{"id":853,"date":"2020-03-30T20:03:51","date_gmt":"2020-03-30T20:03:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/?p=853"},"modified":"2020-03-30T20:03:51","modified_gmt":"2020-03-30T20:03:51","slug":"how-to-chase-a-storm-the-cast-and-creators-of-frozen-2-on-making-powerful-art-under-pressure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/how-to-chase-a-storm-the-cast-and-creators-of-frozen-2-on-making-powerful-art-under-pressure\/","title":{"rendered":"How to chase a storm: The cast and creators of Frozen 2 on making powerful art under pressure"},"content":{"rendered":"

AVALANCHE is, well, a strong word. Snowball is, too. Yet both powerful weather wonders \u2014 one instantly explosive, one steadily expansive \u2014 describe the storm that blanketed the world when, six years ago, Disney\u2019s animated musical Frozen<\/em> made landfall.<\/p>\n

Two Oscars, two Grammys, two short films, a Broadway musical, 30 theme park attractions, an ice show, videogames, e-books, backpacks, finger puppets, LEGO sets, lunchboxes, toilet seats, jelly beans, a line of toddler quad all-terrain vehicles, and $1.3 billion at the box office later, you would have to overturn a rock to find an adult who hasn\u2019t heard \u201cLet It Go,\u201d yet only turn to a neighbor to find a household still<\/em> caught in the film\u2019s flurry of catchy songs, catchphrase snowmen, and trope-bucking princesses. Frozen<\/em> fever, they called it once, and now both climatologists and cartoonists can see it coming again: With the Nov. 22 release of Frozen 2<\/em>, the cast and creators of Disney\u2019s record-shattering hit are poised to unleash another winter phenomenon. But to no great surprise, they\u2019re keeping their cool.<\/p>\n

\u201cWas I nervous about doing a second one? Absolutely not,\u201d says Kristen Bell, who voices perennially optimistic, fearlessly awkward princess Anna. \u201cIf you bake a cake and it\u2019s perfect and then you bake a second one with the same ingredients, statistics will tell you that you\u2019re gonna have a great cake.\u201d<\/p>\n

Idina Menzel, whose powerhouse performance as empathetic queen Elsa sent the Broadway star everywhere from the Oscars to the Super Bowl, likens the sequel to \u201creuniting with your family \u2014 with people that you\u2019ve had this wonderful success with, but people you trust and love and feel like you\u2019re in good hands with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet the happy reunion of the Arendelle royal family (which also includes Josh Gad\u2019s still-na\u00efve snowman Olaf and Jonathan Groff\u2019s still-hot mountaineer Kristoff) didn\u2019t materialize out of thin air; the setting has changed, and circumstances with it. \u201cI do find that because so many milestones were hit the first time, I am a little bit more in tune to some of these expectations that are result-oriented, and I don\u2019t like that feeling because it\u2019s not where we came from the first time,\u201d says Menzel. \u201cI knew that if [returning directors] Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee felt it was the right time to do the sequel, they were only going to do it because they weren\u2019t coming from any materialistic or commercial place, that they felt there was an important reason to tell this next story and that\u2019s why it took so long for them to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

That story began with a question the filmmakers heard regularly during Frozen<\/em>\u2019s global tour: How did Elsa get her powers? It was a mystery only the franchise\u2019s creators \u2014 not the myriad spin-off storybooks cooked up elsewhere within Disney\u2019s consumer products arm \u2014 could answer on the big screen. \u201cThere was a lot [of extra material] out there, and a lot that we were not even aware of,\u201d Buck points out. \u201cSo we couldn\u2019t really look at any of it as part of the continuation of this story. The first movie was our real guide into the second one.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The sequel picks up roughly six years after the first film, with a tranquil autumn in Arendelle suddenly threatened by an unexplained burst of elemental magic tied to Elsa\u2019s past (as well as four chilling notes from a classically trained incorporeal voice). Elsa and Anna\u2019s subsequent journey to find answers in an enchanted forest is arguably darker than Frozen<\/em>, scarier than Frozen<\/em>, and deals more directly in life-or-death stakes than Frozen<\/em> did \u2014 yet Lee, who also wrote the screenplay, says those tonal traits are all distinctions of, not deviations from, the Frozen<\/em> franchise DNA.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you put them side by side, tonally they\u2019re actually very similar \u2014 Frozen 1<\/em> gets pretty dark with a man trying to murder both girls, you know?\u201d Lee says with a laugh. Nevertheless, the trio of Lee, Buck, and returning producer Peter Del Vecho faced a challenge in evolving the narrative while also essentially liberating it from its own popularity. \u201cOne thing that did concern us was, because of the success of the little girls in Elsa dresses all showing up to the party, there was a worry that people might forget what that ride of Frozen<\/em> actually was, in terms of it being a big, epic, more sophisticated story,\u201d says Lee. \u201cWe needed to remind people it was a film for all ages; it wasn\u2019t just \u2018the dress\u2019 or \u2018the magic.\u2019 So we had to make sure for the second film that we didn\u2019t age it down, but we only kept growing and maturing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Things have grown behind the scenes, too. In addition to taking on an extensive new role as chief creative officer at Walt Disney Animation Studios following John Lasseter\u2019s 2017 exit, Lee has seen her own imagination for Frozen<\/em>\u2019s potential grow well beyond the humble measure of success she pursued while making the first film: not disappointing the crew of 2010\u2019s Tangled<\/em>. \u201cIn very practical terms, because Tangled<\/em> was such a fantastic film and the people who worked on Tangled<\/em> really understood musicals, I just remember thinking, \u2018I hope they feel we\u2019re adding to the canon respectfully,\u2019\u201d she recalls. \u201cI remember just wanting to build off that. I didn\u2019t want to be an embarrassment. I wanted Tangled<\/em> to say \u2018welcome\u2019 and for people to feel like Frozen<\/em> belonged. In terms of how high did my head go, it was really just that high.\u201d<\/p>\n

