Well, my daughter will be none too pleased to hear this…
According to the directors of Disney’s smash hit Frozen, there’s not much to report about the status of a sequel. “It’s been in the press that we are doing it, and we would ask each other, ‘Are we?’,” says Chris Buck. “They’d have a date and they’d have a cast and it was like, OK…“
In a chat with BuzzFeed, Buck and co-director Jennifer Lee fessed up to feeling hopelessly in over their heads when Frozen became a phenomenon. “I don’t think you can ever quite get your head around it,†Lee said. “And just when you think you’re starting to figure out why [fans loved it so much], you realize you have no idea. You go out to dinner and there’s kids wearing a ‘I Like Warm Hugs’ T-shirt and it hits you again. Two years ago, we were writing that and wondering if kids would even like this character. Every day we’re still surprised. I don’t know if I’ll ever understand it.“
This feeling made even the thought of creating the upcoming short Frozen Forever feel almost impossible. Making a full-fledged sequel feels downright insurmountable to the duo.
“It all comes down to the story,†says Lee. “Like with the short, it was so daunting until we found the story. Then it was all of the things it usually is and we were thinking of every emotion and moment and feeling. I think that’s all we can do. Until we find our way into what’s next, emotionally, it will feel too big. We just finished the short two weeks ago. One year ago, it was a lot to even think about doing a short. We were quite tired. We don’t really know what it’s like to stop for a minute and think about what we want to do next.”
That’s not to say that they don’t intend to revisit it at all, but it just seems like it’s a ways off. Buck jokes that there’s also a desire to have a drop-the-mic moment and just walk away on a high-note, but that seems altogether unlikely.
Of course, this being Disney, a sequel could get made without them so the duo better make a decision soon.
Honestly, I think rushing a sequel is silly. Is there even a necessity? Look at Disney classics like The Lion King, Pinocchio, Lady and The Tramp, Aladdin, Cinderella, etc. Did they get big screen sequels? No. The films stood alone as animated classics. Some later got inferior straight-to-video sequels, sure, but those lesser releases never did anything to tarnish the legacies of the originals. If they march out a big screen, high-budget sequel to Frozen, and it creatively misfires, now you’ve put a bit of a black eye on its legacy. People expect straight-to-video sequels to be subpar. An underwhelming Frozen 2 in theaters wouldn’t go under the radar.
So if they come up with something fantastic, great. Go for it. If not, and they’re stilling hemming and hawing about it, then just let it go.
SOURCE: BuzzFeed
