1. BACKGROUND
2. PLOT
3. CHARACTERS & CAST
4. PRODUCTION
5. MUSIC
6. RECEPTION
7. LEGACY
8. FINAL THOUGHTS
9. REFERENCES

BACKGROUND

To be clear, I love Winnie the Pooh – but I do not like this film.

The Winnie the Pooh 2011 reboot or revival is not the Winnie the Pooh that I watched in my childhood. Though Jim Cummings returns as the voice of Pooh Bear and Tigger, which is very comforting for me, there are a few voices in this film that put me off instantly, namely Rabbit’s and Owl’s, with the characters of these two also being very different from what I’ve known, almost like their personalities were swapped. I don’t care for the music either, with even the reinterpretation of the Sherman Brothers’ original theme annoying me.

The issue here is just my age. It’s not that Disney made a bad film: they didn’t commit a cardinal sin by deviating too far from either the source material or the previous Disneyfication of the stories, nor did they simply rehash the plot of The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977), the Disney Studios’ original adaptation of A.A. Milne’s stories. But for me, who went through my childhood with numerous Winnie the Pooh attractions, television series, and movies, some theatrical, others direct-to-video throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, the 2011 Winnie the Pooh just doesn’t feel right.

During the 2000s, Winnie the Pooh as a franchise was making the Walt Disney Company plenty of money and remained popular. This wasn’t a situation like the Muppets, where its reboot in 2011 signalled a return to fame, because Winnie the Pooh and his friends hadn’t gone anywhere. They had been prevalent on our screens and in the Disney theme parks for years by this point, so why make this movie at all?

It’s important to remember who the Disney Studios were making this movie for. Not for me and my age group, but for a new generation. I’m sure many children of the 2010s love this version of Winnie the Pooh. It may even have been their first introduction to the characters, Disney or Milne. The parents of these children probably enjoyed it enough too, to sit through it with them. I, however, do not fit either of these descriptions, so I just found myself bored and irritated in equal measure. Winnie the Pooh is only about an hour in runtime, so how I found the time to feel this way, I don’t know, but I know I felt every minute of that hour. It was a struggle to remember exactly what happened either, but don’t worry, I painstakingly wrote notes so I could recount the plot for anyone who now won’t watch the film because I’ve made it seem so off-putting.

PLOT

Winnie the Pooh begins in a child’s bedroom, where we see all the toys sitting about the room, which resemble the well-known characters of the Milne stories. An invisible narrator tells us that this is Christopher Robin’s room and that it is full of items he likes to collect, including stuffed animal toys, like Winnie the Pooh, his best friend. We then see the Winnie-the-Pooh book open and an animated map of the Hundred Acre Wood comes to life. There, some of the animals are introduced to us, including Eeyore, Tigger, and Kanga.

We then move into the story. Pooh Bear is woken up by the Narrator, and literally tipped out of bed by the book turning upside down. Poor Pooh Bear, he looked so sleepy as well. But of course, once Winnie the Pooh is awake, he soon gets hungry, but all the honey pots in his house are completely empty, so he sets off in search of some, whether that be a new pot of honey or just a beehive. He then stumbles upon Eeyore. Eeyore is feeling gloomier than usual, but he isn’t sure why. Pooh notices that his tail is missing. Owl soon swoops in, talking about how he is writing his memoirs, when Pooh Bear asks for his help in finding Eeyore’s tail. Owl says they should issue a reward for finding a new tail for Eeyore, and posters are put up around the Hundred Acre Wood about this contest, with Christopher Robin running the meeting to discuss further and to announce the prize for the best tail: a pot of honey, something Winnie the Pooh would love to win.

Multiple items are tested on Eeyore, such as Pooh Bear’s own cuckoo clock, the red balloon that makes several appearances in the film, becoming a character all of its own, a yo-yo, a dartboard and a moose head, but ultimately, Kanga’s hand-knitted scarf is declared the winner, leaving Pooh Bear still without any honey and searching for some elsewhere. He spots Eeyore on the next page of the book, where the scarf has begun to unravel, so he still doesn’t have a tail. Pooh Bear goes to Christopher Robin for help again, but finds a note. Since he cannot read it, he takes it over to Owl. At Owl’s house, everyone else is over there, as Owl has decided that a chalkboard would be a good tail for Eeyore and he wins the honey. Pooh Bear asks Owl to read this note from Christopher Robin. Owl announces that Christopher Robin has been captured by a creature called a “Backson”, misreading the note which says “Back Soon”. Owl then proceeds to draw what a Backson looks like on Eeyore’s chalkboard tail and recounts the dangers of meeting one.

The group make a plan to lead the Backson into a hole and trap it there, leading it to the pit using a variety of their own items. Piglet digs the hole, and Pooh covers it with a blanket. An empty honey pot is left on top to further entice the creature to the area. The others have laid a trail of random things, leading to the hole. Tigger pounces on Eeyore whilst the others are working, believing him to be a Backson. Realising that it is just Eeyore, Tigger decides to make Eeyore a tigger so that they can fight the Backson together, with Tigger getting Eeyore a spring for a tail and painting stripes on him. Eeyore does not want to be a tigger and hides underwater, waiting for Tigger to pass by. As Tigger searches for Eeyore, he sees tracks in the dirt and gets scared that the Backson is nearby.

Meanwhile, Pooh and Piglet catch up to the others who are finishing up the trail of items. Pooh Bear is still hungry but is told there will be no stopping for lunch. He begins to see honey pots and a whole world of honey around him. He spots a honey pot ahead of him and rushes towards it – only to find it was their trick pot for the Backson, causing Pooh Bear to fall into the pit. The others walk by the hole and hear noises, believing they have caught the Backson. But then they realise it is just Winnie the Pooh. They start to discuss how to get him out when Eeyore walks by, now sporting an anchor for a tail, the anchor he found underwater when he was avoiding Tigger. Rabbit believes that they can use the anchor to retrieve Pooh Bear, but the anchor is too heavy and everyone falls in, except for Piglet – and Tigger who is nowhere to be seen. Piglet is told to find something long enough to pull them all out. He can’t find anything, except for a rope, which Rabbit tells him will be perfect. As there are six people to retrieve, Piglet cuts the rope into six individual pieces, now making them too short to pull anyone out… Rabbit asks him to knot the ropes together, but after some confusion, they realise Piglet cannot knot. Rabbit sends Piglet to go and get Christopher Robin’s skipping rope instead.

Whilst trying to find the rope, Piglet sees the red balloon, and also Tigger, who is dressed up as a Backson from his battle training session with Eeyore. Piglet rides the balloon to get away from Tigger, as Tigger also runs scared, thinking there is a Backson actually behind him that is scaring Piglet, not just himself. As Piglet flies across the book, he knocks some of the storybook’s letters into the pit, and then Piglet and Tigger also fall in. Eeyore uses the opportunity of being trapped to tell Tigger that he should be the only tigger, and that Eeyore is not meant to be one. Pooh Bear figures out how to use the storybook letters to build a ladder so they can all get out. Outside of the pit, Christopher Robin arrives with the red balloon, who tells his friends that he was away at school and that his note said he would be “back soon”. The group decide that as the red balloon “found” Christopher Robin, it should win the pot of honey – Winnie the Pooh just can’t win today!

Since Pooh Bear still doesn’t have any honey, he goes over to Owl’s house later and sees that Owl has been using Eeyore’s tail as a bell pull for his front door. Owl tells Pooh Bear that he found it whilst out and about one day, not realising that it belonged to Eeyore. Pooh rushes to return the tail to Eeyore, with Christopher Robin pinning Eeyore’s tail back on for him. This means that Pooh Bear finally wins a pot of honey, this time a huge one! He climbs in to it to finally eat. Christopher Robin tells Pooh that he did something good for a friend and is proud of him. And that’s the end of the story, apart from a short post-credits scene, which sees a Backson, as described by Owl but nicer, coming to the Hundred Acre Wood and deciding that he should return all the items to the “scary looking fella” in the picture, not realising that the fella is actually him. He ends up falling into the trap.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Pretty much everyone in the entire world knows what Winnie the Pooh is like: he’s a little less intellectual than his other friends; he’s childlike and giggly; and he loves honey. We see a lot of Winnie the Pooh wanting to eat honey throughout Winnie the Pooh, as that is what he spends much of his time doing in the film, trying to figure out where he can get some honey to eat because he is just so hungry. His tummy rumbles every few minutes, with a noise that sounds very similar to Tigger’s growl which is a bit odd – and loud. I would have preferred it if his tummy rumble was slightly quieter like in the 1977 film The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh! Pooh Bear is still just as likeable and cute in this film as in the original movie and throughout the many spin-offs and series that have come since, though. This is partly down to the animators, who continued to use the original design of the character, because the characters never lost the people’s interest so their animated designs have not been changed significantly since they first came to be in the 1960s. Mark Henn was the Supervising Animator for Winnie the Pooh. Henn was also the Supervising Animator for other well-known Disney characters, such as Belle, Pocahontas, and Jasmine.

The other reason Winnie the Pooh feels very much like the bear we have all known and loved since the 1960s is because of his current voice actor, Jim Cummings, who has voiced the role since 1988, after the death of Sterling Holloway, Winnie the Pooh’s original voice actor. Jim Cummings has successfully mimicked Holloway’s voice just enough so that it has never seemed like two different voice actors have voiced the role. It’s perfect.

Also voiced by Jim Cummings is Tigger, whose original voice actor, Paul Winchell, stopped voicing the character in 1999, with one of Winchell’s final performances of Tigger being for The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh attraction at Walt Disney World[1]. Once again, Jim Cummings has been able to perfectly imitate Winchell’s voice acting and give us continuity to the voice of Tigger for so many years, as well as for Pooh Bear. Jim Cummings has been a frequent contributor to not only Disney voices, voicing numerous characters for the Studios since the mid-1980s, but also for other studios such as Warner Bros. Tigger the character is still carefree and fun, frequently pouncing on his friends and loving to bounce. Instead of irritating Rabbit as he usually does, this time it is Eeyore who gets most of Tigger’s attention in this film! Andreas Deja was the Supervising Animator for Tigger, with Deja being most known for animating characters like Jafar, Gaston, Scar and Hercules.

Then, there is Piglet, who still continues to be scared easily and struggles to calm himself sometimes. In this film, that is seen mostly around the new terrifying monster they have to face, the Backson. And again, Piglet mistakes Tigger for being that monster and runs away from him. So that’s Piglet’s “normal”, however, I think they made Piglet too dim in this film, especially when Piglet is trying to find things long enough to get the others out of the pit they are stuck in. It sets up one of the more amusing moments in the film, where they all get confused over whether Piglet can knot the six pieces of rope together, or whether he cannot knot – see what they did there? But I don’t think Piglet should’ve been made to be this stupid because I don’t remember him being like that. Scared easily? Yes, but stupid? No.

Piglet also got a new voice actor after 2005 when John Fiedler passed away, so his voice actor here in the 2011 film is Travis Oates. Oates does a decent enough job as Piglet; his voice doesn’t sound dramatically different, unlike the voice Piglet would get for the 2018 film Christopher Robin, which is not good at all. Bruce W. Smith is the Supervising Animator for Piglet, as well as Kanga and Roo. Smith animated characters such as Pacha, Dr. Facilier, and Kerchak, and co-created The Proud Family (2001-present) animated television series.

We still have Eeyore being as gloomy as ever in Winnie the Pooh, with his tail going missing and everyone trying to find an alternative being one of the primary story elements of the film. It makes Eeyore feel good that everyone around him is trying to help find a new tail though, and when he gets his actual one back, he even smiles a little bit and thanks Pooh Bear for finding it. Eeyore has had many voice actors over the years, but for the 2011 film, Bud Luckey was chosen to voice the character, and Eeyore sounds more or less as I’d expect him to. Luckey was most known for being a character designer for Pixar, working on many of their earlier movies. He also voiced characters for Pixar, such as Chuckles the Clown in Toy Story 3 (2010) and Rick Dicker in The Incredibles (2004). Luckey directed, wrote, sang, narrated and voiced all of the characters in the Pixar short Boundin’ (2004), which won the Annie Award for Best Animated Short Film and was nominated for the Academy Award in the same category. Luckey passed away in 2018. Randy Haycock was the Supervising Animator for Eeyore, where he said that they added eyelids to the character for the first time here, giving him more expression in his face.

Now for some of the characters I do not like in Winnie the Pooh, due to either their voice, animation, or personality! Firstly: Rabbit and Owl. I feel like they have had some of their personality switched for some reason. To me, Rabbit was the serious, practical leader of the group, who mostly knew what he was doing and took control over the difficult situations the group found themselves in, with differing levels of success. Owl was the one the group went to for specific information, thinking he is the most knowledgeable of them all, but not entirely trusting what he had to say. Instead, in Winnie the Pooh, it seems like Owl is very much the leader here, giving them all motivational speeches, and having all the ideas, like issuing a reward for finding Eeyore’s tail. The scene of Owl reading the note, misreading “back soon” as “Backson” is right to me though, as Owl does a similar thing in the direct-to-video sequel Pooh’s Grand Adventure (1997) with “school” and “Skull”, but now Owl has suddenly become smarter in some areas, only to make a critical mistake here. He also gets annoyed really easily, like Rabbit would normally have done, yet in this film, Rabbit doesn’t get all that annoyed, even when Piglet cuts that rope. It doesn’t make much sense to me, and I just don’t like how these two characters have been written for this film.

The other problem I have with both of them is their voice actors. Ken Sansom did not return to voice Rabbit in this film, despite apparently still being under contract, and as he passed away in October 2012, this would have been his last opportunity to voice the character. Instead, Tom Kenny, most known for voicing SpongeBob SquarePants, came in to voice Rabbit. Kenny tries to make Rabbit sound similar to the other screen adaptations that Disney has made, but he doesn’t quite manage it. But Owl is the worst for me, voiced by former late night talk show host, Craig Ferguson. Though I can see that Ferguson is trying to make Owl sound posh and very English, the problem I think we have is that Ferguson has a strong Scottish accent, so by making himself sound English, he has gone too far and over-exaggerated the voice. I don’t have anything against Craig Ferguson – I thought he was great as Lord Macintosh in Brave (2012) where he could be his naturally Scottish self – but I don’t think he is right for the voice of Owl here. Dale Baer was the Supervising Animator for Owl, who was the animator for characters such as Yzma, Wilbur Robinson and Alameda Slim. Baer said that Ferguson ad-libbed most of his lines[2]. Eric Goldberg was the Supervising Animator for Rabbit; Golberg co-directed Pocahontas (1995) and animated characters like Genie and Philoctetes. Though the character designs of Rabbit and Owl are mostly the same, at times, they do end up with very large, wide eyes, which is unusual.  

Finally, I have a problem with how Christopher Robin looks and sounds. For his design, Christopher Robin was given human eyes, instead of black dots like he had in previous adaptations from Disney. Mark Henn, the Supervising Animator for Christopher Robin, said this was to update the character to make him look more like a real human boy[3]. He was also given a smart school uniform to wear, clearly showing his family’s social class, or the time period of the film, as this is not what most children in the UK wear to school these days! I just don’t like how he looks, probably because I’m used to Christopher Robin with his black dot eyes and his yellow shirt and blue shorts; he just looks strange to me here. Jack Boulter was brought in to voice Christopher Robin. Although more authentic to the real person behind the character, as Christopher Robin in Winnie the Pooh now sounds like a young British boy, I just can’t get used to it. It’s not the voice of Christopher Robin that I’ve known for years, which has been a vaguely American accent.

English actor and comedian John Cleese voices the Narrator, since Winnie the Pooh adaptations always need an English narrator! John Cleese does a good job here as the Narrator, as he doesn’t have to sound like anybody else but himself. Cleese is best known for his work as part of the Monty Python comedy troupe, as well as starring in sitcoms such as Fawlty Towers (1975-79), and various movies, including A Fish Called Wanda (1988), and as Nearly Headless Nick in the first two Harry Potter films, and has done voice work, as King Harold in the Shrek franchise from 2004 to 2010, for example.

The final characters to mention are Kanga and Roo, who do not have much of a role in this film, at least not in terms of dialogue; they appear in the movie, helping the others, but they aren’t hugely important in my opinion. This time, Kanga is voiced by Kristen Anderson-Lopez, who also wrote the music for the film alongside her husband, Robert Lopez. Roo is voiced by Wyatt Dean Hall. Oh, and there is also the Backson, who appears right at the end of the movie, voiced by Huell Howser. Strangely enough, we find that the Backson has a very Southern accent, which surprised me after all that Britishness!

PRODUCTION

To properly talk about how Disney Animation made this 2011 film, it is important to go back to where the creations began. In 1924, the character Winnie-the-Pooh first appeared in a collection of poems by A.A. Milne titled When We Were Very Young. In 1926, a book of stories simply titled Winnie-the-Pooh was released, with another collection of poems, Now We Are Six, being published in 1927, which contained some illustrations of Winnie-the-Pooh. A final children’s book of stories about Pooh Bear and friends by A.A. Milne was published in 1928: The House at Pooh Corner. These were based on his son, Christopher Robin, and his teddy bear, which he named “Winnie” after Winnipeg the black bear at London Zoo and “Pooh” after a swan he saw on holiday. After 1928, Milne did not want to write any more of these stories, and came to resent the books as Milne felt they overshadowed his more serious work. Not only that, but the childhood fame that the real Christopher Robin received as a result of being mentioned in the books, took its toll on both Christopher Robin and his relationship with his parents. He was bullied at boarding school, and blamed his childhood fame for struggling to find work later in life[4]. This difficult past was depicted in the movie Goodbye Christopher Robin (2017), which was not made by Disney.

In July 1961, the Walt Disney Studios obtained the rights to make an animated film about Winnie the Pooh and the rest of Milne’s characters and stories, however, Disney Animation did not announce anything until a few years later. During production, Walt Disney was unsure about how American audiences would respond to these very British stories. This is something that Walt felt had been the problem with Alice in Wonderland’s (1951) audience response, as the film received mixed reviews at the time of its release. With this in mind, Walt Disney decided they should make the first story a featurette, in case it fell flat, though there was some creative license used to give the British stories more of an appeal with American viewers.

Woolie Reitherman, who directed the first featurette, Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966), said that the British press were incredibly critical of Piglet being left out of the story, with an American gopher, a new invention by Disney and not be A.A. Milne, somehow making the final cut. Midwestern accents were also used for the characters, instead of British ones – something that the 2011 film seems to go some way in correcting, specifically with the voice of Christopher Robin. Milne’s niece, Angela, would later say that Milne had wanted his stories to be more American, however, his publishers had told him to retain the Britishness. Milne’s widow was also happy enough with the Disney featurette, though Shephard, who had drawn the original illustrations, hated it. But despite British criticism, American audiences loved it, and this led to a second featurette being made, Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968), which went on to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too (1974) rounded out the three original featurettes, which were then combined to make The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977) feature-length film.

After many years of attempts, the Walt Disney Company finally obtained exclusive rights in 2009, meaning that they retain the copyright and trademarks to the Disney versions of the characters, though Milne’s book, along with others such as Felix Salten’s Bambi, a Life in the Woods, fell into the public domain in 2023[5]. Due to this, a horror film, titled Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey (2023), directed by Rhys Frake-Waterfield, was released in early 2023. It was subsequently panned, but that hasn’t stopped the director from planning a sequel to it, or planning to do the same with the likes of Bambi.

But back to the 2011 film. There hadn’t been a theatrical movie release from Disney of a Winnie the Pooh story since Pooh’s Heffalump Movie in 2005, a film that I still very much like. When Pixar was acquired by Disney in 2006, John Lasseter was named the Chief Creative Officer of both Pixar and Walt Disney Feature Animation. Lasseter expressed interest in producing a new Winnie the Pooh movie. He approached Stephen J. Anderson and Don Hall, who had both worked on Meet the Robinsons (2007), to direct this new film. Legendary Disney artist Burny Mattinson was also brought on to the project, working as lead storyboard artist. He was 76 at the time. Mattinson had worked on the original 1977 film so his knowledge was incredibly useful to the current crop of animators. He even pitched the five-minute sequence of Eeyore losing his tail, based on Milne’s story, which convinced the Disney executives to make a feature-length film, instead of another featurette.

Burny Mattinson was an employee of the Disney Studios from 1953 until his death in February 2023. He had worked on numerous Disney animated movies throughout his time with the company, and became a Disney Legend in 2008. Mattinson has a live-action cameo appearance in the Once Upon a Studio 2023 short, celebrating the 100^th anniversary of the Disney company. That and Wish (2023) are both dedicated to him. Mattinson was the longest serving employee of The Walt Disney Company.

The team working on Winnie the Pooh went on a trip to Ashdown Forest in Sussex, to look closer at the area that had inspired A.A. Milne’s stories. Disney decided that the movie had to be traditionally animated, i.e., hand-drawn animation, as using CG would do a disservice to the characters. Therefore, the characters look more or less the same as they always have done, but, with the addition of new technology, the clean-up of the images is better and neater, giving them a fresher look.

The 2011 film does feel more like a complete story than the 1977 film, as it is quite plain to see that The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977) was three short featurettes put together with some linking material. There are some similarities between the two as well, other than the character designs. Both movies begin in Christopher Robin’s bedroom, which is filled with cuddly toys. Sylvia Mattinson, wife of Burny, made the stuffed Winnie the Pooh that features in the 2011 movie. It was meant to be used in the 1977 film, but, for some reason, never was[6]. Also, both films begin with the opening of the Winnie-the-Pooh book, before taking us into the animated map of the Hundred Acre Wood. I was also pleased to see the characters interacting with the Narrator, as well as the pages and the words of the actual storybook, as they do in the 1977 film.

Originally, Winnie the Pooh was going to be based on five of A.A. Milne’s stories. As far back as November 2010, it was still stated that the team had used five of Milne’s stories as the basis for the film’s plot. This is also evident from the official trailer, released to the public that same month, where many scenes from the trailer did not appear in the final cut of the film[7]. The trailer curiously used the Keane song “Somewhere Only We Know”, which does not appear anywhere in the movie, unsurprisingly! In the end, the three stories that Winnie the Pooh is based on are: “In Which Eeyore Loses a Tail and Pooh Finds One” and “In Which Piglet Meets a Heffalump”, from Winnie-the-Pooh, the 1926 children’s book, and “In Which Rabbit Has a Busy Day, and We Learn What Christopher Robin Does in the Mornings”, from The House at Pooh Corner 1928 book, though some elements of these stories have been changed for the 2011 film. The books show Rabbit finding the original note from Christopher Robin that speaks of a “Backson”, and the trap hole originally being meant for a Heffalump, not a Backson. One of the unused story elements would have included a scene meeting Rabbit’s friends and relations. Pooh is looking for some honey and sees some on Rabbit’s table. He is told it is not for him, but for Rabbit’s friends and relations. Sure enough, they soon come by, eat everything on the table, and then swiftly leave[8].

MUSIC

When watching Winnie the Pooh, I was not a fan of its music, but luckily many of the songs are less than two minutes long. Though the film begins with the original title song, “Winnie the Pooh”, written by longtime Disney collaborators Richard and Robert Sherman, known as the Sherman Brothers, it is performed by Zooey Deschanel, known for her starring role in the sitcom New Girl (2011-18) as well as for her role in the Christmas film Elf (2003), in which she also sings. I do not like her singing voice much, but I’m not saying she isn’t a good singer; it’s just personal preference. I am at least glad that this original number did make it in the new film in some form.  

Aside from the End Credits song, “So Long”, the other seven songs in the film were written by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, who would later become known as the creators of those catchy numbers from Frozen (2013) and Frozen II (2019). The two had also composed the music for Finding Nemo – The Musical at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Park at Walt Disney World, which officially opened in 2007.

The first song of the film is called “The Tummy Song”, performed by Winnie the Pooh, as he’s searching for honey after he wakes up. It’s not a terrible song, but it’s not as good as “Rumbly in my Tumbly”, which appears in the 1977 film. Zooey Deschanel then returns to perform the song “A Very Important Thing to Do”, as the group start searching for Eeyore’s tail. I didn’t like this song at all. A feeling I also encountered with the next song “Winner Song”; as different members of the group are named the winner of the contest for Eeyore’s tail. It’s just annoying. “The Backson Song” is sung primarily by Craig Ferguson as Owl, as he details exactly what a Backson is to the rest of the group. It’s an interesting scene, animation-wise, as it uses animated chalk drawings to show us what a Backson is. The song itself, though inspired by “Heffalumps and Woozles” from the 1977 film, is not nearly as good as the original. I did like the end of the song though, as Owl almost realises that “Backson” sounds like “Back Soon” and he perhaps could’ve read the note incorrectly.

“It’s Gonna Be Great” is the most energetic of the music in Winnie the Pooh, probably because it is mostly performed by Tigger, as he tries to teach Eeyore how to be a tigger, and shows how they can defeat the Backson together. Zooey Deschanel and the Lopez duo then contribute the backing vocals to Winnie the Pooh’s next solo, “Everything Is Honey”, as he envisages a whole world of honey just for him. It’s a cute song, and I quite like the visuals of islands of honey and overflowing honey pots. Both of these two songs are probably the ones I like the most in the whole soundtrack. “Pooh’s Finale”, Pooh Bear’s winner’s song after he has returned Eeyore’s tail, which is mostly a reprise of “Everything Is Honey”, is just ok.

Finally, “So Long” appears during the End Credits. This song was written and performed by Zooey Deschanel, and is the longest of all the songs at over three minutes. It’s meant to be a kind of cross between pop and country genres I think, but I didn’t enjoy it. Again, this might have something to do with me not really liking Deschanel’s singing voice. The Grammy Awards very much disagreed with me though as this song was nominated in the category of “Best Song Written for Visual Media” at the 2012 Grammys Ceremony. It lost out to “I See the Light” from Tangled (2010).

The score for Winnie the Pooh was composed by Henry Jackman, with additional music from Christopher Willis. Though I couldn’t pick out individual instrumental pieces from the score that stood out to me, I did feel like the score was more in keeping with the original score of the 1977 movie, composed by Buddy Baker, than the new songs are, compared with those of the Sherman Brothers. Jackman would return to the Disney Studios a few more times, to work on the music for Wreck-It Ralph (2012), Big Hero 6 (2014), and Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018). Willis went on to compose the score for movies such The Death of Stalin (2017), and television series such as Schmigadoon! (2021-present). For Disney, Willis has composed the music for the latest Mickey Mouse shorts (2013-2023).

RECEPTION

At Disney’s Hollywood Studios Park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, to promote the Winnie the Pooh movie, Winnie the Pooh replaced the Lotso meet-and-greet at the now-closed Magic of Disney Animation building in June 2011. This meet-and-greet location had guests walk past pages from the Winnie-the-Pooh book to then see Pooh Bear meeting guests in front of a background of his house[9].

D23 had a paid-for advance screening event for the film, calling it “A Wonderful Morning with Winnie the Pooh”. It was held on the weekend before the release of the movie, so either 9th or 10th July 2011, at El Capitan Theater in Hollywood. The event included a showing of the full movie, a small continental breakfast, a movie poster, and a panel with some of the animators who worked on the movie[10].

Winnie the Pooh was released in some cinemas, mostly in European countries such as Germany and the UK, in April 2011. However, the film did not get released to theatres in the US until 15th July 2011, which meant that the American people had a choice to make: watch Winnie the Pooh, or choose Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 instead, which was released on the exact same day in the US. Not a great start for Disney seeing as this was the culmination of the entire Harry Potter story, so really, they didn’t have much chance in coaxing anybody over the age of eleven to see Winnie the Pooh instead of Harry Potter – not unless they happened to be a parent of a young child. Not even if Disney had somehow managed to get, let’s say, Daniel Radcliffe to voice Winnie the Pooh, Ralph Fiennes to be Owl, Alan Rickman to be Eeyore, and Rupert Grint to voice Piglet, would they have managed to get that older demographic to tear themselves away from Harry Potter.

Still, those who went to watch Winnie the Pooh did seem to like it. Some enjoyed the fact that this was a return to traditional animation once more, after Disney’s The Princess and the Frog was released in 2009, though Winnie the Pooh was the final outing of 2D animation by the Disney Studios, at least for now anyway. The songs received a mixed response; however, it was generally agreed that this movie would appeal most to young children and the nostalgia factor was a reason for older people to watch. Some felt the movie was a bit too short, with a runtime of just over an hour.  

Winnie the Pooh was released alongside the short The Ballad of Nessie (2011), narrated by Billy Connolly and obviously based on the legend of the Loch Ness Monster, sometimes nicknamed “Nessie”. It was said that Nessie cried so much at having her first home destroyed and replaced with a miniature golf course that she made a whole loch of her own tears and made that her home. It was a pleasant enough short cartoon and I liked Billy Connolly’s narration, but it wasn’t exceptional, unlike previous Pixar or Disney shorts.

Unfortunately, Winnie the Pooh just didn’t get enough of an audience, and only made just over $50 million worldwide. This is more than its supposed $30 million budget, but it would have lost money due to its marketing costs, however, this was likely recouped from the subsequent DVD and Blu-Ray releases. But, as I said, the movie did get quite positive reviews, which led to Winnie the Pooh being nominated for Annie Awards, in areas such as Music, Directing, Writing, and Character Animation for Andreas Deja and Mark Henn. It won the Annie Award for Storyboarding in a Feature Production, which is better than nothing!

LEGACY

Though the original 1977 film The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh spanned multiple films, television series, and specials, as well as video games and a theme park attraction, from 1977 right up until the release of the 2011 Winnie the Pooh movie, nothing much has come out of the franchise since then.

