53: Frozen

Frozen is a Disney 3D CGI musical adaption of The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen. Earlier scheduled for release on November 27, 2013.

Disney has long played with doing this story. It was a story that Walt himself considered doing, but never actually got off the ground. In 1943, Walt Disney and Samuel Goldwyn had collaborated an idea to produce a biography film of Hans Christian Andersen, where Goldwyn's studio would shoot the live-action sequences of Andersen's life and Disney would create the animated sequences of his stories. The animated sequences to be included were The Little Mermaid, The Little Match Girl, The Snow Queen, Thumbelina, The Ugly Duckling, The Red Shoes and The Emperor's New Clothes.

While they found saw great cinematic possibilities with the source material, the Snow Queen character (among other problems) proved to be too big a hurtle for the studio, and the project was shelved. Goldwyn went on to produce his own live-action film version in 1952, entitled Hans Christian Andersen, with Danny Kaye as Andersen, and the Disney Studios revisited many of the animated sequences, making at least two into previous animated feature films. The Little Match Girl also became a short from the studio.

A new version was considered in 2002, but the project was scrapped completely in late 2002, when Glen Keane notoriously quit the project. By 2010, Disney shelved that project, then changed its status to "on hold." The film gained new life in late 2011 when Disney announced a new title for the project (Frozen), and committed to a 2013 release date.

Disney had unspecified problems with the project with Chris Buck as director. Rather than outright replace him, the studio brought in Wreck-It Ralph writer Jennifer Lee as "co-director".

Easter Eggs

There are a cool couple of Easter Eggs in Disney’s Frozen. First, lets find Disney’s Mickey Mouse! Look behind a box on the left side of the bookcase in the Wandering Oaken’s Trading Post and Sauna to see Mickey hiding from the camera.

Eugene Fitzherbert- you know him as Flynn Rider- and Rapunzel make a guest appearance at the big party in Frozen.

And so do Cinderella and Prince Charming.

Frozen Release

Shown in the U.S. with the Mickey Mouse short Get A Horse!.

Frozen blew away every pre­vi­ous record for an ani­mated film open­ing from Dis­ney. The ani­mated musi­cal grossed a gar­gan­tuan $26.9 mil­lion on Fri­day (this after earn­ing $26.3 mil­lion on Wednes­day and Thurs­day). The film will end at about $68 mil­lion over the week­end frame, which would give it about $97 mil­lion after its first five days in wide release.