Disney’s ‘Frozen,’ a Makeover of ‘The Snow Queen’ - The New York Times The New York Times Movies |From the Heat of Royal Passion, Poof! It’s Permafrost Search From the Heat of Royal Passion, Poof! It’s Permafrost Disney’s ‘Frozen,’ a Makeover of ‘The Snow Queen’ Frozen Directed by Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee Animation, Adventure, Comedy, Family, Fantasy, Musical PG Continue reading the main story Photo Anna, a princess besotted with a rogue, and Kristoff, the ice dealer who comes to her aid, with Olaf, the snowman who would be a beach bunny, in “Frozen.” Credit Disney A beautiful princess with magical powers that she can’t control; an adorable snowman, with buck teeth and a carrot for a nose, who longs to sunbathe because no one ever told him that heat melts ice; a picture-perfect prince who is revealed to be a scheming, opportunistic cad.

Those are among the unconventional characters in the new Disney 3-D animated movie musical, “Frozen,” very loosely based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale “The Snow Queen.” They are significant departures from tradition in a film that shakes up the hyper-romantic “princess” formula that has stood Disney in good stead for decades and that has grown stale. Treacly, kissy-kissy endings are not enough anymore. Nowadays, a princess has to show her mettle and earn her happily-ever-after stripes. Allegorically, “Frozen” lacks the purity and elemental power of a classic myth like “Beauty and the Beast,” but at least its storytelling is fairly coherent, and its gleaming dream world of snow and ice is one of the most visually captivating environments to be found in a Disney animated film. There are moments when you may feel that you are inside a giant crystal chandelier frosted with diamonds. It all takes place in the fictional Scandinavian land of Arendelle, whose king and queen die in a shipwreck, leaving the country in the hands of Elsa (the voice of Idina Menzel), the elder of two daughters. This blond, high-strung princess has a secret problem.

If she isn’t extremely careful, everything around her freezes when she takes off her protective gloves and waves her hands. Elsa’s best friend is her impulsive redheaded younger sister, Anna ( Kristen Bell ), whom she nearly freezes to death by accident. The sisters become estranged when Anna falls in love at first sight with Hans (Santino Fontana), a too-good-to-be-true prince from a neighboring kingdom, and Elsa forbids them to marry. With one wave of Elsa’s hand, eternal winter descends on Arendelle. She is so horrified by her destructive gift that she retreats to a remote ice palace atop a mountain. Video embed As Arendelle suffers through the deep freeze, the resourceful Anna, who still loves her sister, is determined to track down Elsa, who she believes can reverse the spell. Thus begin Anna’s adventures in mountain climbing. Along the way, she meets Kristoff (Jonathan Groff), a rugged ice dealer who guides a reindeer-driven sleigh. During their “Wizard of Oz”-like quest, they are joined by Olaf ( Josh Gad ), that sweet, wisecracking snowman. “Frozen,” for all its innovations, is not fundamentally revolutionary.

Its animated characters are the same familiar, blank-faced, big-eyed storybook figures. But they are a little more psychologically complex than their Disney forerunners. Its princesses may gaze at a glass ceiling, but most are not ready to shatter it. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Is it significant that Jennifer Lee, who directed “Frozen” with Chris Buck, is billed as the first female director of a Disney animated feature film? Perhaps. Ms. Lee is credited as the screenwriter of a story that she and Mr. Buck developed with Shane Morris. That screenplay cautiously incorporates some slangy contemporary argot, but its tone is never desperately hip in the manner of the “Shrek” movies. Most of what fun there is revolves around Olaf, a classic Disney sidekick. Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up Privacy Policy If “Frozen” still has one foot planted in 19th-century children’s literature, good and evil are not so clear-cut. The title character of the original fairy tale was evil. Her 21st-century descendant is merely confused and scared. As always, love is the solution to everything.

