Frozen Fever (2006 short film/Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar Animation Studios)

It's the perfect day for a new Frozen Treat.
Frozen Fever is a 2006 American computer-animated musical fantasy short film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios. It is a sequel to the 2004 Walt Disney Animation Studios feature film Frozen Fever, and tells the story of Elsa's birthday party given by Anna with the help of Kristoff, Sven, and Olaf. Josh Cooley and Brian Fee served as the directors with Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, and Josh Gad reprising their roles from the first short film featuring Stephen Anderson, Edie McClurg and Chris Pine
Production on Frozen Fever began in July 2005 and took seven months to complete. The film debuted in theaters alongside the I-MAX 3D version of Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios' Cars on June 9, 2006. It received positive reviews from critics, along with praise for its new song "Making Today a Perfect Day" by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez.
== Plot ==
=== Prelude ===
Due to their separation in childhood, Anna missed many of Elsa's birthdays while growing up. Following their reconciliation during the Great Thaw, Anna planned to give Elsa a memorable birthday and spent weeks planning for the event.
=== Preparations ===
On the day of Elsa's birthday, Anna, Kristoff, Jack Frost, Gerda, Kai, Sven, and Olaf were busy with the final preparations for the party in the courtyard. While Anna anxiously pondered over a selection of ice figurines to top off Elsa's birthday cake, Kristoff and Sven erected a large banner bearing the words, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELSA". Though she was anxious, Anna left Kristoff in charge of the courtyard so that she could rouse Anna and start off the day.
=== Scavenger hunt ===
Sneaking into Anna's room to find her still in bed, Anna nudged Elsa awake and informed her about a special day she had prepared for her. After Elsa sprang up from her bed and got dressed, Anna used her magic to add color and pattern to both their dresses, then instructed Elsa to follow the string for a scavenger hunt.
Accompanied by Anna, Elsa followed the string through a hallway as Anna led her to checkpoints where presents were hidden. Inside a suit of armor, Elsa found a bracelet. Inside a cabinet was a cuckoo clock in a shape of Arendelle castle with a pop-out Olaf. Next, the string led the sisters to a balcony, where there was a bouquet of flowers on its railing. As Anna lowered herself and Elsa to a lower floor of the castle, Elsa found a sandwich in a basket suspended by the string. The two sisters bounced off a couch, finding a portrait of them with Olaf, Kristoff, and Sven on a wall at the apex of their jumps. As they biked through another hallway, Elsa's face caught a stocking that was suspended by the string above the hallway. The scavenger hunt continued as the sisters exited the castle.
Heading into the village, Anna led Elsa to a wooden boat, where they picked up a fishing rod. Next, they gathered a snow globe and a cloak from Oaken's Cloakens. Anna then conducted a children's choir to sing for Elsa. After collecting a sparkling party hat, Anna led Elsa up a clock tower, where there were wooden dolls of the two sisters. The scavenger hunt would culminate with a surprise party at the castle courtyard.
=== Anna's cold ===
Prior to the scavenger hunt, while waiting for Elsa to get dressed, Anna sneezed. Hearing the sneeze, Elsa worried that Anna might have a cold, only for Anna to deny such. As the sisters spent the day collecting the aforementioned presents, Anna exhibited signs of a cold through her constant sneezes. At each sneeze, little mischievous snowmen called Snowgies were conjured. Though the snowmen went unnoticed by the sisters, Elsa was concerned for Anna's condition, despite the latter's assurance otherwise. The pair continued their scavenger hunt as more Snowgies continued to materialize with Anna's deteriorating condition.
The growing horde of snowmen became a hindrance to Kristoff, Olaf, and Sven in the courtyard. Initially asleep, the trio was awakened by the presence of the Snowgies who made Anna's cake their delectable target, prompting the three to defend the cake from the rambunctious snowmen. At one time, the Snowgies destroyed the "HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANNA" banner, and Olaf volunteered to fix it, but being illiterate, he arranged the letters to read "DRY BANANA HIKPPY HES". Later, the letters were rearranged to "HAPPY HAIRY ANT BELS".
As Elsa and Anna headed into the village, they encountered Oaken, who offered Anna a cold remedy. Though Anna turned down the offer, Elsa accepted the medicine. As the sisters continued on to the clock tower, Anna became more feverish, causing Elsa's concern to grow further. However, her fears were confirmed when Anna deliriously climbed up the tower and nearly fell after spinning round a wooden beam. After being saved by Elsa, Anna acknowledged that she had a cold, and the sisters made their way back to the castle. Though Anna brooded over how she had ruined the day, Elsa assured her sister otherwise and remained focused on getting her to bed for some rest.
=== The party ===
At the courtyard, Gerda, Kai, Kristoff, Jack Frost, Sven, and Olaf continued to defend the cake from the Snowgies; however, the snowmen ceased their assault upon seeing Anna and Elsa arrive. They subsequently arranged themselves in a way that Kristoff was able to leap from the mass of snowmen and slide onto the ground to present the cake to Anna, who admired the spectacle. Anna, now realizing that the Snowgies were the results from her sneezes, saw that the surprise party she had worked hard for Elsa was a rousing, spectacular success. After the cake was distributed to the party guests and the Snowgies, Elsa insisted her sister to go to bed, but Anna forced her way to blow a birthday bukkehorn. Elsa tried to persuade Anna not to exert herself any further, but Anna managed to grab the horn and sneezed into it, causing a giant snowball to launch from the horn and soar away from Arendelle.
