1.Prologue
On the November 29th episode of Sekai e Hasshin! SNS Eigojutsu on NHK E-Tele, we aired the interview I got to do with directors Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck, and producer Peter Del Vecho, who were in Japan promoting their film Frozen 2.
The film is the sequel to Frozen, the record-breaking animated film that gave birth to the omnipresent earworm “Let It Go". Frozen is known as Anna to Yuki no Joou (Anna and the Snow Queen) in Japan, a nod to the fairy tale by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen that inspired the film.
Frozen is the tale of Anna and Elsa, two princesses with contrasting personalities. Elsa, the elder of the two, was born with the ability to create and manipulate snow and ice. As she grows she becomes unable to control her powers, and afraid of hurting the people around her, she isolates herself in her castle, becoming estranged from her sister in the process. Following her 21st birthday, Elsa is to be crowned queen, and opens the castle gates to the public for her coronation. During the coronation festivities, emotional strain causes Elsa to accidentally unleash her powers, resulting in the entire kingdom being engulfed in winter. The fearless and eternally optimistic Anna sets out into the mountains to find and bring back her sister. In the end, the sisters reconcile and the people of the kingdom accept Elsa as queen. In Frozen 2, the sisters embark on a quest into the unknown to unravel the mystery behind Elsa’s powers.
Disney reports that the film has done incredibly well, putting up roughly twice the Japanese box-office numbers of the first film for its opening weekend. In terms of U.S. box office, the sequel made roughly 127 million dollars over opening weekend, close to twice the 64.7 million dollar take of the original.
In this article I’ll be reflecting on my interview with the filmmakers and examining what makes Frozen 2 worth checking out.
2.How Frozen’s Costumes Show the Sisters’ Journey
The theme for the in-studio segment of our November 29th show was athleisure and fashion, so my director and I decided to ask the filmmakers of Frozen 2 about the costumes in the film.
Much attention is paid to the sisters’ wardrobe in this film, as in the first. When considering the creative choices that go into a Disney film, the merchandizing side of things cannot be ignored; in addition to toys and trinkets and stuffed animals, Disney-themed clothing and character costumes have always been a big money maker for the company. Ever since Frozen was released in 2013, kids’ Halloween parties have been overrun by young Annas and Elsas. According to Disney, in 2014 alone, more than 3 million Anna and Elsa dresses were sold in the U.S. So what does the sisters’ wardrobe say about the characters this time around?
Lee answered,“It's really lovely to see them go from the young adults they were in Frozen 1 to the young women they are at the end of Frozen 2. Through costume you can watch the evolution."
In the first film, Elsa is dressed beautifully as a snow queen for her coronation. In Frozen 2, her wardrobe has become more authoritative and reflective of her strength—take, for example, the snowflake epaulettes on her shoulders, which evoke military dress. Elsa is a mythical character (in contrast to the more fairy-tale feel of Anna), and as such the clothes she wears have an ethereal texture and feel to them.
Anna, on the other hand, has a slimmer, less child-like silhouette, to signify that she has grown into a young woman. She wears an A-line skirt (which gradually widens towards the hem) with a deep purple cloak. Her overall color palette is warm and autumnal.
What’s more, the sisters wear pants beneath their dresses. Lee explained that it was important that they were able to be more practical. “They are wearing pants under the dresses, and for all the right reasons if you are going into Enchanted Forest."
The sisters’ hairstyles have also received an upgrade. While Anna sported child-like pigtails for the first film, she opts for a double braid tieback hairstyle when embarking on this film’s central quest. Meanwhile, Elsa loosens her trademark side braid and reties it into a ponytail right before diving into danger in one of the film’s most exciting sequences. Later, she lets down her hair completely to signal that she finally feels freed from the mystery of her powers.
3.An Unconventional Fairy Tale
When Frozen was released in 2013, the film made headlines for the fact that Jennifer Lee was the first woman to serve as a director on a Walt Disney Animation Studios feature film. The film was thus also the first Disney feature to be jointly directed by a man and a woman.