In 2018, Disney released a live-action/animated film starring Ewan McGregor as an adult Christopher Robin. The film sees Christopher Robin reunite with Winnie the Pooh to take him back to the Hundred Acre Wood. Whilst there, all of his other childhood friends appear and try to get him to rediscover his inner child. At the same time, Christopher Robin realises that his high-pressure job has caused him to neglect his wife and daughter and that he must make amends for that. It’s actually a very good film, with the scenes between Winnie the Pooh and Christopher Robin in “the real world” being particularly funny. It’s worth a watch, but having said that, though I mentioned that the voices in the 2011 Winnie the Pooh film are bad, some of the ones in Christopher Robin (2018) are even worse!

In 2021, a musical titled Winnie the Pooh: The New Musical Adaptation debuted Off-Broadway. It featured music by the Sherman Brothers and Carly Simon, and was produced by Disney Theatrical Productions. The music here does not appear to include any of the songs from the 2011 Winnie the Pooh film, but does include music from other Winnie the Pooh films, including The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977), The Tigger Movie (2000) and Piglet’s Big Movie (2003). It uses puppets of each of the Hundred Acre Wood residents to tell the story, alongside a child actor as Christopher Robin. The musical has toured both the US and the UK in 2022 and 2023, with a tour in the Netherlands and Belgium currently ongoing until 2024. Another stage adaptation, titled Disney’s Winnie the Pooh KIDS, is specifically based on the 2011 Winnie the Pooh film, following its same story and music, with additional music and lyrics from Will Van Dyke and Cheryl Davis. This show is around 30-minutes long and is available to license for use in local children’s productions.

In August 2023, a new animated television series called Playdate with Winnie the Pooh aired on Disney Junior. It follows a young Winnie the Pooh going on playdates with the other characters of the Hundred Acre Wood. I’m sure it’s entertaining enough for today’s children, but the animation looks weird to me and the characters are voiced by child actors.

Within the Disney Parks, the original 1977 film inspired a dark ride that still operates today. It first opened at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom as The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh in 1999, taking over the former Fantasyland home of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. As Winnie the Pooh had become so popular at the time, it was an obvious decision to make a theme park ride based on him. Buddy Baker returned to arrange the attraction music from the 1977 film score. The ride goes through many of the same scenes as the 1977 film, and they follow the story order of the film[11].

The ride exists in every Disney Park around the world – except for Disneyland Paris, who must just be miserable for not having any ride based on Winnie the Pooh! It appears the best you’ll get in Paris is a new Winnie the Pooh scene within Le Pays des Contes de Fées, their version of the Storybook Land Canal Boats, sometime around 2024. They do apparently have a meet-and-greet location for Winnie the Pooh on Main Street though. At Disneyland, the ride replaced Country Bear Jamboree, opening in 2003, with the order of some scenes being rearranged compared with the Magic Kingdom version. At Hong Kong Disneyland and Shanghai Disneyland, a very similar ride to the Magic Kingdom version opened on the official opening date of those parks in 2005 and 2016, respectively. Shanghai’s “tea cups” ride is also themed to Winnie the Pooh, being called Hunny Pot Spin. Only Shanghai’s Winnie the Pooh attractions opened after the release of the 2011 Winnie the Pooh, though they are not specifically based on that film. At Tokyo Disneyland, they went one step further and created a trackless version of the original ride called Pooh’s Hunny Hunt. This opened in 2000, with many calling it the best Pooh Bear attraction at any Disney Park, with similar scenes to the original ride, but somehow better.

For meet-and-greets, some of these specific locations are listed on the Disney Parks’ respective websites. At Tokyo Disneyland, you could meet Pooh Bear at Pooh Corner; at Shanghai Disneyland, you can meet Pooh Bear at the Hundred Acre Wood area of Fantasyland. At Hong Kong Disneyland, Winnie the Pooh may be available to meet at Fantasy Gardens. At Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, you can have a character meal with the four characters of Pooh Bear, Tigger, Piglet, and Eeyore, for either breakfast, lunch, or dinner, buffet-style at the Crystal Palace, as well as meeting Pooh Bear and Tigger at the Thotful Spot in Fantasyland. Plus, Pooh Bear has a meet-and-greet location at the back of the UK pavilion in Epcot, inside a room themed to be Christopher Robin’s bedroom. Winnie the Pooh and some of his other friends, such as Piglet, Eeyore, and Tigger, may also be found greeting guests in undesignated times and places at all the Disney Parks. They are also likely to feature within various parades.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Due to unfortunate timing with the release of the film, it is unclear just how well Winnie the Pooh could have done financially; however, most reviews were positive. I personally did not enjoy watching this 2011 film, but I see the attempt by Disney to revitalise the stories for the younger generation. It probably worked for them but I know for me, if I want to watch something with Pooh Bear and friends, I will always choose to watch either the original film or any of the 1990s or early 2000s spin-offs. 

Winnie the Pooh was the “reboot” that was never needed. Disney’s franchise was, and still is, as popular as ever, so this film was an unnecessary addition to the numerous screen adaptations of Milne’s stories in my opinion. And yet viewers just can’t help themselves. You can’t help but love Winnie the Pooh, that “tubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff”, no matter what he shows up in! 

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh in Magic Kingdom’, YourFirstVisit.net, date unknown.

[2] Credit: Author Unknown, ‘D23’s Winnie the Pooh Advance Screening Event’, DisneyTravelBabble.com, 14^th July 2011.

[3] Credit: Adam Donald, ‘How ‘Winnie the Pooh’ Updated the 1977 Animated Classic ‘The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh’, Collider.com, 18^th January 2023.

[4] Credit: Mike Miller, ‘Inside the True Story Behind Winnie the Pooh’, People.com, 13^th October 2017.

[5] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘The Problem with Pooh’, CartoonResearch.com, 19^th August 2022.

[6] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Winnie the Pooh (2011)’, pp. 151-153. 

[7] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Winnie the Pooh (2011)’, pp. 151-153. 

[8] Credit: Disney, “Deleted Scenes”, from Winnie the Pooh (2011) Blu-Ray (2011).

[9] Credit: Todd Perlmutter, ‘New Winnie The Pooh Meet & Greet’, TouringPlans.com, 19^th June 2011.

[10] Credit: Author Unknown, ‘D23’s Winnie the Pooh Advance Screening Event’, DisneyTravelBabble.com, 14^th July 2011.

[11] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh in Magic Kingdom’, YourFirstVisit.net, date unknown.

1. BACKGROUND
2. PLOT
3. CHARACTERS & CAST
4. PRODUCTION
5. MUSIC
6. RECEPTION
7. LEGACY
8. FINAL THOUGHTS
9. REFERENCES

BACKGROUND

Frozen II was released six years after the original film. This gave Disney plenty of time to establish that love of the Frozen franchise, with their merchandising, their visual media, their written media, and, of course, their theme parks.

The people were ready. They were hyped up and ready to go, waiting to be the first people to see Frozen II. And what was that reaction? Amazement, awe, pure joy?

Well, actually, that reaction was mixed.

Some critics did enjoy the film, saying it was a gorgeous film to watch and was technically amazing, with praise also going to the music and the development of the main characters. But alongside this, unlike the original Frozen, there was quite a lot of negativity, mostly around the complicated plot and whether there was a “need” for this story at all.

I remember watching Frozen II at the cinema in 2019, and I really liked it. I was going through a bit of a difficult time around then, so there were moments in the movie that spoke to me, such as the song “Some Things Never Change”, and Anna having to push forward when she feels really down and unable to carry on. It was good to have a Disney film look at more complex and emotional themes, though I am not a child, and I am also not a parent, so I can understand why this “target audience” may not have felt as connected to Frozen II, with the film feeling quite dark at times, and the music being less cheerful and more affecting. 

But that’s not to say I think Frozen II is perfect, because I will happily admit that the plot is confusing, especially if you think about it too much; not ideal for any movie! I’ll do my best to explain it, or at least explain how I interpreted it, because there are different explanations to some of the events of Frozen II, depending on who you ask.

PLOT

Frozen II begins with a riff on the opening song from Frozen, “Vuelie”, during its opening titles. But this time, there’s no song about harvesting ice because we go straight into the action, seeing young Anna and Elsa playing “Enchanted Forest” in the castle’s hall. It is some sort of playset Elsa has made out of snow, with lots of snow figures – including Dumbo and Baymax, if you look closely. Their parents, King Agnarr and Queen Iduna – yes, this time they get actual names; how lucky are they! – come into the room to talk about a real enchanted forest, telling them about the one Agnarr saw years ago, very far north of Arendelle. This forest was home to the Northuldra people, non-magical people who live in harmony with nature and the spirits of air, fire, water and earth. King Agnarr visited this land as a child, since his father, King Runeard, had made a treaty with the Northuldra to build a dam in their area. Somehow, a fight broke out between the two groups, with Agnarr being saved and brought back home by an unknown girl. Everyone else either died or was trapped in the forest forever, which became surrounded by a thick mist. King Agnarr tells his daughters that the forest could wake again and bring danger. Queen Iduna tells the girls that Ahtohallan has all the answers of the past, at least that’s what she was told as a child, and sings them a lullaby all about Ahtohallan and its mysterious powers.

We then skip ahead to three years after Elsa’s coronation and the events of Frozen. Elsa is trying to get on with her duties as queen, but keeps hearing a strange voice that seems to be calling her. Anna and a newly permafrost Olaf discuss how things always seem to be changing, yet Anna tells him that some things are forever like their family, friendship, and Arendelle, whilst Kristoff and Sven talk about Kristoff’s plan to propose to Anna. That evening in the castle, it is Family Game Night with the five playing charades. Olaf and Kristoff win, as Elsa becomes disturbed by The Voice again and is unable to keep playing. She goes to her room, leaving Anna and Kristoff alone. Kristoff tries to propose but Anna is too concerned about Elsa and follows her to her bedroom. Anna tries to talk to Elsa about what’s bothering her, but Elsa evades her questions. They sing their mother’s lullaby about Ahtohallan together, before falling asleep.

Suddenly, Elsa is awoken by The Voice again. She thinks it means trouble and tries to ignore it, before deciding to follow it, thinking that it might be able to help her figure out where she belongs. Elsa’s magic begins to show her visions of a forest and spirit elements, like horses and rock giants, showing Elsa where she needs to go first to get answers. Elsa follows The Voice and magic outside. The sky is then filled with diamond-shaped ice shards, symbolising the four natural spirits or elements; Elsa has awoken the spirits who then force all of the people out of Arendelle. Elsa and Anna lead the evacuation to the cliffs. The trolls come to them, with the Troll King, Grand Pabbie, telling them that the spirits are angry, and that a wrong needs to be righted, with the truth needing to be found or there is no future for Arendelle. The five decide to go to the Enchanted Forest to figure out what needs to be done. It’s a long journey there, with Kristoff trying another proposal which goes very wrong.

They arrive at the misted edge of the Enchanted Forest, but the mist pushes them away. Elsa uses her magic to push it back, revealing four stones, one symbolising each spirit. Elsa’s magic then gets them inside, where they are pushed deep into the forest. They see the dam that their grandfather built, with Kristoff telling Anna that if it broke, the water would destroy Arendelle and the fjord it sits on. Olaf is separated from the group and is spooked by the spirits, asking if they are “Samantha” – whoever that is. It is clear the spirits are angry as a huge tornado traps the group. Eventually, only Elsa remains trapped inside. She uses her magic to free herself, but when she does, visions of the past, captured as ice statues, appear in the forest. They see one of their father being saved by a girl of Northuldra.

Then, they find themselves surrounded by the Northuldra tribe and Arendelle soldiers. The two sides are about to fight again but Elsa stops them by making the ground icy. This confuses everyone else, leading Olaf to give them a quick rundown of the events of Frozen and how they got to this point, in his own theatrical way! This doesn’t explain to the Northuldra why someone of Arendelle would be blessed with magic. Unfortunately, Elsa cannot answer that question either. Anna recognises one of the soldiers to be Lieutenant Mattias, from a portrait in the castle; he protected their father when he was a young prince. This little introduction is soon interrupted by the fire spirit, who sets all the forest around them on fire. Anna is told by Elsa to get to safety as everyone else flees – except her, who uses her ice powers to track the spirit down. It turns out the fire spirit is just a little salamander, called Bruni. Bruni likes Elsa’s ice powers and soon calms down, along with the wind spirit, who Olaf nicknames “Gale”. Anna is happy to see Elsa safe, but annoyed that she wasn’t allowed to help. Anna passes Elsa’s mother’s scarf to her, which confuses the Northuldra as that scarf is one of theirs. They see that the ice statue of the girl saving their father wears this same scarf, confirming that their mother was Northuldra and she was the one who saved their father that day.

Anna and Elsa plan to free the forest and the people who have remained trapped there since that fateful day. They are told to rest up for the night before continuing their travels north in the morning, since Earth Giants roam the forest at night. Elsa learns from a young Northuldra woman, Honeymaren, that there is meant to be a fifth spirit to unite the people with the magic of nature. Anna speaks to Lieutenant Mattias more about their father, and Kristoff talks to a young Northuldra man, Ryder, about a great proposal idea, which involves lots and lots of reindeer! They prepare this all through the night, so at sunrise, when they hear someone approaching, Kristoff declares his love to her and proposes marriage – only to find it wasn’t Anna approaching, but the Northuldra chief, Yelena. Yelena tells Kristoff that Anna, Elsa and Olaf have left, and that the tribe is moving on – he may join them. Kristoff is devastated that Anna would leave him, and sticks with the Northuldra tribe.

Away from the forest and travelling north, after some time, Anna, Elsa and Olaf come across a shipwreck. This ship was actually the ship their parents went away on all those years ago when they drowned. It’s not in the Southern Sea as they expected, but seems to have washed in from the Dark Sea, nowhere near where they said they were going. The trio step aboard to figure out what they were doing. They find a map and some notes in the waterproof compartment of the ship. It turns out their parents were trying to get to Ahtohallan, to figure out what Elsa’s powers meant, but that their ship capsized on the way from the stormy, difficult waters. Elsa feels guilty for her parents’ death and decides she must go to Ahtohallan to get the answers. But she wants to go alone. She tricks Anna into hugging her, before conjuring up an ice boat, sending Anna and Olaf backwards, away from her. Anna, and even Olaf, are furious that Elsa would do this to them and put herself in danger. They traverse a rough lake, avoiding the Earth Giants they pass, and end up going down a huge waterfall inside a cave. They get out off the boat and try to find a way out of the cave.

Meanwhile, Elsa is at the Dark Sea. She uses her ice powers to try and navigate the harsh ocean, but is almost drowned by a wave in the process. Under the water, she sees the Nøkk, the water spirit, shaped as a horse, who guards the sea. Eventually, Elsa manages to tame the horse and it allows her to ride across the Dark Sea to Ahtohallan. At Ahtohallan, Elsa is led through the huge glacier by The Voice, as she tries to figure out who she is and what needs to be done to save the forest and Arendelle. Elsa learns that The Voice calling her is actually her mother’s voice and that Elsa was granted powers as a gift from nature because her mother saved her father, the enemy, all those years ago. She also discovers she is the fifth spirit, the one to unite people with the magic of nature. From here, Elsa sees memories from the past appear in front of her: some from her life, some from before she was born. She notices King Runeard and one of his soldiers walking away from the room, and she follows. At this point, the actions of that fateful day play out in front of her: Runeard insists that all soldiers go with him to meet the Northuldra as he is suspicious of them and their connection to the magic of nature. The King is told that the dam is weakening the Northuldra people by the Chief, but he ignores their worries, as that’s exactly what he intended to do, saying that he will meet later to discuss it. The King actually murders the Northuldra Chief when his back is turn, which sparks the conflict between the two sides. At this point, Elsa freezes, sacrificing herself to the depths of Ahtohallan to know the truth. She just manages to send this information to Anna before she appears to freeze to death.

Anna and Olaf see a frozen memory appear to them in the cave: it is of King Runeard attacking the Northuldra Chief. They realise that the dam must’ve been a trick and that to make things right again, the dam must be destroyed – even if that leads to the destruction of the kingdom of Arendelle. That was the reason why the people were forced out the night Elsa awoke the spirits. At this point, Olaf spots an exit from the cave, however, he begins to “flurry away”, because Elsa’s magic cannot be sustained after her death. Anna holds Olaf tight through the night, not wanting him to disappear as well.

The next morning, Anna awakes to find Olaf gone. Now he has gone, Elsa is dead, and she is separated from Kristoff, Anna has nothing left in the world – except knowing that she has to set things right. Pulling herself up out of the cave, and the threat of deep depression, Anna heads towards the Earth Giants and convinces them to follow her to the dam. On the way, she meets up with Kristoff and Sven, who help her get to the dam quickly. When she arrives there, the Arendelle soldiers stand in protection of the dam, saying that this was their order from King Runeard. Anna convinces them that to free them from the forest, the dam must be broken. After some consideration, the guards, starting with Lieutenant Mattias, bang against their shields to encourage the Earth Giants towards the dam. Anna gets them to throw their boulders at the dam; Anna is saved by Mattias as the dam breaks under her. Once the dam breaks, a symbol of the fifth spirit appears in the sky, and Elsa unfreezes. Using the Nøkk, she rides over to Arendelle on the flood waters. She reaches Arendelle in time to block the tidal wave of water with her ice, and pushes it back. The people rejoice from the cliffs as they see their home saved. Elsa then rides back towards the forest. At the forest, the mist has finally cleared after 34 years, the world is in harmony, and Kristoff and Anna are reunited again. Suddenly, they see something coming towards them from the sea: it’s Elsa; she’s alive. Anna is relieved, and to top it off, Elsa tells her that Arendelle was not destroyed by the flood. Elsa then revives Olaf, and Kristoff finally proposes to Anna, who accepts gladly. Elsa tells the others that she is the fifth spirit. The Northuldra tribe tell Elsa she belongs with them. Elsa becomes the protector of the forest and Anna is made Queen of Arendelle.

Back in Arendelle, Anna is formally announced as Queen of Arendelle to the people, with Olaf, Kristoff and Sven dressing up for her big day – not that that lasts long; snowmen and mountain men aren’t made for suits! She unveils a statue of her father and mother when they were children, signifying the truce between the two sides. Anna sends a message over to Elsa using the wind spirit, Gale, inviting her to charades on Friday night and telling her Arendelle is fine. Elsa then heads off for a ride, with Gale and the Nøkk. The ride takes her through the forest, across the Dark Sea, and back to Ahtohallan, where she feels at home.

In a funny End Credits scene, Olaf reenacts the end of Frozen II to Marshmallow, from Frozen, and the snowgies, from Frozen Fever, in a similar scene to his reenactment of Frozen to the Northuldra tribe and the Arendelle soldiers.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Frozen II continues to follow the characters of the original film, namely Elsa, Anna, Olaf, Kristoff and Sven, though the last two don’t actually feature all that much in the movie. Starting with Elsa, in Frozen, she was incredibly scared of her powers and very unsure of herself. She wanted to be alone, free to use her powers how she wanted, without fear of judgement from others. But in Frozen II, her and Anna, along with Olaf, Kristoff, and Sven, are very much a family unit, even having Friday Family Game Nights! Though Elsa is adjusting to her role as Queen of Arendelle, she still feels like something is missing, and when The Voice calls out to her, she is initially wary of it, not wanting anything to change, before realising that it might be the key to her figuring out where she belongs and why she has powers unlike everyone else. This begins a chain of events where Elsa finds out she is the fifth spirit, and was granted her powers as a reward for her mother saving her father, despite the young prince being part of the Arendelle dynasty, the enemy to Northuldra. Elsa also sacrifices herself in Ahtohallan to find the truth about her grandfather and his betrayal of the Northuldra tribe’s trust. She does all this, alone, much to Anna and Olaf’s annoyance, who want her to be safe and trust them to help her more. Her final act of bravery is when Elsa unfreezes and protects Arendelle from being destroyed by the flood waters after the dam is broken. After all of this, Elsa then realises that she should never have been queen, a role that Anna is much more suited to, and that she actually belongs in the forest, either alone or with the Northuldra tribe – which is exactly what she does. In her final scene, Elsa is riding the Nøkk over to Ahtohallan, a place that feels very much like home to her. She finally seems content and happy with herself, and has found exactly where she belongs.

To fully show that Elsa has found out the reason behind her powers and that she has found some sense of belonging in the forest and in Ahtohallan, Elsa gets another transformation scene, similar to her one during “Let It Go”. The team knew that this had to be a big moment, as Elsa becomes the person she was meant to be all along: the fifth spirit, the connection between people and magic. Her blue dress is transformed into a white gown, that has the diamond shapes of the four elements infused onto it, showing her transformation to the fifth spirit. She was also given an ethereal cape, and she lets her hair down[1].

For Anna’s emotional journey, she is happy at the start of Frozen II: she has a close relationship with her sister again, she’s going strong with her boyfriend, Kristoff, and of course, Olaf is still with them. She loves being in Arendelle and isn’t looking for anything to change. Because of this, she is overly protective of Elsa in Frozen II, not wanting her to do anything on her own, in case something bad happens to her. Anna is concerned about Elsa when Elsa first hears The Voice, and is upset that Elsa wouldn’t tell her about it initially. In the Enchanted Forest, Anna is reluctant to leave Elsa when the fire spirit hits the area, and has to be taken away by Kristoff at Elsa’s orders. Things get progressively worse when Anna is tricked into being led away from Elsa at the Dark Sea, and is angry with her for not wanting Anna’s help and for, literally, pushing her away. At this point in the movie, Anna is also separated from Kristoff, unable to find him before they departed North because she didn’t want Elsa to have a reason to leave without her. When Elsa appears to be dead, leaving her magic to disintegrate, which includes Olaf, Anna is left completely alone. She has to pull herself out of her grief and to carry on and complete their quest, to free the forest and the people trapped within it. Despite the difficulties, Anna succeeds and is relieved to find Elsa is not dead. She realises that she cannot guard Elsa for the rest of her life, and has to let her go. Anna goes back to Arendelle to become queen, and Elsa remains in the forest, though they continue to visit each other when they can. Oh, and Anna gets engaged to Kristoff at the end of the film! Much like Elsa, Anna has a change of appearance in Frozen II. Like Elsa, Anna goes through a transformation, but to become Queen of Arendelle. She is given the same hairstyle as Elsa has during her Coronation – basically a fancy bun with a plait – and is wearing a regal green dress, purple cape, and a tiara.

Kristoff and Sven don’t feature too much in Frozen II really. The main part of Kristoff’s “journey” during Frozen II is his attempts at proposing to Anna which keep going wrong, sometimes very badly wrong. First, Anna is too preoccupied with Elsa to notice Kristoff even talking to her, then Kristoff accidentally says that Anna was “crazy” when they first met, because of her engagement to Hans, and then Kristoff misspeaks again and makes it seem like he isn’t happy with Anna. Just when he thinks he’s sorted out the best proposal ever, which involves reindeer making him doubly sure of himself, he finds that Anna has left with Elsa and Olaf! From that point, Kristoff doesn’t feature again until Anna needs help outrunning the Earth Giants, to get to the dam before them. After all that’s done, and Anna is reunited with Elsa, and Olaf is revived, he finally gets to propose – and luckily, Anna says “yes”, or that would’ve super awkward… I said that I didn’t like Kristoff in the first film, but I like him much more in Frozen II; I feel sorry for him with all these disastrous proposal attempts and can’t help but root for him to finally succeed, mostly because it’s so embarrassing to watch!

Olaf is quite different in Frozen II. Olaf is still funny and curious, but during this time, we find that actually Olaf is quite scared of the future, and is worried about things changing. He’s had some sort of emotional growth and is more aware of the world and his feelings. At the start of the film, Olaf talks to Anna about how to cope with constant change, and she tells him to look at things that are permanent, like their family. In the Enchanted Forest, when Olaf encounters all the spirits, he feels that things are wrong and dangerous, but tries to remain optimistic. When Elsa pushes Anna and Olaf away from her so she can go through the Dark Sea alone, Olaf realises that he is angry with Elsa for doing that, but also angry at Anna, because she told him that their family wouldn’t change and actually it has. Olaf later disappears, but then reappears as the lovable Olaf once again. This just shows that Olaf is not just the “comic relief” figure in the film, but is realising things about life as he’s gotten older[2]. There is a point in the film where Olaf tries to help the children of Arendelle cope with the change of being thrown out of their homes. He calls it “controlling what you can when things feel out of control”. This would’ve been an incredibly poignant message had Frozen II been released just a few months later, as the COVID-19 pandemic was the ultimate uncontrollable aspect of many people’s lives. I’m sure Olaf’s character and behaviour through Frozen II would’ve been very comforting to children at that time.

Idina Menzel, Kristen Bell, Jonathan Groff, and Josh Gad were very happy to return to the Disney Studios to reprise their roles as Elsa, Anna, Kristoff (and Sven) and Olaf respectively. Another actor who reprised his role from Frozen is Ciarán Hinds, who voices the part of Grand Pabbie, the wise Troll King, who tells the girls in Frozen II that they must go to the forest to right the wrongs of the past. Hinds has performed in numerous films including Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011), as Aberforth Dumbledore, as “Soldier”, or Roy Bland, in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), and as “Pop”, Buddy’s grandfather, in Belfast (2021), alongside Dame Judi Dench, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

But there are new characters in Frozen II as well. It turns out King Agnarr and Queen Iduna have a backstory: the two met as children, when Agnarr was a young prince at the time that Arendelle visited Northuldra, and Iduna was a young member of Northuldra. The two even talked and played together, with one memory from Ahtohallan showing Iduna asking what Agnarr is reading – it turns out it is actually The Little Mermaid, written by Hans Christian Andersen, author of The Snow Queen, the basis for the first Frozen film. Iduna saves Agnarr during the conflict in the forest and returns to Arendelle with him, to escape the mist that trapped everyone else. The two obviously eventually married, but it took a while for Iduna to tell Agnarr of her past life, and they seemingly never told their children. During the bedtime story about the Enchanted Forest at the start of Frozen II, Agnarr does not reference Iduna at all and she doesn’t mention it either. Iduna does sing the girls the lullaby about Ahtohallan, something she was taught as a young child, but the girls don’t find this strange at all. The parents are made to be much more likable in this film, at least, in my opinion, because I felt that, in Frozen, the King in particular seemed to be quite cold and distant, especially to Elsa, and the Queen says very little during the film.

Evan Rachel Wood voices Queen Iduna, and provides her singing voice too. She is perhaps most known for her main role as Dolores Abernathy in Westworld (2016-22). She also recently appeared as Madonna in the 2022 film Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. Alfred Molina voices King Agnarr. Molina has starred in numerous stage and screen productions. Some of these include performing as: Tevye in the musical Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway from 2004 to 2005; Comte de Reynaud in the Academy Award-nominated film Chocolat (2000); Jack Mellor in another Academy Award-nominated film An Education (2009); and as Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2 (2004) and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021). Also, for Disney, Molina voiced the roles of Double Dan and Professor Derek Knight in Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018) and Monsters University (2013) respectively, and played the role of Maxim Horvath in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (2010).

Lieutenant Mattias is the extremely loyal and protective Arendelle soldier that Anna and Elsa first met in the Enchanted Forest. He was their father’s official guard, but has been trapped in the forest for 34 years. He is still suspicious of Northuldra, as King Runeard instructed them to be, and is initially suspicious of Anna and Elsa, however, warms to them quite quickly when he finds they are Agnarr’s children and Arendelle royalty. Mattias speaks to Anna about her father at points during the film. Mattias is voiced by Sterling K. Brown, who portrayed Christopher Darden, co-prosecutor in the O.J. Simpson case, in the series The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story (2016) and starred as Randall Pearson in the series This Is Us (2016-22). He won Primetime Emmys for both performances.

On the other side of this conflict are the Northuldra tribe. They are led by their stoic chief Yelena. She is not overly friendly to the group at their first introductions, very suspicious of anyone from Arendelle claiming to want to help them, as well as confused about why the Queen of Arendelle would have been blessed with magic. She just wants to protect her people though, and avoid the risk of being betrayed again. There is also Honeymaren, the kind sister of Ryder, both members of the Northuldra tribe. Honeymaren seems quite sweet, and speaks to Elsa of the rumoured fifth spirit, whereas Ryder bonds with Kristoff over their love of reindeer and how they both talk for them. The character of Ryder was named after Chris Buck, the director’s, son Ryder who was killed in a car accident just as Frozen wrapped production in 2013[3]. The three characters are voiced by: Martha Plimpton (Yelena), who has performed on stage productions such as Pal Joey from 2008 to 2009 as Gladys Bumps, and on screen as Virginia Chance in Raising Hope (2010-14); Rachel Matthews (Honeymaren), who played the part of Danielle Bouseman in Happy Death Day (2017) and its 2019 sequel; and Jason Ritter (Ryder), who voiced Dipper Pines in animated series Gravity Falls (2012-16), and performed as Pat Rollins in the series Raising Dion (2019-22).

Finally, if you’re wondering where Alan Tudyk is in Frozen II, since his character of the Duke of Weselton was not going to return for this film, he voices a guard, a Northuldra leader, and an Arendelle soldier – so don’t worry; he’s there!

Those are the main human characters, but we can’t forget the characters of the four spirits. Though the Effects Team had a major role in bringing these four to life, there was also a large amount of character animation involved. Starting with the best, we have the fire spirit, Bruni the salamander, who was originally going to be called Sally, apparently! The size of Bruni’s fire is affected by his emotions, which explains why he goes a bit crazy in the forest when the group first arrive, because he’s scared[4]. We soon see that this little fireball is just a really cute fiery salamander, who loves to be cool, eat snowflakes and roll around in snow – or on Elsa’s cold palms! He’s the best new character in Frozen II for me; I think he’s so adorable. The inspiration from Bruni came from mythology, which said that salamanders would run out from fires when new logs were thrown on to them.

