time run in U.S. screenings on December 8.[15]

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, along with Netflix, on December 8, and later on Mexican channels Azteca 7 and 13.[16] The short made its network television debut on ABC on December 14, 2017, as part of 25 Days of Christmas.[17] It was viewed by an estimated 5.64 million people in the United States.[18]

Critical response

[edit]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 57% of 7 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.1/10.[19]

Bill Desowitz of IndieWire deemed the short as a "bridge" and a "setup" to Frozen II.[20] Nicola Methven of Daily Mirror felt it would "tide fans over" until the next feature-length installment of the franchise.[21] Writing for KSDK, Patrick Ryan commented it is an "Adventure' worth taking,"[22] while Ben Pearson of /Film wrote that "When We're Together" had the potential to be 2017's version of "Let It Go".[23] Marissa Martinelli of Slate criticized the short's over-commercialism and opined that it committed the well-trodden sin of turning a comedic side-character into the star – an "increasingly desperate one-man show."[24] 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.[25][26]

Accolades

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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 were nominated for Music in an Animated Feature Production for their musical performance incorporated into the featurette.[27]

Home media

[edit]

The featurette was released as a Tesco-exclusive DVD in the United Kingdom on December 7, 2017 with a digital format release on December 19. A Blu-ray/DVD 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 (1930), The Hockey Champ (1939), The Art of Skiing (1941), Once Upon a Wintertime (1954), and Pluto's Christmas Tree (1952).

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Deitchman, Beth (October 10, 2017). "Olaf's Frozen Adventure Soundtrack to Ring in the Season". D23. Archived from the original on November 12, 2020. Retrieved July 21, 2021.
  2. ^ "Olaf's Frozen Adventure". British Board of Film Classification. Archived from the original on July 22, 2021. Retrieved July 22, 2021.
  3. ^ Peterson, Tyler (February 9, 2016). "ABC to Air Frozen Holiday Special in 2017; Idina Menzel, Kristen Bell & Josh Gad to Return!". BroadwayWorld. Archived from the original on November 29, 2020. Retrieved July 21, 2021.
  4. ^ a b Multiple sources:
  5. ^ Radish, Christina (November 15, 2017). "'Olaf's Frozen Adventure' Directors Kevin Deters & Stevie Wermers-Skelton on Crafting the Featurette". Collider. Archived from the original on March 12, 2020. Retrieved July 21, 2021.
  6. ^
  7. ^ Richardson, John; Gorbman, Claudia; Vernallis, Carol (2013). The Oxford Handbook of New Audiovisual Aesthetics. Oxford University Press. p. 219. ISBN 978-0-19-998509-8.
  8. ^ Amidi, Amid (May 16, 2017). The Art of Pixar Short Films. Chronicle Books LLC. p. 9. ISBN 978-1-4521-6521-9.
  9. ^ Bradley, Bill (December 1, 2017). "'Coco' Director Addresses Criticism Of That Long 'Frozen' Short". HuffPost. Archived from the original on July 1, 2019. Retrieved July 22, 2021.
  10. ^ "Espectadores molestos por el corto de Frozen previo a Coco" [Viewers annoyed by the short of Frozen before Coco]. Excélsior (in Spanish). November 1, 2017. Archived from the original on March 17, 2018. Retrieved November 2, 2017.
  11. ^ Digital, Milenio (November 1, 2017). "Esto es lo peor de 'Coco' según usuarios de redes sociales" [This is the worst of 'Coco' according to social network users]. Milenio (in Spanish). Archived from the original on March 8, 2018. Retrieved November 2, 2017.
  12. ^ Barco, Uriel (November 1, 2017). "'Coco': El detalle que está enfureciendo a las personas que ven la película" ['Coco': The detail that is infuriating the people who see the film]. DailyTrend (in Spanish). Archived from the original on November 26, 2017. Retrieved November 2, 2017.
  13. ^ Redacción (November 4, 2017). "Tras quejas, se verá 'Coco' sin corto de 'Frozen'" ['Coco' will be seen without a short of 'Frozen']. El Universal (Mexico City) (in Spanish). Archived from the original on August 7, 2020. Retrieved November 5, 2017.
  14. ^ Telegraph Reporters (November 27, 2017). "New 21-minute Olaf short angers Frozen fans at US Coco screenings". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Archived from the original on April 27, 2020. Retrieved December 3, 2017.
  15. ^ Poddig, Carolyn (December 2, 2017). "Disney Pulling Frozen Short Before Coco". Screen Rant. Archived from the original on February 9, 2019. Retrieved July 21, 2021.
  16. ^ Digital, Milenio (November 23, 2017). "Cortometraje de Olaf llegará a Netflix" [Olaf short film coming to Netflix]. Milenio. Archived from the original on March 4, 2019. Retrieved July 22, 2021.
  17. ^ Coming Soon (December 8, 2017). "Olaf's Frozen Adventure to Debut on ABC December 14". ComingSoon. Archived from the original on August 13, 2020. Retrieved December 8, 2017.
  18. ^ Porter, Rick (December 15, 2017). "'Thursday Night Football' adjusts up, still at season low: Thursday final ratings". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on December 16, 2017. Retrieved December 16, 2017.
  19. ^ "Olaf's Frozen Adventure (2017)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Archived from the original on August 9, 2020. Retrieved November 10, 2021. Edit this at Wikidata
  20. ^ Desowitz, Bill (November 22, 2017). "Disney Short 'Olaf's Frozen Adventure' Is a Bridge to 'Frozen 2'". IndieWire. Archived from the original on August 4, 2018. Retrieved December 3, 2017.
  21. ^ Methven, Nicola (November 19, 2017). "Frozen mini film spin-off to tide Olaf fans over until sequel arrives". Daily Mirror. Archived from the original on September 30, 2020. Retrieved December 3, 2017.
  22. ^ Ryan, Patrick (November 22, 2017). "Rest easy, 'Frozen' fans: Disney's Olaf-centric short is an 'Adventure' worth taking". KSDK. Archived from the original on July 22, 2021. Retrieved December 3, 2017.
  23. ^ Pearson, Ben (November 21, 2017). "'Olaf's Frozen Adventure' Video: Is This The New 'Let It Go'?". /Film. Archived from the original on March 30, 2018. Retrieved December 3, 2017.
  24. ^ Martinelli, Marissa (November 27, 2017). "Disney's New Frozen Short, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Olaf the Snowman". Slate. ISSN 1091-2339. Archived from the original on July 29, 2018. Retrieved December 3, 2017.
  25. ^ Wilkinson, Alissa (November 25, 2017). "People really hate the Frozen short playing before Pixar's new film Coco". Vox. Archived from the original on July 17, 2021. Retrieved July 21, 2021.
  26. ^ Wilkinson, Alissa (December 14, 2017). "Why the Frozen short that played before Pixar's Coco kicked up so much controversy". Vox. Archived from the original on May 16, 2021. Retrieved July 21, 2021.
  27. ^ Giardina, Carolyn (February 4, 2018). "Annie Awards: Coco Tops the Animation Celebration". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on February 4, 2018. Retrieved August 22, 2023.
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