When nothing can thaw the icy heart of the frightened Elsa, love does the trick, but in this case it is sisterly loyalty and devotion rather than romantic attachment. “Frozen” has eight original songs by the married team of Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, musical theater veterans whose blend of playful wit and sentimentality here comes closer than any score for a Disney animated film to capturing the charm of the Alan Menken-Howard Ashman collaboration in its glory days. One song, “Fixer Upper,” sung by a bunch of trolls promoting the charms of an imperfect eligible bachelor to a picky princess, is genuinely amusing: So he’s a bit of a fixer-upper, So he’s got a few flaws. Like his peculiar brain-dear. His thing with the reindeer. That’s a little outside of nature’s laws! It can’t be accidental that “Frozen,” with its two female leads, one voiced by the original Elphaba in “Wicked” (Ms. Menzel), has a lot in common with that Broadway juggernaut and seems ready-made for theatrical adaptation. For this journey, instead of a broomstick, take mittens, snow boots and steaming hot chocolate.

“Frozen” is rated PG (Parental guidance suggested) for some action and mild, rude humor. Frozen The Story Behind the Story of Frozen | Disney Insider The Story Behind the Story of Frozen Oh My Disney Contributor “Every once in a while, a movie comes along where it starts to tell you what it needs to be,” says Producer Peter Del Vecho of his recent project, Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Frozen . “And this is one of those movies.” The film is loosely based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale The Snow Queen, which was first published in 1845. While the Disney version pulls from elements of the original fairy tale, the finished product is a largely original story. “In the versions we looked at that had been attempted prior to this,” says Peter, “it was hard to understand or feel for that character. The key became tying it to a sibling relationship. There was more at stake. And now I think there’s more reasons that you can feel for her.” Peter says the sibling storyline unlocked potential for depth of story and emotion that was lacking in initial stages. Rather than a story simply of one woman, the sisterly relationship in Frozen made for far better story fodder.

“You may not always like what Elsa does in the movie, you may not always agree with what Anna does in the movie, but you should be able to understand each of their points of view in the movie,” Peter says. Once the basic story was set, it came time to figure out how to do this epic tale justice. The production, art, lighting, and design leads needed to gather inspiration, so research trips were the next logical step. They sent the animators to Wyoming so they could get familiar with walking through snow. “They came back with an appreciation for the fact that there’s a top layer of the snow that supports your weight, but you break through and you’re caught on the more compacted level,” says Peter. That new appreciation actually led them to develop tools for the animators so they could animate the snow on two different ground planes. “One was the top of the snow and one’s the bottom of the snow so they would know where to put the resistance and then break through,” says Peter. The lighting and art teams went to the Ice Hotel in Quebec, Canada to do some observations of how light reflects and refracts on snow and ice. The last trip was to Norway to get inspiration for the look of the film.

They knew the story needed ice, mountains, water, and other elements that made Norway an ideal choice for inspiration. Says Peter of one aspect they really drew from, “They may not be the tallest mountains in the world, but they’re very vast.” These trips helped to inform the look of the film, both in big ways and in small ones. You might see nods not just to the vast expanses of Norway, but also to the subtleties of the country’s architecture and even clothing style. Going on these trips allowed the participants to return with a newfound appreciation for the complexities of what they had undertaken. “When you’re dealing with an environment that’s basically an effect, practically the whole movie has effects in it,” says Peter. What does he mean? “Getting animated ice to have the depth and refraction that real ice has… to actually see through it and feel that depth is something that actually isn’t that easy.” Once they understood where they were going, it came time to start thinking about the details. One example is the the way Elsa’s powers are actualized on screen. “One of the things we wanted to differentiate was between snow that might appear just from nature and snow or ice that might appear from Elsa’s magic,” says Peter.

“We wanted it to have at times a very lyrical feel to it and at times a very dangerous feel to it depending upon her emotions.” In order to accomplish the lyrical feel, they had to take influences from hand-drawn animation and figure out how to make that work in CG. “To get that same effect in CG,” says Peter, “they came up with the idea of going to a capture room and having the effects animator sort of animate out what they would imagine that motion to be, put that into the computer, and use that as the generation of her effects.” As all this was going on, the rest of the elements were starting to fall into place. Peter and his team had daily video chat meetings with the songwriting duo for the film, Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, with whom he also collaborated on Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Winnie the Pooh. They were involved in the story process and worked alongside the team so that the music fit seamlessly within the story. Then it came time to add the voices to the characters, meaning the likes of Idina Menzel and Kristen Bell (Elsa and Anna respectively) were gracing the Studios in the recording booths.

