Hi reddit! We made FROZEN! Ask Us Anything!

Do you want to build a snowman??

EDIT: MFW I got reddit gold

Bobby & Kristen: We'd actually like to build a sandcastle.

Peter, Chris, Jennifer: As the southern Californians of the group - YES! We'd love to build a snowman!

i have waited 2 days to post that comment. well done /u/skippedgamercfn…. well done

I'll upvote you for this, you deserve the karma

EDIT: IT IS NOT MY GIF, it belongs to /u/DYWTBASM.

EDIT 2: source

Cool!

Dear Creators of Frozen,

Your movie may have saved my life.

I have been fighting many battles, including abuse, neglect, depression, and plain old bad luck (always the straw that breaks the camel's back, right?). The day before seeing Frozen, I was in the darkest place a broken mind can go, and I saw no escape.

On a whim, I saw Frozen.

Something in your movie flipped a switch in my brain. Maybe the music resonated with my desire to overcome the trauma. Maybe it was Elsa's emotional turmoil or Anna's steadfast love that gave me hope when there was none. Whatever it was, after months of tears and insomnia, Frozen gave me glimmers of hope.

If ever I owed something to a group of people I have never met, it is you. I wish I knew how to express my gratitude, but this story will have to suffice. The love and soul that you put into this film saved me long enough to seek help and start to heal.

Thank you so much. I owe you everything.

Love,
Taylor

Jennifer & Kristen: You've just ruined our make up! We've teared up.

All: Thank YOU for sharing. We just tried to create something funny and emotional - when it can change someones life it's truly special. We've all had those times in our lives and for us it was music and the artists of the world that pulled us out. Keep going! Sending warm hugs!

Whose idea was it to have Anna punch Hans in the face? A+ to that person.

Jennifer: We don't remember which one of us it was but I remember wanting it strongly.

Jennifer & Chris: Originally, Kristoff punched Hans right after Anna froze but it took away from the moment. We really wanted it to be a POP, to be a surprise.

Kristen: It really made sense once we figured out the moment when Hans takes the turn. He needed to be punched.

Santino: That was SO unnecessary. I think we could have talked about.

Speaking of Hans, can he be considered a sympathetic character? We learn very little of him during the course of the movie and, for at least a brief moment before Love is an Open Door, he seems like someone who can genuinly understand how Anna feels. And if he wasn't lying about having 12 older brothers (and them ignoring him) he seems like someone who was in a similar spot to Anna but chose a different path than Anna who clung to hope that Elsa will let her in.

Is there any basis for this (and can we expect Hans to be expanded on in any future material) or is this a case of fans seeing goodness and a chance for redemption where there is none?

Jennifer: I think Hans is a tragic figure because he's a consequence of being raised without love.

Hey! I'm a moderator over at /r/Frozen, and I think it's establised that we all love your film. So here's my question for all of you...

1) What's your favorite scene from Frozen? What scene makes you the proudest that you worked on this amazing movie?

2) If the Walt Disney Company is planning to do anything with Frozen in the future, would you like to be involved? What made you interested in "The Snow Queen" project in the first place?

From everbody on /r/Frozen, and everybody who's seen this movie, thank you all! You've made the past few months of my life amazing. Also, Bobby and Kristen, you guys are musical geniuses. Great work, all of you!

Hi /r/Frozen!

Peter: My proudest is the end of the movie with Anna and Elsa - both emotionally and visually stunning.

Bobby: The scene of "Do you want to build a Snowman?" It was so nearly not in the film but I love it. It took so much work to construct but was well worth it.

Kristen: My two favorite scenes "Do you want to build a Snowman?" because it has my daughter in it, and "Fixer-Upper" because my other daughter is in it! Also when Kristoff and Anna kick Olaf's head.

Chris: "Let it Go" because the song is so amazing that the pressure to match it visually was immense and I think we did it. It builds and it's such a beautiful piece. I'm really proud of it.

Jennifer: Ditto to what Peter said. The whole movie had to build to that moment, but I love the moment Anna throws herself on Elsa and says "The sky's awake..." because that's when I knew audiences were going to love Anna.

The film has garnered a large teenage following. Did you ever expect "Frozen" to attract as many people in that age range as it did (that is, a lot of them)?

Also, have any of you seen "The Lego Movie" yet? If so, what did you think of it?

The two women in the room were not surprised!

Jennifer: I did. The Little Mermaid came out when I was a teenager and I related to her. I loved it and sang the songs. I felt like with Frozen with what the girls went through, the teenage me could relate to that.

Kristen: When we wrote First Time in Forever - we thought about the first time you go out for a dance in High School. Jennifer should also get some love because of her accomplishments on Wreck-It Ralph.

Chris: What floored me was that my son's water polo teammate said he bought the soundtrack and listened to "Let It Go" over and over but with the windows rolled up!

Hi, Thanks for making a wonderful movie! My main question is, Why didn't Kristoff sing more?! You had such a talented singer in Jonathan Groff, and he only had is one, small "duet" with Sven! Thanks!

Bobby & Kristen: Jonathan Groff isn't known for his singing. He's more known for his naked buttocks. Ha ha ha. Actually, we kept fighting the whole process to get a Kristoff song but Kristoff is such an introvert. He's the type of character who wouldn't sing until Anna helped complete him and by then we were into action all the way through the film. For the Broadway version you can rest assured we'll give Kristoff a bigger, longer, song.

P.S. There is a ballad - a love song to Anna that exists in an undisclosed location :)

Where were the King and Queen planning to go when they lost their lives out at sea?

Jennifer: A wedding.

According to Chris, they didn't die on the boat. They got washed up on a shore in a jungle island. The queen gave birth to a baby boy. They build a treehouse. They get eaten by a leopard...

