It’s hard to believe that we first traveled to Arendelle back in 2013. Since then we have been back there for Frozen 2, as well as a couple of short films. One thing is for certain, the world that Disney Animation Studios has the potential to continue to give us great stories for years to come. One example is the short, Myth: A Frozen Tale.

This imaginative short gives us a closer look at the exciting environments and elements that reside in the enchanted forest outside of Arendelle. We see this from the perspective of a family coming together for a bedtime story. That launches our journey in which we encounter familiar characters like Nokk, the water spirit in the form of a mighty stallion. Gale, the playful wind spirit that can manifest itself from a light breeze to a mighty tornado. Earth Giants, the huge rocky giants that reside in the rocky riverbanks. As well as Bruni, the quick and unpredictable fire spirit.

Through the beauty of color and sound, director Jeff Gipson and production designer Britteny Lee will take us on a  beautiful journey to discover the importance of the balance between these elemental spirits. As the story unfolds, the myth of these spirits’ past and future are revealed. It’s a brand new story with a lot of classic Disney inspiration. During a recent press conference for Myth: A Frozen Tale Gipson gave us an insight into some of the classic inspirations behind the short.

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“One of the first things that we decided that we needed to look at was, How do we stylize this world that is part of an already stylized world of Frozen? We decided to look toward some influences that Frozen looked to as well”, said Gipson. “One big influence for the Frozen world is the art of Eyvind Earle and his work on Sleeping Beauty. It was really informative with an elegant shape language, very graphic, and stylized. The forests are featured predominantly in Sleeping Beauty as well, so we really looked to his artwork to sort of begin the framework of stylized the space, pulling the shape language we could build from to build our own forest in Myth.” 

Gipson also mentioned some past films that inspired Myth: A Frozen Tale. “I also wanted to draw from the history of Disney Animation and this rich heritage. Where this traditional animation is tied to the music it’s animated to. Looking at films like Fantasia, the pink elephants sequence in Dumbo, Make Mine Music, Peter and the Wolf. I just loved how the animation was married to that music. It almost moves exactly with that music.”

Myth: A Frozen Tale is a beautiful short that will give you Fantasia vibes. It will also leave us with an important message about balance and harmony.  It is fascinating to me how much time and care they put into the film. Even though its a short film. Really speaks a lot about the quality from Disney Animation for all their projects.

Disney Animation’s Myth: A Frozen Tale will drop on Disney+ on February 26th, 2021.