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| Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/2013 WireImage |
The voice cast is led by the queen of Broadway Idina Menzel as well as Kristen Bell, Glee’s Jonathan Groff, and original Book of Mormon cast member Josh Gad. A terrific score has been composed by husband-and-wife song writing team Robert Lopez (who co-wrote The Book of Mormon and Avenue Q) and Kristen Anderson-Lopez.
Inspired by The Snow Queen, Frozen tells the story of Sisters Elsa (Idina Menzel), who has magical icy powers, and Anna (Kristen Bell). Elsa manages to keep her powers hidden until Anna drops the bombshell that she is marrying a Prince who she has only known for a matter of hours. Understandably this infuriates Elsa (all this just happens to take place on her coronation day) and she loses control of her powers and casts a never ending winter over her kingdom before escaping to the mountains. Anna then sets off to track down her sister, befriending mountain man Kristoff (Jonathan Groff) and larger than life snowman Olaf (Josh Gad) along the way.
Frozen is directed by Disney veteran Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee. Chris first joined Disney in 1978 as an animator whilst Jennifer, who joined Disney in 2011, is Disney’s first ever female director. Recently I spoke to Chris and Jennifer about the movie’s incredible score, why they decided to cast theatre stars over Hollywood names and whether they think Frozen could work as a Broadway or West End musical…
How are you feeling now that Frozen has been released and you’re breaking box office records all around the world? You must be relieved?!
Jennifer: Relieved is a good word!
Jennifer: Relieved is a good word!
Chris: Relieved is one, overwhelmed is another. We had left town before the final numbers even came in so it’s not like we had time to take it all in! I don’t know where we are [laughs]! I’m sure it will hit us later.
Jennifer: We’re ecstatic!
Chris: We’re thrilled that people are embracing the movie, everybody seems to respond to it in a different way and it’s been great to hear why people are loving it so much.
The music in the film is incredible and written by husband-and-wife song writing team Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez. Robert also co-wrote stage musicals The Book of Mormon and Avenue Q. Initially what did you expect from the music?
Jennifer: We wanted something edgy!
The music in the film is incredible and written by husband-and-wife song writing team Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez. Robert also co-wrote stage musicals The Book of Mormon and Avenue Q. Initially what did you expect from the music?
Jennifer: We wanted something edgy!
Chris: We always joked that they should take it one notch further! I mean we knew what they could bring to it and we wanted something slightly different. I don’t really like to use the word edgier but…
Jennifer: I think there’s a freshness to the music, Robert and Kristen aren’t afraid to be playful and they are willing to go there – they will let there be a song about a snowman who dreams of experiencing summer, but they’ll make it whimsical and not creepy. They are also very sincere and have a love for the big emotional classic songs so you can have that balance.
Chris: Plus they are amazing storytellers, they don’t just write pretty or funny songs. They were always very concerned about how each song would propel the story forward, we didn’t want to just stop for a song. To tell the story through the songs was a goal of theirs and a goal of ours.
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| Johnathan Groff and Chris Buck Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/WireImage |
Chris: Even though we were in LA and they were in New York we would work every day with them, we would have a video conference every morning for a few hours, 9am our time, noon their time, so we could really patch up things. Story-wise things would change every day as we were still writing it so we had to keep them up to speed about how the story was changing and what that meant for the characters and the songs.
Jennifer: We always knew where we would have a song and then I would have to re-write a lot of the scenes just to support the song because we wanted it to be seamless. So it was a lot of going backward and forward, it was quite a collaboration!
Chris: And a true collaboration. I think you have to have that – I don’t know how you could just tell someone “here’s the story, now you go away and write the songs.” You have to be able to work together.
The balance of musical numbers is perfect – there is not a song every two seconds and there are actually long periods of time as the film progresses where there are no songs. Did you have songs left on the cutting room floor?
Jennifer: Oh lots!
Jennifer: Oh lots!
Chris: Some of them are actually on the deluxe CD. Some of the songs didn’t make it – it just depends on the story because something things take a turn. We were always happy to try things out when you think something is going to be a perfect match, but then you realise it isn’t quite right. It’s always a learning process.
Jennifer: We worked with Chris Montan who is a Disney music legend and he understands how to interweave songs. With a musical film you tend to have more songs towards the beginning because you are introducing a lot of information and you want to do that in an emotional and entertaining way to get the sense of the world you are creating. Once the world really takes off you use music for poignant specific moments, but that’s when you risk the stop and start – we had ideas for songs in certain places but realised there were times when the story had to keep moving and we couldn’t just stop for a song.
Chris: We put it up on a storyboard with the whole movie and we had to make sure we didn’t go too long without a song, because then the audience forgets it’s a musical and then suddenly a song comes out from nowhere.
Jennifer: It’s a struggle to pace it.
Chris: It’s like a balancing act!