For the Nøkk, this water horse was inspired by a mythological creature, the Norse Nøkk, which is said to drown anyone that does not have truth in their heart. There is a big moment of Elsa struggling with the Nøkk, but successfully taming it with her powers and the trueness of her heart. The Nøkk was going to be introduced in a different way to begin with. Kristoff would’ve been encouraged by Anna and Olaf to ride the Nøkk, however, Kristoff was reluctant to do this as he knew he was lying about being happy with his new life in Arendelle, especially with all the necessary royal customs. Kristoff tries to ride the Nøkk, but as predicted, it tries to drown him. Anna goes in to save him, but he has to tell her the truth about everything. Anna is crushed and tells him they shouldn’t get married[5].

For the wind spirit, or “Gale”, it is meant to be ominous to begin with, but then become more mischievous as it finds out about the people around it. Since wind is invisible, its personality had to come through by how it interacts with people and its surroundings, such as picking up leaves, or someone’s hair. Gale was created using a new animation tool named Swoop. And finally, there are the Earth spirits, or Earth Giants, monstrous pieces of rock with earth and moss on top of them, so they blend into their surroundings. An Old Norse myth was the primary inspiration for their creation, though the team did also look at how the trolls look in the two movies as they felt the Earth Giants would be linked to them in some way. They are not meant to be villainous, just angry, but they do befriend Anna and Elsa later on, wanting to live in peace and harmony with the people around them[6].

PRODUCTION

The team working on Frozen and Frozen II were thrilled with the reception they received to the first movie; they were inundated with letters from children who had responded particularly deeply to Elsa and her story and obviously the social media buzz proved how much of a phenomenon Frozen became. But with all that excitement from the audience came a lot of pressure and responsibility on Disney to get the sequel right.

Jennifer Lee, co-director of both Frozen and Frozen II alongside Chris Buck, began story development for the sequel by writing a journal from Elsa’s point of view. From there, Lee and Buck started to discuss the ideas from the journal, with Buck drawing sequences and scenes from within it[7]. They wanted to look at the characters from a more mature and deep perspective, needing them to change emotionally through the story, especially as Frozen II takes place three years after the events of the first, meaning that everything that happened to the characters in Frozen will have affected them in some way. Frozen II needed to grow with its audience, since those viewers would be six years older by the time this film was released. The main question Disney wanted to answer during Frozen II was why Elsa has her powers, and follow the group’s quest to find out. Another inspiration for the story of Frozen II was looking at Scandinavian folklore and Norse mythology. The team found that mythic magical figures tend to have to carry everyone else’s burdens on their shoulders, and they sacrifice themselves for their end goals. This sounds a lot like Elsa, so they wanted to explore this idea further, when looking into why she has her powers.

The Frozen II team were also inspired by their research trip to Norway, Finland and Iceland in September 2016. They hiked through Finnish forests which gave them ideas for the Enchanted Forest, including much of the colour palette, which involved lots of oranges, reds, and violets[8]. The artists were also inspired by Eyvind Earle’s backgrounds for Sleeping Beauty (1959) for the look of the Enchanted Forest, specifically the vertical planes and his way of grouping trees. They consulted with a botanist from Norway to ensure they were accurate in their depiction of native vegetation[9].

For the Northuldra tribe, Disney looked to the Sámi community for inspiration during their 2016 research trip to Scandinavia. The Sámi are the indigenous community from Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia, known for their colourful clothing, a cappella story chants, and reindeer herding, which are characteristics that appear in Frozen II. The Disney team collaborated with the Sámi over the Northuldra tribe clothing and other specificities to ensure that the culture was represented respectfully. Disney even signed an agreement with the Sámi Council and three Sámi parliaments in Norway, Finland, and Sweden to say that the film would give back to the Sámi communities. One way they did this was by releasing a Sámi language dub of the film on the same day Frozen II was released in other Scandinavian countries, like Norway[10]. This representation was particularly important to the Sámi people, as they have had a history of being segregated, discriminated against, and their lands have been abused. This is similar to the Northuldra in Frozen II, who have been tricked and manipulated by a greedy, selfish king, intent on taking land for himself.

Throughout the next three years, the Frozen II team agonised over the story for the film, making multiple edits and revisions to the writing, animation, and music of certain sequences, as per feedback from both in-house and external audience screenings. The in-house Story Trust at the Disney Studios, involving directors and employees from different animated movies in production as well as their own team, discussed the plot at length, due to its complexity and complicated nature in places. Some of these thoughts were echoed at an external audience review, with numerous story meetings taking place after these screenings to figure out the right route to take. Though the audience screening showed that the music played well, and that Olaf and Bruni were favoured characters, some story issues resulted from who The Voice is and the song “Show Yourself”, as well as how to show the backstory of the Enchanted Forest via the prologue. The prologue was reworked as late as August 2019, just a couple of months before release. This was due to the fact that the original prologue started at the Enchanted Forest, following a young girl looking for her mother when suddenly a battle commences between her tribe of Northuldra and the Arendelle soldiers. These were unfamiliar characters and an unfamiliar setting to the viewer. It was decided that the audience needed to see Arendelle and Anna and Elsa first, before introducing the Forest’s backstory[11]. To make things even more difficult, Jennifer Lee was promoted to be Chief Creative Officer for Walt Disney Animation Studios in June 2018, meaning that she not only had to work on her own movie of Frozen II, but now every movie in the animated slate had to be supervised by her.

Once the story had been locked in, quite late in the production schedule, then the animation had to be completed – and some of those elements came with their own problems. In Frozen, one of Disney’s biggest difficulties was creating the ice palace but for Frozen II, they had a different icy challenge: the glacier of Ahtohallan. Ahtohallan had to have a grand exterior as well as a large interior. They knew the best way to get information about glaciers was to go and see them in real-life. During their 2016 research trip, they looked at glaciers first-hand, even getting to walk on one. The team were overcome by the beauty, and the mystifying nature of these glaciers. They saw that the inside of the glacier was a vibrant blue, matching Elsa’s “signature colour”, and that Elsa would feel connected to this huge icy glacier because of her powers. Visual Designer Brittney Lee was brought in to take a look at the design work on Ahtohallan. She came up with concepts of what the inside would look like, and how Elsa would interact with it, showing that she would be led through the glaciers by the elements and The Voice[12].

MUSIC

The Voice was provided by Norwegian singer-songwriter AURORA. It features heavily in Elsa’s two big numbers “Into the Unknown” and “Show Yourself”, my two favourite songs from the film. This musical motif is called “Dies Irae” and comes from an ancient Gregorian chant, which is associated with death and danger. It even appears in the opening theme for The Shining (1980). Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, who returned to write the songs for Frozen II, felt that this motif was the perfect thing to awaken Elsa, and set her on her path to self-discovery as she could only do that by facing many dangers and obstacles[13]. “Into the Unknown” is a very powerful number, and shows how Elsa is torn between leaving the comfort zone of Arendelle, where she does not feel like she truly belongs, and trying to figure out what her powers mean. It’s a beautiful sequence, especially when she gets outside and her magic shows her visions of what is to come on her journey; it’s a really spectacular song and much better than “Let It Go” in my opinion.

“Show Yourself” is the big emotional moment of Elsa’s journey as she gets to Ahtohallan and finds The Voice that she has been hearing was actually her mother’s call. This is a very touching scene, and the song culminates in Elsa’s transformation to becoming the person she was always meant to be: the fifth spirit to connect all of nature. “Show Yourself” went through a lot of changes through the movie, up until the last couple of months of production, with talks of it being cut at one point because nobody could figure out what to do with it; not the directors, the songwriters, or the story writers. It was said that this was the hardest of all the Frozen songs to work on. In the end, the breakthrough was deciding that The Voice was Elsa’s mother, and that they should reprise “All Is Found”, their mother’s lullaby from the start of the film, to connect the past with the present. And I am so thankful they worked all that out, because I love this song and this huge moment for Elsa.

Speaking of the lullaby, “All Is Found” is sung by Queen Iduna to the girls at the start of the film, telling them about the mysterious river of Ahtohallan. It’s a tender song, but also quite haunting, with some of the lyrics detailing not to dive too deep into her sound, or else you’ll be drowned… It sets up the mystery of Ahtohallan to be revisited later on in the journey. The song that follows is quite a contrast: it is “Some Things Never Change”, a very upbeat number where Anna and Olaf talk about how, though things change, they will always be together; Kristoff and Sven discussing his proposal to Anna; and Elsa not wanting things to change despite hearing The Voice. It’s a perfect big crowd number to start the film.

 Unlike Frozen, Kristoff finally gets his own song, and a brilliant song at that. It begins with a brief version of “Reindeer(s) Are Better Than People”, from Frozen, before leading in to this big 80s power ballad. Kristoff was going sing a song called “Get This Right”, which would’ve talked about how he wanted his proposal to Anna to go perfectly; it was quite a nice song, but “Lost in the Woods” is so much better! Jonathan Groff, though he was proud of “Reindeer(s) Are Better Than People”, despite many people saying how it wasn’t a “real song”, including me, did love recording “Lost in the Woods” and liked how a man was being given a song to sing about these deep feelings he has for the woman he loves, instead of having to be macho about it and pretending he doesn’t have feelings. For this song, the reindeers of the Northuldra tribe and Sven join in with the backing harmonies. Groff actually recorded all of these harmonies himself, with there being around 18 in total[14]!

Anna this time had quite a dark song written for her: “The Next Right Thing”. It details how Anna is going to get herself back on her feet and keep going, despite Olaf disappearing, Elsa being gone, and being separated from Kristoff. Anna is normally the upbeat, optimistic one, so it is hard to see and hear her feeling so broken. It is very dark for a Disney song, and must’ve been difficult for Kristen Bell to record. In fact, in the behind-the-scenes documentary, Bell was crying as she sang it. She said that her personal struggles with anxiety and depression were something she brought to the acting of the song, and that sometimes on the worst days, it is good advice: to just take things one step at a time[15].

The remaining song is Olaf’s song “When I’m Older”, which he sings as he’s walking through the Enchanted Forest, getting spooked by all the spirits. He is trying to be optimistic and say that everything’s fine and when he’s older and wiser, he’ll be able to explain all this away and it won’t be scary anymore. Like I said earlier on, Olaf’s emotional state during this whole film must’ve been quite comforting to children who felt out of control and uncertain about global issues, such as COVID-19, climate change, political hostility, and more age-specific problems, like moving to a new school, for example. This is my least favourite song of the seven original songs written for Frozen II, but I still like it.

Pop rock band Panic! At The Disco recorded a version of “Into the Unknown”, which appears first during the End Credits. I don’t normally like covers of Disney songs, but this is actually quite a good one. Country singer Kacey Musgraves covered “All Is Found”, and rock band Weezer cover Kristoff’s “Lost in the Woods”. These are second and third in the credits.

Christophe Beck returned as the composer of the score. I particularly like how much “Vuelie” from Frozen reappeared in Frozen II, such as in the “Introduction” to the film, and when the Northuldra sing it a cappella. But my favourite of all the instrumentals is “The Flood”, which plays during the scene where Elsa protects Arendelle from being flooded and destroyed when the dam breaks. It’s such a powerful moment, as Elsa is found to be alive and because all the people of Arendelle are stood watching, expecting their homes to be destroyed, but instead Elsa saves them all. Again, it’s these big emotional moments in the score that always stand out for me – and usually make me cry! Overall, I really like Frozen II’s soundtrack, and so much more than Frozen’s.

RECEPTION

Due to Frozen’s huge success in 2013, it was quite clear that Frozen II would be widely anticipated. A teaser trailer was released in February 2019, showing Elsa at the Dark Sea, the diamond-shapes in the air, Kristoff riding on reindeer, Anna in the cave, and then shots of the forest. It didn’t say or show much, but it created discussions over how dark the movie looked. It certainly made me interested, because it didn’t give you much idea about what Frozen II’s story would be, just that it looked like an epic quest would take place. In June 2019, the official trailer was dropped. This time it gave some more information, including The Voice and Grand Pabbie’s warnings about Elsa’s magic and the past needing correcting. Again, it didn’t give much away, but it got people talking.

In August 2019, there was a D23 convention where further details on Frozen II were announced. These details included announcing Evan Rachel Wood as Queen Iduna and Sterling K. Brown as Lieutenant Mattias. The creators told the audience that the film would answer questions about Elsa’s powers, as well as those about their parents. They showed snippets of the film, including the scene of the group playing charades and moving into the sequence for “Into the Unknown”, which confirmed the appearance of the mysterious voice and that Kristoff was planning to propose to Anna. Then, Idina Menzel, Kristen Bell, Josh Gad, and Jonathan Groff came on stage to sing “Some Things Never Change”[16].

To further create excitement around the movie before its release, merchandise was released in October 2019 to be bought at locations around Walt Disney World, Disneyland, and on the Shop Disney online store. A little bit closer to the release date, speciality food and beverage items themed to Frozen II were also released at the Parks.

Finally, on 7^th November 2019, Frozen II had its official premiere at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, before having its general release in the United States on 22^nd November. It continued to be released in other countries through to the end of 2019. There was certainly a lot of talk about the movie, however, Frozen II was not perceived as superior to Frozen by many. The more cynical amongst us claimed that Frozen II had only been made to satisfy the market and to bring out more merchandise to sell. Some also said that the film was too complicated in places and was difficult to understand. On the positive side, though, others liked how it tackled heavy themes, such as colonialism, environmental issues, psychological reactions to change, and depression. The music and the look of the movie were also praised, and the characters were still as likeable as they were in the original film. But critics were split, whereas the majority of reviews were positive for Frozen.

To further show this split of opinion, Frozen II did not do as well at the awards ceremonies. Whereas Frozen won both the Academy Awards for Best Original Song for “Let It Go” and Best Animated Feature, Frozen II was only nominated for Best Original Song for “Into the Unknown”, losing to “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” from Rocketman (2019). It was not even nominated for Best Animated Feature, with Toy Story 4 (2019) winning that award. Even without Frozen II being snubbed, this was bitterly disappointing to me because I really do not like Toy Story 4 and felt it was not at all necessary for the franchise. It creeped me out with all those dolls and ventriloquist dummies too… But that childhood trauma is for another time. Frozen II did win the Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement for Animated Effects, and so it should because there were an awful lot of effects in this film and I thought they looked amazing, and Josh Gad won Outstanding Achievement for Voice Acting for Olaf once again. Frozen II’s soundtrack did win Top Soundtrack at the Billboard Music Awards and the film won Favorite Animated Movie at the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards.

Despite being named the highest-grossing animated movie in history, this is only true depending on who you talk to. I personally would class The Lion King 2019 remake as animated, since the movie was entirely computer animated. Disney however class this film as a live-action remake, so it is not considered on some lists of highest-grossing animated movies. I would though, so Frozen II in my view became the second highest-grossing animated movie of all time, generating $1.3 billion at the box office compared to $1.65 billion for The Lion King (2019). Still, it outperformed the original movie, and was not surpassed by The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) a few years later. Frozen remains fourth.

LEGACY

Since Frozen spanned spin-offs and featurettes, Frozen II was obviously going to do the same. Obviously, Frozen II was released on DVD and Blu-Ray, along with a sing-along edition, but the first Frozen-related series to be released after the release of Frozen II was actually a series of shorts, released on YouTube on the Walt Disney Animation Studios’ official channel, called At Home with Olaf (2020) at the start of the pandemic. Each short is just a couple of minutes long, and look at Olaf exploring the world, such as drinking pink lemonade, eating candy, having fun on a swing, little things like that. I remember I was watching them at the time, and they were comforting for both children and adults alike, giving us all a bit of stability and a bit of wholesomeness to get through the seemingly unending lockdown period. Josh Gad returned to voice Olaf, though he does not say much in these shorts, mostly just giggles or mumbles. There were 21 shorts in total, with the final one being a musical short titled “I Am With You”. It is of Olaf writing a letter to someone saying how he will always be with them. It was accompanied by clips from previous Disney animated features. This was the best short of all the series.

After this, Disney released a Virtual Reality short in June 2020, which premiered on Oculus Quest, before being released in a 2D version on Disney+ in 2021. It is called Myth: A Frozen Tale (2020) and shows a family in log cabin telling a bedtime story to their children all about the forest and the four spirits. It does turn quite dark at the end though, as after saying the human fifth spirit brought everything into harmony, we are then told that the fifth spirit got out of rhythm with the others, leading to the world to fracture and the spirits to vanish. But if the fifth spirit can find its rhythm once more, then the others will return. I’m assuming this was a metaphor about humans and their contributions to climate change, but yeah, a bit dark for a Disney project! It is visually stunning though, showing each of the four spirits in turn: Gale, Bruni and his pink fire, the Nøkk, and the Earth Giants. It was apparently inspired by the visual poetry of Fantasia (1940) and by the artistic stylings of Eyvind Earle and his work on Sleeping Beauty (1959), as well as the artwork of celebrated Disney artist Mary Blair.

In June 2020, a six-part documentary series titled Into the Unknown: Making Frozen II shows some behind-the-scenes footage of the Disney Studios during their last year of production on the movie. It was fascinating to watch and I would recommend it to any fans of movie history. In October 2020, a new short was released called Once Upon a Snowman. It looks at Olaf’s journey from his creation by Elsa during “Let It Go” in Frozen to him meeting Anna, Kristoff and Sven in the icy oasis. We see him interact with Oaken at his shop, just missing Anna and Kristoff, and then shows him being chased by wolves, as he was given a nose made of “summer sausage” by Oaken. The wolves then chase Anna and Kristoff. It also shows Olaf remembering his name and that he likes warm hugs, before following Anna and Kristoff to the place they meet. It’s both funny and interesting to see how Olaf’s journey here interacts with the events of Frozen.

But my favourite of all the Frozen II spin-offs is Olaf Presents, a six-part series of shorts released on Disney+ in November 2021, which includes a compilation episode of the previous five. The compilation episode also shows Olaf’s recap of Frozen that appears in Frozen II, I assume as context in case you haven’t seen the film and are wondering what on Earth you’re watching! The five other films that Olaf recaps are The Little Mermaid (1989); Moana (2016); The Lion King (1994); Aladdin (1992); and Tangled (2010). These are all hilarious, but my favourites are The Little Mermaid (1989) and The Lion King (1994), especially with the snowgies representing the wildebeest stamped! I bet Josh Gad had fun recording these! Sadly, Disney confirmed that Olaf Presents would not get another series.

A Frozen III was confirmed back in February 2023 by Disney CEO Bob Iger, however, there is little to no details around this yet, other than the four primary cast members appear to have confirmed their involvement and that Jennifer Lee has said she will not return to direct. It will be interesting to see where this new story will go, seeing as I thought Frozen II wrapped the characters’ stories up quite nicely.

At the Disney Parks, I wanted to find only the Frozen II specific attractions and there are a few. Generally, clips and songs from the movie can be seen and heard during some of the Disney Parks’ nighttime shows or projection shows but in terms of attractions, at Walt Disney World Resort, at the Royal Sommerhus in the Norway pavilion of Epcot, Elsa and Anna have been meeting in their Frozen II costumes since the movie’s release in 2019. This means Anna’s queen gown and Elsa’s white dress; basically, what they are wearing at the end of the film. This is also the case at Anna and Elsa’s Royal Welcome at Disney Calfornia Adventure Park at Disneyland and should be the same at Hong Kong Disneyland’s World of Frozen when it opens 20^th November 2023. It is unclear whether Anna and Elsa are appearing in their Frozen II outfits when meeting guests at Shanghai Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris, though it would appear not, in Paris at least.

 At Disneyland Paris, the Frozen Celebration event was held from January 2020 for a few months until the park was forced to close for COVID-19. It featured a Frozen II parade, with a float of Elsa as the fifth spirit with the Nøkk positioned at the front and Anna and Olaf in their ice boat in the middle, with an animatronic Sven at the back, before Anna and Elsa came off the float to dance along with the rest of the performers, including Kristoff. Another parade to feature a Frozen II float is the daytime parade Magic Happens at Disneyland, which has been running since early 2020. It features Anna and Elsa, with animatronics of Olaf and Sven, on a float of half forest and half ice. The Nøkk is featured on the float as well, but Kristoff seemingly isn’t allowed on the float and must walk behind for some reason!

Shanghai Disneyland’s Frozen: A Sing-Along Celebration show began to feature songs from Frozen II after the movie’s release. It uses “Some Things Never Change” on the sing-along screen, with Anna, Elsa, Kristoff and puppet Olaf appearing on stage towards the end of the show to sing “Into the Unknown”; they are wearing their Frozen II costumes. At Hong Kong Disneyland’s new World of Frozen, there will be a show at the Playhouse in the Woods. Anna and Olaf are planning a surprise for Elsa, to show her that they have restored the playhouse from their childhood. It will be themed to Frozen II, with a lot of interactive elements designed to mimic the four spirits.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The more sceptical among us would say that Frozen II was purely made for money, that there was no sequel needed for Frozen, and that this was just a ploy to get more merchandising and entertainment ideas. Disney were milking Frozen for all it was worth.

Like everyone, I can be cynical at times, but I disagree that the making of Frozen II was just for money. Many of these reviews were written well before any behind-the-scenes footage and documentaries were released to the public, and if anyone has seen Into the Unknown: Making Frozen II, it is clear to see, from all the dithering and constant story rewrites, that the team were determined to get this film right and to do it justice. Why else would they be bothered about this if it was all just about money? I do believe Disney do make certain films just as a money-making exercise, such as Pixar’s Cars franchise, with Cars 2 being a particularly low point for the company, and even to some extent the Toy Story franchise, which really should’ve ended with Toy Story 3. But not Frozen II.

I like Frozen II so much more than the original one. I think the music is more enjoyable, although perhaps not as catchy, it looks amazing, and it touches on some very important ideas. It is one of Disney’s best animated sequels, a fact that is hard to deny.

Frozen II felt like a real adventure of self-discovery, with mature themes to make it more complex and profound, which is much appreciated by those Disney fans over the age of 10, who need just a bit more than a cute snowman and sisterly bonding to impress them!

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Disney, Into the Unknown: Making Frozen II (2020): “Episode 5: Race to the Finish”.

[2] Credit: Disney, Into the Unknown: Making Frozen II (2020): “Episode 4: Big Changes”.

[3] Credit: Disney, Into the Unknown: Making Frozen II (2020): “Episode 3: Journey to Ahtohallan”.

[4] Credit: Disney, “Did You Know?”, from Frozen II (2019), Blu-Ray 2-Movie Collection (2020).

[5] Credit: Disney, “Deleted Scenes”, from Frozen II (2019), Blu-Ray 2-Movie Collection (2020).

[6] Credit: Disney, “The Spirits of Frozen 2” from Frozen II (2019), Blu-Ray 2-Movie Collection (2020).

[7] Credit: Disney, Into the Unknown: Making Frozen II (2020): “Episode 1: A Year to Premiere”.

[8] Credit: Carolyn Giardina, ‘Making of ‘Frozen 2’: Disney Aimed to Mark an “Evolution” for Elsa and Anna’, The Hollywood Reporter (online), 12^th December 2019.

[9] Credit: Disney, “Did You Know?”, from Frozen II (2019), Blu-Ray 2-Movie Collection (2020).

[10] Credit: John Hazelton, ‘How the ‘Frozen II’ filmmakers dealt with the pressure: “we built it very honestly, from character out”, ScreenDaily.com, 26^th December 2019.

[11] Credit: Disney, Into the Unknown: Making Frozen II (2020): “Episode 5: Race to the Finish”.

[12] Credit: Disney, Into the Unknown: Making Frozen II (2020): “Episode 3: Journey to Ahtohallan”.

[13] Credit: Joanna Robinson, ‘Frozen II Songwriters on the Surprisingly Creepy Inspiration Behind the Movie’s Latest Earworm’, Vanity Fair (online), 5^th December 2019.

[14] Credit: Disney, Into the Unknown: Making Frozen II (2020): “Episode 2: Back to the Drawing Board”.

[15] Credit: Disney, Into the Unknown: Making Frozen II (2020): “Episode 3: Journey to Ahtohallan”.

[16] Credit: Eliana Dockterman, ‘Everything We Learned About Frozen II From the D23 Footage’, Time (online), 24^th August 2019.

1. BACKGROUND
2. PLOT
3. CHARACTERS & CAST
4. PRODUCTION
5. MUSIC
6. RECEPTION
7. LEGACY
8. FINAL THOUGHTS
9. REFERENCES

BACKGROUND

After becoming the highest-grossing animated movie of all time shortly after its release; the fifth highest-grossing film of all time for a spell; winning two Academy Awards; and causing one of the biggest frenzies that a Disney movie has created in decades, you’d be right to think that the hype around Frozen and its characters is far from over.

Despite being ten years since the movie was first released in November 2013, the film has spanned numerous merchandise items, games and books; multiple theme park attractions and areas; many screen featurettes; a Disney on Ice show; and a Broadway musical – and yet its popularity keeps growing, with whole lands dedicated to the film being built at not one, not two, but three of the six total Disney Resorts! It’s crazy how much of a phenomenon Frozen has become, rivalling the popularity of The Lion King (1994), which came out two decades prior to Frozen.

I’m not going to lie and say that I’m obsessed with Frozen, but I cannot say that I dislike it either. As I’m no longer young, I struggle to get that excited about any new Disney or Pixar release. They come out, I watch them, and I decide whether they fit in to one of three categories: 1) Hate it and never want to watch again; 2) That was alright; I’ll watch it again or 3) Love it and will rewatch it often. I am a “die-hard fan” of just one Disney film that I will love and cherish forever, but most movies I watch tend to sit within Category 2 or 3, with it being very rare that I find a Disney or Pixar film that fits into Category 1. Frozen sits comfortably in Category 2, but perhaps there was a time when 3 would’ve been more fitting.

When I first watched Frozen at the cinema in December 2013, I laughed, I cried, I was happy, I was sad – I went through all the emotions, as you do when you watch a really good Disney movie, typically of the fairy-tale Broadway musical variety, as Frozen is. I did really like it, more so than Tangled (2010), its “princess predecessor”. The music was good, the characters were funny and relatable, and it was nice to see a twist on the typical fairy tale, with the heroes being two strong women, and the prince being the villain.

But then came the perfect storm of small children, Christmas, a standout musical hit – and social media. Nobody would stop talking about Frozen! There were videos of people singing “Let It Go” everywhere; the soundtrack was all over the radio; Frozen was being talked about on the news, on panel show – it went on and on. That’s when I found I didn’t like Frozen half as much as I had when I came out of that cinema a few months before, because it had been talked to death, and by doing that, it lost some of its magic for me.

I don’t generally choose to watch Frozen, much preferring its sequel, but when I did re-watch it this week, I did find I still liked it – but I’m not about to go and make a TikTok video about it or anything. Just think how bad “Frozen fever” would’ve been had that app been around in 2013, not just the standard Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube….

PLOT

Frozen begins in a quiet, calming way, with scenes of snowflakes falling over a blue screen. The title card shows the film’s title written as a block of ice. A choral tune plays during this section. After this, we are transported to a cold, snowy area where men are cutting out blocks of ice from the ground; they are ice harvesters. A small boy and a young reindeer watch nearby and join in with the group. The men take away the ice in their sleds. 

In a castle, a little girl, Princess Anna, is annoying her sister, trying to get her to play with her in the middle of the night because “when the sky is awake, [she’s] awake”, meaning she can see the aurora borealis, or “northern lights”, through their bedroom window! Eventually, the sister, Princess Elsa, relents after being asked if she wants to build a snowman. The girls head to a large hall where we see that Elsa has magical ice powers: she makes the floor solid ice so they can skate on it, makes huge snow drifts, and of course, builds a snowman, which she calls Olaf. All this fun, though, ends in tears. As Elsa tries to catch Anna as she dances from snow drift to snow drift with her magic, Elsa accidentally hits Anna in the head. Anna tumbles to the ground, unconscious. Elsa cries for her parents, with the four hurrying to the trolls for help. At this point, the small boy and reindeer from earlier follow the trail of ice that is following Elsa, Anna, and the King and Queen over to the trolls. The two are both adopted by a troll as they watch this strange meeting. The Troll King says that it is lucky only Anna’s head has been frozen, as a frozen heart cannot be easily thawed. The Troll King takes away all memories of Elsa’s magic, which heals Anna. He warns Elsa though her magic can be beautiful, it needs to be controlled or it could be dangerous; fear will be her enemy. The King vows to help Elsa control it and orders the gates to the kingdom be closed, to conceal Elsa’s powers from everyone else.

Over a number of years, the girls are separated. Anna is lonely without her sister, constantly wanting to play with her, but being told to go away every time. Elsa is struggling to control her power, and the more she is afraid of it, the more powerful and uncontrollable it gets; it is clear Elsa’s emotions feed into her magic, mimicking how she feels. As Anna gets older, she doesn’t bother Elsa anymore, so the two don’t speak. One day, their parents leave for a two-week trip – we aren’t told where or why – but their ship sinks and they drown. Elsa becomes the new Queen. Anna and Elsa are both broken at the news of their parents’ death, but as Anna seeks comfort from Elsa, Elsa continues to ignore her.

