Last week, Into the Unknown: Making Disney’s Frozen 2 debuted on Disney+. This is a six-episode documentary about the making of Disney’s Frozen 2. It takes place about a year before the film was due to debut.
Let me just say that I did not expect to cry as much as I did. It gave me chills, it was beautiful, and I love seeing the work that went into such an incredible film.
The first episode is titled “A Year to Premiere.” At this point, the crew behind the film was showing their progress to fellow directors and animators at Walt Disney Animation Studios every three months. They would receive criticism and feedback and make changes accordingly. To think: a year before the movie is due to premiere, everyone is working tirelessly to do the characters and story justice, even if that means going back to square one.
“Some Things Never Change”
Jennifer Lee, Chief Creative Officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios and Director of both Frozen and Frozen 2 talked about how the story-telling of the film and the emotion behind music need to blend together. “It’s almost like they are two different languages, that when they speak together, it’s beautiful. But to get them to speak together takes an extraordinary amount of work.” Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez were the song-writers for the first Frozen film and were of course back for the sequel. They create a rough version with lyrics of each song and then have to figure out the energy and emotion they need to convey through the music. For the song “Some Things Never Change,” Kristen and Robert had to go back and forth and decide how Anna would be acting in the scene where this song would be played. The emotional decisions had to be based on the story context as well as how the character would feel in the moment. It’s amazing to watch and listen to the changes that were made in tempo and intensity.
When the cast comes in to sing the song, they record it in pieces. Each take that they do may not be perfect the whole time, but they take the moments that work and piece them together. While they record, Kristen and Robert are giving them directions for emotion and energy. The directors, along with Kristen and Robert, wait for the emotion to hit then keep that take. There was a moment where Kristen Anderson-Lopez gave Kristen Bell the same note for Anna’s energy in “Some Things Never Change” that she gave Robert when they were writing. Hearing that translate into Anna’s voice gave me the chills, and it brought tears to my eyes. Watching the creation of the soundtrack unfold before me was beautiful.
“Into the Unknown”
When it comes to the animation team, I learned that there is one supervisor per character. Each character has their own set of animators.
While the cast is recording their songs and lines, they are also being video recorded. This helps the animators figure out a lot of things. When does the actors take a breath? What shape is their mouth making? What sort of facial expressions or hand motions are they doing? All of this is used as inspiration when animating the character. It gives life to the characters and makes them much more realistic and believable, especially in the musical numbers. Malerie Walters, an animator assigned to Elsa in the song “Into the Unknown” said that her one to two years of work may only get one to two minutes on screen! That is phenomenal dedication to detail!
Once the cast had recorded the raw version of “Into the Unknown,” the orchestra came in to record the music. Again, the conductor was given the emotional direction of the song so he can relay that to the direction of 100 musicians. Getting the feeling behind the song from the orchestra in its raw form made me cry. Chills ran down my arms hearing them create the power behind the song. They get the notes from the directors and make something incredible from them. It’s one thing to hear the soundtrack playing in your car or while watching the movie; it’s a whole new understanding when you can see for yourself the raw creation. The camera showed Jennifer Lee during the climax of the song, and you can see pure joy all over her face. As a lover of movie soundtracks and orchestral music, this was so special to witness!
I am a huge fan of Frozen 2, and being able to watch how it all came together is exciting and very emotional!
Next Episode – “Show Yourself”
By the end of the episode, they started to talk about “Show Yourself.” The lyrics have apparently changed numerous times. The animation has changed many times as well. Lee and the other directors knew this was a huge moment for Elsa. It had to be perfect. The animation screenings left too many unanswered questions, and the song itself was too vague for the animators.
Episode 2 is titled “Back to the Drawing Board.”
All six episodes of this Disney+ original are available to watch.
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