So when Frozen<\/em> upended just about every expectation Lee, Buck, or even studio leadership might have had, the sequel challenged the directors to recapture that mindset of unburdened optimism. Such a creative exercise is much easier said than done. \u201cI think people would think that because we know the characters, it should be easier, but I think sequels are harder,\u201d Lee says. \u201cAlso, we\u2019re trying to do something that defies the concept of the sequel, that is an expansion and evolution. And thematically, we wanted to keep getting more mysterious, so it actually put us into a lot of uncharted territory on this one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heading into the relative unknown, all the directors could do is double down on what they did<\/em> know: more comic relief from snowman Olaf, more depth to the vital Anna-Elsa relationship, and much, much<\/em> more music. Bolstered by a shoo-in Oscar win for \u201cLet It Go\u201d at the 2013 Academy Awards, the soundtrack to the first Frozen<\/em> spent 13 weeks atop the Billboard<\/em> Hot 100 chart and became the second-best-selling album of 2014. Expectations are thus perhaps at their highest in regard to the music here, with the sequel\u2019s deluxe soundtrack boasting 46 tracks, including seven new tunes from songwriting spouses Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Bobby Lopez and three songs which get a mainstream assist with covers by high-profile artists (Kacey Musgraves, Panic! At the Disco, and Weezer). And for the real musical-theater fans, Elsa\u2019s two<\/em> huge anthems accompany the long-awaited proper use of Broadway star Groff\u2019s singing voice for an \u201980s-inspired tune that brings down the house halfway through the film.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all got on board early with the idea of this being kind of the second act of a Broadway musical, where we could go deeper, we could go richer, we could go more emotional with the songs,\u201d says Buck. \u201cThat was a big win, and we freed ourselves up where we\u2019re not starting over with these characters. But we did not try to get another \u2018Let It Go.\u2019 We realized that that was lightning in a bottle. It\u2019s a fantastic song, but we wanted this movie to find its own songs and find its own voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

An early epiphany about Anna and Elsa\u2019s voices also helped fundamentally reframe the way the directors thought about their central characters. During the development phase, the sequel\u2019s story team cracked a concept about Anna and Elsa that actually split them into two disparate narrative archetypes: Anna, with her optimistic tilt and love-conquers-all dogma, was a classic fairy-tale character through and through; Elsa, with tragic supernatural power and the heavy burden of fate on her shoulders, was a character borne of myth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat epiphany was very freeing because we were starting to paint Elsa a little bit too much like Anna until we came upon this idea,\u201d says Buck. The Lopezes also relished the epiphany, adds Lee: \u201cWhen we pitched it to Bobby and Kristen, Bobby in particular was like, \u2018Oh my God<\/em>, now I know how<\/em> Elsa sings and what her type of song is and why she\u2019s this and that,\u2019 and the same with Anna. It unlocked the same thing for them, which was the best scenario. All of the songs fit wonderfully in the Frozen<\/em> world, but they\u2019re surprising and show the growth of the characters, and I think that\u2019s the most rewarding thing. They don\u2019t feel like you just found a new catchy version of X or a new version of Y. We found the truth of where they\u2019re going.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s the eye of the storm, perhaps, the quiet center of why Frozen<\/em> has lingered so long in pop culture and why it stands to swell again: It\u2019s a story that champions, without prejudice, the importance of personal discovery and the value of waiting for it. It\u2019s a universal and unceasing kind of rejoicing, and it doesn\u2019t waver, no matter whether that unleashed individuality belongs to an anxious princess, a belting tween, or actresses becoming fuller versions of themselves in both.<\/p>\n

Bell has been vocal for several years about her cherished relationship to the core of idiosyncratic Anna. \u201cI was excited to have this job because I love animation and it\u2019s an honor to play a Disney character, but there was something otherworldly about my connection with Anna from day one,\u201d she says, beaming. \u201cI felt with such clarity the things that I wanted to see in her. I wanted to play a Disney princess that I needed to see when I was 11 years old, someone who was goofy and quirky and stumbled over her words, who was way too optimistic, perhaps a little na\u00efve, who believes in and lived for the people around her but was also clumsy and didn\u2019t have great posture. And I was shocked at how clear that vision was to me, and at the level of investment where she felt like my baby.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Menzel, who has since turned Frozen<\/em> into a staple of her international concerts for more than half a decade, has grown no less susceptible to the emotions that Elsa can inspire. \u201cWhen people refer to you as a role model, with that comes great responsibility, and it happened to me with Elphaba from Wicked<\/em> as well,\u201d she shares. \u201cThose characters actually help me be a better human being. What happens is there\u2019s quite a pressure to practice what you preach, and those characters or themes or stories are often kicking my ass in gear on the days where I don\u2019t feel like getting out of bed. So Elsa\u2019s this amazing little reminder to me that is reinforced every time I go into the studio to work on her or every time I sing a song of hers, to really harness my own power. No matter how old we are as women, to stay in touch with that and understand what makes us unique and extraordinary in the world, and to never apologize for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the second time in forever, let the reign begin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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