When Elsa is 21, it is time for her Coronation Day, where she will formally become Queen of Arendelle, their kingdom. The gates to Arendelle will finally be open and Anna will actually get to talk to someone; she’s very excited. As she explores the day’s festivities, she bumps into someone and stumbles into a boat, almost falling into the harbour. This someone is Prince Hans of the Southern Isles; Anna is instantly smitten. But it’s time for the Coronation, so she heads to the ceremony. Elsa’s Coronation is a relatively simple affair, with not too many attendees, but that doesn’t stop Elsa’s nerves. As she goes to pick up the orb and sceptre to conclude the formalities, Elsa is asked to remove her gloves, something she wears to conceal her magic. She holds the objects for the smallest amount of time necessary, before hurriedly placing them down and putting her gloves back on. She did it.

Now it’s time to party. At the party, Anna and Elsa speak for the first time in years, surprising Anna. Elsa sends Anna off to dance with the Duke of Weselton, the ruler of Arendelle’s biggest trade partner. The Duke is suspicious of the Queen but cannot get information from Anna. Anna is soon saved by the arrival of Hans, who she spends time with instead. The two fall in love over the course of the evening and Hans proposes to her; Anna eagerly accepts. She takes Hans to Elsa to ask for her blessing on their marriage. Elsa refuses, telling Anna she cannot marry a man she just met, and orders her guests to leave and for the gates to Arendelle to be closed once more. Anna is angry and upset that Elsa won’t talk to her, and asks why Elsa continues to shut her out. Elsa gets upset at Anna’s questioning and holds out her arm to tell her to stop – but one of Elsa’s gloves has been removed in the lead up to this and icicles shoot out from her hands, shocking everyone. The guests are scared of her evil powers, with the Duke calling her a monster. She flees, but is confronted by even more people, scaring her more. As Elsa steadies herself by the courtyard fountain, that too freezes. Elsa runs over the fjord to escape, freezing the whole fjord as she does so, and setting off an eternal winter everywhere – it is actually July in Arendelle.

Anna decides to follow Elsa to ask her to unfreeze Arendelle. She leaves Hans in charge of the kingdom until she returns. Elsa has escaped to the North Mountain, and is alright being alone and free to use her powers without fear of hurting anyone. She builds a huge ice palace on the mountain and seems happy with her life choice. In the meantime, Anna journeys through the snow to try and find Elsa, but doesn’t know where to look. At Wandering Oaken’s Trading Post and Sauna high in the mountain, she meets an ice-seller, Kristoff. After angering Oaken over his “ridiculous prices”, Kristoff is thrown out of the shop. Anna buys some winter clothes, to change out of her snow-soaked Coronation dress, and buys Kristoff’s items for him to use a bargaining tool. She finds Kristoff and asks that he take her to the North Mountain, as she suspects this is where Elsa may be. Eventually, he is persuaded, so Anna, Kristoff, and his reindeer, Sven, head off via his sled.

As they discuss Anna’s argument with Elsa, namely her stupidity at wanting to marry a man she knows nothing about, which caused this wintry mess, they are pursued by wolves – with a cliff edge coming up quickly. Anna and Kristoff jump onto Sven, and tell him to jump across the gap to the opposite ledge. Kristoff’s sled falls over the edge and bursts into flames. Kristoff wants to leave Anna to go on alone, but she says she’ll buy him a new sled once their mission is over. Reluctantly, he continues on with her. As they walk through a frosty oasis, they meet Olaf the snowman, who was built by Elsa but has now come to life. He tells them how he likes warm hugs, and would love to know what summer is like. Anna persuades Kristoff not to burst Olaf’s bubble about what happens to snow in heat… Olaf joins the three on their journey.

Anna’s horse returns to Arendelle – it got spooked before she got to Wandering Oaken’s. Hans is concerned for her safety, and organises a party to search for her. Hans asks for men to join him; the sneaky Duke of Weselton volunteers two men, telling them to kill Elsa on sight if they see her. At the same time, Anna, Kristoff, Sven and Olaf make it to the North Mountain, where they find a handy ice staircase to take them up to the top. They are presented with an enormous palace built purely from ice – Kristoff is quite overcome by this! Anna goes in to speak to her sister alone. First, she tries to persuade Elsa to come back to Arendelle with her, but Elsa refuses, saying it’s best for everyone that she stays up here, alone. Olaf comes in during the conversation, with Elsa amazed that her powers conjured a living snowman. Anna then tells Elsa that they have a problem because all of Arendelle is frozen, and asks Elsa to unfreeze it. This scares Elsa, since she had no idea she even did that, and has no clue how to unfreeze it. Anna tries to calm her down, saying they can work it out together, but the damage is done; Elsa gets so upset that she sends icicles shooting out of her hands at all angles, with one of those hitting Anna in the heart.

Kristoff and Olaf come to Anna’s aid, but Elsa conjures a huge snowman, called Marshmallow, to literally throw them out of the palace. They are tossed down the stairs, with Marshmallow planning to leave them alone, but Anna is so angry that she throws a snowball at him. Bad idea! Marshmallow becomes enraged and starts to chase them down the mountain. Kristoff and Anna throw themselves over the edge to hide from Marshmallow, using a rope to keep them from falling down the 200-foot drop. Olaf meets up with them at the edge, but he falls down the drop. Marshmallow finds the rope that Kristoff and Anna are dangling from and pulls them back up the mountain; Kristoff hits his head on a rock here and is knocked unconscious. Marshmallow shouts at them to not come back. Anna assures him they won’t and cuts the rope, letting them fall the massive distance to the bottom. There’s plenty of fresh snow at the bottom to cushion their fall, so they’re ok.

Anna’s plan to talk to Elsa failed, and worse still, Kristoff sees Anna’s hair is turning white. They find Sven, who couldn’t get up the icy staircase to the palace, and heads to find Kristoff’s family, the “love experts”, to get help. When they arrive, Kristoff seemingly starts talking to rocks, making him look crazy. Anna tries to leave, but as she does, the rocks turn into trolls. The trolls get over-excited, thinking Kristoff has brought a girl home and start setting up their wedding, but Kristoff tells them Anna is already engaged to be married and they have bigger problems to worry about – Anna’s heart has started to freeze from Elsa’s magic. The Troll King tells them that only an act of true love will thaw a frozen heart. Believing a kiss from Hans would fit that description, they hurry to Arendelle.

Meanwhile, despite Marshmallow’s bodyguarding skills, Hans and his “search party” get into the ice palace, with the Duke’s men about to kill Elsa with crossbows. As she protects and defends herself, she gets very closing to killing the men herself, when Hans arrives to tell her not to become the monster they think she is. The icy chandelier above Elsa is cut from the ceiling. As Elsa tries to outrun it, she falls to the ground and is knocked out. She is taken to Arendelle, and locked in a cell, with cuffs and chains keeping her from using her magic. Kristoff delivers Anna to Arendelle, and leaves with Sven. In the castle, she is brought to Hans, and explains her frozen heart situation, asking Hans to kiss her. As he leans in to kiss Anna, however, he tells her “if only there was someone out there who loved you”. In a big twist, Hans is the villain! With twelve older brothers, Hans is 13^th in line to his own throne, and knew to get power he’d have to marry into the throne. It was only too easy to get Anna to fall in love with him, and knows now that he will be King, after he sentences Elsa to death for treason. He leaves Anna alone to die, and tells the others she is already dead, but that they married just in time, making him “legitimately” in line to be King. They go to kill Elsa, but find that Elsa has managed to destroy her cuffs and cell with her powers and has escaped. Her fear causes an icy storm to surround Arendelle.

Olaf finds Anna and tries to keep her warm enough to survive. He inadvertently tells Anna that Kristoff must love her – something Kristoff has figured out for himself and is on his way back to Arendelle. Olaf helps Anna out on the fjord to look for Kristoff to get her kiss. Meanwhile, Hans has found Elsa on the fjord and tells her that she has killed her own sister. Elsa is distraught and collapses on to the ice, pausing the snow storm. With the storm calmed, the fjord is clear, and just as Anna sees Kristoff coming towards her, she sees Hans ready to kill Elsa. She rushes over there. Anna shields Elsa from Hans, and turns to ice at this exact moment, breaking Hans’ sword and pushing him backwards on to the ice. Elsa sees Anna turned to ice, and begins to cry. After a few seconds, Anna then begins to unfreeze. They figure that Anna sacrificing herself to save Elsa was the “act of true love” that was needed to thaw Anna’s frozen heart. This makes Elsa twig that love must be the way to unfreeze Arendelle. With this in mind, Elsa manages to thaw Arendelle, which starts to make Olaf melt – so she gives him his own personal flurry to keep him alive! Hans regains consciousness and is surprised to see Anna alive because of her “frozen heart”. Anna tells him “the only frozen heart around here is yours” before punching him in the face, sending him into the harbour! Hans is taken back to the Southern Isles by one of the dignitaries; Elsa dissolves the trade agreement between Arendelle and Weselton; and Anna buys Kristoff a new sled, giving him a kiss and a new job title: Official Arendelle Ice Master and Deliverer; and Olaf is happy to be able to see summer in Arendelle. As a final “happy ending” moment, Elsa makes the whole courtyard of the palace an ice rink and teaches Anna how to skate, also vowing never to close the gates to Arendelle again. 

CHARACTERS & CAST

Anna is the younger, slightly clumsy, quirky sister of Elsa. From a young age, it’s obvious that Anna likes being around her older sister, and wants to be close to her. Though they are for a few years, after the incident where Elsa hit Anna with her powers, they are separated from each other for a very long time, making that once-close sisterly bond quite difficult and complicated. As Anna has been cooped up in the Royal Palace for so long, she does not have particularly good social skills. Though she’s overly enthusiastic and will clearly talk to anyone, her naivety is clear when Hans asks to marry her, after knowing her just a few hours, and she accepts. Her stubbornness to not accept Elsa’s reasoning for not blessing the marriage is what ultimately causes Elsa to reveal her powers and flee Arendelle. Because of this, Anna does feel guilty and responsible for trying to find Elsa and get the eternal winter thawed. When she speaks to Elsa, though, she ends up working Elsa up and is not able to calm her down again. Sometimes Anna just talks too much, and doesn’t have much of a filter when she does! Still, her sacrifice at the end of the film to save her sister shows how much she loves Elsa, despite being isolated from her, and this goes a long way to fixing their “sisterly bond”. Originally, Anna and Elsa were not sisters. Anna was going to be a peasant who went to the Snow Queen to ask for her broken heart to be frozen. This story idea was not working, and the team knew they needed to make it more personal, so it was suggested that they be sisters instead.

Anna spends much of her time in the film with Kristoff, Sven and Olaf. With Olaf, she is protective of him and his dreams to see summer, even though she is well aware that snowmen don’t exist in summer because they melt in the sun, and she is thankful to Olaf for helping her at the end, saving her from dying alone in a random room in the palace. With Kristoff, she has a funny relationship. They spend most of the film arguing and bickering with each other; they are quite different people after all. But somehow, they realise that they actually love each other. It’s pretty obvious this is the route that we are being led down throughout their scenes together, so the only people who are surprised by this “turn of events” are Anna and Kristoff themselves.

Kristen Bell voices the role of Anna. Though Anna is likely to be Bell’s most recognisable screen performance now, one of her earliest screen roles was as the title character in the mystery drama television series Veronica Mars (2004-07). Bell was also the voice of “Gossip Girl”, the narrator of the show, for the original run of Gossip Girl (2007-12) and its revival from 2021 to 2023. Another quite big film role before Frozen was Bell’s role as Sarah Marshall in the romantic comedy film Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) alongside Jason Segel and Mila Kunis. Since Frozen, as well as obviously reprising her voice role as Anna on numerous occasions, Kristen Bell starred in the lead role of Eleanor Shellstrop in the fantasy comedy series The Good Place (2016-20), alongside Ted Danson.

For her character, Kristen Bell brought a goofy side to Anna, with many of her expressions being taken from her recording sessions and put into Anna’s animation. Bell was very specific about wanting this quirky side to come across well in Anna, as Bell didn’t have the standard “princess personality” when she was that age, and wanted Anna to resonate with anyone who doesn’t feel like they quite “fit in”. Some examples of Anna being completely different from the regular Disney princess is that she falls over a lot, speaks without a filter, and even wakes up drooling and with messy hair – that is certainly not something Disney would normally represent in their “princess movies”, even though everyone looks like that in the morning! Bell also stated that as she has two older sisters, she could relate to Anna wanting to seek approval from Elsa, and wanting to be a part of her life, perhaps more than Elsa would like. Rebecca Bresee is the supervising animator for Anna, and as well as using characteristics from Kristen Bell for the character, Bresee used herself as reference material for Anna, recording herself acting through some of Anna’s scenes so she could accurately recreate the right sort of poses and facial expressions that someone like Anna would make in real-life. Bresee’s children also acted out some of the scenes of young Elsa and Anna to help in those animated sequences.

Elsa is the nervous, overwhelmed Queen of Arendelle, and the uptight sister of Anna. It’s not her fault she’s like that, though. Her parents taught her that it was better to conceal her powers than to be free with them, so Elsa has always felt like there’s a huge part of her that is “wrong” and must be hidden from everyone else so she can act “normal”. She is taught that her magic is dangerous and that other people will not be able to understand it. These can’t have been easy messages for Elsa to have lived her life by for so many years, and on top of that, she feels like she has to isolate herself from everyone to keep them safe from her. She spends most of the film keeping herself away from everyone, and only allows herself to be free with her magic when she is alone – but she loves having the freedom to be able to do that. When you start bringing people into that, with Anna showing up with Kristoff and Olaf, plus Hans and his search party, it’s no wonder she gets scared again and her powers start to become unpredictable. She just wants to not have to hide anymore, and wants to be accepted by her family and her kingdom. It’s so good to see at the end that she has learnt how to control her powers to suit everyone, including herself, and that after being persecuted and almost killed by different men with their own hidden agendas, Elsa is able to overcome all that, to be a good queen, and be a good sister to Anna. Elsa doesn’t have much interaction with Olaf, Kristoff or Sven in this movie.

Idina Menzel voices the role of Elsa, and continues to reprise that role in further Frozen projects, but Menzel is probably best known as the originating role of Elphaba in the musical Wicked, from 2003 until 2005. She won a Tony Award for this performance. Also on stage, Menzel performed the role of Maureen Johnson in the New York Theatre Workshop of Rent in 1994, and then went on to perform the role on stage from 1996 to 1997. She also reprised this role for the 2005 movie. But as well as this, Menzel played the role of Nancy Tremaine in Enchanted (2007) and its sequel Disenchanted (2022), and performed alongside Adam Sandler in the recent films Uncut Gems (2019) and You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah (2023).

Supervising animator for Elsa, Wayne Unten, wanted to animate Elsa as he felt that her inner turmoil and complex character arc would make her an interesting project for him. He said that when Idina Menzel was brought to the studios as part of her audition process, she ended up having to speak in front of about 80 people. Unten could see how nervous and overwhelmed she was by the experience, but that when it came to her singing, her strength came from that action, which is very similar behaviour that we see from Elsa. Elsa was originally going to be the villain of the film, and from concept art, she was going to a blue-skinned typical evil queen with a live weasel fur coat. There was even a scary villain’s song written for her, as she builds a terrifying snowman army to attack those who try to find her. In the end, thanks to the creation of “Let It Go”, with that being an emotional, vulnerable song, talking about her fears around her magic and her difficulties trying to be the “perfect girl”, Elsa was no longer written to be a villain, meaning that the majority of the whole film also had to be rewritten. She then became more of a “tortured hero” than a villain.

Kristoff is the grumpy, hard-to-get-close-to iceman who Anna encounters at Wandering Oaken’s shop. He must’ve had a tough childhood as, apart from Sven, his reindeer friend, he doesn’t seem to have a family until one of the trolls chooses to adopt both of them – at least, I hope he didn’t have a family and that he wasn’t kidnapped by the trolls…We don’t get to hear about his childhood here so who knows! Anyway, he grows up with Sven and his troll family, who he does seem happy around, but when he meets Anna, she seems to be the last person he’d ever want to talk to and ends up stuck with her, just to make sure she doesn’t get herself killed trying to travel to the North Mountain with no clue about the real world. If she dies, he’ll never get a new sled, after all! Eventually, he softens and does start to fall for Anna, though we still don’t hear him be particularly open about his life, or his hopes and dreams. He doesn’t even tell Anna what his favourite food is, or his foot size, or his best friend’s name, all things he moans that Anna doesn’t know about Hans and therefore can’t marry him! He has Sven, who is probably classed as his best friend, I guess, rightly or wrong. I personally don’t particularly like Kristoff, I don’t think Anna should’ve ended up with Hans, but I think she could do a bit better than Kristoff. He’s just too closed off, and since Anna clearly likes talking to people after her isolated childhood, I think she needs more in her life… But what do I know? I do think Sven is a cute reindeer, though. To animate Sven, Disney artists observed a real-life reindeer in the studio as reference material. They saw that reindeers can use their back legs to itch their ears, just like dogs do, so this behaviour was put into Frozen in one scene[1].

The voice of Kristoff and “Sven” is Jonathan Groff, who originated the role of Melchior Gabor in Spring Awakening from 2006 to 2008, alongside Glee (2009-15) star Lea Michele. Groff also had a recurring role as Jesse St James in Glee from 2010 to 2015. More recently, Groff is well-known for playing the part of King George III in the smash-hit musical Hamilton from 2015 to 2016; his performance can be seen in the film version of Hamilton (2020) as well. Groff has reprised his role as Kristoff, and Sven, in other Frozen projects. Groff said that though it was fun recording both Kristoff and Sven’s lines, he did feel like he was going a bit crazy as he did so.

Rounding out Anna’s “sidekicks” is the lovable Olaf. He is a bit dopey at times, but he is very cute, his laugh is particularly adorable. Everyone loves Olaf, don’t they? Hyrum Osmond – yes, of the famous Osmond family; his uncle is Donny Osmond – is the animator for Olaf, and he stated that Olaf is an animator’s dream, because, since he’s a snowman comprised of snowballs, he can be pulled apart and put back together in the wrong order; he can have his legs running away from his head; be impaled on icicles and think it’s hilarious, that sort of thing. Olaf has infinite numbers of animation possibilities. For Olaf’s childlike mannerisms, Osmond looked to his son for reference material to get that childish, innocent quality into Olaf.

Josh Gad, Olaf’s voice artist, gave everything into his recording sessions and is said to have very much enjoyed voicing the character[2]. He even won the Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement in Voice Acting for Olaf. As well as reprising Olaf in every Frozen project, Gad has had numerous stage and screen roles. On stage, Gad originated the role of Elder Cunningham in the musical The Book of Mormon (2011), for which he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor. Starring alongside him was Andrew Rannells. The two are currently performing together in the 2023 Broadway revival of Gutenberg! The Musical! As well as this, Gad currently voices the role of Birdie in, and is co-creator of, the musical animated sitcom series Central Park (2020-present). For some of his film roles, Gad played the role of LeFou in the live-action Beauty and the Beast (2017), Hector MacQueen in Murder on the Orient Express (2017) and “Headphones” in The Internship (2013).

When it comes to Hans, Anna is just so happy about the idea of falling in love, something she’d hoped would happy on Coronation Day because it was going to be one of the few days that Arendelle allowed visitors into the palace, that she doesn’t think about getting to know Hans or spending much time with him; she rushes into it, because she decides it feels right. This plays perfectly into Hans’ hands, who knew that he would not be able to get close to Elsa to marry her, but the relative ease it took to get Anna to accept his marriage proposal was probably much quicker than even he anticipated! The reveal of Hans as the villain was such a good twist, because who would ever think that the prince and the husband-to-be could possibly be faking his feelings just to take the kingdom of Arendelle for himself? Hans is just a selfish jerk, it’s as simple as that. Some say that they don’t like that Hans became the villain, saying that it was never foreshadowed and seemed forced. I disagree and felt it was a really good twist, and set up the final confrontation well. It also continued the trend of other “villain reveals” in other Disney and Pixar releases, like Wreck-It Ralph (2012), Big Hero 6 (2014), Zootopia (2016) and The Incredibles 2 (2017).

Santino Fontana voices the role of Hans – poor guy, he’s now known as voicing one of the most hated villains in Disney history! But this isn’t all he’s done. Fontana has numerous theatre credits, including originating the role of Tony Elliot in Billy Elliot the Musical on Broadway in 2008, Prince Topher in the 2013 Broadway production of Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Leading Actor, and originated the role of Michael Dorsey / Dorothy Michaels in the 2019 Broadway production of Tootsie. Fontana has reprised the role of Hans when required, though Hans does not appear in all of the Frozen-related spin-off projects.

A final note on casting is that Alan Tudyk, Disney’s “good luck charm”, voices the role of the Duke of Weselton, who is meant to be evil, but is mostly just someone to laugh at, as he’s too old and infirm to be that menacing. This was only Tudyk’s second role for Disney, with his first being King Candy in Wreck-It Ralph (2012), but he has gone on to voice a part in every Disney release that has followed. There are too many to list here, but he did voice Duke Weaselton, a parody of his Frozen character, in Zootopia (2016). Tudyk also voices Valentino in Wish (2023).

PRODUCTION

Some of the Frozen character names are a reference to author, Hans Christian Andersen. Obviously, there is Hans, then Kristoff, Anna and Sven. If you say all four one after the other, it kind of sounds right, and is a clever tribute to the writer of The Snow Queen, the story that Frozen is loosely based on. The tale was written in the early 1840s. It was apparently inspired by the story East of the Sun, West of the Moon, which is similar to Beauty and the Beast, with both being inspired by the tale of Cupid and Psyche. It is told in seven stories, with none of them baring any resemblance to the story of Frozen.

In the first story, a troll creates a mirror to distort beauty. This mirror breaks which spreads the evil glass all over the world, distorting people’s vision and making them see the worst in everything. The second story moves to Kay and Gerda, who are two poor children who are close friends. One day, Kay sees the Snow Queen in a window. Shortly after, fragments of the evil mirror’s glass enter his heart and eye, turning him into a heartless bully who abandons Gerda, and follows the Queen to the north. In the third story, Gerda is convinced Kay is still alive and sets out to find him, going on a boat down the river, where she meets a witch. In the fourth, Gerda encounters a prince and princess. Gerda believes the prince to be Kay, but he is not. The two help Gerda on her way the next day. The fifth story sees Gerda encounter a band of robbers, with one of the girls threatening to kill her. The following day, in the sixth tale, Gerda continues her journey where she encounters two old women who tell her the secret to saving Kay is her innocent heart. In the final tale, Gerda’s frozen breath turns into angels who defeat the Snow Queen’s guards, letting her enter the palace. There, she sees Kay alone and immobile on a frozen lake trying to solve a puzzle for the Snow Queen. If he can do this, the Queen promised to give him a pair of skates. This part of The Snow Queen is referenced in Frozen when Elsa gives Anna skates at the end of the film. Instead of finishing the puzzle, Gerda uses the power of her love to break the curse, and Kay and Gerda return home together[3].

Walt Disney had been interested in developing Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen from around the mid-1940s. He had planned to collaborate with producer Samuel Goldwyn, co-founder of MGM Studios, to make a biographical film about Hans Christian Andersen. MGM would’ve been involved in shooting the live-action footage, whilst the Disney Studios would’ve animated some of Andersen’s most famous works such as The Little Mermaid, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and, of course, The Snow Queen. Unfortunately, this movie never went further than initial planning.

In the 1970s, animator Marc Davis designed an attraction based on the story of The Snow Queen, to be developed for Disneyland and Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. The attraction was titled The Enchanted Snow Palace. It would’ve been housed in a big white and blue show building, made to look like a glacier. This was going to be a boat ride, whereby the boats went past animatronic polar bears, walruses and penguins, to the background music of Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker Suite”. The boats would then drift into a snow cave full of frost fairies and snow giants with ice clubs, before coming to the throne room of the Snow Queen. The Snow Queen would’ve conjured a blizzard, something the boats would get caught in, before calming down for the end of the ride. It was meant to be a literally cool attraction, good to cool down guests on some of the Disney Parks’ hottest days. As the estimated cost for the attraction was $15 million, it was never made.

But that wasn’t the last Disney heard of The Snow Queen, as the project kept being thought of every now and again. In 2002, the Disney Studios came close to adapting the story, with composer Alan Menken onboard to compose the songs, one of which was completed and called “Love Can’t be Denied”. Animator Glen Keane was also involved in this project. Then-CEO of the Walt Disney Company, Michael Eisner, thought about passing the project over to Pixar, but it was dropped altogether[4].

Different teams continued to pitch the idea through the 2000s, including Chris Buck, who had co-directed Tarzan (1999) as well as Frozen. Finally, after the success of Tangled (2010), a return to the Broadway musical style of Disney film but with a modern twist on its fairy tale source material, an adaptation of The Snow Queen was brought back into consideration as a CG movie. Jennifer Lee, who was one of the screenwriters for Wreck-It Ralph (2012), was brought on as a writer for Frozen, but then became co-director with Buck.

Adapting The Snow Queen, though, proved difficult, as it is a challenging story to make sense of, since much of the prose is quite poetic and the fact the story is split into seven parts makes it less cohesive of a plot than other fairy tales[5]. Because of this, the film went through many rewrites, with numerous scenes and character arcs ending up on the cutting room floor. The biggest of these was Elsa, the Snow Queen, who was going to be the villain of the film. In one scene from early drafts of the film, Elsa had a snowman army ready to attack the guards who were sent to her palace on the mountain to find Anna. She electrocuted the guards with her ice powers, and is clearly intent on destroying them. As mentioned earlier, once the song “Let It Go” was written, Elsa’s character development was flipped completely and she was no longer a villain. From these early drafts, Anna would’ve been more similar to the character of Gerda in the original tale.

Even when this element, and Anna and Elsa becoming sisters, had been decided, there were plenty of other changes that occurred. One of which was going to be a scene in Elsa’s room, with Anna borrowing some of her clothes and talking about what she was going to wear to Elsa’s Coronation, to show a typical sisterly relationship. It would’ve still shown Elsa not wanting to get too emotional and not wanting Anna to get close to her, like how she ended up in the final movie, but it was decided that it was better for the story to keep the sisters divided throughout the lives, so this scene was removed[6].

For the design of the movie, some of the Disney artists were sent out on a research trip to Norway, as it was decided that its vast and grand area would suit the story well. They looked at snowy hamlets and Norwegian fjords, thinking that the kingdom of Arendelle should be situated at the foot of one of these fjords. Rosemaling, a Scandinavian decorative painting style known for its floral designs and curves, was seen everywhere in Norway, in columns, ceilings, clothing etc., and so the team decided this had to be included in Frozen, and it is added to many different parts of Frozen, such as Elsa’s magic making curving patterns, and it being on many of the characters’ costumes, as well as within the castle.

Another thing Frozen would need was lots of snow! This is not something that had been particularly prominent in other Disney animated films at this point in time. So, another research trip was needed! Some of the artists went sent to have a “snow day” at Jackson Hole, Wyoming. They slid down hills, as Olaf does when they are racing back to Arendelle after they find Anna needs “true love’s kiss” to thaw her frozen heart, and looked at how snow reacts to people, and how people interact with snow. They also, both the men and the women, tested walking through the snow whilst wearing a big fabric skirt, as Anna does when she sets out to find Elsa, to see how that would need to look for the animation.

A huge design challenge was actually figuring out how Elsa’s ice palace should look. After much trial and error, and many different concept art paintings, it was decided that the ice palace should be built from the ground up, with the foundation of the six points of a snowflake. When Elsa stomps her foot during the “Let It Go” scene, you can see that the six-pointed snowflake appears under her feet, before building upwards from there, coming together like a puzzle, and then creating a ceiling. From this point, the chandelier comes down from the centre of the ceiling and takes us back to the ground. The rosemaling pattern is also prominent in the design of this palace. The whole palace took nine months to create, but the Design Team knew this was an important moment in the film and that it had to look spectacular, needing to show Elsa being free and empowered to use her magic at last.

MUSIC

Speaking of “Let It Go”, this turned out to be the biggest hit on the whole Frozen soundtrack, which I think Disney did expect, seeing as this song was re-recorded by Demi Lovato, a pop rendition of it, anyway, for the End Credits. This version was recorded and released in other languages, such as in Malaysian by Marsha Milan, and in Spanish by Martina Stoessel. All three of these artists also filmed music videos for the song, which were released as bonus features on the home release on Frozen.

But back to Idina Menzel’s film version of the song, written by husband-and-wife songwriting duo, Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, who wrote all eight songs in Frozen. The duo had written music for the 2011 Disney film, Winnie the Pooh, prior to Frozen. Robert Lopez had much success composing for musical stage shows, such as Avenue Q and The Book of Mormon. “Let It Go” was a huge success, becoming the first song from a Disney animated musical to reach the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 since 1995 when Vanessa William’s “Colors of the Wind” from Pocahontas (1995) peaked at number four; “Let It Go” peaked at number five. “Let It Go” only hit number 1 in the South Korean music charts and the Billboard US Dance Club Songs chart. But it did win numerous awards, including the Academy Award for Best Original Song, which led to Robert Lopez becoming one of a select group of people that have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony. The song also won the Grammy for Best Song Written for Visual Media. With its message of feeling free to be yourself, and the amazing vocal performance by Idina Menzel, it was obvious “Let It Go” would be Frozen’s standout hit, resonating with many people.