According to Peter, at some point in this creative process, those involved in the process began to see the film emerge. “ What I mean by that is it takes on a life of its own and ends up becoming bigger than any of the individuals working on it,” he says. “You don’t know when it’s going to happen or if it’s going to happen, but it’s very exciting when it does.” From the motion capture techniques developed for the project to the emotional storylines to the influences of the research trips around the world, you will be able to see the word of Arendelle come to life November 2013. You can catch glimpses of the film at the Disney D23 Expo later this month in Anaheim and read more about the two lead voice actresses in the Disney D23 Magazine Fall issue. RELATED POSTS: 'Frozen' movie review: Disney's latest animated film finds charm and warmth in classic tale | NOLA.com 'Frozen' movie review: Disney's latest animated film finds charm and warmth in classic tale comments The title is "Frozen," but the latest animated fairy tale from Disney is far warmer than that icy name suggests.

A lively and funny break-out-in-song musical, it's the kind of movie you probably think about when you think "Disney cartoon." That's not always been the case for animated films released by Disney over the past couple of decades. With such lackluster releases as "Meet the Robinsons," "Treasure Planet," "Chicken Little" and "Bolt," the one-time animation king of the hill was for a while there seemingly in desperate need of a dose of its old mojo. Thank goodness, then, for competition. With Pixar threatening to steal its crown as the elite animation studio -- and, to a lesser extent, DreamWorks Animation -- Disney as of late has been getting back to what it does best. Its past handful of major releases, " The Princess and the Frog ," " Tangled " and " Wreck-It Ralph ," have been artful, whimsical, heartfelt and -- best of all -- fun. "Frozen," co-directed by "Tarzan" helmer Chris Buck and "Wreck-It Ralph" screenwriter Jennifer Lee (shockingly, the first woman to direct a theatrical animated feature for Disney), continues that re-ascent.

When it's all said and done, "Despicable Me 2" will likely go down as the year's highest-grossing animated film, but "Frozen" -- the 53rd theatrical animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics catalog -- is the most complete we've seen so far in 2013. Disney's 'Frozen' movie trailer Animated comedy opens Nov. 27, 2013 As with so many of Disney's classic films, it's all loosely based -- very loosely -- on a time-tested fairy tale. In this case, it's Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen." The story, in Buck and Lee's version anyway, focuses on two young sisters, the daughters of the king and queen of the snowy Nordic kingdom of Arendelle. The elder sister, Elsa (voiced by Idina Menzel), isn't an ordinary princess, however. She, we learn, was born with a special gift that lets her do things like conjuring ice and snow from her fingertips. Unfortunately, it's a gift she neither understands nor welcomes. Even worse, she can't control it.

To protect her from claims of sorcery -- and the resulting pitchfork- and torch-wielding villagers -- Elsa's parents decide to sequester her from the entire kingdom, including from her playful and precocious little sister Anna ( Kristen Bell ). When the king and queen's ship goes down in a storm, Elsa ascends to the throne -- and, eventually her secret comes out. Cue the scared mob of villagers, who chase her out of the kingdom -- but not before she inadvertently unleashes eternal winter on the kingdom. And then cue a journey by Anna to find her sister and bring her back home where she belongs. Along the way, "Frozen" rolls through its share of genre cliches: There's the hunky stranger who helps Anna along the way, the comic-relief sidekick (in this case a misshapen snowman brought to life by Elsa's powers during her hasty exit), and a dose of palace intrigue compliments of those eager to snatch Elsa's recently vacated throne.

Disney's 'Frozen' is Mike Scott's 'The One' Nola.com | The Times-Picayune movie critic Mike Scott says for some great family fare this holiday week, go see Disney's 'Frozen,' one of the best animated flicks to come out of the Disney shop in quite some time. Also, as beautiful as the wintry landscapes are, the design of the characters is less than impressive. Plastic-y and doll-like, they are largely an ordinary-looking lot. Still, the best moments in "Frozen" are far more noteworthy than any flaws. That includes some nicely played twists to the surprisingly fresh story, a raft of well-drawn characters -- including some genuinely three-dimensional female characters -- as well as touching emotional themes. The real highlight, though, is the music by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez. Sure, there's a dash of Broadway cheesiness in many of the song-and-dance numbers, but they are sweet nonetheless -- and catchy to boot. Clearly, Disney has designs on adapting "Frozen" for the stage should it do brisk enough business at the box office. And smart money says it will do brisk business.

