Into the Unknown: Making Frozen II

For Frozen , we had created these two characters, these sisters.

I get caught up in them and emotional because they feel... they feel real to me.

They feel like family. That's part of what drives us.

It was such a complicated process to make Frozen ,

and we were so thrilled and surprised about the reception.

So now for Frozen II , there's a sense of responsibility

and a lot of pressure and a lot of high expectations.

The funny thing about this is it was not scary to dive back in.

It got scarier and scarier and scarier as you go along.

I guess you can say we're going into the unknown.

"It was the first snow of the season.

As soon as night fell, I made an excuse to go to bed early

and slipped out into the fjords.

Nature's snow is more beautiful than mine could ever be."

This is long before a screenplay.

I was trying to ground myself in Elsa, and so I started to write

as her, um, a journal.

And then Chris would read it and be inspired, and he would do drawings.

Chris Buck is my directing partner on Frozen I , and we're back together again.

He's an incredible director and has been, in some ways, a mentor to me.

She comes from a writing background.

I come from drawing and animation and that background.

So we have very different skill sets, but I think it helps.

You kind of see Chris Buck as Elsa, and me as Elsa.

One's words and one is drawings.

We've been working on this film for over three years.

There is still so much to do.

It's probably the toughest time of production, is a year out.

It's when all the balls are up in the air, and the balls start falling.

Every three months or so, we screen the film for our fellow directors.

People who are not on our movie,

but they have directed Oscar-winning animated films,

like Big Hero 6 and Zootopia.

And they give us notes and feedback, and they don't hold back on hard notes.

Sort of feels like you're getting punched,

but it makes you think smarter each time.

-Good to see you. -Good to see you.

Bobby and Kristen Lopez are the songwriters for Frozen I .

Yes, they did "Let It Go." Oscar winners.

They're an incredible team. They're husband and wife.

We could not have done Frozen I without them,

and we can't do Frozen II without them. So they're back.

The screening cycles are basically like building giant cities out of Legos.

And then they take baseball bats to each building,

and then you rebuild it in another three months.

So you have to be open and careful and resilient.

Yeah. All right.

Just remember,

by this afternoon it'll feel like the whole movie's been thrown out.

By Thursday, Friday, we'll realize it's not as bad, and things will be great.

Peter Del Vecho is our producer. He produced Frozen I .

And what he does, he keeps us moving forward creatively,

and makes sure that we meet our deadlines

and actually get this film out on time and on budget.

I don't think there's been more pressure on any Disney animated film than this one.

So just basically where we're at. When we come back in the new year,

we'll have about six months left in animation,

about nine months until we're done.

As if there weren't enough pressure on ourselves today,

we've also started to do a docuseries.

There will be an individual camera on each one of you.

- -So there's one.

So we're gonna catch all of that.

If you wanna make the final cut, please laugh or cry appropriately.

-Thank you. Enjoy. -Here you go. Thank you.

A lot of the times, you're showing a screening that is really, sort of,

piecemeal and patchwork of all these different styles.

Sometimes we'll still have just storyboards.

Sometimes there will be rough animation in it.

And then we have this meeting after called the Story Trust,

which is all the directors and actual writers who are with us at the time.

-Our first screening, right? -Yeah.

-That was cool. - The Story Trust is

one of the most important things to us.

It can be pretty intense, the feedback, but everyone's here to help the film.

Good afternoon, everybody.

Today is about, we just wanna hear your reactions and your thoughts.

Everything seemed to be building to really amazing, fantastic, compelling answers.

I just, uh, just wanted some clarity on the answers.

What normally happens in the earlier stages

is everything is just what's not working.

We were watching her spiral into a darkness that we couldn't even comprehend.

In the end, Elsa is-- What is she actually becoming?

And you feel like your film's torn apart.

I found it strange Elsa didn't reveal to Anna she's hearing this voice calling.

I was confused, and there were just things that didn't quite land to me.

I felt like I had to take notes to understand what was going on.

