| Olaf's Frozen Adventure | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by |
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| Screenplay by | Jac Schaeffer |
| Produced by | Roy Conli |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Alessandro Jacomini |
| Edited by |
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| Music by |
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| Layouts by | Cory Rocco Florimonte |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 21 minutes[2] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Olaf's Frozen Adventure is a 2017 American animatedfeaturette produced byWalt Disney Animation Studios and directed by Kevin Deters andStevie Wermers. The screenplay was written byJac Schaeffer, withJosh Gad,Kristen Bell,Idina Menzel, andJonathan Groff reprising their roles fromFrozen (2013).
In November 2017,Olaf's Frozen Adventure premiered in theaters for a limited-time engagement in 3D format preceding the screening ofPixar'sCoco and made its television debut onABC in the following December. It received mixed reviews from critics. It was nominated for Best Animated Special Production, Outstanding Achievement for Animated Effects in an Animated Production, andOutstanding Achievement for Music in an Animated Feature Production at the45th Annie Awards.
It is the first Christmas season since the gates reopened andAnna andElsa host a celebration for all of Arendelle. With the townspeople unexpectedly leaving early to prepare for their holiday traditions, the sisters realize that they have no family traditions of their own. Upon hearing Elsa lament that the cause was her childhood isolation,Olaf andSven decide to look for traditions and see if any of them are suitable to borrow or adapt.
Going through the town, Olaf encounters various family traditions relating toChristmas,Hanukkah, andWinter Solstice. After a visit to Oaken, Olaf, Sven, and their sleigh full of traditions travel through the snowy tundra only for a piece of coal (from a portable sauna that Oaken had given them) to set the sleigh on fire. They slide down a hill and Olaf and Sven end up separated by a chasm. With only afruit cake, Olaf attempts to travel through the woods and is attacked by wolves.
Meanwhile, Anna and Elsa discover some forgotten items in their attic. Sven returns toKristoff and informs him (in vain), Anna, and Elsa of Olaf's plight. They gather the residents of Arendelle to go look for Olaf. Elsewhere, Olaf manages to escape the wolves but loses the fruit cake to a hawk and gives it up by a tree not too far from the kingdom. Anna and Elsa find Olaf and cheer him up by revealing that they do have a tradition: Himself. After Elsa and Anna had been isolated from each other, the latter began annually sliding cards and dolls of Olaf under the former’s door. They then all celebrate the holidays together.
On February 9, 2016, the short was announced as a television special set to be released onABC,[3] which would be produced byRoy Conli, and directed by Kevin Deters andStevie Wermers. The title was revealed during the airing ofThe Making of Frozen: Return to Arendelle on ABC in 2016, and it was announced that it would feature original songs by Elyssa Samsel and Kate Anderson, the latter the sister ofFrozen songwriterKristen Anderson-Lopez. However, in June 2017, it was announced that the film would instead receive a limited-time theatrical release in front ofPixar'sCoco, as it was deemed too cinematic for television. It reprises the main cast from theFrozen (2013) including the return ofJosh Gad,Kristen Bell,Idina Menzel, andJonathan Groff.[4]
The music was recorded by an 80-piece orchestra in May 2017. The short was the filmmakers' first musical. They noted the requirement to keep the plot "pretty simple", and commented that they removed anything that diverted too much from that story. The fruitcake jokes in the short are a continuing motif from the filmmakers' previous projectPrep & Landing. As they crafted the story, theFrozen team had barely started sketching out the plot ofFrozen 2.[5]
| Olaf's Frozen Adventure (Original Soundtrack) | |
|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by | |
| Released | November 3, 2017 |
| Recorded | May 2017 |
| Length | 25:40 |
| Label | Walt Disney |
| Producer |
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There are four original songs in the film, written by Elyssa Samsel and Kate Anderson, titled "Ring in the Season", "The Ballad of Flemmingrad", "That Time of Year" and "When We're Together". The film's score was composed byChristophe Beck and Jeff Morrow. The full soundtrack was released on November 3, 2017, byWalt Disney Records.[6]