Starting with the delightful Mickey Mouse cartoon "Get a Horse" -- a seven-minute snatch of animated lagniappe that will screen before all showings of "Frozen" -- and right down to the "hidden" scene following the closing credits (as well as a joke hidden near the end of the credits), "Frozen" arrives in theaters Wednesday (Nov. 27) as a sure bet for Turkey Day viewing for families. It's also a heart-warming -- and welcome -- return to form for the House of Mouse. ______ Disney’s Frozen vs. Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen | Mission Viejo Library Teen Voice Mission Viejo Library Teen Voice Teens tell you what's what… so you know what to read next Search Disney’s Frozen vs. Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen Posted on Disney has remade many classics fairy tales into movies. Their latest animated feature is based on Hans Christian Andersen’s story, “The Snow Queen.” Disney spun this tale into their newest movie, Frozen. WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW! In Andersen’s version, the story focuses on the relationships between two childhood friends, Kay and Gerda.

In the story, trolls send an evil mirror down to Earth and it breaks into pieces and a piece of it lands in Kay’s heart which will turn his heart into a lump of ice. A piece also lands in his eye, making him aware of all of the world’s imperfections. A few nights later when it is snowing he sees the Snow Queen but she quickly fades away. The next day the Snow Queen steals him away and Gerda goes on a search to find him. The Snow Queen is made out to be the villain and Gerda, the hero. She finds Kay blue as ice and dying. Gerda’s cries and her hot tears melt the ice in his heart and Kay begins to cry, too, and the mirror comes out of his eye. The story ends when they go home and summer begins. Disney’s adaptation, Frozen, is a much more emotional tale. It is a story of sisters, Anna and Elsa of Arendelle. The girls were best friends as children but Elsa had a secret: she had ice powers that she could not control. Once, when playing with Anna, she accidentally struck ice into her head. Their parents rushed her to the trolls and they wiped her memory of her sister’s powers and that saved her life.

Elsa was from then on, forced to keep her distance from Anna to protect her. The two became estranged and enclosed. Their parents closed the gate to their castle to shelter their children. They soon after passed away, leaving Elsa to the throne. The castle is reopened for the first time in years for Elsa’s coronation. Elsa becomes nervous and accidentally reveals her powers in front of the kingdom and sets off an eternal winter. She runs away and Anna goes to find her. She tries to convince her sister to come home and bring summer back. They begin to argue and Elsa accidentally strikes Anna in the heart with ice and only an action of true love can save her. I personally preferred Disney’s rendition of “The Snow Queen.” The movie was heart warming and magical. It brought so much emotion into the story and gave it a depth that the original story lacked. It quickly became one of my favorite Disney movies. The animation and the soundtrack to the movie were phenomenal. The cast was flawless and the film was absolutely fantastic! I’d recommend everyone to see it! -Sarah B., 12th grade ‘Frozen,’ Disney’s New Fairy Tale, Is No.

2 at Box Office - The New York Times The New York Times Movies |Boys Don’t Run Away From These Princesses Search Boys Don’t Run Away From These Princesses ‘Frozen,’ Disney’s New Fairy Tale, Is No. 2 at Box Office Photo Elsa, one of the stars in Disney’s “Frozen.” Credit Walt Disney Pictures LOS ANGELES — Billboards that buried the princesses in snow. TV ads that emphasized action and screwball comedy while playing down romance and sisterhood. Trailers that concealed the Broadway-style musical numbers. Was it enough to convince boys that “Frozen” is not just for girls? And then some: Walt Disney Studios said that its latest animated fairy tale took in an estimated $93 million between Wednesday and Sunday — one of the best Thanksgiving debuts on record, according to box-office analysts. The movie, which received an A-plus score from ticket buyers in exit polls, notably faces no major animated competition through the Christmas holiday. As expected, the No.

1 movie in North America over the five-day weekend was “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.” Released by Lionsgate, “Catching Fire” took in an estimated $110.2 million, for a two-week domestic total of $296.5 million, according to Rentrak, which compiles box-office data. A blockbuster response to “Frozen,” about two princess sisters and a wisecracking snowman named Olaf, was less of a sure thing. To justify the film’s cost — roughly $250 million in production and global marketing expenses — Disney needed “Frozen” to charm everyone. The studio was confident that girls would show up, but it was scared that boys would take one look and respond with a sneer: Eww, a princess movie. That concern became deeply ingrained at Disney after the 2009 release of “The Princess and the Frog,” which was a box-office dud; studio research indicated that boys recoiled in part because of the word princess in the title. Disney decided to give its next fairy tale musical, centered on Rapunzel, the gender-neutral title “Tangled,” prompting a mini-controversy.

