Disney provided me with an all expense paid trip to L.A. to attend the #CinderellaEvent in exchange for my coverage. No other compensation is given and all opinions in my posts are 100% my own. Disclosure Policy.
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| Photo- Louise Manning Bishop of MomStart.com |
November 27, 2013 is a day that has gone down in History in my household and many others! Why you may ask? That’s the day Frozen stormed the box office and have taken up permanent residence in our lives. Can you believe it’s been a little over a year since we first met Anna, Elsa, Kristoff and the huggable Olaf? It seems like yesterday, yet so long ago. Well, they are back on the big screen to celebrate Anna’s birthday in the new short Frozen Fever. I know what you are thinking, “When can I get my Olaf fix and see Frozen Fever?!?!” The Frozen Fever short is playing right before Cinderella, opening March 13th! Talk about more bang for the buck, that’s the awesomeness of Disney!
Last week, at the #CinderellaEvent, I had the opportunity interview Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee, the Directors of Frozen Fever. You could tell right away these two have great chemistry, even completing each other sentences during the interview. I am sure this plays a huge role in the Frozen success. What I really appreciated was how down to Earth they still are, after the phenomenon that is Frozen. Chris even claims to “still buy shirts at TJ Maxx” and Jennifer states, “nothing has changed, really.” Oh but it has, everything has changed. Frozen is now ingrained in our lives and no one wants to ‘Let It Go.’
Check out more highlights from our interview:
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| Photo- Disney |
How has their lives really changed?
CHRIS BUCK: It’s been overwhelming. It really has. We’ll get serious right away, starting with Reddit. Reddit round table is where a woman wrote in saying that she was in a bad place and was going to commit suicide She saw Frozen and was inspired by Elsa and her journey, and she said, “I’m still here. Thank you.”
CHRIS BUCK: So, you know, we’re overwhelmed by that. There are autistic kids that watch Frozen that parents tell us they hadn’t… They don’t sit still for anything, and they watch Frozen, and they relate to Olaf. Just a few weeks ago, a friend of ours working at a nursing home, and a senior citizen just wasn’t really doing much. She watched Frozen and then she started drawing again. She used to draw when she was younger and she was drawing the Frozen characters. Her husband was just so grateful she was coming back to life. So, those are the stories that we go “Oh wow.” And that’s how I think our life has changed.
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| Photo- Disney |
Are they sick of the song?
JENNIFER LEE: No.
CHRIS BUCK: Yeah.
JENNIFER LEE: It was a joke, we actually have parents coming up to us going “Thanks.” You know? And so we just go “Sorry.” Like, kidding. What are you gonna do? I always say, I think when I’m very old, the last thing left in my head will be ‘Let it Go’, and that’s just fine with me.
In the Frozen short, Elsa sneezing is just the cutest thing ever. How did they come up with the idea?
JENNIFER LEE: One of our story artists, he was one of the head story artist on Frozen itself. We were all brainstorming, whatever could be, you know. Blue sky. Anything. It would be nice to focus on Elsa more. What’s she like now? We had this tragic character. We end the film, she’s free, but we don’t know. We’d love to play with her magic in a different way, and he just said what if she has a cold, and the cold wreaks havoc. And we just went crazy. It got ridiculous at some points…
CHRIS BUCK: Some of the ideas got ridiculous… she would have this stuff, but then suddenly, spikes would show up in Arendelle. And we’re like, no, we did that before in the last one…
JENNIFER LEE: And a sneeze does this, and blowing your nose does that. But the idea itself was so simple and fun.
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| Photo- Disney |
What’s the reason Anna wakes up with bed head?
JENNIFER LEE: Growing up, I always looked at how, in a lot of these fairy tales, they do like to show the lead female character waking up! And she always wakes up, like, “Ahhh!” You know, with birds waiting for her and stuff. I always, woke up with a rat’s nest on my head. That was in the original, we loved it. But of course we had to do the hair again, because that’s how she sleeps. So it was more just showing that the dynamic was now. They were back to that place where they could be playful and…
CHRIS BUCK: There’s even a little bit of drool.
JENNIFER LEE: He drooled. I didn’t, he drooled. So that was for him.
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| Photo- Jana Seitzer of MerlotMommy.com |
How is Frozen Fever attached to Cinderella?
JENNIFER LEE: I have to say it’s huge for me because my first Disney film was Cinderella. Once it came on VHS, I think I played it 50, 60 times. So then, working for Disney was my dream when I was a kid, so to have everything come together, I was blown away by how much it was in line with the animated film. And yet, it went even deeper, it was so beautiful. There were a lot of nostalgic tears last night.
CHRIS BUCK: But seeing it last night, it felt like sort of the perfect match with Frozen Fever and Cinderella.
JENNIFER LEE: You could feel the inspiration from Cinderella for a lot of us. With art direction and connecting with the strong female leads. And Chris, he’s been in animation for a very long time and been a part of a lot of the classics. All the things that make fairy tales resonate. So, it meant a lot.
CHRIS BUCK: Just a quick story. Mike Giamo likes Cinderella but he really was sort of mad at us in ‘Let it Go’ and Elsa dress transformation. So we did this wonderful thing. But it’s all from sort of the camera’s up here. We’re looking down. This beautiful down shot of it. And it’s fairly quick ‘cause it had to work with the song. He’s so frustrated. He was, like, I don’t like that camera angle. You didn’t really give enough time to show the dress formation…
JENNIFER LEE: …bringing up the Cinderella dress formation…
CHRIS BUCK: It should be like this Cinderella thing. He’s really frustrated. So in the short, she gets more time. Elsa gets more time to do her dress. Mike finally got his Cinderella angle.
Cinderella & Frozen Fever in theaters March 13, 2015.
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