Macy’s Parade welcomes Olaf
Forget yearning for summer: Frozen’s resident snowman Olaf is about to have a monumental November.
The animated character voiced by Josh Gad has a starring role in Olaf ’s Frozen Adventure, a short premiering with Pixar’s Coco, which hits theaters Nov. 22. And a day later, Olaf will make his debut as one of four new giant character balloons in the 91st annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City (NBC, 9 a.m. ET/PT).
“Having an Olaf balloon alongside Mickey, Elmo and Big Bird is a dream come true,” Gad says.
He recalls watching the parade with then-girlfriend (and now wife) Ida Darvish in 2005, when Gad was living in an apartment near Macy’s: “We were standing there on this rooftop watching all this in the rain, and it was just such a magical experience.”
Olaf reaching the rarefied air of such pop-culture icons as SpiderMan and Spongebob Squarepants is a “humbling honor” and one that speaks to the way Frozen’s snowman has struck a chord with kids. “Whether it’s his purity, innocence or naïvete, there’s something they all can relate to. ... I absolutely treasure that.”
Gad has started voice work on the anticipated Frozen sequel due in November 2019. But before The official rendering floated for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
that, fans can catch up with Anna (voiced by Kristen Bell), Elsa (Idina Menzel) and the gang in Olaf ’s Frozen Adventure.
The 22-minute featurette is a continuation of the original Frozen.
With holidays on the horizon, Anna and Elsa figure out they don’t have any family traditions, so Olaf scours the kingdom to find the best ones for a magical Christmas.
“In the first movie, he sings an entire song about the fact that he thinks that summer and warmth are great things for someone like him,” Gad says. “But in this short, he’s seeking knowledge. ... He wants to know about these things called traditions that everyone in Arendelle has, and not only embrace those traditions but find the ones that will directly help the people closest to him — these two sisters who are the very reasons why he’s alive.”