In terms of casting you have gone for huge theatre stars, but if you look at other, recent huge musical films such as Les Miserables and Mamma Mia they have all gone for huge Hollywood stars. Why did you chose to cast such an amazing bunch of theatre performers?
Chris: Oh yes, that’s very true!
Jennifer: Animation is very different in that you need extraordinary actors who can not only act. To make an animated character work it’s not about the presence of them visually on screen, it’s about their voice and how they use it, both as their characters and musically for sure! The most important thing is that they could all sing AND act.
Chris: Singing was a big part of the audition process.
Jennifer: Idina [Menzel] brings the power in her singing voice and the vulnerability in her speaking voice which works perfectly for Elsa. Jonathan Groff is a great example because we were planning for his character Kristoff to be a very gruff mountain man; but Jonathan’s voice was so special, just like butter [laughs], and wooed everyone. When we put his voice alongside the designs and animation straight away we were just like “that’s Kristoff” and we had to re-write him. You have to go on that and not just big names!
Chris: The only regret we have is he has this wonderful song with the reindeer but…
Jennifer: …we wanted him to have a big belt out Jonathan Groff number! It just didn’t fit, we would try and it just didn’t feel right for the story.
Do you think Frozen would work as a stage musical?
Chris: Yes! Absolutely!
Jennifer: I think so! I think that would be fantastic!
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| Jennifer Lee Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/WireImage |
Jennifer: Why not?!
Chris: I think that would be really fun! I would love to see visually how they would translate what we’ve done on screen onto the stage.
Jennifer: Also I think there’s so much more you could do musically that we couldn’t do in a ninety minute film.
Chris: It would be our chance to give Kristoff a song [laughs]!
Jennifer: But even in terms of music Christophe Beck and Robert and Kristen were so playful and I am sure they would do a great job! I can’t wait to roll rocks around the stage [laughs]!
Chris: Olaf (the snowman) would be a challenge with his head falling off all the time!
Jennifer: A new challenge sounds great to me.
Critics have said Frozen is the best Disney movie since the Disney Renaissance. Why do you think the film had reminded so many people of the classic Disney movies they watched growing up?
Chris: I don’t really know, I guess we’re hitting and reaching out to people and audiences in a way which is even surprising to us. It’s very gratifying. What we do bring to it is a love of Disney films. Pinocchio was the first film I ever saw and I just fell in love with it…
Chris: I don’t really know, I guess we’re hitting and reaching out to people and audiences in a way which is even surprising to us. It’s very gratifying. What we do bring to it is a love of Disney films. Pinocchio was the first film I ever saw and I just fell in love with it…
Jennifer: …and mine was Cinderella. The one thing I always loved with something like Beauty and the Beast or The Lion King is that it went there! It had humour, but it also had power, heart and some real emotional punch! We did some very special scenes and I think we set out to do that so if that’s resonating then wow – that’s overwhelming! But I think it is the love of those movies which has a lot to do with it.
Chris: It definitely starts with our Disney DNA but then we also bring a contemporary sense to the characters and the flaws in the characters that people can relate to – they’re believable. It’s thrilling that people are responding so positively!
I know you’ve previously said that Anna and Elsa originally were not sisters, why did you eventually decide they should be?
Chris: Somebody said in the story room one day “what if they’re sisters?”
Chris: Somebody said in the story room one day “what if they’re sisters?”
Jennifer: …and it just hit everyone! I think the original struggle was that in The Snow Queen (which Frozen is loosely based on) you don’t know anything about her and she’s very much a villain and we didn’t want to simply tell a good vs evil story – it’s just not what we do! We wanted to tell a love vs fear story and we had to decide how Anna and Elsa would be connected and what the stakes would be. Somebody mentioned that they could be sisters and suddenly everybody in the room just connected. With that bond Elsa became so much more three dimensional! It also enabled us to have so much more fun with the story, we could completely move away from good vs evil and try something completely different.
Chris: It also meant Anna could care for her sister on a much deeper level. We split them apart right at the beginning of the movie and all the audience want is for them to be back together for the whole movie – it just made it so much stronger, emotionally.
Imagine this: I am a passionate theatre goer, I don’t usually go to the cinema often but I hear about this new movie musical Frozen… why should I go and see it?
Chris: Oh my gosh!
Chris: Oh my gosh!
Jennifer: Wow! Frozen has the best of cinema and the best of theatre together – I think that’s why it works. What’s fun is being able to see that kind of music incorporated in a different way. Robert brings his big Broadway style of music into the film, but our trolls can be made of rock and we can pull the audience right in! I think it’s a wonderful balance!
Chris: It’s a completely different experience, but for people who go to the theatre it will feel familiar, yet we take it to a cinematic place.
Interviewed by Andrew Tomlins (Editor)
Frozen is in cinemas now.
Click here to read West End Frame’s five star review.
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