You feel very exposed and very vulnerable,

and you're left with it in pieces going, "How am I gonna pick this up?"

We have to make a decision, uh, about whether it's a magical river,

-or there's a magical person calling her. - Right.

I think when the song will be glorious to me, it's a glorious song,

but when we've earned it is when we're scared out of our mind,

but we can't help but be seduced with her.

The takeaway is that we still have a lot of work left.

It's confusing, sometimes too dark,

and some of the songs, especially "Show Yourself,"

still needs a lot of work.

There is a lot of other work that needs to be done.

I think we're out of time.

-Any more notes... -It's gonna be so fun.

...you can send me would be great. Thanks.

Not too long ago,

I took on the role of Chief Creative Officer for Disney Animation,

as well as being one of the directors and writers of Frozen .

I oversee the creative for all of the films we're working on.

So what happened is now my time gets divided a little bit,

and as I'm supporting the other films,

-I'm still finishing a film. -So, more of a squeak, right?

-It was a squeak before. -Yeah.

It went-- It went-- It went and then...

This is definitely the moment of just hang in there.

Maybe we have one song left to write or maybe we have five.

It's still a question of whether this movie works.

It's getting tighter every day.

Anna, does everything always have to change?

So we write a song called, "Some Things Never Change,"

where Olaf brings up the idea of is everything gonna change.

The way we had the song ending

was we imagined that Anna would bring everyone home,

get everyone into the castle, and the last shot would be her closing the door.

She's doing-- You know, the secondary hook of the song is,

"I'm holding on tight to you," and that's how it ends with them.

That's Anna.

Elsa. Olaf.

Kristoff. Everyone goes in,

and then she lingers by the door for a second and goes...

Closing the door and starting the next scene.

So, this morning, I was sitting at the piano

wondering what a good ending for it would be,

and right now I'm going to play the last chord.

-I'm gonna do it one more time. -I figured out what I'm reacting to.

-It comes in a little too late. -I also think Anna is returning the--

My take was supposed to be when she was all alone and looking wistful.

-Right. -So I think we need to go up.

We need to take the tempo up and go,

And then it's in time.

I usually stand right here.

Are you thinking that it would be like this, like...

-No? What would you put? -No. A little bit more of a--

I would just make her not quite as wistful, but the same kind of timing.

Bobby and Kristen, they understand music in an emotional way that I--

It's not what I do. And I know filmmaking and I know structure, story structure.

It's almost like they're two different languages

that when they speak together, it's beautiful.

But to get them to speak together takes an extraordinary amount of work.

Last night, Bobby and Kristen, our songwriters,

came into town for a recording session.

-Hi, everybody. -Hi!

And they're gonna be actually recording "Some Things Never Change."

Bringing in Idina Menzel, Kristen Bell and also Josh Gad.

We'll also be recording Jonathan from New York.

And let's do it. Let's go in.

Today is sort of the fun part,

where we get the magic to come alive by watching what the cast brings to the song.

Yeah. Rock on!

We didn't know what we had with "Let It Go."

We didn't know what we had with Frozen .

I mean, I knew I was part of a Disney musical, animated movie,

which for me was a huge milestone.

But we didn't know that it would resonate on such a level that it did.

Oh, she can't hear.

Oh, there we go.

Now, nod your head "Yes," like you're saying, "Yes."

When we get back to this, it straightens out again.

I think some of the best projects

are the ones that have this, sort of, creative pixie dust on it.

I think that's part of the magic of Frozen I .

So getting to have the same team back together again was just so joyful.

Hey, Kristen. How are your headphones sounding?

Good, I just found my-- I just wanted the, uh, background up and I found it.

All set?

- The difference between, - Stop it.

"Like how we get along just fine, like an old stone wall."

Can you really hit, "Never fall"? Like that wall is never gonna fall.

Yeah.

"Some things are always true." Your beautiful high note,

and then a different energy on, "Some things."

Like, bring it down again to an intimate place.