But that’s not all, as there are seven other songs to discuss. The first one is “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?”. It details Anna’s isolation and increasing distance from her sister, Elsa, as they grow up. It’s a good song for creating a backstory for the girls, and is particularly emotional at the end, when Anna and Elsa are dealing with the grief of suddenly losing both their parents. It’s hard not to feel emotional when listening to this song. As well as Kristen Bell singing as Anna at the end of the song, Jennifer Lee’s daughter, Agatha, sang as 9-year-old Anna, and Katie Lopez, the daughter of the songwriters, sang as 5-year-old Anna. Would you believe that this song was actually cut from the film and put back in on numerous occasions? There were a lot of Disney staff members who wanted to keep it, but as late into production as February 2013, it was felt during a screening that the song did not work and was removed. It would not be put back into the final film until quite close to its November release date. I’m sure many viewers are pleased that this decision was made[7].

The next song in the movie is “For the First Time in Forever”, sung by Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel. I particularly like the change in tone when Elsa begins to sing about her fears for the day, after Anna has been focused on how excited she is about it. It also showcases Anna’s funny, quirky personality, which is great. During this scene, there is a brief cameo of Rapunzel and Flynn entering the gates of Arendelle[8]. My favourite song in the whole soundtrack is “For the First Time in Forever (Reprise)”, when Anna is trying to calm Elsa down after she tells her Arendelle is completely frozen. Again, I like the “duelling voices” of the two, and Elsa’s final high note. Menzel and Bell’s voices blend very well together.

I am less enthusiastic about “Love Is an Open Door”, the customary romantic Disney duet, between Anna and Hans, and Olaf’s showtune of “In Summer”. They are catchy enough, with some memorable and funny lines, but I don’t love them. “Love Is an Open Door” does fit with the parody of princess relationships that Frozen makes fun of, though, so it is useful for that purpose; it makes you think you’re watching a normal Disney fairy tale film, but after this point, everything you thought was going to happen, i.e., Hans and Anna getting married and living happily ever after, is turned upside down. For “In Summer”, as cute as Olaf is with his dreams of summer, I don’t think it adds much to the film; it seems like it was added to give Josh Gad a chance to showcase his vocal talents – which are very good.

But there are three songs in Frozen that I think aren’t relevant to the story and I really don’t like. One of those is the first song: “Frozen Heart”, performed by the ice harvesters. I just don’t think this song or opening sequence is needed for the story and I’m not sure why it’s here: to add to the atmosphere of Norway and showcase the location, maybe? It foreshadows Anna’s “frozen heart”? I don’t know, but I feel like the movie could start from the point where Anna is waking Elsa up and it wouldn’t make any difference to the plot! Another one I don’t like is “Fixer Upper” from the trolls. It’s not that the song isn’t funny, but when the movie is about to take such a serious turn, it doesn’t feel like it fits well, as after this very upbeat, happy song, Anna is told she could die soon, and it was her sister’s fault… It’s just a bit strange. But the worst song for me is “Reindeer (s) Are Better Than People”, sung by Jonathan Groff as Kristoff (and Sven). It’s just strange and I don’t find it very funny – though I bet kids love it. It seems like it was only included so we could hear Groff’s singing voice, which, again, is very good – I’ve heard him on the Spring Awakening musical soundtrack – but I don’t think the song adds anything.

The score is composed by Christophe Beck, who has composed scores for other Disney movies such as The Muppets (2011) and Muppets Most Wanted (2014), as well as Frozen II (2019), and other films such as Trolls (2016) and The Hangover Trilogy (2009-13). Beck infused Norwegian musical influences into his score, which was recorded by an 80-piece orchestra, with 32 vocalists, including native Norwegian Christine Hals, who provided the authentic herding calls, or “kulning”, within some of the score’s tracks[9].

There a few instrumental pieces within the score that standout for me.  One of those is “Vuelie”, which features the vocal talents of Cantus, a Norwegian women’s choir. This is heard during the opening of the film, as the title card comes on. I love it; I think’s it’s so calming and relaxing, and the vocals are brilliant. Another is “Heimr Àrnadalr”, which is sung during Elsa’s Coronation; it sounds just like a Coronation piece. I hadn’t really noticed it until I re-watched the movie this week. I’m sad I’ve missed out on it for years. And obviously as I like “Vuelie”, I would like “The Great Thaw”, as it is a reprise of “Vuelie”. I tend to like the instrumentals that play during most Disney “finale” or transformation scenes!

Overall, Frozen has a good soundtrack and even the songs I don’t like are memorable and get stuck in my head often, which is actually really annoying! The album debuted at number 18 on the Billboard 200 chart, and topped the Billboard Album chart for thirteen non-consecutive weeks. It also peaked at number 1 on the UK Compilation Albums and UK Soundtrack Albums charts, as well as the Australian Albums, Canadian Albums, Chinese Albums, Irish Compilations, Japanese Albums and New Zealand Albums charts!

RECEPTION

Some buzz for Frozen was created via previews of the film, including Idina Menzel singing “Let It Go”, at the 2013 D23 Expo, as well as a teaser trailer being release in June 2013 of Olaf and Sven chasing Olaf’s carrot nose around on a frozen lake. Some of this animation was then used in the epilogue sequence of the final film. Merchandise lines were also released in early November, prior to the movie’s release, as well as character greetings being set up in Disneyland, Walt Disney World and Disneyland Paris. Segments from Frozen were added to their respective nighttime shows at the time: World of Color: Winter Dreams, Celebrate the Magic, and Disney Dreams! Of Christmas Show[10].

Frozen had its premiere at the El Capitan Theater in Los Angeles on 19^th November 2013. A 5-day limited release in select theatres began on 22^nd November 2013, before the film’s wide release on 27^th November 2013. Frozen was released alongside the short Get a Horse! (2013), a Mickey Mouse short reminiscent of the traditional cartoons of Walt Disney’s era, featuring a mixture of black-and-white and colour animation, characters from the late 1920s Mickey Mouse cartoons, and even Walt Disney as the voice of Mickey Mouse.

Another fun fact. If you watch all of the End Credits, you can read this odd disclaimer: “The views and opinions expressed by Kristoff in the film that all men eat their own boogers are solely his own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Walt Disney Company or the filmmakers.”[11] Weird, right?

Frozen received critical acclaim, with its storyline, mixing traditional fairy tale themes with modern themes of female empowerment, its animation and its songs being particularly praised. Its universe appeal and message of accepting yourself are other points that were mentioned. Some critics did, however, feel it was slightly hypocritical to include so many male supporting characters in a movie that should’ve been focused on its two female leads; I personally don’t agree with this comment, but it shows the differing opinions. However, I do agree that Anna and Elsa were designed with that typical Disney “perfect princess” body type, i.e., tiny waist, skinny build, long legs. This is in contrast to the female empowerment message, and their more modern attitudes and behaviours. It’s not a great message to be sending out to children, that to be considered as “pretty as a princess”, you must be slim and have massive eyes, but this used to be the standard Disney body shape for the majority of their female protagonists. Disney has begun to make their female leads much more natural and diverse in their sizing in their more recent movie releases.

LEGACY

After the movie’s release, Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez returned to the world of Frozen to write a musical number with Josh Gad, Jonathan Groff and Kristen Bell called “The Making of Frozen”. The music video took place inside the Disney Animation Building and was directed by Kenny Ortega, who directed the High School Musical trilogy (2006-08). It was added as a bonus feature on the DVD and Blu-Ray where I stupidly believed it was an actual behind-the-scenes documentary. Imagine how disappointed I was! But there was a documentary about the making of the movie, a special released on ABC in September 2014, which was interesting. Towards the end of the television special, those who worked on the film discussed the mania around Frozen, mostly around the endless social media buzz. They also previewed a scene from Big Hero 6 (2014), where I discovered that Chris Williams, one of the directors on Big Hero 6, actually voiced the part of the upbeat shopkeeper in Frozen, Oaken[12]. The show also announced a sequel short to Frozen, Frozen Fever (2015). It was released alongside the theatrical release of Cinderella (2015).

This leads me to Frozen’s screen spin-offs. Frozen Fever (2015) followed on one year after the events of the first movie, detailing Elsa’s celebrations for Anna’s birthday, though the festivities are halted by Elsa’s sudden cold, whereby her sneezes result in “snowgies”, little snowmen, being created! I like the specially written song, “Making Today a Perfect Day”, written by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez. The cameo of Hans at the end being hit by a giant snowball is also very funny! Following on from that, in 2017, the 20-minute short film Olaf’s Frozen Adventure was released in 3D alongside some theatrical screenings of Pixar’s Coco (2017). This is my favourite of the Frozen spin-offs, and follows Olaf as he tries to find holiday traditions that Anna and Elsa might like to participate in, since they don’t have any of their own due to their isolated childhoods. When all looks lost, with all of Olaf’s well-thought-out plans being destroyed by fire, wolves and getting lost, the residents of Arendelle all go out to look for him. They find him and celebrate the holidays all together, revealing that Olaf was the girls’ holiday tradition. The soundtrack here is particularly great, especially the songs “Ring in the Season” and “When We’re Together”, which can be heard as part of some Frozen Holiday Season shows at the Disney Parks. The four original songs in the short film were written by Elyssa Samsel and Kate Anderson. Christophe Beck returned to compose the score. It was directed by Kevin Deters and Stevie Wermers, both of whom directed the Prep & Landing short films (2009-11).

A sing-along edition of Frozen was also released in 2014. As well as this, Frozen II was of course released in 2019, and a Frozen 3 is apparently in the works too. Finally on screen, the characters from Frozen – Anna, Elsa and Kristoff – were added to the first half of Season 4 of ABC’s series Once Upon a Time (2011-18) in 2014. It’s a very interesting storyline, including elements from Frozen and The Snow Queen tale, but with the usual twist.

Frozen has also been the basis of multiple video games and board games, books and comics, as well as multiple merchandise lines. The story of Frozen has also been included within Disney on Ice, with a combined Frozen & Encanto show debuting in 2022, and a Broadway musical of the show premiered in 2018. The West End production opened in September 2021, but other international versions and tours have been ongoing since 2020, like in Australia, Japan, Germany and Norway.

So, to the Disney Parks. Now, there is a lot of Frozen-related and inspired attractions, shows and entertainment here, so I will not be going into huge amounts of detail on each area, because there is too much!

In September 2014, Disney announced that Maelstrom, the attraction housed within the Norway pavilion of Epcot at Walt Disney World would be closing to make way for a new attraction titled Frozen Ever After, which follows guests on a summer snow day journey through the forest, past trolls and up the North Mountain to visit Elsa in her ice palace. It features characters from Frozen and the snowgies from Frozen Fever (2015). New lyrics were created based on the original Frozen songs and the voice cast returned. Frozen Ever After opened on 21^st June 2016, after much outcry from Epcot fans who felt the true meaning of Epcot was being lost forever with all these “IP” inclusions and loses the meaning of World Showcase. It is correct that Frozen is not set in Norway specially, but was only inspired by the country and its landscapes, so I can see both sides of the argument, for and against the ride[13]. But I really like the ride, and as it follows the same track as Maelstrom, the original attraction has not been lost completely; the original puffins also remain in the ride.

Entire Frozen-themed lands have, or will soon be opening at Hong Kong Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, and Disneyland Paris. Hong Kong’s World of Frozen opened on 20^th November 2023, with Wandering Oaken’s Sliding Sleighs, an exclusive ride to Hong Kong Disneyland, at least for now, and Frozen Ever After, similar to Epcot’s ride being the primary attractions there. At Tokyo Disneyland as part of their Fantasy Springs expansion which opened in June 2024, as well as a recreation of Arendelle village and the castle, there are two food outlets: a snack stand named Oaken’s OK Foods, and the quick-service restaurant Royal Banquet of Arendelle located inside Arendelle Castle. The most exciting part of the Frozen land, though, is the ride Anna and Elsa’s Frozen Journey. It is not a copy of Frozen Ever After, but instead takes guests through the events of the movie and contains some very complex and impressive animatronics. Another Frozen land will appear at Walt Disney Studios Park at Disneyland Paris named Kingdom of Arendelle. It is due to open in 2025, but it is unclear what attractions will exist there.

Another Frozen-themed attraction to be based at multiple Disney Parks is For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration. It debuted at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World in 2014 as part of their Frozen Summer Fun event, before moving to its permanent location within the Hyperion Theater in Echo Lake in June 2015. It replaced the former The American Idol Experience show.  There is also currently a version of the show, Frozen: A Sing-Along Celebration, at Shanghai Disneyland, since 2016. Both shows feature a mix of clips from the movie, along with singalong subtitles, and live performers. A similar concept, but without specific singalong instructions, can be seen at Disneyland Paris, under the name Frozen: A Musical Invitation. Other singalong shows existed at Disney California Adventure and Hong Kong Disneyland but these were short-lived. There was Frozen – Live at the Hyperion, an hour-long Broadway-style show, detailing the story of Frozen at Disney California Adventure from 2016 to 2020 though.

In terms of meet-and-greets, some Disney Parks have set up permanent meet-and-greet locations. At Walt Disney World, originally Anna and Elsa were resident princesses at Princess Fairytale Hall, until 2016 when they were then moved to their own custom-built location, Royal Sommerhus at the Norway pavilion in Epcot. At Disney California Adventure, the two can be seen at Anna & Elsa’s Royal Welcome location. It would seem at Hong Kong Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, and Shanghai Disneyland, that the two are likely to appear at times around the castle areas. For Olaf, he has a specific meet-and-greet location at Disneyland Paris simply called Meet ‘n’ Greet Olaf at Walt Disney Studios Park, and at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Celebrity Spotlight, near to the singalong show location.

For the men of Frozen, they are not as easy to find at the Disney Parks. Kristoff used to be available for meet-and-greets, with him appearing in 2017 at both Walt Disney World and at Disneyland for a limited time, alongside Olaf generally. In 2021, he was spotted with Sven meeting and greeting at Animation Celebration, where the Frozen show is held, at Disneyland Paris. Hans is a little bit easier to find, at least over on the West Coast, as he made his debut there during the Disney Merriest Nites event at Disneyland in 2021. He was seen more recently in June 2023 at Character Close-Up, or Anna and Elsa’s Royal Welcome. Hans was also a part of the villains’ line-up at the Oogie Boogie Bash Halloween event. Hopefully, Hans will become a part of other Halloween events across all the Disney Parks. But if you don’t get to see your favourite Frozen character in person, they are likely to be featured on parade floats, including ones during the holiday season. Clips and songs from the movie can also be seen and heard during most Disney Parks’ nighttime shows or projection shows.

A stage show that features Olaf quite heavily is Mickey and the Wondrous Book at Hong Kong Disneyland and Mickey’s Storybook Adventure at Shanghai Disneyland. These are live theatre shows, featuring Disney songs and appearances by many Disney characters. There are Frozen-themed hotel suites available to book at the Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel, and Anna and Elsa makeover packages are available for little princesses at the Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boutique locations. I also learnt that Tike’s Peak, the children’s area of Walt Disney World’s Blizzard Beach waterpark, has been themed to Frozen. It features figures of Olaf and the snowgies in one location, and young Anna and Elsa in an igloo fortress. I had no idea about this. On a final note around Disney Entertainment, I will also just say that Frozen and its characters feature within the Disney Cruise Line entertainment, and that there have been special Frozen-themed events previously, general and ticketed.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Frozen became one of the most popular and beloved Disney animated movies of all time. After only ten years, it still makes an impact and is still an easy franchise to choose for spin-offs, merchandise, and theme park expansion. Since its release, Frozen is no longer the highest-grossing animated film, but is now fourth, having been beaten by The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023); its own sequel Frozen II (2019); and then the “live-action” remake, The Lion King (2019). But Frozen kept its title for six years. It has also now fallen to 21^st on the list of highest grossing films ever; that is still a big deal for a Disney animated film.

Not since The Lion King (1994) had a Disney animated movie created such hype. It has been quite a crazy ride for the film. Though this has made me less enthusiastic about Frozen than I perhaps might have been, I can’t help but like it anyway. Not as much as some people, but I’m a-ok with the Frozen franchise expanding a little bit more.

If you can’t stand Frozen, I’d keep away from the movies and the theme parks for a very long time. Otherwise, you might want to get onboard and “let it go”, because Frozen isn’t going anywhere any time soon. Sorry!

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Frozen (2013)’, pp. 157-160.

[2] Credit: Disney, The Story of Frozen: Making A Disney Animated Classic (2014).

[3] Credit: Mari Ness, ‘Fairy Tale Subversion: Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen”, Tor.com, 23^rd June 2016.

[4] Credit Jim Korkis, ‘Jim’s Attic – Snow Queen Ride’, AllEars.net, 7^th May 2014.

[5] Credit: Mark Harrison, ‘Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee interview: on making Frozen’, DenofGeek.com, 5^th December 2013.

[6] Credit: Disney, “Deleted Scenes”, from Frozen (2013), Blu-Ray 2-Movie Collection (2020).

[7] Credit: Disney, The Story of Frozen: Making A Disney Animated Classic (2014).

[8] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Frozen (2013)’, pp. 157-160.

[9] Credit: Jim Fanning, The Disney Book: A Celebration of the World of Disney (2016), ‘Melting Hearts’, pp. 110-113.

[10] Credit: Jennifer Fickley-Baker, ‘This Week in Disney Parks Photos: ‘Frozen’ Fun Debuts at Disney Parks’, DisneyParks.com, 23^rd November 2013.

[11] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Frozen (2013)’, pp. 157-160.

[12] Credit: Disney, The Story of Frozen: Making A Disney Animated Classic (2014).

[13] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘A Friday Visit with Jim Korkis: Frozen Ever After and Norway’, YourFirstVisit.net, date unknown.

1. BACKGROUND
2. PLOT
3. CHARACTERS & CAST
4. PRODUCTION
5. MUSIC
6. RECEPTION
7. LEGACY
8. FINAL THOUGHTS
9. REFERENCES

BACKGROUND

Moana was the second Disney movie to have been set around the Pacific islands, after Lilo & Stitch (2002), which was located in Hawaii. Unlike Lilo & Stitch, Moana is another “princess musical” film from Disney Animation, yet it is different even to other fairy-tale stories made by Disney in the 2010s.

Moana has absolutely no focus on any romantic connections in Moana’s life throughout the movie. If we look at Tangled (2010) and even Frozen (2013), romantic interests may take a backseat to the strong heroines of the movie, but they are still there.

They do all have something in common and that is that they parody their fairy-tale format which became rooted in Disney history, thanks to the Disney Renaissance Era from 1989 to 2000: just think of the line “Anna, you can’t marry a man you just met”. Within Moana, Moana is teased by demi-god Maui for being a “princess”, because she wears a dress and has an animal sidekick, Heihei, the dumb rooster. He also expects her to spontaneously burst into song at times, which she does, but not in front of him!

I really like Moana. I first watched it in the cinema when it was released at the end of 2016. I loved it then, especially the soundtrack which I would constantly play, and then saw it many more times, either on Blu-Ray or on television. I even went to see it in a drive-in movie setting! However, I hadn’t watched Moana for a few years until this week, but I was pleased to say that I did still enjoy it as much as I remembered.

PLOT

Moana follows the story of a young girl, torn between her duty to her village, being the next in line to be chief, and her love of the ocean. Moana lives on an island called Motunui, an island within the Pacific. She was chosen by the ocean from a very young age to fulfil a task, but has been kept away from it by her father, Chief Tui. The task comes as a result of a poor decision by demi-god Maui. Many years ago, he stole “the Heart of Te Fiti”, a stone which allowed Te Fiti to create lands and make them prosperous. Maui was then hunted by Te Kā, a volcanic demon, shortly afterwards. He lost the heart as well as his magical fish-hook and disappeared, though many still hunt for the heart. Moana was given the heart by the ocean one day, though she dropped it when her father came to find her.

Chief Tui wants Moana to focus on becoming a great chief and taking over some of his responsibilities. Though Moana spends much of her childhood trying to get in the ocean and sail out beyond the reef, it is forbidden and she gradually comes to accept her lot in life. One day, Moana is being told that the villagers are struggling to find food: fish aren’t coming to their nets, and the coconut trees have become diseased. Moana decides that they must sail out beyond the reef to find food, but Chief Tui angrily refuses to allow it.

Moana is angry with her father, though her mother, Sina, tells her he is just scared as his friend drowned out at sea after him and her father went out there one day as children. Moana decides to prove she can sail out there, even if Tui cannot, but she finds that the ocean is not her friend today and her canoe is consumed by a large wave. Moana’s leg becomes trapped in coral, but she manages to free herself and makes it back to shore. Her grandmother, Tala, finds her and promises not to tell her father. Instead, Tala leads Moana to a cave and is told to bang the drum to find out about their ancestors. Moana learns that their ancestors were voyagers and that the cave is full of canoes, so they could sail again. Tala gives Moana the Heart of Te Fiti, which she picked up that day after seeing the ocean choose her. She tells her to find Maui and get him to restore the heart; he is said to be found under the “fish hook” in the stars. She excitedly goes to tell her father, interrupting a village meeting. Tui does not listen and threatens to burn all the canoes; however, Tala is taken ill and the two rush to her side. Tala tells Moana to go and complete her mission. She gives Moana her locket and places the heart within it. Moana tearfully leaves, with her mother’s approval. As Moana is about to cross the reef, the spirit of a ray, Tala’s spirit animal, crosses under her, showing that her grandmother’s spirit is still with her, despite her death.  

After some struggles with the canoe, as Moana doesn’t know how to sail or navigate, plus she has the added distraction of Heihei, the rooster, stowing away with her, they end up crash-landing on an island after a storm. This is where they meet Maui. Moana has unknowingly made it to his island; the ocean must have helped her. Maui is pleased to have found a boat so he can sail away to find his fish-hook, but has no intention of returning the Heart of Te Fiti. He traps Moana in a cave, hoping to never see her again, but Moana frees herself and the ocean carries her over to the canoe. No matter how hard Maui tries, Moana keeps being returned to the canoe. Maui warns Moana to not talk about the heart, but Moana doesn’t listen and soon they are surrounded by “Kakamora”, a group of vicious coconut-pirates. They steal Heihei, as he has eaten the Heart, with Maui wanting just to escape. Moana doesn’t allow him to, and retrieves Heihei and the heart. The two then make a deal to find his fish hook and then go to Te Fiti together.

The fish hook lies within the Realm of Monsters, or Lalotai. They travel to the entry point and jump down into a huge hole. Moana bounces down further than expected, and Maui looks for his hook, not bothered by Moana’s fate. Moana manages to free herself from the monsters and meets up with Maui at the lair of Tamatoa. The hook is on the back of his shell. Moana is used to distract Tamatoa, by getting him to talk about himself and his love of all things shiny. Maui steals back his hook and tries to use its shape-shifting powers, but it does not work properly and he is caught by Tamatoa. Moana saves him by covering a barnacle in algae, making it look like the Heart of Te Fiti. Tamatoa runs to get it, but soon realises he was duped. Moana and Maui manage to escape via a well-timed geyser.

Maui is sad that his hook doesn’t seem to be working properly but Moana encourages him to practise with it, and sure enough, he can use it again. At the same time, Maui teaches Moana about sailing and navigating. They soon reach Te Fiti, where Maui takes the heart, and starts to attack Te Kā. Him and his fish hook are hit, and it looks like they will lose the battle if they continue. Maui wants to turn back but Moana believes they can make it through a gap in the rocks. It doesn’t work and they are pushed far back into the ocean again. Maui is so angry with Moana that he transforms into a hawk and flies away, leaving her alone. Moana tells the ocean it chose the wrong person, and the ocean takes the Heart back sadly. Soon, Moana is joined by the spirit of her grandmother, who tells her it’s alright to go back if she wants, but Moana hesitates, knowing that she must complete the mission. Emboldened, she swims down and retrieves the heart, repairs the canoe and heads back to Te Fiti alone. She tries to get past the Barrier Islands, knowing that Te Kā cannot touch the water on the other side. Moana gets through but the canoe is thrown over by a shot of lava from Te Kā. Maui arrives to help, having changed his mind, and goes to attack Te Kā, using a variety of shape-shifting animals to distract it. Maui uses his final chance with the hook to overpower Te Kā, and sure enough, the hook is destroyed. Moana has found the site of Te Fiti, but the island is not there. She then realises that Te Kā is actually Te Fiti. She calls Te Kā to her, and returns her heart.

Te Kā transforms into Te Fiti, very thankful to Moana for restoring her heart. She reverts the darkness that had been taking over other islands, and even gets Maui a new fish hook, despite her initial disappointment that he stole her heart in the first place! They are also given a new boat, and Moana returns to Motunui a hero, where she becomes a great chief and leads the others in voyaging again, as their ancestors did.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Obviously, Moana is the lead character; her name is the title of the movie after all! Moana is a very likable character. She is strong, brave, and independent, yet is also very caring and has a sense of duty and family.  Moana may want to go out into the ocean, but she accepts that it has been forbidden by her father eventually. She becomes very helpful to her village during this time; she fixes roofs, teaches the children to dance, and comes up with solutions for problems, though Moana is aware that there is no escaping the darkness that is threatening their island and destroying their food sources. This is when she decides things must change and that they have no option but to go out to another island to save themselves. This is when she finds out from her grandmother that by restoring “the Heart of Te Fiti”, she can defeat the darkness once and for all. Her grandmother encourages her to go and complete the mission that the ocean chose her for when she was just a baby. Though it upsets Moana to leave her family, she knows she must go on. Throughout her journey, Moana overcomes obstacles and difficulties, always seeming optimistic, even when Maui is being the complete opposite, not wanting anything to do with her. Even though Moana loses her courage for a brief moment, her grandmother again guides her to the right decision, which shows how much Moana loves her family and knows what is ultimately the right thing to do. Moana succeeds as we all knew she would from the start, and is a hero for it, not only fixing the ultimate problem affect the islands, but also encouraging her village to go back to voyaging as they used to, being able to move forward in life. Moana may be a princess-type role, but she is certainly one of the good role models to have.

Moana is voiced by Auli’i Cravalho. Cravalho was born and grew up in Hawaii. She never expected to make her acting debut in something as big as Moana. The Disney team had an open call for the character, and on their last day in Hawaii, they said she stood out, with her singing being a particular highlight of her voice performance. Cravalho felt good being involved in a film about her culture and reprised her role for the film’s Hawaiian-language version. She has since gone on to star in the drama series Rise (2018), performed the part of Ariel in the TV special The Little Mermaid Live! (2019), and acted in the Hulu comedy film Crush (2022). She played the role of Janis in the new version of Mean Girls (2024).

Maui is the supporting character to Moana. He comes across as very braggy and arrogant at the start, although quite lovable at the same time. Maui’s whole life story is tattooed over his body, detailing the accomplishments that the demi-god has fulfilled during his lifetime to help people, such as pulling islands up from the sea. His “Mini-Maui” tattoo is like his very own Jiminy Cricket, a conscience that pulls him back from making poor decisions or being too confident. We get some backstory to Maui during the movie, after he has retrieved his fish hook. It turns out that Maui was born mortal and was thrown into the ocean by his parents who did not want him. He was found by the gods, who gave him the magical fish-hook. It then turns out that Maui making all these amazing things happen was just to try and win approval from people as he doesn’t believe he is worthy of anything. Maui also thinks that the fish-hook is the only reason he has any meaning whatsoever and that without it, he is nothing. This is clearly why he struggles after finding that his shape-shifting powers aren’t working right when he gets the hook back, and why he won’t sacrifice it to help Moana the first time they fight Te Kā. He soon realises, with Moana’s help, that he is a good person and that he is more than just whatever power the gods gave him. If nothing else, this experience helps him and Moana become true friends.

Maui is voiced by wrestler-turned-actor, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. I’m pretty sure the whole world knows who he is, but Johnson has starred in multiple movies and franchises such as the Fast and Furious franchise from 2011 as the character Luke Hobbs, as well as Spencer in the new Jumanji movies (2017-present). For Disney, Johnson made multiple guest appearances in Disney Channel series in the mid-2000s, such as Hannah Montana (2007), and starred in the movie Jungle Cruise (2021). Johnson also created, produced and starred in the partly-autobiographical television series Young Rock (2021-present). Johnson was the only person Disney had in mind for the character of Maui, partly because, as Maui says so many things that could come across as narcissistic, they needed someone so lovable as a person that it wouldn’t matter what he was saying! Johnson was happy to voice the role as an opportunity to showcase his culture as he is Samoan[1].

Tala is probably the next most important character in the movie, as she is the one to guide Moana to her destiny. Tala and Moana have a very close relationship, partly because they are quite similar; both of them don’t follow the crowd and have their own opinions. Tala is known as “the village crazy lady”; she tells legends of the lands, and stories of their ancestors despite Chief Tui’s, her son, insistence that she stop as she scares the children – all except Moana, anyway. Moana wants to follow her love of the ocean, which she shares with Tala. Tala is both a fun figure and a caring one for Moana. She encourages Moana to be whatever she wants to be – and to take what her father tells her to do with a pinch of salt!

Tala is voiced by New Zealand actress and director Rachel House. She has starred in films such as Boy (2010) and White Lies (2013), as well as in TV series such as Heartbreak High (2022-present). For Disney and Pixar, House has performed the voice roles of Terry in Soul (2020) and Mama Binturong in The Lion Guard (2019), and reprised her role of Tala in the Māori-language version of Moana.

Then there are Moana’s parents, Tui and Sina. Tui is Chief of the village. He is overprotective, wanting Moana to keep out of the ocean so she will stay safe. He does it because he cares about her, though it is a bit awkward hearing him say “and no-one leaves”, within the song “Where You Are” because why shouldn’t someone leave the island if they want to? Sina is Moana’s mother, who feels a bit stuck in the middle of the two of them, as she wants to be supportive of both of them. Though Sina does not feature too much in the film, when we see her watching Moana pack up to leave, you almost think that she’s going to convince Moana to stay – but Sina does the opposite, and helps her pack everything she needs. Sina obviously knows that Moana is not happy on the island, and most follow her heart in doing what she thinks is right for her and them.