Photo Research showed boys had recoiled from “The Princess and the Frog.” Credit Walt Disney Pictures For “Frozen,” very loosely based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale “The Snow Queen,” Disney’s marketing ploys seemed to work. About 43 percent of the opening-weekend audience for the movie was male, according to exit polls. To compare, the first weekend of “Tangled” drew a crowd that was 39 percent male. “Boys really respond to humor, and we fortunately had an enormous supply of that from Olaf the snowman,” said Dave Hollis, executive vice president for distribution at Walt Disney Studios. Addressing the marketing campaign, Mr. Hollis said that Disney tested materials with focus groups, and “with any piece that polarized one audience or another, there was a strategic decision to hold it.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story The success of “Frozen” means much more to Disney than box-office receipts. The company’s theme parks rely on hit music from its movies, for instance, and Disney has recently shied away from full-blown musicals.

As a leading Oscar contender for best animated film, “Frozen” also cements a Pixar-led turnaround at the historic but in recent times lagging Walt Disney Animation Studios. Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up Privacy Policy “To see the impact of John’s creative oversight has really been extraordinary,” Mr. Hollis said, referring to John Lasseter, the Pixar co-founder who took over Disney’s animation operation in 2006. Princess-related merchandise generates billions of dollars in revenue for Disney. Items tied to the “Frozen” sisters, Anna and Elsa, voiced by Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel, and Olaf, voiced by Josh Gad, are hot holiday gifts, retailers say. (Anna and Elsa, for the record, have not joined the likes of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty as “official” Disney princesses.) With so much on the line, Disney fired up its vaunted cross-marketing engines.

“Frozen” had a titanic presence on Disney Channel; costumed characters were deployed to the Norway pavilion at Epcot at Walt Disney World; the movie’s central showstopping song, “Let It Go,” written by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Bobby Lopez ( “The Book of Mormon,” “Avenue Q”), became the centerpiece of the Disneyland Resort’s World of Color fountain extravaganza. There was even a 12-city “Frozen” hash brown giveaway sponsored by Ore-Ida. For the five-day weekend, “Thor: The Dark World” (Disney) was third at theaters, taking in about $15.5 million, for a four-week total of $186.7 million. “The Best Man Holiday” (Universal) was fourth, selling an estimated $11.1 million, for a three-week total of $63.4 million. And with a script by Sylvester Stallone, “Homefront” (Open Road) arrived in fifth place, taking in about $9.8 million. A version of this article appears in print on December 2, 2013, on Page C1 of the New York edition with the headline: Boys Don’t Run Away From These Princesses.

Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe Disney's new animation film Frozen official wallpaper pack | Movie Wallpapers Tumblr Disney’s new animation film Frozen official wallpaper pack Based on the classic tale by Hans Christian Andersen The Snow Queen, Frozen is the latest Disney Studios animated feature film. In this adaptation Anna (voiced by Kristen Bell) teams up with Kristoff (Jonathan Groff) in a quest to find her sister Elsa who is the Snow Queen and has trapped the kingdom of Arendelle in an everlasting snow and ice. On their journey they encounter trolls, snowmans both good and bad and of course plenty of cold. The Snow Queen is voiced by Idina Menzel and Alan Tudyk voice the Duke of Weselton. The reindeer and the snowman are bit of the Disney silly character tradition, probably the humor relief, only problem I found with it is that they are too childish, while other studios make this characters good enough for a grown people to enjoy them. You can watch the trailer here , which looks kind of awesome, lets hope not everything fun is in it. You can also visit the official website of Frozen. Frozen is directed by Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee.

