Freeze frame

FII’S DIRECTORS REVEAL THE COLD TRUTH ABOUT THEIR SEQUEL…

This is the first musical sequel Disney has done,” says Frozen II codirector Chris Buck. With “no model” to follow, as Buck’s cohelmer Jennifer Lee puts it, the duo carved their own path, treating it as “act two of a Broadway musical” (Buck). Here, the directors and producer Peter Del Vecho reflect on their journey, erm, into the unknown…

Which of the deleted scenes was hardest to lose?

JENNIFER LEE: There’s a scene about the discovery of a secret room in the castle. That didn’t make it into the final cut, probably because it answered too many things too quickly. There are elements of it you see, like, two-thirds into the movie.

CHRIS BUCK: One of our favourites is the Anna/Kristoff duet, ‘I Want To Get This Right’. It’s him proposing; it was going to happen in act one, as a sort of prelude to ‘Lost In The Woods’.

Talking of ‘Lost In The Woods’, which ’80s pop videos did you take inspiration from?

JL: All of them! [laughs]

CB: Every single one. The challenge was to take that inspiration, but not go too far. We had versions where Kristoff was cartwheeling through the forest…

JL: Taking his shirt off… yeah, it was a little too far.

Any Easter eggs we can look for?

CB: Not big ones, but when the sisters are playing with little snow creatures at the start, you can see Dumbo and Baymax from Big Hero 6 in there.

Did you discuss bringing Prince Hans back in a major role?

JL: Yeah, we talked a lot about Hans. There were people that kept asking me on Twitter to redeem him. But I was like, ‘He’s a sociopath. He tried to murder Anna and Elsa – I think it’s best to accept that and move on!’ But early on, there were moments where we thought he could show up.

Was it always the plan not to have a front-and-centre villain?

JL: The grandfather played a bigger role at one point. But really, in the Frozen world, fear is the enemy, fear is the villain. There’s a lot of antagonism in life; so I think we wanted to stay in that realism. There are many great Disney villains, but I think it was nice for Frozen to stay different, more thematic.

Was the ‘Show Yourself’ sequence tough to nail?

JL: Yeah. It’s an important song for Elsa – very emotional, very ethereal, so making that literal was hard. And where ‘Let It Go’ was the beginning of act two [in Frozen], this is the end of act two of the second film, so it’s carrying everything that’s come before it. We wanted to take her to a place where her powers are not just pretty and blasting but have a a role to play in the world. Cracking that combination took many, many drafts. It’s a big sequence.

PETER DEL VECHO: I think we had to borrow some rendering power from Google just to finish making it. And by ‘borrow’ I mean ‘pay for’! [laughs]

Was it a big decision to make Anna the queen?

CB: We did these personality tests for the characters; Anna came back a leader, Elsa a protector. So we knew Anna was perfect for it. She’s so much of the people, so we pictured her running around town, knowing everyone personally and being able to delegate. JL: And I think Kristoff won’t be intimidated by her being queen. Although he’s not going to like wearing the royal outfits! [laughs] Matthew Leyland