Tui is voiced by New Zealand actor Temuera Morrison, who is currently playing the role of Tom Curry in the DC Extended Universe, and portrays and voices Boba Fett in Star Wars projects such as The Mandalorian (2020-23) and The Book of Boba Fett (2021-22). Tui’s singing voice is provided by Christopher Jackson, who originated the role of George Washington in the musical Hamilton (2015-16). Sina is voiced by singer and actress Nicole Scherzinger of The Pussycat Dolls fame. Scherzinger also reprised the role of Sina in the Hawaiian-language version of Moana. She was born in Hawaii.

Tamatoa is the shiny-thing loving coconut crab who resides within the Realm of Monsters. He loves to talk about himself and collects new items to store on his shell so he can be fabulous and beautiful. But don’t be fooled by his appearance, because he is still the villain of this piece. As well as being huge, he has no problems with attacking anyone who comes into his lair, and threatening to kill Moana is just one of those times, I’m sure!. New Zealand actor and comedian Jemaine Clement voices the role of Tamatoa. He is one half of the musical comedy duo Flight of the Concords, alongside Bret McKenzie, founded in 1998. They have released multiple albums and had a comedy series of the same name from 2007 to 2009. Clement has also starred in numerous films and TV series including as Boris the Animal in Men in Black 3 (2012) and as Dr. Ian Garvin in Avatar: The Way of Water (2022). Tamatoa has a small “End Credits” scene, where he is still lying on his back, asking the audience if they could help him, saying that if his name was Sebastian and he had a cool Jamaican accent, then we would, clearly referencing Sebastian from The Little Mermaid (1989), another famous Disney crab! Although a villain in Moana, Tamatoa is still incredibly funny as a villain, and he is very different to many other Disney villains

On to the non-speaking characters in Moana, the ocean is a character of its own in Moana; it can gesture, so we can tell what it is trying to communicate, and becomes a good friend to Moana, helping her on her journey in many ways. We also have Heihei and Pua, Moana’s animal sidekicks. Pua is Moana’s loyal pet pig, who, unfortunately, misses out on this great adventure, only appearing in the first part of the movie in Motunui, though he does get to go out on the canoe for Moana’s first voyage attempt, which does not end well! The lack of appearances by Pua was one of the biggest complaints that came out of Moana. In early stages of the movie, Pua was going to go out on the trip, but this was changed to him being left on the beach, partly for his own safety and so that Moana could be isolated without the comfort of him, so she’d have to stand on her own two feet[2]. But Moana still did have a pet sidekick to keep her company, Heihei. Heihei is a silly rooster, who stowed away on Moana’s voyage, and he does not enjoy being out on the water. Moana has to rescue him multiple times, as he keeps falling in the ocean. He’s not a smart rooster by any means, but he is the comedic relief of the movie. Heihei is “voiced” by Disney veteran and lucky charm, Alan Tudyk, who has had roles in every Disney movie release since Wreck-It Ralph (2012). Tudyk is the only member of the voice cast to not have any heritage within the Pacific islands. Originally, Heihei and Pua were going to be modelled after directors John Musker and Ron Clements, as they have “appeared” in many of the previous films they have directed for Disney, such as Aladdin (1992) and Hercules (1997). This was then changed after Pua was kept on the beach and when Heihei was made to be more stupid[3]! Instead, the two directors feature printed on a cloth (tapa) during the song “Where You Are”.

The final characters, or should that just be character, to mention is Te Kā and Te Fiti. Te Kā seems to be the main villain of the movie, the lava demon, but in actual fact Te Kā is just Te Fiti, wanting her heart back. It’s a surprise villain twist, I suppose, and one that I was surprised by when I first watched, though it does make sense! Of course, she’d be angry that someone stole her heart. But all is well in the end, with Te Fiti reversing all the damage that has been caused by the unfortunate event. She is a benevolent goddess, forgiving Maui quite quickly for all the problems he caused! I think she understands why he did it – to try and win further approval from the humans – so I’m sure that helped.  

PRODUCTION

The idea for Moana came about from a discussion with John Lasseter, Chief Creative Officer of Disney Animation at the time, who suggested that Clements and Musker make a film based in the Pacific Islands. The two directors were happy to look into this idea further and went on a three-week research trip with some other members of the team. They went to Fiji, Samoa, Tahiti, as well as some of the smaller islands around those areas, before ending the trip in New Zealand. Whilst on this trip, they experienced many things, such as being taken out on a traditional canoe. Their guide, Angel, told them about the ocean not being a barrier to each other on the islands but something that connects them, showing how big a role the ocean plays in their culture. Angel told them to speak gently and calmly to the ocean. This was a driving force in ensuring that the ocean was a character within Moana.

Moana was originally not going to be the main character of the movie; Maui was going to be. They moved over to the idea fairly early on, with Moana (which means “ocean” in Polynesian) having dreams of being a navigator, since that was such an important part of the ancestry of the area. 3000 years ago, navigators migrated from Taiwan and moved eastward. They went to the islands of Fiji and Samoa, before the migrations suddenly stopped. 1,000 years later they suddenly began again, going eastward once more to areas such as New Zealand. This gap in the timeline, called “The Long Pause” was used as the setting of the film, with Moana being the driving force for the migrations happening again. For the act of navigation, the team at Disney learnt the correct hand positing, whilst also detailing the importance of star and cloud patterns, getting as much information as they could into the film.

Disney also learnt how spiritual music and singing, along with dancing, is to the people of the Pacific islands. They listened to the communities singing, especially in church, and how they interacted whilst doing so. They learnt about the origins of the Haka which is featured in a couple of scenes with Maui. Tattoos are a rite of passage in the area, taking days to complete, and being quite painful, but they are incredibly important to the culture. As Maui is covered in tattoos, they had to be respectful of the traditions of tattooing whilst also letting them show Maui’s life story in a way that was easy for the audience to understand.

Another important aspect to include was the respect for nature. It is a vital message in the Pacific islands that you do not own the land and that it must be nurtured. No materials are wasted, with the coconut tree being a great example of that, with uses such as food, drink, fire and building materials. This is detailed within the song and scene of “Where You Are”. Family is also of great importance in the movie, as the team at Disney saw how close the communities are, by sharing meals together, welcoming in others with such warmth, always being kind and sincere, telling stories and legends.

Through this research trip, Disney established the Oceanic Story Trust, where field experts and groups of individuals from the Pacific areas were brought in to discuss their local culture as research for the film. The locals felt respected and were glad to see that Disney cared enough about their culture to involve them multiple times, with changes even being made based on their input. For example, Maui was going to be bald, however the Oceanic Story Trust said that he has long hair and that it is part of his power, so the character was changed to have long, flowing hair. Another point was that after Moana argues with Chief Tui, she was going to smash coconuts out of anger, but it was quickly pointed out that no-one from that area would ever do that, so instead, she throws sticks into the sand.

The Disney team came back changed and wanted to ensure that the audience felt some of the things they had done, like being connected to nature and having a strong sense of community, whilst watching the movie. They also hoped that those of the area would see themselves in the movie and that they would see that it was done respectfully[4].

Many scenes were storyboarded and then deleted from the final release. One idea was that Moana was going to have six brothers, with her father not seeing that she could do just as much as they could, as well as having her already be a great navigator and sailor in Motunui. These were ultimately changed to make her an only child and to give her the opportunity to use this new adventure as a chance to learn navigation skills; it made her journey more interesting to have her overcome obstacles. Grandmother Tala and Chief Tui would also have featured more, discussing Moana’s future and what was right for her. A song was written by Lin-Manuel Miranda and deleted, titled “Warrior Face”, which had some basis in the Haka, and would have had Maui teaching Moana how to look strong before they faced the Realm of Monsters. It was written whilst Miranda was performing Hamilton; the demo even used some of the cast of the musical such as Christopher Jackson (George Washington) and Phillipa Soo (Eliza)[5]. 

As there are no photo references from 3,000 years ago, when Moana is set, the team had to guess what kind of pieces may have been worn then when deciding on the costumes for the characters. They spent time looking at the fashions of the Polynesian and Pacific islands, coming up with concepts of different pieces, before putting them together to make full costumes. Moana had to wear something functional, not just pretty, as she spends much of the movie sailing. They found that tree bark was softened and made into textiles, so a top based on that methodology was used for Moana, with the skirts being made from dried material as well. Flowers were used to accessorise, especially in the case of Moana’s mother. The team ensured that time was taken in choosing these pieces, and that they were careful to treat the culture with respect, with meaning placed into every detail[6].

For specific elements in Moana, much time was taken with those of water, lava, and hair. For the water, they had to develop software to be able to have the ocean interact with Moana. This was called “Splash”. The scene of baby Moana interacting with the ocean was actually an internal demonstration for the system, but as it was such a great scene, the movie was rewritten to include it! Making the ocean a character took a lot of work but made a huge difference to the movie. For the lava of Te Kā, the character was created as a mannequin to get the basic shape, before the effects of smoke and lava were layered onto it. It was difficult recreating the natural phenomena correctly, to make Te Kā a living, imposing volcano, but they succeeded. Hair was another big, but fun, challenge for Disney. Hair had been an important part of other Disney characters such as Ariel and Pocahontas, but hair is harder to deal with correctly in CG than in 2D animation. To begin with, many of the characters are animated bald or with a stiff basic hair shape. An unwritten rule in animation is also for hair not to be touched, however, as Moana is a teenager, they wanted her to be realistically playing with her hair, as teenagers tend to do. A new hair system was developed to make the hair realistic and dynamic, whilst reacting to natural elements. This new technology helped with the underwater sequences too. Disney also relied on previous software that had been designed in-house for previous films, such as the fur tooling, developed for Zootopia (2016) and the Hyperion renderer from Big Hero 6 (2014).

Another animation complexity is that at times 2D is mixed with CGI. This is most obvious with Maui’s “mini-Maui” tattoo. Mini-Maui was animated by veteran Disney animator Eric Goldberg, who had animated the Genie in Aladdin (1992). Lots of the team wanted to help him with these scenes so they could work with him! Mini-Maui was meant to be like Jiminy Cricket but with more attitude, and had to move around Maui’s body to get him to notice and listen to him. The tattoos were designed to be as similar to the Pacific traditions as possible, whilst also detailing Maui’s backstory. The body was split into different areas, with sequences of Mini-Maui moving between them being created. At one point, Maui pokes Mini-Maui so a reaction had to be drawn there. Disney managed to integrate 2D and 3D animation unlike anything before in these scenes[7].

MUSIC

The music for Moana is probably my favourite part of the movie, as I like every song on the soundtrack which is quite rare for me, even in Disney movies! Disney went for a similar set-up to that of The Lion King (1994) with their song-writing team: they had another trio, with a veteran composer (Mark Mancina vs Hans Zimmer), the star song-writer (Lin-Manuel Miranda vs Elton John) and a song-writer from the real-world setting (Opetaia Foa’i vs Lebo M)[8]. Mark Mancina was brought in to compose the score, as well as help with the songs. He had composed the score for other Disney movies such as Tarzan (1999) and Brother Bear (2003), and arranged the music for The Lion King Broadway musical for which he was nominated for a Tony Award. Lin-Manuel Miranda was not yet known for his Hamilton fame when he was brought on to the Moana project, though he was known on Broadway for his musical In the Heights (2005) at this time. He has gone on to work with Disney again, for Encanto (2021) and the live-action The Little Mermaid (2023). Samoan song-writer Opetaia Foa’i founded the group, Te Vaka in 1995, with the group having had much success over the years. The band also contributed to the Moana soundtrack. He was very happy to collaborate with Disney on this soundtrack as he had spent years promoting his culture through music anyway. Originally, the trio were unsure how they would work together, all having different tastes and ways of working, as well as coming from different musical backgrounds, however, on the New Zealand leg of the Moana research trip, the music came together for “We Know the Way”, with that being the first song to be written.

They soon followed that good start with the rest of the music, such as “Where You Are”, where they capitalised on their love of the Pacific cultures on their return from the areas. “How Far I’ll Go” pushed the musical story-telling further and Miranda loved how Cravalho’s beautiful singing pushed it further. Miranda stated his favourite song was “You’re Welcome”, which he wrote specifically for Dwayne Johnson, using inspiration from his wrestling days when he could say anything and still captivate people! For “Shiny”, Miranda has said that he was inspired by the music of David Bowie, making a real rock ‘n’ roll piece, full of exuberance and fun, but also menace.

The score is heavily based in percussion and vocals, to suit the style of traditional Pacific music. Mancina wanted the music to match the incredible action, whilst also feeling like the audience is on the sea, or part of the island community. For the vocals, Opetaia Foa’i and Iglese Ete with the Pacific Voices Choir helped to do the arrangements. It was a spiritual time for him and the vocalists when they recorded their tracks[9]. The soundtrack certainly succeeds in being memorable outside of the movie itself, including those not in the English language. I personally love the opening song “Tulou Tagaloa” and “Logo Te Pate”, but, like I said, I really like all the music, especially “I Am Moana”, which is a very powerful song set within a very emotional scene.

RECEPTION

Moana was originally planned to be released in 2018, however, it was bumped up by two years, being released in theatres in November 2016. In August 2015, at the D23 Expo, expo-goers were treated to some footage and models of the characters that they would be seeing in the movie the following year. They showed the clip of Moana being chosen by the ocean, as well as one of Maui explaining his tattoos to an unimpressed Moana and Pua. This second clip must have been cut in the year or 18 months between the preview and actual release, as the D23 expo mentioned that Pua came along for the ride, and we know that this was an idea that was ultimately changed. The original concept for Te Kā also looked incredibly monstrous, so I’m glad it was toned down a bit in the final cut[10]. Regardless of how much the movie changed between these two dates, there was a very positive reaction to what was shown at D23 in 2015 and no doubt helped promote the movie.

The movie was released alongside a typical Disney short, titled Inner Workings, directed and written by Leo Matsuda. He was inspired by his joint Japanese and Brazilian heritage, and the idea of two different sides fighting against each other, a more focused, risk-averse approach battling against the opportunity to be fun and carefree. This short is a similar idea to the now-defunct Epcot attraction Cranium Command, in that it follows the main character’s, Paul, primary organs and how they deal with a normal day. Paul in the end leaves his boring office to have fun during his lunch-break, coming back with a whole new outlook on life, even encouraging his office to have a dance party! When Moana was released on DVD and Blu-Ray, a new mini movie was added to the bonus features, titled Maui Mini Movie: Gone Fishing (2017). This short film shows Maui trying to fish in Moana’s home island of Motunui, after the events of the movie, with the ocean and Moana stopping him from being successful in his attempts[11]!

Moana did incredibly well both financially and critically, making around $680 million at the box office in total, with many reviews stating that Moana featured a good message of embracing your family and community, and that Moana was a great heroine. Many also liked the catchy soundtrack and the amazing visual imagery.

However, Moana did not avoid all criticism. From some in the Pacific community, they felt that Maui had been depicted in an insulting way, by him being represented as narcissistic as well as coming across as a bit of a buffoon. Some also did not think that the cultures of the Pacific were represented correctly or deeply enough. This is similar criticism to that received by Raya and the Last Dragon (2021), despite Disney’s desire and dedication to including the local communities in their ongoing production and development of the story and its characters. I do feel like some of this criticism is unfair. Disney also did have to pull a children’s costume for Maui which featured a brown body suit with all of Maui’s tattoos printed onto it. This was blasted for cultural misappropriation; yhat is a fair critique. Another fair critique is that the “Kakamora” are in reality a legendary, short-statured people of the Solomon Islands, and that by having them be cute but vicious coconuts in the movie was considered to be in very bad taste, though I’m sure it was unintentional[12]. Having said that, like Raya and the Last Dragon, Disney goes a long way in representing cultures that had previously been ignored or misrepresented.

Moana was nominated for numerous awards, such as Best Animated Film at the BAFTAs, the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes, and the Annie Awards, unfortunately losing out to Zootopia (2016), Disney Animation’s spring release of that year, in many cases. Having said that, Moana did win many other awards in other categories such as for Outstanding Achievement in Animated Effects and for Voice Acting for Auli’i Cravalho at the Annie Awards; a Grammy for Lin-Manuel Miranda for the song “How Far I’ll Go”, which was also nominated for Best Song at the Academy Awards and Golden Globes; and two Teen Choice Awards for Dwayne Johnson as Choice Fantasy Movie Actor and Auli’i Cravalho as Choice Breakout Movie Star. The Moana soundtrack as a whole won Top Soundtrack Album at the American Music Awards in 2017 and at the Billboard Music Awards in 2018. Moana continued its fame way beyond its 2016 release, and the 2017 award season, by becoming one of the Top 15 movies to be streamed in the US in 2022, as well as the soundtrack breaking the Billboard Soundtrack chart record for number of weeks spent at No. 1. The record was won in 2021, after 52 weeks at No.1.

LEGACY

Though Moana was only released in 2016, the movie has already made a big impact in the 2020s, probably due to these incredibly viewing figures that continued way after the initial release. The biggest development, which was announced in April 2023, is a live-action Moana film. Dwayne Johnson recorded a message in Hawaii making the announcement, with him planning to return as Maui, however, a new actress will be found to play Moana. Auli’i Cravalho has been named as one of the executive producers. Johnson is very grateful to be able to bring this story into a live-action setting as he is so proud of the story and how it features his culture. Thomas Kail, director of Hamilton, has recently been named as director[13]. I can only assume that the song writing team will return as well. I already dislike live-action adaptations of Disney animated movies, so I am probably biased, but I don’t think this is necessary, especially as the film was only released seven years ago. It just seems way too early, I think. Another announcement came in 2020, stating that a Disney+ series based on the film would be released in 2023. That date was then moved to 2024.

However, in February 2024, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that this Disney+ series would actually be re-worked into a full-length feature film to be theatrically released in November 2024. Auli’i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson have been announced as returning to voice Moana and Maui. Given the success of the original film, and the buzz around the live-action remake, this makes good business sense as I’m assuming Disney are hoping Moana 2 will encourage more people into cinemas and movies theatres. I just hope the story is good enough because when I heard this, I thought of Atlantis 2: Milo’s Return (2003) and how that direct-to-video sequel is simply three episodes of the cancelled television series packaged together after Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) failed at the box-office. It is blatantly obvious when watching Atlantis 2 that this was just episodes of a series put together because it did not flow well at all. I don’t want Moana 2 to feel like that.

Within the Disney theme parks, Moana started a full-time residency at Disney’s Animal Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort, on 22nd April 2023, as part of the park’s 25th anniversary celebrations and as part of the Disney100. Concept art was also released in 2022 by Disney Parks chairman Josh D’Amaro for a whole Moana-themed land at Animal Kingdom. This is only a theoretical idea, but the concept would appear to be a revamp of the entire DinoLand U.S.A area. This did not go down well with many Disney Parks fans, who feel that DinoLand U.S.A is a big part of the park’s history so should not be replaced with another IP. To be clear, this idea has never been confirmed[14].

Also at Walt Disney World, but this time within Epcot, a whole new attraction opened on 16th October 2023, called Journey of Water, Inspired by Moana, which is a self-guided interactive outdoor trail where guests can play and interact with water, as well as learn about its importance and its playful personality, as Moana did. There was much hype around this attraction when it was first announced in 2019. It was delayed multiple times due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but now it has opened, you can see the impressively tall Te Fiti topiary, as well as numerous beautiful waterfalls and streams[15].

Further appearances by Moana within the Walt Disney World Resort include her own scene with the heroes’ montage of Fantasmic! at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, as well as being part of the night-time fireworks show Happily Ever After and on top of the Adventure Friends Cavalcade float at the Magic Kingdom. Furthermore, the rooms within Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort were updated in July 2021 to be themed to Moana, though this is done tastefully via Moana-inspired artworks and themed patterns on pillows, carpets and furnishings.

Outside of the Walt Disney World Resort, Moana can be found at meet-and-greets, and within shows and parades. At Disneyland, Moana has a meet-and-greet location in Adventureland and appears during the Magic Happens parade. In Shanghai Disneyland, Moana is a part of Mickey’s Storybook Adventure live theatre show, and she even has her own stage show at Hong Kong Disneyland called Moana: A Homecoming Celebration, along with a meet-and-greet location in Adventureland. At Tokyo Disneyland, Moana appears as part of the Harmony in Color parade which began in 2023 to celebrate the park’s 40th anniversary, and is also featured within the Believe! Sea of Dreams night-time show at Tokyo DisneySea. Moana used to have a meet-and-greet location at Disneyland Paris, but does not seem to appear anymore. Moana can also be found at Disney’s Hawaii resort, Aulani.

FINAL THOUGHTS

This shows just how quickly Moana, the movie and the character, have gained in popularity and proves the success of the movie. It is a great movie from Disney: the songs and music are amazing; the characters are lovable, funny, and relatable; the story is easy to follow, yet full of excitement and adventure, and, to top it off, it showcases cultures that have previously been misrepresented. It may not have been perfect but the good intentions are clear. Moana tells us to always follow what we believe is right, and that family and protecting our natural resources are two of the most important things in life.

Moana is a princess film with a difference, and clearly, I’m not the only one who believes it to be one of the best Disney animated films to have come out of the 2010s. Its reputation and following speaks for itself.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Disney, “Voice of the Islands”, from Moana (2016) Blu-Ray Release (2017).

[2] Credit: Marc Snetiker, ’10 fun facts about Moana that will make you say ‘Wow, what a fun Moana fact’, Entertainment Weekly (online), 15^th June 2022.

[3] Credit: Marc Snetiker, ’10 fun facts about Moana that will make you say ‘Wow, what a fun Moana fact’, Entertainment Weekly (online), 15^th June 2022.

[4] Credit: Disney, “Voice of the Islands”, from Moana (2016) Blu-Ray Release (2017).

[5] Credit: Disney, “Deleted Scenes”, from Moana (2016) Blu-Ray Release (2017).

[6] Credit: Disney, “Island Fashion” from Moana (2016) Blu-Ray (2017).

[7] Credit: Disney, “The Elements Of…” from Moana (2016) Blu-Ray Release (2017).

[8] Credit: Marc Snetiker, ’10 fun facts about Moana that will make you say ‘Wow, what a fun Moana fact’, Entertainment Weekly (online), 15^th June 2022.

[9] Credit: Disney, “They Know the Way: Making the Music of Moana”, from Moana (2016) Blu-Ray Release (2017).

[10] Credit: Ethan Anderton, ‘Disney Animation’s ‘Moana’ Looks and Sounds Absolutely Gorgeous [D23 Expo 2015]’, SlashFilm.com, 14^th August 2015.

[11] Credit: Disney, “Inner Workings” and “Maui Mini Movie: Gone Fishing”, from Moana (2016) Blu-Ray Release (2017).

[12] Credit: Doug Herman, ‘How the Story of “Moana” and Maui Holds Up Against Cultural Truths’, Smithsonian Magazine (online), 2^nd December 2016.

[13] Credit: Disney, ‘Dwayne Johnson Reveals Plans for Live-Action Reimagining of Disney’s ‘Moana’, The Walt Disney Company (online). 3^rd April 2023.

[14] Credit: Chloe James, ‘”Who Wants This?” Fans Criticize Plans for ‘Moana’ Land at Disney World’, InsidetheMagic.net, 4^th April 2023.

[15] Credit: Emmanuel Detres, ‘Moana-Inspired EPCOT Attraction Revealed in New Video’, InsidetheMagic.net, 7^th April 2023.

1. BACKGROUND
2. PLOT
3. CHARACTERS & CAST
4. PRODUCTION
5. MUSIC
6. RECEPTION
7. LEGACY
8. FINAL THOUGHTS
9. REFERENCES

BACKGROUND

Disney had only made two other theatrically-released animated sequels before Ralph Breaks the Internet in 2018: Fantasia 2000 (1999) and The Rescuers Down Under (1990).

Sequels aren’t something Disney tend to consider, at least not ones that aren’t released direct-to-video as many were in the 1990s and early 2000s. Rich Moore and Phil Johnston, the directors of Ralph Breaks the Internet weren’t even going to make a sequel, after Wreck-It Ralph (2012). Not unless they could find a good enough reason, and a good enough story, to do it.

After some consideration, Moore and Johnston decided that Ralph and Vanellope’s friendship was not finished being explored, especially as Ralph’s final words in Wreck-It Ralph (2012) show that he only doesn’t consider himself to be a bad guy because Vanellope calls him a friend[1]. This paved the way for an opportunity to bring conflict into this relationship, and for each of the two to learn just how friendships can, and do, change.

I watched Ralph Breaks the Internet at the cinema, and was much more interested in watching it than when I first saw Wreck-It Ralph, probably because I already knew the characters and it is based in the Internet, something that the majority of people know plenty about. I thought the whole movie was clever, much like the first movie, because it looked behind-the-scenes of the online world, and came up with concepts for how the people inside the Internet, like Vanellope and Ralph, would see a typical real-world user, and what the users would be seeing.

Though I like the overall concept and feel that this movie delves deeper into emotions and relationships, I do not like it as much as the original Wreck-It Ralph movie. It’s possibly because I have a love-hate relationship with the online world. It doesn’t boil down to much, other than I don’t care for social media, and I don’t want to stare at my phone all day.

PLOT

Ralph Breaks the Internet picks up six years after the events of the first movie. Vanellope and Ralph are still best friends, but Vanellope has become bored with her life and Sugar Rush. One day, a new “game” called “WIFI”, gets plugged in. Surge, the Security Guard, warns all the arcade characters not to enter with Sonic the Hedgehog explaining the basics of Wi-Fi to the others. Vanellope wants to go in, but Ralph doesn’t, and as he knows Vanellope is feeling bored, he decides to build her a new section of track in Sugar Rush. Whilst Vanellope is about to finish a race for an arcade-goer, she spots this new track and goes over to do it, much to the confusion of the real-world player, who tries to move the game’s steering wheel, but it comes off in the process and Vanellope crashes. The arcade-goers tell Litwak about the wheel, but as Litwak tries to force it back onto the console, it breaks in half. The kids find a new steering wheel on eBay – but it’s $200; Litwak can’t afford that. He unplugs the game, but luckily the characters have been watching from the screen, so manage to evacuate to Game Central Station, but they are now all game less.

Many of the Sugar Rush characters find new homes, including all fifteen racers who are adopted by Calhoun and Felix in a surprising move! Ralph is excited to get to spend more time with Vanellope, but Vanellope becomes depressed at not having a purpose without her game. Ralph expects to meet her at Tapper’s later, but she doesn’t come. Felix does though, stressed at having suddenly become a father of fifteen in the last few minutes! He makes a strange noise like “eee-oh boy”, which reminds Ralph of “eboy”, that site the kids were talking about that has the spare part for Sugar Rush. He thinks that if they can get the wheel, then Sugar Rush will be fixed and Vanellope won’t be sad anymore. They both head in to “WIFI”, like they would any other arcade game, but find a boring grey space and nothing else. When Litwak logs on to his Wi-Fi, suddenly the space illuminates in green and a mini Mr. Litwak, his avatar, appears and he goes into a tunnel. Vanellope excitedly follows, and Ralph reluctantly chases after her. They see a huge metropolis, full of skyscrapers, futuristic vehicles, and shiny surfaces.

Not knowing where to go in this Internet world, they meet KnowsMore first, the search engine, who finds their Sugar Rush steering wheel, sending them off to eBay. There, they find many users bidding on items. Vanellope and Ralph figure that all they need to do is come up with a number higher than the other person competing for the part. Instead of jumping up by normal auction amounts like in jumps of $10-$25, the duo just shouts random numbers, so the price rockets from $250 to $1000 to $27,001 – the amount Vanellope and Ralph win it for. But as they head to the cashier, they don’t realise that they need to pay with actual money, which they obviously don’t have. The cashier says they have 24 hours to settle the amount, or they will lose the steering wheel. Vanellope and Ralph encounter a pop-up, called J. P. Spamley, who sends them to his office to learn how to make money from video games. He gives them an assignment to get Shank’s car from the game Slaughter Race. If they can get it, they’ll be paid $40,000 – plenty to cover the cost of the Sugar Rush part. The two head in to Slaughter Race, to find a dirty, rundown city setting. They eventually find Shank’s car in a warehouse. Ralph wants to turn back and forget this whole assignment, after seeing Shank and her crew, but Vanellope comes up with a plan: she will steal the car and Ralph will distract them, pretending to be from the Department of Noise. It works, and Vanellope drives the car off, picking up Ralph on the way out of the game. They come close but Vanellope gets distracted and has to stop to avoid crashing into a bus; the crew surround her and the two are stopped. But though Shank won’t give them her car just to get this part, she is impressed with Vanellope as a racer and comes up with a new idea. She takes a video of Ralph having a leaf-blower shoved in his face and puts it on BuzzzTube, before sending them to meet Yesss, the Head Algorithm who will help them make some money.

With only eight hours to pay eBay for the wheel, Ralph and Vanellope quickly head over to BuzzzTube, where Yesss tells them both that if they can put up enough videos and get enough hearts, those will be converted into real-life money. Ralph starts making videos of just about every trend that we all see on YouTube: make-up tutorials, unboxings, the chilli challenge, screaming goats, that sort of thing. Yesss sends out a whole pop-up army to help the two get enough hearts, with Vanellope wanting to help. Though Ralph doesn’t want to be apart from her, she goes to Oh My Disney to be a pop-up. She does well, but is soon chased away by Storm Troopers for being “unauthorised clickbait”. She takes refuge in a room, and finds she is surrounded by all the Disney Princesses, who don’t like this intruder, until Vanellope assures them she is a princess too, though she doesn’t quite fit into their criteria as she hasn’t been poisoned, imprisoned, enslaved or cursed. The Princesses, after making lounge wear like Vanellope is wearing so they can get out of those restrictive, tight dresses, tell Vanellope that if she wants to figure out her dream, she needs to find “important water” and she’ll start singing, as Vanellope has realised she doesn’t just want this steering wheel.

