Q&A – Josh Gad and “Olaf’s Frozen Adventure” creative team on how our favorite snowman got his own holiday special

in Disney, Movies, Movies & TV

Deters:  For Stevie and myself as storytellers, we’ve been directors at the studio for a while and we were sort of peripherally involved with the feature. All the directors sort of weigh in on the development process, so we watched that movie come into its own, and we were just as surprised as everyone else by the phenomenal success of it.

So when John Lasseter asked us to step into the world and take on this project, we were a little intimidated by it. But at the same time, we knew that we had the studio full of artists that worked on the first feature, and everyone there to support us. It was a great experience. We’re honored to play in the ‘Frozen’ sandbox and contribute to the mythology of ‘Frozen.’

Roy Conli:  Early on we worked with [‘Frozen’ directors] Chris Buck and Jen Lee and [producer] Peter Del Vecho, and really ensconced ourselves in that world. It’s great, I think it’s a testament to the studio. These guys saw the entire development of the feature, so it worked well.

Gad:  Still not a day goes by where I don’t wonder how [‘Frozen’] became the biggest animated movie of all time. I think that a part of it is, at its core, it’s a story about siblings. That’s a very universal thing. Any of us who’ve grown up with brothers or sisters, having two daughters, seeing it through the prism of their eyes, it’s amazing to see how important this story and Elsa and Anna’s journey is to them.

But I had no idea it was going to become the phenomenon that it became. It’s stil surreal to me every day, seeing kids wearing ‘Frozen’ gear. They just announced we’re going to have an Olaf balloon for Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. I never take for granted the fact that this is magic hour that I’m living right now. To give life to these characters– [like] Robbert Guillaume as Rafiki in ‘The Lion King,’ Robin Williams as the Genie in ‘Aladdin’– being a part of that tradition, speaking of traditions, is the coolest gift I’ve ever been given as a performer.

Deters:  As far as working with Josh goes, which was a blast, by the way– Josh is very accommodating and would always very graciously [go along with] whatever’s on the page, whatever we’d written along with our writer Jac Schaeffer, give us some great takes on it, and then he would just start riffing, or we would sort of workshop a little bit, and there’s definitely some great improvisational material that found its way it.

Wermers:  This is also a case where these guys– Josh and Kristen [Bell, who plays Anna] and Idina [Menzel, Elsa] know the characters even better than we did, so sometimes they would give suggestions, because they’ve been playing these characters for much longer than we’ve been working on it.

Gad:  Improv is always definitely part of the journey, and they were amazing collaborators in letting me come up with something insane to say. In the original ‘Frozen’ I remember saying as a joke, ‘I’ve been impaled.’ And then I was shocked when I watched the movie and they animated [it] into the film. It is such a fun collaboration.

Conli:  Kevin and Stevie and I worked together at the turn of the century. They were storyboard artists at the time, and since then they’ve gone on, as we all have, to greater things. They have been working together as a team of directors, I think this is their seventh project. They each have two Emmy Awards for the ‘Prep & Landing’ holiday specials that I had a little to do with. And I can say as a producer, they create one of the more creative, warm, giving environments, and it makes my job easy.

It was one of the most collaborative environments I’ve worked in here, in terms of musicals. Working with Kate and Elyssa, working with Jac Schaeffer, working with these two, there was just such open communication, and everything was give-and-take. The best idea always won, and it was just a complete joy.

WATCH “THAT TIME OF YEAR” CLIP:

Gad:  My kids are tickled by the fact that daddy’s Olaf. I read them ‘Frozen’ books, and it’s a very surreal thing for them to have Olaf reading Olaf. Before both the short and the sequel, I always go back to the original movie just to recalibrate my brain to that. It’s funny, the more I do the voice, he starts to live much higher. The more I record in a bubble, I’m like [high-pitched] ‘Hi, I’m Olaf!’ And he’s just terrifying. [laughs] It’s not the character. It’s always good to remind myself there’s a warmth to it. But my kids definitely love it.

These holidays are so wonderfully rich with memories, for me growing up. Holidays in general have become really commercialized. This movie is, I think, I hope, an emotional reminder about the bond of family, and this one moment out of every year when we’re all in a room together. That, to me, is the power of ‘Olaf’s Frozen Adventure.’ It is about traditions, but more than that, it’s about family. I love that, and I hope that my girls, when they see this movie, they start to think about the traditions they want to make with each other.

As to how “Olaf’s Frozen Adventure” got paired with Pixar’s “Coco,” Conli had this to say: “It’s interesting, because I think it’s the thematic connection. Both films have to do with tradition, and have to do with family. We actually showed this up at Pixar about a year and a half ago at a marketing summit, and that’s when they said ‘This is such a great pairing.’ It became a very natural fit, a very easy fit.”

“Olaf’s Frozen Adventure” opens Wednesday, November 22nd with Disney-Pixar’s “Coco” in theaters nationwide.

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