Extra, Extra!: Frozen 2 Confirmed

In which I report on the latest in entertainment news.

It was only a matter of time before this became official.  Frozen was the cross-demographic mega-hit whose sustained popularity simply demanded a sequel.  It was obvious that Disney was not going to allow such an absurdly profitable film go without a big screen follow up, and now it's confirmed.  A Frozen sequel is officially in the works over at Disney.

Although not much is currently known about this as of yet unnamed sequel - such as its release date - we do know that it will be produced by Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee, the same writer-director duo that made the original film.  And although Jennifer Lee's success has largely been relegated to Frozen, Chris Buck has notably written and directed Tarzan and Surf's Up, contributed to Pocahontas' story and worked in the animation department on eighteen feature length, short and serialized animations, including Pocahontas, The Rescuers Down Under, The Little Mermaid, Oliver & Company, The Brave Little Toaster and The Fox and the Hound.

And although there's no word as of yet of Idina Menzel's (Elsa), Jonathon Groff's (Kristoff) or Josh Gad's (Olaf) involvement in the project, Kristen Bell (Anna) has energetically agreed to work on the project.  She enthusiastically turned to twitter following its announcement at Disney's annual shareholder's meeting.

When it comes to Disney sequels, there are some very real and very understandable concerns.  Despite representing the very best in animation in the 80s and 90's, Disney's follow ups to their big screen successes were always of considerably more dubious quality.  Handed off to their TV department in order to make a quick buck on the home video market, they were decried for their poor animation quality and substandard scripts.  My first real cinematic disappointment was seeing The Return of Jafar and struggling to figure out why it was so across-the-board inferior to Aladdin.

Even Pixar, now firmly tucked under Disney's wing, is not immune to its parent company's sequel syndrome.  Although Toy Story 2 and 3 were unreserved successes that actually surpassed the quality of the first film, their reputation has recently been mired down with the disappointing Monsters University and the increasingly questionable Cars 2 and Planes: Fire and Rescue.  Disney's going to have to work overtime on this project if it hopes to make anything nearly as beloved as Frozen.

I mean, where can the story possibly go from here?  The main driving force in the film was the rift that had grown between sisters Elsa and Anna in the wake of their parents' death and Elsa's inability to control her ice powers.  Seeing as how the first film's finale repaired the sisters' strained relationship and gave Elsa's complete mastery over her gifts, that couldn't be it.  Will Hans return for vengeance (which, even on the face of it, seems like a cop out)?  Or will Disney go the How to Train Your Dragon 2 route and introduce a full-fledged villain, possibly with some other elemental power?

All else being equal, however, I am cautiously optimistic about what we can hope for in a Frozen 2.  With the necessary world and character establishing out of the way, the creative team is free to more fully explore the characters' interactions with one another (essentially what made The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel better than its forebear).  At any rate, I'll be keeping a close eye on this project as it develops.

So what direction do you hope Disney will take with their upcoming Frozen sequel?

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