Premieres on 27 November 2013, ehich seems a bit early for a winter adventure. The size of the wallpapers is 1920×1200. Freeze your desktop! Author silfiriel Posted on The Long, Cold Story Behind Disney's 'Frozen' | Contactmusic.com The Long, Cold Story Behind Disney's 'Frozen' The Long, Cold Story Behind Disney's 'Frozen' Next » Disney’s icy adventure ‘Frozen’ can now call itself the highest grossing animated film of all time after surpassing ‘Toy Story 3’ by taking over $1.072 billion at the world wide box office. That’s quite an achievement for Disney, but what makes it all the more remarkable is the real story of how ‘Frozen’ made it to the big screen. A journey which took nearly 70 years until a seemingly small idea was mentioned. Frozen has overtaken Toy Story 3 to becoming the highest grossing animated film The origins of 'Frozen’ lie in the Hans Christian Andersen tale ‘The Snow Queen’, a story which had been the subject of a major Disney headache for nearly 70 years at the time of ‘Frozen’s’ inception.

Back in 1943 Walt Disney saw the potential of the Danish author’s stories, which included 'The Little Mermaid’, ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ and ‘The Snow Queen’. The original plan was for Walt to collaborate with Samuel Goldwyn to produce a biographical piece on Andersen and incorporate some of his famous works into the story, using Disney animation. Eventually the project fell through and Goldwyn went on to do his own movie on Andersen in 1952, leaving the animation part out. Despite the setback, Disney never lost sight of the potential of Andersen’s stories, most notably ‘The Snow Queen’. Andersen's tale of ‘The Snow Queen’ begins with a magical mirror created by the devil, that has the power to make people look at the ugly side of others. When the devil tries to bring it to heaven, it falls and breaks into shards which eventually pierce people’s hearts and fill them with contempt. Years laters, a boy named Kai and a girl named Gerda become good friends, but soon one of the shards finds its way into Kai’s heart and he changes like the others. One day, he goes out and ends up being lured away by the Snow Queen while playing on his sled.

Greta, knowing of the legend of the Snow Queen, sets out on a dangerous quest to rescue him and eventually thaw his icy heart. Taking from Hans Christian Andersen's 'The Snow Queen' Disney created 'Frozen' The concept of course sounded perfect for Disney, a young girl setting off on an epic adventure to save her friend and coming up against an evil villain. Adding to that, there was the story's snowy setting, a perfect backdrop to give Disney lots of opportunities to work some animation magic. The problem though lay in the titular character. Really she was just a little lacking, the book didn't give too much about her away, aside from her spectacular appearance and the general feeling with Disney was, audiences just wouldn't be able to relate to her. As the idea of a 'Snow Queen' movie got set aside, the early 90s came and Disney entered into its second golden era, the ‘Disney Renaissance’ as it was called. Ironically the period was heralded in by a different Andersen adaptation, ‘The Little Mermaid’. Its sucess meant that once again ‘The Snow Queen’ was being talked about.

Actor Harvey Fierstein even made a story pitch, but by 2002 ‘The Snow Queen’ was once again off the table. Hope again came in 2008 when Disney and Pixar head John Lasseter showed interest after an idea from 'Tarzan' director Chris Buck but two years later the idea still hadn’t moved any further. Then ‘Tangled’ came in 2011 and, you guessed it, ‘The Snow Queen’ story was once again being looked at. This time things looked a lot more promising and the movie title 'Frozen' appeared on Disney's list of upcoming productions, to much speculation. But the problem remained of what to do with the Snow Queen character. Could she ever be more than a one diminutional villain? Next page: How 'Frozen' made it to the big screen “Frozen”: Disney’s new adaptation of the Snow Queen “Frozen”: Disney’s new adaptation of the Snow Queen Frozen is an upcoming American 3D animated musical fantasy-comedy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. It is loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale The Snow Queen. This would be WDFA's second Andersen-inspired feature, the first being The Little Mermaid.

It will be the 53rd animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. It will also feature the twelfth Disney Princess, Anna the Ice Princess. The film is currently scheduled to be released on November 27, 2013. Walt Disney Animation Studios has been working on its own adaptation of The Snow Queen, most recently after being scrapped in late 2002. However, as of March 2010 Disney had shelved the project again. As of June 2010, Disney announced that the film was put on "hold". In December 2011, Disney announced a new title for the film, Frozen, and a release date, November 27, 2013. A month later, it was confirmed that the film will be a 3D CGI animated feature. On March 5, 2012, author Eric Eisenburg reported the original details about Frozen: "The story is based on the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen and is about an evil queen who kidnaps a young boy named Kai.