With thirty minutes left to pay, Ralph can’t get his final video to upload, so goes out on to the BuzzzTube floor to get some more hearts from the users stood there. He succeeds, but also looks at the Comments Section, which has a mixture of positive and negative comments about him. Ralph is visibly upset, but carries on, and though he now has enough hearts, he knows the only important heart is the hero’s medal Vanellope gave him in the first movie. Yesss tells him never to read the comments but also that they now have over $30,000 so Ralph gets over to eBay to pay for the item, calling Vanellope to meet him. Vanellope is sad about going home, and while staring into a puddle, she starts to sing about her love for Slaughter Race, and how she wants to stay there as it feels like home. Vanellope explains how she feels to Shank, but accidentally dials Ralph, who overhears that Vanellope plans to stay in Slaughter Race.

Ralph is upset and sees Spamley again. He asks him if there is anything he can do to cause Slaughter Race to slow down, so Vanellope won’t find it fun anymore. Spamley takes Ralph to Double Dan, within the “dark web”. He gives Ralph a virus, which will find any insecurities in Slaughter Race and multiply them; Dan also tells Ralph that the virus must stay within that game. Ralph sets the virus lose, with the virus multiplying Vanellope’s “glitch” across the game. Shank tells her to get out as the game is about to reboot and as she is not part of the game, she will be deleted. Ralph helps get her out, and Vanellope is upset to have damaged her game, thinking it’s all her fault. Ralph tells her that he is to blame for putting the virus in. Vanellope is furious, feeling betrayed by Ralph, saying she never wants to see him again. She throws his medal down to the bottom of the web. At the same time, the virus has escaped the Slaughter Race game and witnessed this spectacle. The virus multiplies Ralph’s emotional insecurities, making a whole army of needy Ralphs who chase after Vanellope as Ralph is retrieving his medal; the medal has broken in half.

Vanellope sees one of the needy Ralphs and tells him to go away, as she thinks it’s real Ralph. Soon, many Ralphs chase after her, with real Ralph coming to save her. Yesss also comes to the rescue, telling them they need to lead the clones to the Anti-Virus gates to be deleted. This seems to go well, until the Ralphs hit Yesss’s cruiser and it crashes. The Ralphs then create a big Godzilla-King Kong-like monster. Real Ralph tries to stop it by punching it, but it doesn’t work and he is caught. As Real Ralph is about to be crushed to death, Vanellope surrenders herself to the monster, so that it will release Ralph, promising to stay with it for ever. Ralph is horrified, and tells the Ralph monster that it can’t treat its friends like this and that it needs to let Vanellope go for her to be happy; something Ralph is also learning for himself. The Ralph clones are healed and are deleted. As Ralph was still in its hand though, he falls down, looking like he will hit the bottom and die. Until the Disney Princesses swoop in to save “a big, strong man in need of rescuing”! Ralph is safe, and urges Vanellope to start her new life in Slaughter Race, where Shank has now added her to the game’s code. The two have a tearful goodbye, but they both know it’s for the best.

The movie ends with Ralph now having a healthier life with more purpose, like joining a book club, and having a Friday night meet-up at a different arcade game every week. Sugar Rush has also been saved, with those characters having homes again, although it turns out Felix and Calhoun have been very good parents and managed to sort out the Sugar Rush racers’ ego problems, so they are much nicer! Ralph and Vanellope still call each other often, with Vanellope coming to visit Ralph soon during a scheduled upgrade at her game. The two are both moving forward in their lives, but have remained good friends.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Ralph ends Wreck-It Ralph by saying that he is happy being who he is because Vanellope is his friend so he can’t be such a bad guy. That sounds like a nice idea; however, the directors went back to that ending and found that actually Ralph shouldn’t be basing his self-worth on how his friend sees him. This has led to an unhealthy friendship where Ralph has become quite clingy, needing constant reassurance from Vanellope that he is good enough and that they are still friends. Ralph becomes jealous of Vanellope’s friendship with Shank and annoyed that she would even think about leaving him. The team at Disney didn’t want to put a surprise villain into this movie, so they made Ralph the actual villain this time, as well as being the protagonist. The army of clones weren’t a big enough metaphor of danger, so looking at fire ants, they came up with the idea of the clones bunching up together to form a bigger entity, which is how ‘Ralphzilla’ was made. It was Ralph’s insecure emotions being personified as a monster. This idea came in quite late into production so it was a big hurdle for the animators to overcome to get the monster looking just right, but they managed to do it successfully, and made a monster that was both scary for his huge presence, and pathetic for his emotional response! It is great that Ralph finally sees the error of his ways, and tells ‘Ralphzilla’ that he has to stop threatening Vanellope and making her choose between him and what she wants in life; he has to let her go and know that their friendship will survive. It’s a touching moment.

Vanellope starts off the movie wanting to find some adventure in her life as she has become bored with her life in Sugar Rush, having found every bonus level and won every race; she wants something new. Vanellope is excited by this inclusion of “WIFI” to the arcade. Once her game is unplugged, despite being bored, she doesn’t know what she’ll be if she’s not a racer. Once Vanellope enters the Internet and sees all these new possibilities, she realises that she isn’t happy in the arcade, but knows she’d be happy racing in a game like Slaughter Race. Vanellope is scared to hurt Ralph so doesn’t tell him about it, kind of resigning herself to going back to her game initially and then trying to keep her love of Slaughter Race a secret until she can figure out how to tell him. It doesn’t go well, and Ralph feels hurt by her. Once Vanellope sees Slaughter Race glitching from the virus, she feels like she broke the game, but when Ralph tells her he did it out of fear of losing her, she is furious. Despite this, as Ralph is about to be squeezed to death by his own clones, Vanellope sacrifices herself and her happiness to save him, which tells Ralph all he needs to that he has to let her go and by happy, even if that’s not with him. The goodbye the two share is very touching and incredibly relatable as life is full of multiple “hellos” and “goodbyes”. Vanellope and Ralph try extra hard to keep their friendship going, even though it is more difficult long-distance, but they settle into a routine, making sure they find time for each other, to either chat or visit. It’s shows how much the characters grow within this movie. Sarah Silverman and John C. Reilly both return to reprise their voice roles.

Shank is the fearless female lead racer of Slaughter Race. She is cool, strong, and tough. Shank was originally going to be a background gangster, but then it was decided that she should be a role model to Vanellope and therefore becomes a threat to Vanellope and Ralph’s friendship. Shank is a solid and wise character, with a soft side and warmth to her. She tells Vanellope, quite rightly, that she is welcome to race in Slaughter Race with her and her gang, and that there is no reason why her and Ralph can’t still be friends if she chooses to join them. Shank also has her crew of four other members, who aren’t just a thug-like gang, but actually have discussions about whether or not they should be letting players win, and appreciating how much hard-work some of them put into that game. Despite Slaughter Race looking like a horrible place full of crime, the characters with in it are actually surprisingly nice! Shank is voiced by Israeli actress Gal Gadot, who shot to international fame with her role as Gisele Yashar in the Fast and Furious franchise. She currently portrays Wonder Woman within the DC Universe film franchise.

There is a distinction within Ralph Breaks the Internet of the two main types of characters: Netizens, which include Ralph and Vanellope, and Net Users. Net Users are basically the avatars of the real-world Internet users. They stand in for humans, but are not treated as such, which is good because Ralph throws stuff on top of some of the net users, or throws them off their routes. Luckily, they don’t die; it’s just how people get disconnected from the Internet! The Netizens are the workers who help the Net Users, such as the cashiers, or the pop-up people. As the Net Users aren’t part of the story and cannot interact with the Netizens as they would with humans, Ralph and Vanellope can only interact with Netizens, of which there are plenty.

For example, we have J.P. Spamley. He is a Netizen working in “clickbait”. He is the one to direct Vanellope and Ralph to the site where they can earn money by finding video game items for real-world users. He is also the one to lead Ralph into the “dark net” to speak to Double Dan about putting a virus into Slaughter Race. Spamley doesn’t appear too much in Ralph Breaks the Internet, but he seems to me like a Netizen who isn’t sure he’s chosen the right path in life! He is ignored regularly, and is scared of the “dark net”, despite working in that area most of the time! Spamley and his assistant, Gord, do try to save Ralph at the end of the movie, which shows he is a nice guy really, even though Ralph falls straight through Spamley’s car due to his weight! Spamley is voiced by American comedic actor Bill Hader, best known for voicing Fear in Inside Out (2015), starring in Saturday Night Live (2005-13), as well as writing and performing as the title character in hit TV series Barry (2018-present). Hader’s voice role is uncredited.

KnowsMore is another Netizen who doesn’t feature too much in the movie, though he makes an impact. KnowsMore was originally going to be a broken search engine, getting every fourth answer wrong, but in the end, he is a search engine with an aggressive autofill! He warms to Vanellope who is polite to him, but is annoyed at Ralph for his brusque attitude, not understanding how to properly complete a search. Disney designed KnowsMore to look quite cartoony and not overally complex, though his eyes are actually hand-drawn, therefore being a combination of 2D and 3D animation. Alan Tudyk, the voice of King Candy in Wreck-It Ralph, was asked to return to voice a character in Ralph Breaks the Internet, and they felt he’d be perfect for KnowsMore. He needed very little direction and came up with the voice himself.

Yesss is the Head Algorithm of BuzzzTube. She is glamourous, fabulous and big deal on the Internet! She is incredibly helpful to Ralph and Vanellope, by helping them get hearts, even sending out a whole pop-up army to help them. She puts a lot of effort into these two, wanting Ralph to boost his online profile but be able to complete their mission of getting the steering wheel for Sugar Rush so they can go home. Yesss is also instrumental in helping them try to delete the Ralph clones at the Anti-Virus software hub, though this doesn’t end up going to plan. Yesss had many iterations before the version we see today, with them wanting a bold, larger-than-life Kanye West-type of character, before settling on more of an agent vibe. Yesss is voiced by Taraji P. Henson who had a lead role in Empire (2015-20) as Cookie Lyon, as well as starring as Katherine Johnson in the biopic Hidden Figures (2016).

As I’ve mentioned, eBay was created to look like an auction house, with each item having its own auctioneer. Real auctioneers were used to voice these characters, such as Brian Curless, who had won the World Livestock Auctioneer Championship in 2017[2].

Unfortunately, two characters from the original movie who do not get enough time on screen in this movie are Felix and Calhoun. They have been married for six years at this point and then decide to adopt the fifteen Sugar Rush racers. Other than that, the two feature at the end of the movie, showing how they’ve become such good parents to the racers that they are no longer egotistical and narcissistic, but kind and caring towards each other whether they win or lose. Felix and Calhoun are explaining the secret to parenting to Surge, the security officer at Game Central Station, but cleverly timed cars racing by mean that we will never know what that is! It is a shame because I love those two characters. They were going to feature in a scene that had to be cut to keep the pace of the main storyline between Vanellope and Ralph. It would’ve been a scene checking in on how Felix and Calhoun were doing, while Ralph and Vanellope were in BuzzzTube. It featured a dinner with the whole family, including the fifteen “kids”. One of them wouldn’t want to eat their vegetables, another didn’t want to drink their milk, and it would essentially have ended in a food fight! Felix and Calhoun would go to their room to get away from them, stating that parenting is awful and hoping that Ralph would get back soon with that steering wheel so the racers could go home[3]! Jane Lynch and Jack McBrayer reprise their voice roles.

For the most popular scene in the whole movie, the Disney Princess one, Pamela Ribon, who had previously worked on Moana (2016) had an idea to have the Disney Princesses be in some sort of sorority, and then have this movie make fun of their Disney past. Ribon never believed that Disney executives would sign-off on this sort of scene, so she wrote whatever she wanted to at first. Ribon had wanted this scene to properly induct Vanellope into the Disney Princess sisterhood, as she is a princess that many people can relate to: she isn’t perfect and girly, like most of the others. Ribon was very surprised to find that the directors were happy with this, as they felt that Disney were best placed to do this kind of satire and mockery of their own movies, and as you can go anywhere on the Internet, then why not have Vanellope head to Oh My Disney? This scene ended up being a huge success so I hope Ribon is proud of it. The majority of the original voice actors of the Disney Princesses came back to reprise their roles and were very happy to do so[4]. The funniest voice, though, is probably Kelly MacDonald voicing Merida from Brave (2012) as she speaks with such a strong Scottish accent that nobody can understand her, not even the Disney Princesses who blame it on the fact she is from “the other studio”, i.e., Pixar. It was a clever move. The original voice actors of Cinderella, Aurora, and Snow White had to be replaced as Ilene Woods and Adriana Caselotti, the voices of Cinderella and Snow White, had passed away in 2010 and 1997 respectively. Mary Costa, voice of Aurora, has retired. Any 2D animated princesses had to be digitally updated to fit in with the new CG animation style being used by Disney today. This was not always easy to achieve. At the 2017 D23 Expo, where a first-look was shown, there were comments stating that Tiana’s skin looked lighter, so Disney went back and amended it. It was not an exact science as CG models of 2D characters will naturally look different[5].

PRODUCTION

This movie would not have been able to have been made even in 2012, the time of Wreck-It Ralph’s release as the landscapes are so detailed and huge that it needed a new type of technology. Thankfully, for the production of Big Hero 6 (2014), the in-house rendering software, Hyperion, was developed, allowing huge, detailed cityscapes to be created. Hyperion helped Ralph Breaks the Internet to create environments that looked real and vibrant, and allowed for big shots with lots of characters.

There was never a plan to make a sequel to Wreck-It Ralph as Rich Moore, the director of both movies, felt that Ralph and Vanellope’s story had been wrapped up nicely in the finale of the first movie, so Moore had moved on to other Disney productions. During work on Zootopia (2016), Rich Moore, who directed the film, worked alongside screenwriter Phil Johnston and they decided that after making a movie like Zootopia, which delves into themes around societal prejudice, that maybe they could use a sequel to Wreck-It Ralph to explore Ralph and Vanellope’s friendship in a new setting, with new characters that potentially could create conflict between the two. They also felt that actually, as Ralph states in the ending to Wreck-It Ralph that he only sees himself as a good guy because Vanellope likes him, then that’s not a healthy relationship to have with yourself or with someone else, so they wanted to resolve that. Phil Johnston joined as both co-director and screenwriter[6].

The setting for the sequel to Wreck-It Ralph was never disputed – it was always going to take place in the Internet so instead of being sent on an exotic research trip to somewhere like Norway or the South Pacific Islands as the teams at Disney did for Frozen (2013) and Moana (2016), instead the team on Ralph Breaks the Internet got to open up different technology to have a look at the circuitry and go to One Wilshire Boulevard data centre, which houses the internet connections for the West Coast. It may not have been somewhere particularly exciting but it was still inspiring. An initial concept for their Internet setting was for it to be floating on clouds, referring to the metaphor of everything being “on the cloud”, but this wasn’t deemed the best move forward to show the audience what the Internet might actually look like.

When looking closer at the inner workings of tech items, the animators found that it looked a lot like a city, so that is the concept they went with. Their initial visual test was actually very similar to the final movie. When talking to technology pioneers, they also came up with the idea of new ideas just being stacked on top of the old, so having to go vertical, with all the skyscraper-type buildings. This is because nothing from the past actually goes away; it may be unsupported or not function correctly, but it’s still there. This concept is used when Ralph is trying to find the hero’s medal necklace that Vanellope threw away, as it lands in this old, dusty, unloved area right at the bottom of the Internet, with things like GeoCities and Dial-Up. Real websites were used to ground the world, and were able to be used as it was deemed to be within “fair use” of copyright law, and make it relatable to the audience, with new creations added in to add in that “Disney touch”. This is exactly what they did with the Arcade world in the original movie, by having new characters and references to older video games with those original characters[7].

Some original scenes and concepts were cut from Ralph Breaks the Internet. An early version of the scene of entering the router to see what “WIFI” is would’ve seen most of the arcade characters go into it, with Q*bert accidentally entering the Internet, and returning traumatised. The arcade characters decide it’s too dangerous and leave. Another would’ve seen Ralph with his own BuzzzTube page, where he had gone to Double Dan to get a stamp to duplicate hearts, and inflate his online popularity. Ralph would be sad without Vanellope, who had been annoyed with his new “prima donna” attitude, and use the stamp on himself to create a clone to be his friend. The clone would be left alone with the stamp, and duplicate himself numerous times, leading into the ending with all the Ralph clones. Another scene that was a favourite of the directors that was cut would’ve seen Shank recruiting real-world players to defeat the Ralph clones, with Shank accidentally recruiting one of the Slaughter Race players’ grandmothers. The grandma would be looking forward to kicking some butt and be all up for it! It was almost a fully finished scene before being cut[8].

For the new site of Slaughter Race, it was designed to look both amazing and dangerous. It’s set in a dusty, rundown city, with sort of dystopian elements to it, such as the brown-orange colour of the majority of the area, and the sense that the air quality there is not great, partly from industry, crime and all that racing! The team at Disney looked at game designs of similar games, such as Grand Theft Auto. For the driving aspect, some of the animators were sent to a race track for a day to do crazy moves, such as 180-degree spins, and drifting to keep the driving accurate to both gaming and real-life. Having the animators feel what it was like to be in the car also helped with their animation, so they could put that exhilaration that Vanellope is feeling when racing Shank’s car through the city into the character.

During production on the movie, in November 2017, John Lasseter was forced to step down from his role as Chief Creative Office at both Disney and Pixar Animation over allegations of “inappropriate behaviour”. The Ralph Breaks the Internet team were unsure what would happen next, and whether or not he would return, but they had to carry on as normal. Jennifer Lee, who had been a writer on Wreck-It Ralph, and had been in the same Film Program at Columbia University as Phil Johnstone, was named the Chief Creative Officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios in June 2018[9]. Jennifer Lee is also known for being the writer and co-director with Chris Buck of Frozen (2013) and Frozen II (2019), where Lee became the first female director of a Disney Animated film.

MUSIC

Henry Jackman returned to the Disney Studios to compose the score for Ralph Breaks the Internet. Jackman was very happy to come back to do the music for the sequel, as he was very proud of his work in the original movie, but this time he could experiment with what the Internet sounds like compared to an arcade. He ended up mixing classical orchestral sounds, along with a more modern element with synth and electronic notes to match the Internet. The orchestral sound was used for the inspiring and uplifting moments to suit the characters’ inner feelings. Some of the themes from the original movie were re-harmonised, to fit into the new realm of the Internet, which can be heard in the instrumentals “Best Friends” and “Comfort Zone”, featuring at the start and end of the movie. One of the best tracks from Henry Jackman has to be “A Big Strong Man in Need of Rescuing” as it features snippets of many of the best Disney Princess songs as they all come together to rescue Ralph, such as music from Frozen (2013), Brave (2012), and Mulan (1998).

This time round, there is an actual song sung by Vanellope called “A Place Called Slaughter Race”. She was told by the Disney Princesses that if you didn’t know what she wanted from life, then Vanellope needed to stare into some “important water” and the song would come to her. Sure enough, after staring into a random puddle, Vanellope bursts into song unexpectedly, which lovingly mocks the “I Want” songs of the Disney Princesses’ movies. Alan Menken, the famed songwriter for many of the Disney “Renaissance Era” movies, was brought in to write the music for the song, to give it that real “princess” feeling, despite the lyrics and the setting being of the morally ambiguous world of Slaughter Race! Sarah Silverman sang the song live with the orchestra, where she said it was a magical moment for her. Gal Gadot, the voice of Shank, also joins in with the singing, which was out of her comfort zone but she loved it. Phil Johnstone and Tom MacDougall wrote the lyrics to this song, as well as the pop reimagining that is performed by Julia Michaels as the second song in the End Credits, with the song renamed to “In This Place”, and some lyrics being changed. The first End Credits song comes from Imagine Dragons, who wrote the song “Zero” for the movie. It looks at Ralph’s vulnerability and how he feels like a “zero” at times. It has a very cinematic and upbeat feel to it, whilst also matching the overall message of the movie[10].

RECEPTION

Ralph Breaks the Internet was released in November 2018, six years after Wreck-It Ralph. It made almost $530 million at the box office, with a budget of $175 million. Much like the first movie, it did very well in its first weekend. In terms of critical success, both movies received similar reviews. For Ralph Breaks the Internet, the stand-out mention by many critics was how much they loved the scenes with the Disney Princesses. They found it to be both nostalgic and hilarious, as Disney took aim at their own characters. Though this is not technically new, as Disney’s Enchanted (2007) does something very similar to its fairy-tale musical movies! Other positive critiques were that it there was an impressive amount of detail and creativity put into the design of the Internet, and that it was surprisingly poignant and deep in places, comparing it to Pixar’s Inside Out (2015), for its similar view. However, on the more negative side, some reviews commented on the number of brands placed into the movie, feeling that the “product placement” would likely annoy some viewers. I think most people enjoy seeing those as it helps us to feel connected to this Internet that Ralph and Vanellope are seeing for the first time, as it is recognisable to us, so instead of the audience spending time trying to work out what’s what, and what Disney was parodying with that site, it allows the viewer to simply focus on what is going on with Ralph and Vanellope and to fully immerse ourselves in the new, original sites.

Ralph Breaks the Internet unfortunately did not win as many awards as Wreck-It Ralph, but was still nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes, the Annie Awards and the Critics’ Choice Awards, though it lost all four awards to the underdog movie, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018). The only award Ralph Breaks the Internet did win was the Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement for Animated Effects, but it won less awards at the Annie Awards than Wreck-It Ralph did, but I don’t think that it has anything to do with Ralph Breaks the Internet, and more to do with the fact that animation seems to have had a major revival in recent years, meaning it faced much more competition than just those from Pixar!

The teaser trailer for Ralph Breaks the Internet did a good job of interesting us in the movie, however, it also featured a very funny scene that was missing from the main trailer and the final movie, for some reason. But for those at the cinema that were willing to wait until the end of the full credits, a girl that looks very much like Moana comments on the fact there was a scene missing from the movie, featuring a game where you have to feed a kitty milkshakes and a bunny pancakes. Ralph comes into this game that the little girl is playing, and ends up over-feeding the bunny until it bursts! We don’t see this explosion but the little girl does, and she screams her little head off! If you waited until the very end of the credits, you were also told you’d be seeing a sneak peek of Frozen 2, which would be released the following November in 2019 – but then you’d be “rick-rolled” by Ralph. I loved this as I love Rick Astley’s song “Never Gonna Give You Up” and the fact that “rick-rolling” was even a thing! Both of these scenes are still shown during the End Credits of home releases and on Disney+.  A different trailer also featured a comment on the fact the movie was not named Ralph Wrecks the Internet, to match Ralph’s arcade game character name, but called Ralph Breaks the Internet; many people did comment on the movie’s name when the title was announced! It is simply that “breaking the Internet” is a real thing, unlike “wrecking the Internet”, which is what Yesss explains to Ralph and Vanellope, though I have to agree with Ralph that “wrecks the Internet” does sound much better!

LEGACY

Director Rich Moore has apparently mentioned the possibility of making a spin-off film based on the princesses should the audience want it and if they can make a good story out of it. Although, having said that, the directors had also said at the time of the release of Ralph Breaks the Internet, that there were no plans for a sequel but maybe if they thought about it for long enough, they could come up with a story[11]! Judging by that response, I’m assuming they’d rather leave the characters where they are, knowing that they did a good job continuing and ending Ralph and Vanellope’s stories here.

I’ve already mentioned places related to the Wreck-It Ralph movie specifically at the Disney Parks, but what about Ralph Breaks the Internet? Well, you used to be able to meet Vanellope at the ImageWorks area in Epcot at the exit to Journey into Imagination with Figment, at Walt Disney World Resort. She even came out of her portal to the Internet, called “The Link”, to continue the story of Ralph Breaks the Internet. Ralph met there with Vanellope for a time, but after Walt Disney World Resort reopened after the COVID-19 pandemic, it was just Vanellope on her own. On 19^th August 2023, Vanellope’s meet-and-greet location was permanently closed, to make way for the much-anticipated and hugely popular meet-and-greet with Figment, which opened on 10^th September 2023. So now, there are no permanent meet-and-greet locations at any of the Disney Parks for Vanellope or Ralph, and even less chance of a specific reference to Ralph Breaks the Internet. But the two should still appear at special events, and some of the music or clips from both movies may show up in certain parades, nighttime shows, or fireworks shows.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Whether or not the audience believe this movie is a satire, or whether they buy-in to Disney’s idea of the Internet, Ralph Breaks the Internet is one of the few good sequels that Disney has made, but it can also stand alone. It is another example of Disney pushing the boundaries of their story-telling, by choosing a story outside of their regular format, which is something they are continuing to do today. Ralph Breaks the Internet is an entertaining and clever movie, full of Easter Eggs and interesting ideas. It is both comedic and thought-provoking, with highly relatable emotional moments.

Wreck-It Ralph taught us to accept ourselves as we are but, Ralph Breaks the Internet reminds us that it’s never too late to realise your dreams or change your ways. It also tells us that, like the ever-changing online world, we are also always changing, with there being opportunities to grow as people every day, if we choose to; to become the best version of ourselves and to become someone we are proud to be.  

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Disney, ‘A Behind-the-scenes Look at Ralph Breaks the Internet’, Disney.co.uk, date unknown.

[2] Credit: Disney, “How We Broke the Internet” “Surfing for Easter Eggs”, from Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018), Blu-Ray 2-Movie Collection (2018).

[3] Credit: Disney, “Deleted Scenes”, from Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018), Blu-Ray 2-Movie Collection (2018).

[4] Credit: Michael Cavna, ‘How ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’ spoofs the Disney Princess industrial complex’, The Washington Post (online), 20^th November 2018.

[5] Credit: Carolyn Giardina, ‘Making of ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’: How Disney Turned eBay and Amazon Into Cartoons’, The Hollywood Reporter (online), 13^th December 2018.

[6] Credit: John Hazelton, ‘’Ralph Breaks The Internet’ filmmakers: ‘we could not have made this six years ago’, Screen Daily (online), 27^th November 2018.

[7] Credit: Disney, “How We Broke the Internet”, from Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018), Blu-Ray 2-Movie Collection (2018).

[8] Credit: Disney, “Deleted Scenes”, from Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018), Blu-Ray 2-Movie Collection (2018).

[9] Credit: Carolyn Giardina, ‘Making of ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’: How Disney Turned eBay and Amazon Into Cartoons’, The Hollywood Reporter (online), 13^th December 2018.

[10] Credit: Disney, “The Music of Ralph Breaks the Internet”, from Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018), Blu-Ray 2-Movie Collection (2018).

[11] Credit: John Hazelton, ‘’Ralph Breaks The Internet’ filmmakers: ‘we could not have made this six years ago’, Screen Daily (online), 27^th November 2018.

1. BACKGROUND
2. PLOT
3. CHARACTERS & CAST
4. PRODUCTION
5. MUSIC
6. RECEPTION
7. LEGACY
8. FINAL THOUGHTS
9. REFERENCES

BACKGROUND

After the smashing success of Tangled in 2010, the Walt Disney Animation Studios needed to prove that they wouldn’t be going back to their mediocre film releases of the 2000s.

With the 2006 purchase of Pixar Animation, the Disney Studios now had more resources at their disposal, not to mention John Lasseter being named the Chief Creative Officer of both animation studios. Disney didn’t have to follow their tried-and-tested method of basing features on fairy-tales or novels; they could do something different, and this time, make it work. That’s exactly what they did with their 2012 release: Wreck-It Ralph.

When I first saw the trailer for Wreck-It Ralph and saw it was about video games, I was sceptical. I’m not much of a gamer so I thought the whole story would be completely lost on me and there was no way it would be able to keep me interested. But we watched it at the cinema during its release and I actually really liked it. It had emotional moments and important messages that struck a chord with me, and I thought the whole video game premise was incredibly clever.

Wreck-It Ralph is very different to the majority of Disney animated features that came before it, but it started a precedent for Disney not to just do the same type of movie; that they could come up with unique concepts and those movies could still be hits with audiences. Apart from Frozen (2013), which is a phenomenon all of its own but still based on a fairy-tale, although twisted, Disney have continued to push the boundaries of story-telling and have moved away from their popular Broadway-style princess film territory to make memorable, popular films around independent characters going on hero’s journeys, discovering things about themselves and exploring the world around them. Disney had tried this in the 2000s, during their “Post-Renaissance Era” but had been unsuccessful for whatever reason. In the 2010s, they found it was finally working.

PLOT

Wreck-It Ralph begins by showing us the character of Wreck-It Ralph (or just Ralph), who is the villain in the 80s arcade game, Fix-It Felix Jr. He is struggling to accept his lot in life, and wants to be the good guy for once, because he doesn’t feel inherently bad. After finishing “work” for the day, i.e., when Litwak’s Arcade has closed, Ralph attends a “Bad-Anon” meeting with various other video game villains, but doesn’t get anywhere. After seeing the other characters in his game, the Nicelanders and Fix-It Felix Jr. (or just Felix), having a party to celebrate their game’s 30^th anniversary, Ralph invites himself over there, not wanting to be left out. He isn’t treated well by the Nicelanders and snaps, smashing cake all over the apartment. He makes a deal that if he can prove that a bad guy can get a hero’s medal, then he can live in the Penthouse apartment, and not the dump.