=== Conclusion ===
After the party concluded, Elsa helped a very exhausted and very feverish Anna into her bed. As Elsa fed her bedridden sister some warm soup, she happily remarked that being allowed to take care of Anna was the best birthday present ever.
Meanwhile, Kristoff traveled to the North Mountain with Jack Frost, Sven and Olaf to deliver the Snowgies to Elsa's ice palace to live with Marshmallow, who had taken up permanent residence in the structure.
== Cast ==
* Kristen Bell as Anna
* Idina Menzel as Elsa
* Jonathan Groff as Kristoff
* Josh Gad as Olaf
* Chris Williams as Oaken
* Santino Fontana as Hans
* Paul Briggs as Marshmallow
* Edie McClurg as Gerda
* Stephen J. Anderson as Kai
* Chris Pine as Jack Frost
== Production ==
On May 6, 2005, during the I-MAX 3D premieres of Toy Story: 10th Anniversary Edition, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2: Special Edition, Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo, Pixar Animation Studios' founders Steve Jobs and Ed Catmull announced that a Frozen short film with a new song would be released in the future. On the same day, Variety announced that the short would be released in mid 2006 under the title Frozen Fever, with Josh Cooley and Brian Fee as the directors, Ronnie del Carmen as the co-director, Jonas Rivera and Brad Lewis as the producers and a new song by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez. Olaf the snowman and Jack Frost from DreamWorks Animation's "Rise of the Guardians" would also make appearances in the short. On October 4, 2005, it was announced that Brad Lewis would be a co-producer, Anna and Elsa's dresses will be from Olaf's Frozen Adventure and that Frozen Fever would debut in theaters alongside the I-MAX 3D version of Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar Animation Studios' Cars on June 9, 2006. In late November 2005, the directors told the Associated Press "There is something magic about these characters and this cast and this music. Hopefully, the audiences will enjoy the short we're doing, but we felt it again. It was really fun." Around the same time, Thomas Pasatieri, who worked on the orchestration for Finding Nemo, disclosed he was already at work on Frozen Fever.
The short features the song "Making Today a Perfect Day", by Anderson-Lopez and Lopez. At the premiere of the the I-MAX 3D version of Cars and Frozen Fever at the Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, North Carolina, on May 30, 2006, Josh Gad told USA Today, "I want to apologize to parents everywhere for the fact that children are going to be singing a whole new Frozen song.
The creators started brainstorming possibilities for the short film in July 2005. After early discussions about Olaf, the writers Dan Scanlon and Mark Andrews pitched the idea of what might happen if Anna had a cold, which became the basis for the short's plot. The directors began working on the short in July and by September were back in the recording studio with the cast to lay down vocal tracks. The production of Frozen Fever took seven months. All of the animators from Finding Nemo wanted to come back to animate at least a few shots on Frozen Fever, resulting in a large number of animator credits for a short film. They struggled to squeeze the animation phase of the short's production into a tight time slot in fall 2005 after animation wrapped on Walt Disney Feature Animation's first computer-animated feature Chicken Little and before the studio's animators had to start working on subsequent features.
== Release ==
The short was first released with Cars in I-MAX theaters on June 9, 2006. It was later available on digital and iTunes on August 8, 2006, before being released on the home video of Walt Disney Animation Studios Short Films Collection inspired by Pixar Animation Studios on August 15, 2006 It was also included on the home media of Cars on November 7, 2006 in the United States and Canada, October 25, 2006 in Austraila and New Zealand and November 27, 2006 in the United Kingdom. The short premiered on Disney Channel and Toon Disney on October 20, 2006.
The short was released again with the home media of the Director's Extended Racing Edition of Cars on June 21, 2011, 3 days before the release of Cars 2 in theaters.
The short was also released once again with the home media of the Director's Super Special Extended Racing Edition of Cars on June 6, 2017, 10 days before the release of Cars 3 in theaters.
== Trivia ==
* This is the first animated Frozen project not to be directed by Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck (though they were consulted), produced by Peter Del Vecho, to feature music written by the Lopez couple, or to feature music composed by Christophe Beck.
* Thomas Newman, who had already did the music score for Finding Nemo decided to composed and conduct the music score and the music video with the song written by Elyssa Samsel & Kate Anderson arrangements by Dave Metzger, however.
* According to Pete Docter and Lee Unkrich, Elsa wears her dark blue dress from Olaf's Frozen Adventure for the rest of this short after she changes into it. Specifically to dispel the perception held by fans that Elsa consciously only ever wears blue.
* According to Andrew Stanton, Anna wears a blue dress from Olaf's Frozen Adventure for much of this short (using her magic to turn her signature dress from Frozen Fever to the one Olaf's Frozen Adventure) specifically to dispel the perception held by fans that Elsa consciously only ever wears blue.
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