Following his disappearance, a young girl named Gerda goes on an adventure to save him." The film is being directed by Chris Buck, who previously co-directed both Surf's Up - the animated film about surfing penguins - and 1999's Tarzan. Much like many of Disney's recent animated films, the project is being overseen by Pixar chief John Lasseter and Peter Del Vecho and will be done using computer generated animation On July 29, 2012, a new story plot was given by The Walt Disney Animation Studios: "When Anna is cursed by her estranged sister, the cold-hearted Snow Queen, Anna’s only hope of reversing the curse is to survive a perilous but thrilling journey across an icy and unforgiving landscape. Joined by a rugged, thrill-seeking outdoorsman, his one-antlered reindeer and a hapless snowman, Anna must race against time, conquer the elements and battle an army of menacing snowmen if she ever hopes to melt her frozen heart." Broadway songwriters Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, who previously wrote songs for the 2011 film Winnie the Pooh, have been confirmed to write original songs for the film.

The Ancient Roots of Disney’s Blockbuster Film “Frozen” | AntiquityNOW The Ancient Roots of Disney’s Blockbuster Film “Frozen” Posted on June 3, 2014 | Leave a comment In our previous post, The Disneyfication of Pocahontas and the True Story of Uleleh , we explored the origins of the Disney film Pocahontas and discovered that it has a deeper, more complex history than we thought. In today’s post, we delve into another Disney film, Frozen, which is said to be based on the fairy tale The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen. Interestingly, there are speculations that Andersen’s fairy tales were actually inspired by Norse mythology, so we decided to examine The Snow Queen for these literary remnants. Join us as we peel back the layers of history to see how an ancient culture eventually gave rise to a 21st-century Oscar-winning animated film. Since 1943, Walt Disney Animation Studios had been struggling to bring a version of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale The Snow Queen to the big screen.

Walt Disney himself seized upon the idea while he was considering filming a biopic of Andersen, the celebrated Danish author who also penned The Little Mermaid and The Emperor’s New Clothes. The biopic didn’t pan out, and neither did a film adaptation of The Snow Queen. [1] But the idea had taken root, and for the next several decades, the studio made repeated attempts to turn the fairy tale into a feature-length film. Finally, in 2013, Disney came out with Frozen, which is loosely based on The Snow Queen. [2] Frozen, which won the Oscar for “Best Animated Feature Film,” is the story of two princesses, sisters, who become estranged when the older sister, Elsa, discovers that her powers of manipulating ice and snow could be dangerous. Elsa hides away from her younger sister Anna, afraid of hurting her, but one day her powers reveal themselves in an angry outburst. Elsa flees the castle, accidentally unleashing a permanent winter on the land she leaves behind. She takes refuge on a remote snowy mountain, building herself a palace of ice and glorying in her separation from the world. Her younger sister soon sets off in search of her.

When Anna confronts Elsa in her palace, Elsa feels cornered and (albeit accidentally) strikes Anna an icy blow to the heart. Anna will die unless she can first commit an act of love. Like The Snow Queen, Frozen has a happy ending. But in almost every other respect, the film is a wild departure from the fairy tale. Yes, both stories feature a queen who can conjure ice and snow. A reindeer plays a supporting role in both. And an innocent, optimistic, brave young girl with a heart full of love saves the day in both stories. The Snow Queen, illustration by Elena Ringo. Still, Disney’s studio artists claimed that Andersen’s villainous Snow Queen did not lend herself to a film adaptation, therefore forcing a complete reworking of the plot. [3] (In fact, this is not the first time Disney has made over a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen – The Little Mermaid underwent this treatment as well.) In The Snow Queen, the young heroine, Gerda, sets out to find her beloved friend, a young boy named Kai, who has been kidnapped by the Snow Queen.

