Disney's Frozen Fever (2005 short film)

It's the perfect day for a new Frozen Treat.
-Tagline
Frozen Fever is a 2005 American computer-animated musical fantasy short film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It tells the story of Elsa's birthday party given by Anna and Jack Frost with the help of Kristoff, Sven, and Olaf. Rich Moore and David Silverman were served as the directors with Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, and Josh Gad using their roles.
Production on Frozen Fever began in February 2005 and took six months to complete. The film debuted in theaters alongside Walt Disney Pictures and 20th Century Fox movies from November 2005 to March 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, and the best Disney animated short film of 2005 (behind The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper).
== Plot ==
Anna plans to give Elsa a surprise birthday party with the help of Kristoff, Sven, Jack Frost, and Olaf; but while Elsa is led on a party treasure hunt by a string that winds through the kingdom, Anna has caught a cold, and unknowingly produces a group of small living snowmen (known as "Snowgies") with each sneeze, who begin to dismantle the birthday party's decorations while Kristoff tries to stop them. While Anna takes Elsa on the hunt, Kristoff, Jack, Sven, and Olaf try to control the snowmen and the lamps and fix the decorations in time for Elsa and Anna's return. Meanwhile, Anna's condition rapidly worsens and she becomes delirious with fever. After Anna nearly falls off a clock tower, Elsa convinces her to rest. They walk back to the castle where Anna apologizes to Elsa for "ruining" another birthday, but Elsa reassures her that she didn't ruin anything. As Elsa goes to lead Anna to bed, the doors to the castle open to reveal Kristoff, Olaf, Sven, and a mountain of tiny snowmen, who surprise Elsa. Anna sneezes again and finally sees more tiny snowmen that she produced. Despite Anna's protests, Anna concludes the party by blowing into an alphorn. However, she sneezes into the horn, forming a giant snowball that inadvertently hits Hans overseas (and into a cart of manure, as he was cleaning out the stables as punishment for his previous actions). Anna rests in bed under Elsa's care. Olaf, Kristoff, and Sven escort the small snowmen to Elsa's ice palace, where they stay with her snow-giant doorkeeper Marshmallow.
== Cast ==
* Kristen Bell as Princess Anna
* Idina Menzel as Queen Elsa
* Jonathan Groff as Kristoff
* Josh Gad as Olaf
* Chris Williams as Oaken
* Santino Fontana as Hans
* Paul Briggs as Marshmallow
* Stephen Anderson as Kai
* Edie McClurg as Gerda
* Chris Pine as Jack Frost
== Production ==
On May 13, 2005, during the Disneyland's 50th Anniversary celebration, Walt Disney Feature Animation's presidents Thomas Schumacher and David Stainton 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 holiday 2005 under the title Frozen Fever, with Rich Moore and David Silverman was selected as the directors, William Joyce selected as producer and a new song by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez. Olaf the snowman would also make an appearance in the short. On August 3, 2005, it was announced that Aimee Scribner would be a co-producer and that Frozen Fever would debut in theaters alongside Walt Disney Pictures' Cinderella on March 13, 2015. In late December, the co-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."[9] Around the same time, Dave Metzger, who worked on the orchestration for Frozen, disclosed he was already at work on Frozen Fever.[10]
The short features the song "Making Today a Perfect Day", by Anderson-Lopez and Lopez. The short first premiered at October 18, 2005 at Disneyland Resort, At the premiere of Chicken Little and Frozen Fever at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California, on October 30, 2005, 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[.]"[12]
The creators started brainstorming possibilities for the short film in February 2005. After early discussions about Olaf, head story artist Marc Smith pitched the idea of what might happen if Anna had a cold, which became the basis for the short's plot.[13] The directors began working on the short in February and by April were back in the recording studio with the cast to lay down vocal tracks. The production of Frozen Fever took six months.[14] All of the animators from Frozen wanted to come back to animate at least one shot 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 summer 2005 after animation wrapped on Chicken Little and before the studio's animators had to start working on subsequent features.
== Release ==
The short film premiered on October 18, 2005 at Disneyland Resort as a work in progress screening, and on October 30, 2005 with Chicken Little in Los Angeles, California.
The short was also released with other films such as Metro Cone, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Cheaper by the Dozen 2, Glory Road, Eight Below, The Shaggy Dog, and Ice Age: The Meltdown.
The film was backed by a large marketing campaign, with toys, books, games, clothes, and many other items becoming available throughout 2005.
The first trailer was released on June 2005. Followed by a second one in September 2005.
TV spots began to air between September and November 2005.
Walt Disney Home Entertainment first released Frozen Fever on the DVD release of Chicken Little on March 21, 2006. And other DVD releases on April 4, 2006 with The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, May 23, 2006 with Cheaper by the Dozen 2, June 6, 2006 with Glory Road, June 20, 2006 with Eight Below, August 1, 2006 with The Shaggy Dog, and was first released to Blu-ray on November 21, 2006 with Ice Age: The Meltdown and with Chicken Little on March 20, 2007. On January 17, 2006, it was released on an exclusive DVD copy of its own, courtesy of Tesco stores across the United Kingdom and United States.
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