Frozen returns after five years

Five years after Frozen set the box-office on fire and launched a hugely popular song that made a generation of children (boys and girls alike) rediscover their love of movie musicals, sisters Elsa and Anna, the heroines in the saga, are returning to theaters worldwide beginning this week to respond to a mysterious call that could finally reveal the source of Elsa’s magic.

“We knew we wanted to explore magic deeper,” Jennifer Lee told this writer during a junket for the movie at the Walt Disney Animation Studios in Burbank, California recently. Jennifer, who is also the chief creative officer of the studio, is back at the helm as the writer and director of the film. Also returning is Chris Buck, who co-directed the sequel, and Peter del Vecho, who produced the film. The trio shepherded the phenomenal 2014 film and is back promising a bigger, more magical sequel that will delight its billions of fans worldwide.

To create a more magical world, Jennifer and her team returned to Norway and trekked to the north of the Arctic Circle and did a 10-km. hike into the black forest where they felt the Nordic folktales come to life which helped them expand the mythology introduced in the first film.

“You could feel the folktales coming to life and we started to feel the spirit of nature everywhere!” Jennifer said.

“Elsa is so connected to nature and it was nice to sort of walk in her footsteps, how she would feel, how Anna would feel. We were always talking about the story and we were so inspired by everything we saw,” Chris added.

After their trip, Chris realized that he fell in love with Norway and Finland. “It was like a warm hug. Everything about it, I just felt so at peace!”

And I couldn’t agree more. This writer traveled to Norway in early September this year and spent eight days driving around the southwest and central regions of the country and experienced first-hand the truly breathtaking natural scenery of the country. You would never want to leave when you’re there, truly magical indeed. But I digress.

Frozen 2 is set three years after the events of the first film when Anna saved Elsa from dying and Olaf finally got his wish to experience summer. In the sequel, Elsa begins to encounter a strange sound that seems to come from the north reaching out to her and beckoning her. Thinking that the voice could hold the key to her magical powers, Elsa, together with Anna, Kristoff, Olaf and Sven, embark on a journey far beyond Arendelle to trace the voice and find the origin of her powers.

In the sequel, Elsa will discover that there is a force in nature more powerful than her magic!

“Nature is so powerful!” Jennifer joked before she shared a funny experience she had while in the ancient forest.

“When we were walking in the forest, our guide told us, ‘You have to ask nature permission for things.’ And, every time I asked the answer was no! I ripped my pants! I fell! The forest was telling me, ‘No, no, no. I like you but we are not sure about you,’” she said laughing.

Another country they visited was Iceland where they went to the North Sea to have a sense of how dark and powerful an angry sea could be — and their experience was different and it made them rediscover the unique characters of Anna and Elsa and gave them focus on where to take the story next.

“I felt very small to the power of nature,” Jennifer recalled. “I absolutely surrendered to it and we realized, in many ways, that Anna was very much about the intimacy of the forest and the folktales and fairy tales and Elsa connected very deeply with the myth and power of nature where human has to acquiesce to that and that really shaped the foundation and deeper exploration of fairy tales and myth.”

In a nod to the diversity and power of nature, there are new characters being introduced in the film including a wind spirit named Gale and a sea horse that becomes Elsa’s new friend named Nokk.

According to Peter, they had more challenges on this film than in any other film they’ve done. “Our crew is getting stronger movie after movie and technology is advancing so even though they don’t necessarily know how to do something, the water Nokk is a good example of that, they loved taking on that challenge.”

“I think wind is a good example,” Jennifer chimed in. “You can make wind with a simulator but then to make wind a character that has a personality, that all has to be built from the tech up.”

There were separate teams that worked on each of the new characters. There was also a separate team that worked on the animated environments of the magical enchanted forest and the foreboding dark seas. 

One of the most important elements that made the first film so successful was its timeless music. Fans of the original should be delighted to know that the Oscar-winning husband-and-wife team of Robert and Kristen Anderson-Lopez is back with sensational new songs, including the Let it Go sequel Into the Unknown.

The original voice cast members Idina Menzel, Kristen Bell, Jonathan Groff, Josh Gad are joined by new cast members Sterling Brown, who plays Lieutenant Destin Mattias, the leader of a group of soldiers trapped in the enchanted forest for years, and Evan Rachel Wood, who plays Queen Iduna, the mother of Elsa and Anna.

One of the biggest mysteries in Frozen 2 is the call that Elsa is getting. This writer will not spoil anything but Jennifer could give us some clues. “We will look at the past differently it is hopefully intriguing.”

Frozen 2 opens in theaters today.