Gerda battles witchcraft, murderous robbers, hunger and extreme cold to reach Kai who is imprisoned inside the Snow Queen’s palace of ice. In the end, there is no climactic showdown between Gerda and the Snow Queen. (Which is perhaps another reason Disney felt the plot needed to be reinvented.) Actually, when Gerda arrives at the palace, the Snow Queen is nowhere to be found. She has flown south to Italy, where she plans to shower snow down upon Mount Vesuvius and Mount Etna. Kai and Gerda “strolled out of that enormous palace,” and at the story’s end (a few paragraphs later) they are safely back at home in Denmark. [4] Disney dramatically altered the story of The Snow Queen to fit a modern context. This kind of process – inspiration and adaptation – happens in art all the time. So what about The Snow Queen itself? Did Hans Christian Andersen fashion the story purely from the fabric of his imagination? Or, like Disney, was he inspired by previously told stories, which he then adapted to appeal to the society in which he lived? Like much of 19th-century European literature, Andersen’s fairy tales often contain moral instruction aligned with the teachings of Christianity.

[5] In The Snow Queen, it’s Gerda’s Christian faith that supports her through her successful quest to rescue her friend. Yet woven through many of Andersen’s fairy tales are threads of Danish folklore and Norse mythology. Andersen, growing up in Denmark in the 19th century, would have been exposed to Danish folktales, which were in turn influenced by Norse mythology. His tales, despite having a proper Christian framework, are embroidered with magical beings and doings that are subtle renderings of Norse pagan rites and myths. Skadi hunting in the mountains. Illustration by H.L.M. in 1901. For example, some speculate that Andersen modeled the Snow Queen after the Norse goddess Skaði. [6] Skaði is associated with winter, mountains and skiing – in fact, she is often depicted as traveling about with skis strapped to her feet. Others believe that the Snow Queen was inspired by Hel, a Norse goddess who presided over the mythological realm of Niflheim, a land of ice and snow where men’s souls went after they died of sickness or old age.

[7] Also, according to SurLaLune , a website dedicated to annotating fairy tales, two central characters in The Snow Queen are plucked straight from Norse mythology. They are the two crows who assist Gerda at a critical point in her journey. According to myth, the god Odin carries two crows on his shoulders, referred to as Huginn and Muninn (Thought and Memory). The birds bring Odin information from all over his realm. [8] In The Snow Queen, Gerda encounters the crows when she is searching for clues as to where Kai could be. The crows tell Gerda that they think Kai traveled to a palace, and married the princess within. The information turns out to be wrong, but nevertheless it is a step forward in Gerda’s journey to Kai. The crows take her to a benign prince and princess who provide her with much-needed supplies, and Gerda sets off again. The Norse god Odin on his horse Sleipnir, featured on the Tjängvide image stone in Vallhalla. Andersen also gives a nod to the ancient European myth of the “wild hunt,” in which ghostly hunters ride across the night skies.

In Norse tradition, Odin leads the hunt on his eight-legged horse Sleipnir. In The Snow Queen, when Gerda is taken to the palace to see the prince and princess who will help her on her way, she sees shadowy figures on horseback galloping along the walls. The crows tell her the shadows are just dream-figures, riding off to the hunt. [9] Andersen’s use of “stock characters” in The Snow Queen – stereotypical figures whom audiences will recognize as having certain traits or functions within a story [10] – is further evidence that the tale was influenced by folklore. A crone – an old woman with witch-like abilities – tries to bewitch Gerda into remaining at her cottage forever. According to Francesca Matteoni, a researcher in early modern history at the University of Hertfordhire, this “very old” woman who walked with a crutch exemplifies a typical folkloric character. In myths and fairy tales, age and disability are common indicators of supernaturality. Also, the crone’s cottage, inside which time stands still, is a microcosm of the realm of death, over which many mythological characters – and the Snow Queen herself – preside.

[11] Other subtle elements of Norse mythology and Danish folklore appear throughout The Snow Queen, giving the tale a complexity and richness that has beckoned audiences (and artists) for over a century. Frozen is the latest retelling of these stories that were begun thousands of years ago. Which leads us to the intriguing prospect: could Frozen itself serve as inspiration for future generations of storytellers? Thanks to Disney, another fable buried in mythology’s vault has been resurrected and reconstituted. Where will tomorrow’s imaginations lead next? Author: Stephanie Castellano lives and works in Alexandria, Virginia, a historic town just across the river from Washington, DC. She is a writer and editor for a local professional association, and volunteers at the Alexandria Archaeology Museum. She loves discovering anecdotes and little-known stories from our collective past that have been forgotten in the sweep of grander events, and writing about them to bring the people and places involved back to life.

Question: Disney’s recent animated film Frozen is based on which tale by Hans Christian Andersen?
Answer: The Snow Queen