When Chris Buck first started working on Frozen, he wanted to do something other than the conventional Disney tale of a princess saved by the kiss of a handsome prince. Lee subsequently came onboard, and the pair decided that the true love at the center of the story should be sisterly love, rather than the love of a prince.
The Frozen series is an unconventional fairy tale in many ways.
Frozen 2, like the original, is not about a woman pining for a man, but about the bond between Anna and Elsa. As young women, the sisters are not waiting for Prince Charming to arrive on his white horse. The happy-go-lucky Anna has a boyfriend, the outdoorsman Kristoff, but it is Kristoff who is head over heels for Anna, bumbling about as he tries to figure out how to express his feelings. And when it comes to the high-strung but simultaneously cool-as-ice Elsa, it is clear that she doesn’t even need a man in her life. She is able to be strong because her sister believes in her.
It’s also notable that Frozen is not a conventional tale of good versus evil. Traditional Disney features have been fairy tales where there is a clear hero for the audience to root for and a clear villain to root against. In Frozen 2, however, there is no puppet master, no big baddie that the characters must rally together to defeat. Frozen 1 was similarly unconventional; while the villainous Prince Hans plotted to take over the sisters’ kingdom, the real villain was Elsa’s fear.
At the interview, Lee was wearing a very autumnal wine red jacket with flowers embroidered on the lapels. Her look clearly had an “Anna" feel to it.
Lee became chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios in 2018 (the first woman appointed to the position). Ever since she has been balancing directing, screenwriting, and her duties as CCO, and if Frozen 2 is any indication, she is achieving results in each capacity. It’s unsurprising that she identifies more with the eternally optimistic Anna than she does with the magical snow queen Elsa.
4.Jennifer Lee, the First Female Director of a Disney Feature
Jennifer Lee is an American movie director and screenwriter. She is Walt Disney Animation Studios’ chief creative officer. She graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a degree in English, and then went to New York City, where she worked as a graphic artist in publishing. Later, she returned to school and received an MFA in film from Columbia University. In 2011, screenwriter Phil Johnston, a classmate of Lee’s from Columbia, asked her to join him at Disney Animation to help him write Wreck-It Ralph. Lee won an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature with 2013’s Frozen.
Wreck-It Ralph
Set in the world of arcade games, this film is the story of Ralph, the antagonist of a popular game, who dreams of gaining the respect of his fellow video game characters. He reluctantly teams up with a young girl from a racing game named Vanellope, who is forbidden from racing because of her character’s glitches. A sequel, Ralph Breaks the Internet, was released in 2018.
The year after Frozen was released, Lee gave a commencement speech at her alma mater, where she talked about her struggles with self-doubt. It’s worth a watch:
5.Chris Buck, the Director Who was Asked to Return to Disney
Chris Buck is an American movie director. He studied character animation at CalArts, and began his career as an animator with Disney in 1978. His first feature film as director was 1999’s Tarzan. In 2007, he went to Sony Pictures Animation to co-direct Surf’s Up, but would be persuaded to return to Disney in 2008. In September of that year, he would pitch the idea that would later become Frozen.
Tarzan
This is the first animated major motion picture adaptation of Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs. It is considered to be the last film of the so-called Disney Renaissance—the period between 1989 and 1999 where the studio released many of its modern classics.
6.About Producer Peter Del Vecho
Peter Del Vecho is a movie producer for Walt Disney Animation Studios. He graduated from Boston University College of Fine Arts, and went on to work in theater for many years before being recruited by Disney Animation. He has produced films like The Princess and the Frog (2009) and Winnie the Pooh (2011). He won an Academy Ward for Best Animated Feature in 2013 for Frozen along with Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee.
7.My Interview Wardrobe
Black double-breasted suit by KASHIYAMA the Smart Tailor
