The Makers of 'Frozen' Did A Reddit AMA and Here Are 10 Things They Revealed

By Jodi Smith | Lists | February 11, 2014 |

By Jodi Smith | Lists | February 11, 2014 |

Frozen’s directors (Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee), producer (Peter Del Vecho), and songwriters (Bobby Lopez and Kristen Lopez) swung by reddit to answer any question tossed their way. Here are some of my favorites. Oh, if you haven’t seen Frozen yet, THAR BE SPOILERS HERE.

1. Did anything get cut from the final release that you wish could’ve made it into the film?

Chris: We had an intro for Kristoff that was action, mountain man, climbing with pick axes. It was great. With a fun surprise…It’ll actually be on the DVD!

Kristen: We had a crazy Troll song that was about walking in other people’s shoes. But it had this romantic music in the middle of it where Anna and Kristoff literally walked in each other’s shoes and saw how each other saw the world. But it had a lot of lyrics about foot fungus.

2. Hi, Thanks for making a wonderful movie! My main question is, Why didn’t Kristoff sing more?! You had such a talented singer in Jonathan Groff, and he only had is one, small “duet” with Sven! Thanks!

Bobby & Kristen: Jonathan Groff isn’t known for his singing. He’s more known for his naked buttocks. Ha ha ha. Actually, we kept fighting the whole process to get a Kristoff song but Kristoff is such an introvert. He’s the type of character who wouldn’t sing until Anna helped complete him and by then we were into action all the way through the film. For the Broadway version you can rest assured we’ll give Kristoff a bigger, longer, song.
P.S. There is a ballad - a love song to Anna that exists in an undisclosed location :)

3. The film has garnered a large teenage following. Did you ever expect “Frozen” to attract as many people in that age range as it did (that is, a lot of them)?
Also, have any of you seen “The Lego Movie” yet? If so, what did you think of it?

The two women in the room were not surprised!

Jennifer: I did. The Little Mermaid came out when I was a teenager and I related to her. I loved it and sang the songs. I felt like with Frozen with what the girls went through, the teenage me could relate to that.

Kristen: When we wrote First Time in Forever - we thought about the first time you go out for a dance in High School. Jennifer should also get some love because of her accomplishments on Wreck-It Ralph.

Chris: What floored me was that my son’s water polo teammate said he bought the soundtrack and listened to “Let It Go” over and over but with the windows rolled up!

4. 1) What’s your favorite scene from Frozen? What scene makes you the proudest that you worked on this amazing movie?

2) If the Walt Disney Company is planning to do anything with Frozen in the future, would you like to be involved? What made you interested in “The Snow Queen” project in the first place?

Peter: My proudest is the end of the movie with Anna and Elsa - both emotionally and visually stunning.

Bobby: The scene of “Do you want to build a Snowman?” It was so nearly not in the film but I love it. It took so much work to construct but was well worth it.

Kristen: My two favorite scenes “Do you want to build a Snowman?” because it has my daughter in it, and “Fixer-Upper” because my other daughter is in it! Also when Kristoff and Anna kick Olaf’s head.

Chris: “Let it Go” because the song is so amazing that the pressure to match it visually was immense and I think we did it. It builds and it’s such a beautiful piece. I’m really proud of it.

Jennifer: Ditto to what Peter said. The whole movie had to build to that moment, but I love the moment Anna throws herself on Elsa and says “The sky’s awake…” because that’s when I knew audiences were going to love Anna.

5. With Frozen being such a huge success, was there ever a moment working on the film that it really clicked for each of you and you all realized that this movie was going to be as successful as it has been?

I’ve also heard rumors that Elsa’s character was originally planned to be much darker, is there any truth behind this? How much did her (and Anna’s) characters evolve over the development of the film?

Entire group: We had a screening in Feb 2013 and it wasn’t quite there. Later, a preview to audiences in Phoenix in June was half-animated and the reaction far exceeded our expectations. Jenn and Kristen cried! And then drank wine.

Chris & Jennifer: Elsa was a lot darker for much of the movie until Bobby & Kristen wrote “Let It Go”. She even had dark, spikey hair and was colored blue. Anna went from a “somebody rescue me girl” to a fearless, feisty girl - from a sarcastic to optimistic place.

6. What are your opinions on making the film in the traditional 2d hand-drawn artistic style as opposed to 3d? The 3D in Frozen was amazing, but I always find myself missing the Disney of the 90s.

Chris: I love hand drawn animation, it’s where I started. We brought hand drawn sensibility to Frozen, we had Mark Henn one of our premiere hand drawn animators working with us in the animation dailies room to achieve the appeal of hand drawn. We also have some hand drawn effects in the movie.

Peter: I love the fact that at the Studio we have the rich hand drawn that we can draw on and the CG and we can draw on the two. We’re one of the only studios that can do that.

7. Whose idea was it to have Anna punch Hans in the face? A+ to that person.

Jennifer: We don’t remember which one of us it was but I remember wanting it strongly.

Jennifer & Chris: Originally, Kristoff punched Hans right after Anna froze but it took away from the moment. We really wanted it to be a POP, to be a surprise.

Kristen: It really made sense once we figured out the moment when Hans takes the turn. He needed to be punched.

Santino: That was SO unnecessary. I think we could have talked about.

8. Where were the King and Queen planning to go when they lost their lives out at sea

Jennifer: A wedding.

According to Chris, they didn’t die on the boat. They got washed up on a shore in a jungle island. The queen gave birth to a baby boy. They build a treehouse. They get eaten by a leopard…

Kristen: They were going to Fantasy Island!! To fix the tensions in their marriage in a way only Ricardo Montalban.

9. Was Idina Menzel your first choice for the voice of Elsa?

Chris, Jenn, Peter: We knew we wanted her but we didn’t know who Elsa was just yet. She didn’t come on officially until we figured out Elsa. We wished it would fit her. Idina and Kristen Bell sang Wind Beneath My Wings during an early table read with John Lasseter sitting across from them. And then Bobby & Kristen said “Oh crap. Now we have to write something just as emotional for them”.

10. Do you want to build a snowman??

Bobby & Kristen: We’d actually like to build a sandcastle.

Peter, Chris, Jennifer: As the southern Californians of the group - YES! We’d love to build a snowman!