| No. | Title | Performer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Ring in the Season" | 1:58 | |
| 2. | "The Ballad of Flemmingrad" | Jonathan Groff | 0:44 |
| 3. | "Ring in the Season" (Reprise) | Menzel | 1:16 |
| 4. | "That Time of Year" |
| 3:03 |
| 5. | "That Time of Year" (Reprise) | Gad | 0:52 |
| 6. | "When We're Together" |
| 2:50 |
| 7. | "Olaf's Frozen Adventure" (Score Suite) |
| 4:27 |
| 8. | "The Ballad of Flemmingrad" (Traditional Version) | Groff | 3:06 |
| 9. | "Ring in the Season" (Instrumental Karaoke Mix) |
| 1:58 |
| 10. | "That Time of Year" (Instrumental Karaoke Mix) |
| 3:02 |
| 11. | "When We're Together" (Instrumental Karaoke Mix) |
| 2:49 |
| Total length: | 25:40 | ||
With the exception of Pixar's first film,Toy Story (1995), which was not theatrically preceded by a short film worldwide,[7] all of Pixar's feature films fromA Bug's Life (1998) toCars 3 (2017) had been preceded by a new in-house Pixar short film during their full initial worldwide theatrical runs until the release ofCoco (2017).[8][9][10][11]Olaf's Frozen Adventure, in a 3D format, was chosen to precede screenings of Pixar'sCoco beginning on November 22, 2017.[4]Coco co-director Adrian Molina said that the short's placement beforeCoco was "a little bit of an experiment" given that (at 21 minutes) it was longer than the shorts that typically precede Pixar movies.[9] The week afterCoco's release in Mexico, local media noted audiences' strong dislike for the length of the film.[12][13][14] A few days later, all Mexican cinemas offered apologies and removed the short from the exhibition.[15] It was reported that some theaters put warning signs up about the length of the short ahead ofCoco.[16]Olaf's Frozen Adventure ended its limited-time run in U.S. screenings on December 8.[17]
In the UK,Olaf's Frozen Adventure was shown before re-releases ofFrozen on November 25 and 26, and December 2 and 3, 2017.
On November 23, Disney announced the release ofOlaf's Frozen Adventure on Disney's cable television channels inLatin America, along withNetflix, on December 8, and later on Mexican channelsAzteca 7 and13.[18] The short made its network television debut onABC on December 14, 2017, as part of25 Days of Christmas.[19] It was viewed by an estimated 5.64 million people in the United States.[20]
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 57% of 7 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.1/10.[21]
Bill Desowitz ofIndieWire deemed the short as a "bridge" and a "setup" toFrozen 2.[22] Nicola Methven ofDaily Mirror felt it would "tide fans over" until the next feature-length installment of the franchise.[23] Writing forKSDK, Patrick Ryan commented it is an "Adventure' worth taking,"[24] while Ben Pearson of/Film wrote that "When We're Together" had the potential to be 2017's version of "Let It Go".[25] Marissa Martinelli ofSlate criticized the short's commercialism and felt that it was an "increasingly desperate one-man show."[26] Alissa Wilkinson ofVox reported that audiences in North America have been critical of Disney's promotional strategy of prescreening the short before the main attraction. Additionally, she suggested that the featurette would be better off broadcast to television as originally planned instead.[27][28]
Olaf's Frozen Adventure received three nominations at the45th Annie Awards. The development of the featurette was nominated for theBest Animated Special Production. Christopher Hendryx, Dan Lund, Mike Navarro, Hiroaki Narita, and Steven Chitwood were nominated forAnimated Effects in an Animated Production for their contributions to the project. Elyssa Samsel, Kate Anderson, andChristophe Beck were nominated forMusic in an Animated Feature Production for their musical performance incorporated into the featurette.[29]
The featurette was released as aTesco-exclusive DVD in the United Kingdom on December 7, 2017 with adigital format release on December 19. ABlu-ray/DVD was released in the US and Canada on November 13, 2018. The 2017 digital format release and the 2018 Blu-ray/DVD release included six additional Disney short films:Polar Trappers (1938),Winter (1930),The Hockey Champ (1939),The Art of Skiing (1941),Once Upon a Wintertime (1954), andPluto's Christmas Tree (1952).
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