Ralph sees a soldier from the new game Hero’s Duty having a breakdown, telling him that it’s bad in there, even if you do get a medal. Ralph just wants a medal, so steals the soldier’s costume and heads in to the game via Game Central Station, the hub where the video game characters can go in to other games, though, as Sonic the Hedgehog warns, if you die outside your game, you won’t regenerate. Ralph heads in to Hero’s Duty, a first-person shooter game, a bit like Halo, in a dystopian world where you have to shoot “cy-bugs” and their eggs to prevent an invasion. Ralph immediately finds himself overwhelmed. After he disrupts the first-person shooter, a robot with a screen to them, a little girl playing the game in Litwak’s Arcade to us, the game is reset and Ralph takes the opportunity to climb the game’s tower. He receives his hero’s medal, even though he didn’t really earn it, but wakes the cy-bug eggs. He stumbles into an escape shuttle, with a cy-bug, and ricochets around Game Central Station before entering the über-sweet land of Sugar Rush, a kart racing game. At the same time, Sergeant Calhoun, the leader of the Hero’s Duty crew, and Fix-It Felix have seen Ralph in the shuttle, and figure out he’s gone into Sugar Rush. Calhoun and Felix follow; Felix to get Ralph back to their game so they can continue their lives as normal, as currently, their game is “out of order” and will be unplugged if it can’t be fixed, and Calhoun going to check the cy-bugs don’t start invading Sugar Rush.

Ralph crash-lands in a lake of taffy, and loses his medal up a candy-cane tree. He climbs up but before he can reach it, it is snatched away by Vanellope von Schweetz, a Sugar Rush character with a “glitch”. She races away, using the medal in lieu of a gold coin so she can enter the random roster race, to find out who will be able to race for the arcade-goers the next day. King Candy does not want Vanellope to race, and is annoyed to find she has managed to enter it. Ralph barrels in, demanding his medal back. Eventually, he is detained within a cupcake and taken to King Candy’s castle, where he orders Ralph to leave the game, as he doesn’t want anyone “going turbo” and taking over his game. Ralph runs away to confront Vanellope. Except, as he’s about to, he sees that Vanellope’s kart is being destroyed by the other racers. He scares them off to help her. They make a deal that if Ralph helps her build a new kart, then she will win the race and return his medal. They go to the mini-game kart builder where Ralph helps build the kart, until he breaks the containers, spilling candy all over her kart. Luckily, Vanellope loves it! As King Candy and his guards are chasing them out of the area, Vanellope and Ralph head into Diet Cola Mountain, her secret home. Ralph builds her a track, so Vanellope can practise racing.  

King Candy has not managed to scare off Ralph, so goes into the game’s programming and adds the medal into his character’s code so he can return it to Ralph. When he does this, he implores Ralph to tell Vanellope not to race, as he believes that if she becomes part of the race roster, then the players will see her “glitching” and will think the game’s broken. When it gets unplugged, the other characters will be able to take refuge in Game Central Station but Vanellope, being a “glitch”, will not be able to leave and will die with the game. Ralph, having just received a homemade hero’s medal from Vanellope, is torn over what to do, but tries to explain to her that she can’t race or she’ll die. When this doesn’t work, Ralph destroys her kart. Vanellope is devasted, simply telling him “You really are a bad guy” before running off in tears.

At the same time, Felix is falling in love with Calhoun. Felix tells her about Turbo, and the phrase “going turbo”. Turbo was the main racer in a popular game, until a new racing game got plugged into the arcade. Jealous, he entered the new game in his 8-bit form, disrupting the new game’s more modern format. Both games were considered broken and were both unplugged. He is presumed to have gone down with the games, and has not been seen since. Calhoun soon leaves Felix, after he calls her “a dynamite gal”, something her husband-to-be called her before he was eaten by cy-bugs on their wedding day. Yes, Calhoun is programmed with the world’s saddest backstory! Felix walks to King Candy’s castle to find Ralph, but is thrown into the “fungeon” (fun dungeon).

Sour Bill, King Candy’s sidekick, tells Ralph that King Candy messed with Vanellope’s code, trying to delete her from the game, but failed, causing her “glitch”, and locked up the other characters’ memories so he could take over the game. Ralph realises everything Candy said to him earlier was a lie, so Ralph crashes in to the “fungeon” to save both Felix, and Vanellope who has been chained up too. He encourages Vanellope to race, and get over the finish line to reset the game. She starts the race late, but manages to get to second place without too many issues. Calhoun then arrives to say that the cy-bugs are everywhere, and they start to consume Sugar Rush. Calhoun tells everyone not racing to evacuate, and tries to shoot as many as she can until Vanellope gets over the finish line.

But King Candy is horrified to find Vanellope close to taking the lead, and tries to push her off the track. When Vanellope “glitches”, it is revealed that King Candy is in fact Turbo! GASP! He took over Sugar Rush after he put the other two racing games out of order. Vanellope manages to tactically “glitch” and moves into first place, away from him, and King Candy gets eaten by a cy-bug. As Vanellope nears the end, the cy-bugs start to take over the finish line and she crashes, out of surprise. Ralph realises they can’t get the game to reset and tries to take her out of the game, but King Candy was right – she cannot leave. Calhoun says the game is doomed without a beacon, a beam of light that is in Hero’s Duty, to attract and kill all cy-bugs between resets of the game. Ralph has an idea and rushes over to Diet Cola Mountain. There are Mentos at the top of it, so Ralph punches the top of the mountain to try and get the Mentos to fall into the boiling Diet Cola below.

When he is one punch away, King Candy, now a cy-bug, because cy-bugs become what they eat, attacks Ralph trying to stop him from saving the game and Vanellope. King Candy flies him up high and says they should watch Vanellope die together, but Ralph breaks free, not caring what happens to him, and falls to the top of the mountain, delivering one last punch, which sets off the Mento-Cola reaction, creating the beacon. The cy-bugs fly towards it and are destroyed, including King Candy. Vanellope has raced over to catch Ralph in her kart. Thanks to her “glitching” she makes good time and he is saved. Felix fixes the finish line, and they push her kart over it, where it is revealed that Vanellope is actually Princess Vanellope, ruler of Sugar Rush. She jokes that she will execute anyone who was ever mean to her, before deciding that she’d rather just be herself, “glitch” and all, making Sugar Rush a democracy instead.

In the epilogue, we find that Ralph has returned to his game. The Fix-It Felix Jr. characters have become nicer to Ralph, and they build him a house within the dump so he no longer has to sleep in a pile of bricks. They have also taken in the “game less” characters, like Q*bert, and given them homes and a “job” within the bonus round of the game. Vanellope is a popular choice of racer within Sugar Rush, and the gamers love her “glitch” as it helps them win! Felix and Calhoun get married, with Ralph as best man, and Vanellope as bridesmaid. Finally, and most importantly, Ralph has realised that he’s happy being himself. The best part of Ralph’s day is when he gets thrown off the roof in his game, because he can see Sugar Rush clearly, and sees Vanellope happy with her racing career. He knows that he can’t be such a bad guy because he has a friend like her.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Wreck-It Ralph spends the whole movie on a journey of self-discovery. He doesn’t like being thought of, and treated, as an everyday arcade game villain, where he’s either ignored or dismissed. This is what leads him to attend his first “Bad-Anon” meeting at the start of the film, because he doesn’t want to be the bad guy anymore. The other villains just tell him that they’ve all felt that way before, but have now come to terms with it and he needs to as well. When he returns to his game and finds they are throwing a 30^th anniversary party without him, he feels upset and angry, deciding to prove he can be a hero and get a medal as evidence. Though Ralph does successfully get a medal, he doesn’t really get it for being brave or completing Hero’s Duty; he’s actually terrified of it and cheats to get his medal. Once he meets Vanellope in Sugar Rush, soon he realises that this little girl needs his help to be accepted in her game, and they bond over the fact that they’re both treated as outcasts. Ralph gets taken in by King Candy, and ends up destroying Vanellope’s kart, with Vanellope saying that he really is a bad guy, and that hurts him. By the end of the movie, he mends his relationships with Vanellope and Felix, and proves himself a hero when he stops the cy-bug destruction, even though he almost pays the ultimate price for it. Ralph has quite the journey, and eventually realises that all he can be is himself, and that he has to accept that. Though he may be a game villain, it doesn’t mean he’s not worthy of friendship or happiness, and that he isn’t inherently bad; he has many sides to him, like everyone.

The design for Ralph was changed many times during production. Originally, the animators wanted to make Ralph in 8-bit for the entire movie, but they decided that he wouldn’t be lovable enough in that form. Ralph then became an animal dressed a bit like a hobo, and then a big white gorilla. It took around five or six re-designs before Ralph finally became human, as he needed to resonate with the audience to get the viewers rooting for his end-goal[1]. John C. Reilly, known for his varied film roles such as Scorsese’s Gangs of New York (2002) and Step Brothers (2008) with Will Ferrell, is the voice actor for Wreck-It Ralph, as the team at Disney felt that Reilly could be both comedic and dramatic, and would make Ralph likeable. I think Reilly did a great job with the character.

Vanellope von Schweetz is kind of bratty, but very funny, with most of her opening scene featuring her making jokes about “hero’s doody”, which I think were added to the script purely to make kids laugh, though I know plenty of adults who laugh out loud at those too! Vanellope is a “glitch” within the Sugar Rush game, so she is isolated from most of the other game characters, being seen as either a threat or a nuisance, depending on who you ask. When her go-kart is destroyed by the other racers, you instantly feel sorry for Vanellope, as she is essentially being bullied just because she’s a bit different. It’s very heart-warming to see Ralph swoop in and scare the others off, as we know that the two have a similar problem in their respective games. Vanellope also learns to accept herself as she is by the end of the movie like Ralph does; she spends most of her time trying to control her “glitch” but then finds she can use it to her advantage and that instead of suppressing it, she should be learning how to use it more consistently. I like how after the game has reset at the end, she becomes a princess and learns she was the original ruler of Sugar Rush, but decides she just wants to be herself exactly as she is. Ralph and Vanellope have a great friendship, both helping each other out in times of need and learning from their mistakes. Vanellope is voiced by stand-up-comedian-turned-actress Sarah Silverman. Her iconic voice is perfect for Vanellope, as well as her comedic timing, making Vanellope lovable and easy to relate to.

Then, there’s Fix-It Felix Jr., the hero to Ralph’s villain. Though the other game characters seem to deliberately exclude Ralph, Felix isn’t like that. He doesn’t know how to act around Ralph, it seems, because Felix looks awkward about the party, like he wants to be kind to Ralph and invite him, but he knows the Nicelanders won’t like it. Felix isn’t mean to Ralph at all; he’s very positive, and upbeat, wanting to be friends with everyone, but it’s not that easy when everyone around him doesn’t want anything to do with Ralph. Felix is a bit irritating at the start of the movie because he believes his own publicity, accepting all the attention, praise and credit from his other game characters, but he does go to find Ralph. Felix wants Ralph back to get the game back to working order, but I believe Felix also wants to understand why Ralph left and try to amend his own behaviour. Felix then goes on his own journey, where he realises that not everyone’s life is perfect, not everyone is put up on a pedestal to be admired. He also does not become the hero at the end of the movie; Ralph is the one to save Sugar Rush, so I think Felix is humbled by that. Most importantly, Felix finds love with Sergeant Calhoun, something he was not expecting when he set off to find Ralph that day. Felix is voiced by Jack McBrayer, another very recognisable voice! McBrayer is potentially best known for portraying the roles of Kenneth Parcell in 30 Rock (2006-13) and Dr. Goodwin in The Middle (2013-18).

As I mentioned, Felix and Calhoun are married by the end of Wreck-It Ralph, but their relationship isn’t smooth-sailing. Sergeant Calhoun is the lead character of Hero’s Duty. She’s a strong, brave, independent woman, and does not tolerate fools, like Ralph, going in and destroying her game! She only follows Ralph into Sugar Rush to monitor the cy-bug invasion that could occur as one escaped from Hero’s Duty with him. Calhoun then finds herself liking Felix whilst stuck in the “Nesquik-Sand” in Sugar Rush; it’s a funny scene, especially as when the “laughy taffy” vines start to get lovey-dovey, she fires shots from her gun and they soon shrink away! When Felix calls her a “dynamite gal”, something her deceased fiancé said to her before his untimely death, she is horrified and throws Felix out of the space cruiser, leaving him on his own. The two are reunited at the time of the cy-bug invasion. Once Ralph sets off the beacon, destroying the cy-bugs, Felix kisses Calhoun on the cheek. She pulls him up to her face level, and we all expect him to get a sharp slap round the face – but he doesn’t get one; instead, she kisses him back. Aww, cute. They’re a strange couple, but they make it work, somehow! Jane Lynch, off the back of four seasons of Glee (2009-15), playing cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester, voices Sergeant Calhoun.

Then, there is the actual villain of Wreck-It Ralph: the surprise villain of King Candy. At first, King Candy seems overly enthusiastic and overly protective of his kingdom. He doesn’t want Vanellope to race, because he claims that her “glitching” will put the game out of order and just wants Sugar Rush to go back to how it was, before these other game characters came in and ruined it! Little did I know that a big twist was to come. We learn that King Candy messed with Vanellope’s code in the game programming to try and delete her but it ended up just making her “glitch”, and that the only reason he doesn’t want her to race is because she’ll reset the game and he’ll no longer be King. I thought that was it, but it got worse! We then discover that he’s Turbo, the jealous racer from long ago. That was a brilliant plot twist from Disney. I’m very in-the-moment when I watch movies, not wanting to try and work things out before they’ve happened, so I didn’t see it coming, but maybe some people did. I just thought it was clever! Actor Alan Tudyk voices the character of King Candy. He was inspired by comedian Ed Wynn, who had voiced the Mad Hatter in Disney’s Alice in Wonderland (1951). The character of the Mad Hatter was also a reference point for the design of King Candy, and it’s very plain to see[2]! Alan Tudyk won an Annie Award for his voice work on this movie. He has had voice roles in many more Disney animated movies since, basically becoming Disney’s “good-luck charm”, like John Ratzenberger is to Pixar, by getting a role in every new release!

That’s it for the main characters in Wreck-It Ralph, but there are many others. Some other voice artists worth mentioning are Modern Family (2009-20) actor Ed O’Neill as Mr. Litwak, the arcade owner, and The Office (2005-13) actor and writer Mindy Kaling as Taffyta Muttonfudge, one of the Sugar Rush racers. Both would go on to voice roles in Pixar films: O’Neill as Hank in Finding Dory (2016) and Kaling as Disgust in Inside Out (2015). Fun fact: the two doughnut-shaped policemen in Sugar Rush are named Wynnchel and Duncan, referencing two American donut chains – Dunkin’ Donuts and Winchell’s Donut House. There are almost 200 characters in the movie, including some from “real” video games, such as Bowser, Sonic the Hedgehog, Pac-Man, and my personal favourite, Q*bert[3]. I don’t know much about video games – though I was disappointed to find Crash Bandicoot didn’t get a cameo – so I’m sure a gaming fan can spot many more than me! One that many people commented was missing, though, was Mario. This was due to the fact that Disney couldn’t find a good enough reason to include him in the story, and wanted to do the character justice. It’s also possible Mario would’ve pulled focus away from the main characters.

PRODUCTION

Disney had to create five different “worlds” for Wreck-It Ralph: the retro arcade game of Fix-It Felix Jr., the sugar-filled racing game of Sugar Rush, the more modern shooter game of Hero’s Duty, and then Game Central Station, the characters’ portal to other games, and Litwak’s Arcade, where these are all based. Game Central Station, the portal for all the arcade games, but really a power strip or extension lead in real-life, was inspired by New York City’s Grand Central Station, unsurprisingly. It’s a large space, and feels like a train station, with it also having grubby-looking subway-style areas, with graffiti sprayed on the walls. Litwak’s Arcade is obviously the most real of the worlds, based on arcades from the past and present. It’s a dark area, with just light coming from the door, but with flashing lights coming from every game station. It’s fascinating to see how the video game characters perceive these real gamers, and to see how their actions affects the real-life players[4]!

The world of Fix-It Felix Jr. was based on a sketch by director Rich Moore. It resembles a small, quaint town, with a little train and lights in the trees like Central Park. It is an 8-bit game, so it consists of simple repeating patterns, square shapes, and simple, clean landscapes. No complex animation was required here, but I like how authentically the characters move, by bopping, making staccato movements, and never moving diagonally, always on a grid. The high score for Fix-It Felix Jr. is displayed as 120501, a nod to Walt Disney’s birthday: 5^th December 1901. Hero’s Duty was made to look aggressive, with sharp lines and triangular shapes, to really a place so different to Ralph’s game. He had to be seen to be completely out of his depth. Hero’s Duty is hyper-realistic and is the most high-definition of all the games. There are strobe lights, mist shoots, ash falling from the sky, with something happening in every shot. It’s very busy and action-packed. They also made simple colour choices, by making the area dark, with orange to show the good guys, and acid green for the bad cy-bugs. For Sugar Rush, initially the team struggled to get away from the overused tropes of sugary lands like Candyland and the gingerbread house in Hansel and Gretel, so they went in a different direction; they looked at Gaudi’s architecture. His designs almost looked like cracked candy to them. Art Director Mike Gabriel asked for a candy model of Sugar Rush to be made, which was then used as a reference point for months. The land had to look appealing to everyone, so it’s very colourful, with soft shapes, and fantasy elements.

Wreck-It Ralph is an original story idea, however, in the 1990s, there was an early version of a film based around video games being developed, called High Score. For whatever reason, this did not go forward. In 2006, a movie called Joe Jump also themed around video games was being worked on at Disney, but again, this did not go ahead[5].

In 2008, Rich Moore joined the Walt Disney Animation Studios after working for animation studio Rough Draft Studios for a number of years. Soon after his arrival, John Lasseter approached him about directing a new movie for Disney. Lasseter suggested basing the movie around video games, with Moore agreeing as he liked gaming. Neither of the concepts from the older story ideas were considered; it was a brand-new idea. Producer Clark Spencer said he loved the concept as he grew up being a big gamer, and he liked that the initial idea about going behind-the-scenes of video game characters, in a similar way to Toy Story (1995), by seeing what toys get up to when their owners aren’t around.

It was decided early on that they wanted a Donkey Kong dynamic for their two main characters of Ralph and Felix, with Ralph being the villain, like Donkey Kong, and Felix, like the hero of Mario. It’s clear that the design of Ralph was partly inspired by the gorilla character of Donkey Kong, and Felix is kind of similar to Mario, in that he’s small, but upbeat and positive, working hard to defeat the villain’s destructive ways. Originally, Felix was going to be the protagonist of the whole movie, with the plot structure already being decided just a month or so into development. But then, it was decided that the plot might be stronger if they had the 8-bit villain of Wreck-It Ralph having an existential crisis, so the film was re-structured around this new idea[6]. 

Obviously, there were some other changes between the movie we know today and how it was doing production. Firstly, there were deleted scenes detailing Ralph being thrown into the prison of the then-military-style Hero’s Duty.  Ralph would be persuaded by a new prisoner, a lazy, surfer-dude kind of person, to break them out and go to a relaxed new online game called X-Treme EZ Livin’ 2. Ralph would be left alone and end up in Sugar Rush. After things went wrong there, Ralph then did travel to X-Treme EZ Livin’ 2. The game was meant to be a mixture of The Sims and Grand Theft Auto. These scenes were dropped as there is no game like this, and it would’ve been on Mr. Litwak’s laptop in the arcade, so they felt it would’ve been too complicated to have a different way for arcade characters to get in there, with cheat codes and things like that.

Another unused concept was that Vanellope’s home was actually in the abandoned nugget mines of “Mount Fudgsuvius”. There wasn’t any Diet Cola or Mentos, but it would’ve still erupted at the end of the movie. In this deleted scene, Felix is already with the duo, and Ralph and Vanellope would have been trying to explain to Felix what it was like to be an outcast and not have everyone love you. Also, there were going to be individual mini games to get different parts to rebuild Vanellope’s kart, and King Candy would show up at the start of each one to make them harder, but Ralph’s “wrecking” would help Vanellope win[7].

MUSIC

The score for Wreck-It Ralph was composed by English composer Henry Jackman, who had written the score for Disney Animation’s previous release, Winnie the Pooh (2011) and would go on to do the score for Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018) and Strange World (2022), also for Disney. He has won and been nominated for other awards too, for example, a nomination at the BAFTA Awards in 2014 for Best Film Music for Captain Phillips (2013). Jackman researched for the Wreck-It Ralph score by revisiting video games from his youth, as he had to be in touch with the vast world of video game music, which varies from many different genres, such as pop, rock, heavy metal and electronic music[8]. I like the music in Wreck-It Ralph but only one piece really stands out to me and that is the instrumental piece titled “Wreck-It Ralph”. It plays during the scene where Ralph is leaving the game Pac-Man after his “Bad-Anon” meeting. It’s electronic and bouncy, and sounds very video-game-like.

There are also a few songs in the movie, though none are sung by any of the characters. Apparently, a song was written by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez but it was cut. The Lopez duo would go on to write the songs for Frozen (2013), the Disney animated release to follow Wreck-It Ralph, so I doubt they were too disappointed[9]! Wreck-It Ralph features three original songs, as well as incorporating three tracks from other artists. The song “Celebration” by Kool & the Gang is played at the party at the start of the movie, in the Nicelanders’ penthouse suite. It’s a classic song, perfect for a party, so not much to say on that one really. Another one is “Bug Hunt (Noisia Remix) by Skrillex. This was an original song by Skrillex which was remixed specifically for the opening of the Hero’s Duty game. It is perfect for that game. Plus, Skrillex even has a cameo in the movie – as the DJ at the anniversary party. The biggest surprise addition to the Wreck-It Ralph soundtrack to me is the use of Rihanna’s “Shut Up and Drive”. It’s a great song, and works really well in the scene of Vanellope learning how to race on her Ralph-built Diet Cola Mountain track.  

For original songs, the best one is “When Can I See You Again?”, written by Adam Young, Matt Thiessen and Brian Lee, and performed by Owl City – the American band that had that big hit “Fireflies” back in 2009; I heard that song so much around then! “When Can I See You Again?” fits in with Owl City’s electronica style of music, as well as the video game brief. It does only play as the first song of the End Credits, but I watch the credits until the song is finished without fail, because it’s so good. Then, there is the song “Sugar Rush”, which is played intermittently in the scenes within Sugar Rush. It was written by Jamie Houston and Yasushi Akimoto and performed Japanese girl group AKB48. It’s very much “bubble gum pop”, which fits the tone of the game very well. I like the parts of it you hear in the movie, mostly just the chorus part, but I don’t particularly like the full song! The full song is the second song to play during the End Credits. Finally, there is the song, “Wreck-It, Wreck-It Ralph”, written by Jamie Houston, and performed by Buckner & Garcia. It’s the third song in the End Credits, so I hadn’t heard it before! It’s a bit weird, kind of electronic, to match the 80s vibe of the game Fix-It Felix Jr., as it tells the storyline of the game itself, but it also almost sounds a bit country. I’m not a fan of it, personally. Buckner & Garcia released an album in 1982 called Pac-Man Fever, with each song in the album being themed to a classic arcade game so it makes sense for them to feature in Wreck-It Ralph’s soundtrack.

RECEPTION

A first look at the first five minutes of Wreck-It Ralph was revealed at the D23 convention in the summer of 2011, where it was confirmed to be released in November 2012. Wreck-It Ralph was released in November 2012, along with the short Paperman. The movie was received well by many critics, who praised the artistic styling and cleverness of the whole theme of the movie, along with the entertaining plot and nostalgia factor, thanks to the retro video game references. Though some critiques were more negative, with them claiming that this was Disney trying to pull off a Pixar concept and failing in comparison[10]. A “mockumentary” titled Garlan Hulse: Where Potential Lives was made to promote the home media release in 2013. It follows the fictional journey of child gaming prodigy, Garlan Hulse, trying to reclaim his title as the high-score holder on Fix It Felix Jr. as a down-on-his-luck adult.

Regardless of the critics’ opinions, Wreck-It Ralph was a hit at the box office, making $471.2 million worldwide against a budget of $165 million. It had a brilliant opening weekend, staying at Number 1 for one week, until the James Bond movie Skyfall (2012) was released. But that didn’t matter, because Wreck-It Ralph was still nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 85^th Academy Awards in 2013. Though it lost out to Pixar’s own release of the year, Brave (2012), Wreck-It Ralph did win the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature, along with music and directing, as well as winning the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award for Favorite Animated Movie of the Year.

LEGACY

Wreck-It Ralph was such a success for Disney Animation that they decided to make a sequel: Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018). The sequel would prove to be even more popular than the original with many viewers, though I personally prefer the first one. Apart from that, the Wreck-It Ralph franchise isn’t all that big, at least not compared to other Disney animated hits. Both movies had their own video game releases, and the characters feature in other Disney-aligned video games, such as Disney Infinity and the Kingdom Hearts series. Ralph and Vanellope have made cameo appearances in episodes of television series, such as Futurama (1999-present), and The Simpsons (1989-present). Rich Moore worked on both series before joining the Walt Disney Animation Studios in 2008.

At the Disney Parks, both Vanellope and Ralph used to feature in the annual Once Upon a Christmastime Parade at Walt Disney World during the festive season for many years. Until 2023, when, although Vanellope still appears in her sugar-covered kart, Ralph is no longer on the gingerbread house float; Clarice the Chipmunk has taken his place. They also used to both feature in the annual Mickey’s Boo To You Halloween Parade, with Ralph riding in a truck carrying a load of candy corn and Vanellope pedalling a float of a candy train with a huge container of gumballs on the top, however, Ralph was removed from this parade in 2023. Wow, what did Ralph do to deserve that? They both used to meet and greet guests in the now-closed Magic of Disney Animation building at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World Resort soon after the film was released, before moving to a different location, this time at Epcot. Ralph and Vanellope did also meet guests at the other Disney Parks soon after their movie’s release, such as at Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland, however, they are now much rarer to encounter. The Wreck-It Ralph characters are appearing in the Harmony in Color Parade at Tokyo Disneyland to celebrate the park’s 40^th anniversary.

There have been rumours, circulating for years, of a Wreck-It Ralph-themed attraction coming to the US Disney Parks, with some even expecting one to be announced at the D23 Expo in 2022; it never was. Permits were apparently filed in 2020 for a Wreck-It Ralph attraction to replace Stitch’s Great Escape at Tomorrowland at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, but there has been no further news on this. Many people also wish for Walt Disney World’s Tomorrowland Speedway to be rethemed to Sugar Rush, but this is also not confirmed. A real Fix-It Felix Jr. arcade game was built, though, for guests to play within Disneyland’s Tomorrowland[11]. These machines have since been removed.  

Recently, it was announced that Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters at Tokyo Disneyland will be closing at the end of 2024. The area will house an attraction themed to Wreck-It Ralph instead, with an apparent storyline around defeating sugary bugs that have taken over the Sugar Rush game, courtesy of the evil King Candy. This indoor interactive attraction is due to open in 2026.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Wreck-It Ralph turned out to be a hugely successful film, becoming the 14^th largest film of 2012 at the worldwide box office, which is good going, seeing as releases from Pixar had been dwarfing those from Disney Animation for years. It’s even more impressive when you consider that audiences loved it despite it not being a traditional Disney movie with the usual format and structure, like the popular movies of Disney’s “Renaissance Era”. It cemented the future of Disney Animation, which, more or less, is still continuing today[12].

Though Wreck-It Ralph is an entertaining film, with a clever concept, memorable characters, and amusing jokes, it is also a journey of self-discovery. It reminds us that we shouldn’t let labels define us; we are all different and we aren’t just one thing, or one emotion, all the time. As the “Bad-Anon” meeting motto goes: “I’m bad and that’s good. I will never be good, and that’s not bad. There’s no-one I’d rather be than me.”

Wreck-It Ralph teaches its viewers to accept themselves as they are, just as Ralph and Vanellope learn to do, and if the gaming theme doesn’t already pull you in, then Disney hoped that message would do it instead. It certainly worked with me!

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Wreck-It Ralph’, pp. 154-156.

[2] Credit: Chris Morgan, ’20 facts you might not know about ‘Wreck-It Ralph’, YardBarker.com, 11^th November 2022.

[3] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Wreck-It Ralph’, pp. 154-156.

[4] Credit: Disney, “Bit by Bit: Creating the Worlds of Wreck-It Ralph”, from Wreck-It Ralph (2012), Blu-Ray 2-Movie Collection (2018).

[5] Credit: Douglas Laman, ‘These Wreck-It Ralph Details Are Boss Level’, Looper, 7^th November 2022.

[6] Credit: Disney, “Bit by Bit: Creating the Worlds of Wreck-It Ralph”, from Wreck-It Ralph (2012), Blu-Ray 2-Movie Collection (2018).

[7] Credit: Disney, “Deleted Scenes”, from Wreck-It Ralph (2012), Blu-Ray 2-Movie Collection (2018).

[8] Credit: Douglas Laman, ‘These Wreck-It Ralph Details Are Boss Level’, Looper, 7^th November 2022.

[9] Credit: Chris Morgan, ’20 facts you might not know about ‘Wreck-It Ralph’, YardBarker.com, 11^th November 2022.

[10] Credit: Christopher Orr, ‘‘Wreck-It Ralph’ Aims for Pixar…and Misses’, The Atlantic (online), 2^nd November 2012.

[11] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Wreck-It Ralph’, pp. 154-156.

[12] Credit: Douglas Laman, ‘These Wreck-It Ralph Details Are Boss Level’, Looper, 7^th November 2022.