Kristen: They were going to Fantasy Island!! To fix the tensions in their marriage in a way only Ricardo Montalban.

[deleted]

Nope, couldn't be. Rapunzel and Eugene appear in one scene when the girls are grown. They're still young-looking. Couldn't have been the right time.

4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42

1. Could we expect a reunion with Marshmallow? I personally think that making a short movie (just like Tangled Ever After) centered around Marshmallow in his new ice palace would be quite good. Or even if it weren't centered around him, I would love to see the interaction between Marshmallow and Elsa.

2. Who will be responsible for writing the proposed sequel to Frozen? Will it be all of the writers for the first? Many of us are concerned because the movie is perfect as it is, and that a sequel might end up feeling lackluster. Please don't try to force the magic!

Chris & Jenn: Thank you for sitting through the credits to realize that Marshmallow is still alive. Anythings possible, who knows what's next. We love these characters.

Jennifer & Chris: Why is there no commentary track on the DVD? I find animated movie commentaries to be fascinating because there’s lots of behind-the-scenes work that goes unnoticed. This goes double for Frozen which seems to have had a lengthy development process.

Peter: Why was the advertising campaign in the US so Olaf focused? Most of my adult friends and I were resistant to see the film because they thought it would be mostly adventures of a wacky snowman because of the ads. The only reason we did see it was because of positive word of mouth. Meanwhile the French ads looks so much more enticing to an older audience http://bookyurt.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Frozen-french-poster.jpg

Kristen & Bobby: I read that your daughters had parts in Frozen, how were they involved? (PS. Bobby it’s so cool seeing a Filipino have success in the entertainment industry!)

Edit: Also it goes without saying that I loooved this movie. Thanks for making such a magically entertaining film.

Jennifer & Chris: We're not sure why but there's a ton about the making of Frozen including a musical surprise on the DVD about the making of Frozen!

Peter: We love the French and Japan campaigns. Once the music was incorporated into the ads, as filmmakers we really felt it began to represent the film.

Jennifer: This was a big movie and hard to introduce all at once. It was very had to release right away, so by doing it in stages leading up to the final word of mouth then people were able to get the whole picture.

Kristen & Bobby: Both Katie and Aggie (Jennifer Lee's daughter) are involved! Also here: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1xj4n5/hi_reddit_we_made_frozen_ask_us_anything/cfbsxd3 I just want to say thanks to all my Filipino brothers and sisters! Pinoy Pride!

Did anything get cut from the final release that you wish could've made it into the film?

Chris: We had an intro for Kristoff that was action, mountain man, climbing with pick axes. It was great. With a fun surprise...It'll actually be on the DVD!

Kristen: We had a crazy Troll song that was about walking in other people's shoes. But it had this romantic music in the middle of it where Anna and Kristoff literally walked in each other's shoes and saw how each other saw the world. But it had a lot of lyrics about foot fungus.

Was Idina Menzel your first choice for the voice of Elsa?

Chris, Jenn, Peter: We knew we wanted her but we didn't know who Elsa was just yet. She didn't come on officially until we figured out Elsa. We wished it would fit her. Idina and Kristen Bell sang Wind Beneath My Wings during an early table read with John Lasseter sitting across from them. And then Bobby & Kristen said "Oh crap. Now we have to write something just as emotional for them".

Hi guys. Love Frozen. Two questions:

1. The film, and Elsa's story in particular, seems to touch on issues of depression and anxiety. Was that intentional and, if so, when was it introduced into the story. As someone who struggles with anxiety, that element of the film really moved me.

2. The song We Know Better is one of my favourites, even though it was cut. Why was it removed from the film and is there a chance we could see it included in the Broadway show.

Thanks again for creating such a wonderful, touching film.

Bobby & Kristen: We don't know yet if "We Know Better" will be included. What you hear on the soundtrack is only half the song. The rest of the song showed the evolution to the point where they split and Elsa became a villain using her powers for evil and Anna was a prissy princess. So obviously, that told us what the movie shouldn't be.

Chris: i forget all that...

Kristen: We will never forget. :)

I have 2 questions. I have to ask about the Arrested Development references. The "finish each other's sandwiches" could have been a coincidence as some speculate, but it seems highly unlikely with the inclusion of the chicken dance as well. Just curious whose idea it was/how that happened, which leads me to the next question. This movie in particular, while obviously aimed at younger audiences, did have some great humor and writing aimed at older audiences. The songs and plot were great for kids while not insulting people's intelligence and kept things interesting for everyone. What were some of the sources of inspiration that helped to achieve that?

Bobby & Kristen: I will carry to my grave that I was eating a sandwich when I wrote that lyric and occurred spontaneously.

Bobby: Then my brother alerted me that it was an Arrested Development joke but everyone loved. We tried sausages and sauerkraut.

With Frozen being such a huge success, was there ever a moment working on the film that it really clicked for each of you and you all realized that this movie was going to be as successful as it has been?

I've also heard rumors that Elsa's character was originally planned to be much darker, is there any truth behind this? How much did her (and Anna's) characters evolve over the development of the film?

Great work, I love every bit of it!

Entire group: We had a screening in Feb 2013 and it wasn't quite there. Later, a preview to audiences in Phoenix in June was half-animated and the reaction far exceeded our expectations. Jenn and Kristen cried! And then drank wine.

Chris & Jennifer: Elsa was a lot darker for much of the movie until Bobby & Kristen wrote "Let It Go". She even had dark, spikey hair and was colored blue. Anna went from a "somebody rescue me girl" to a fearless, feisty girl - from a sarcastic to optimistic place.

Other than Frozen, what are your favorite Disney films?

Peter: Bambi was the first Disney movie that I saw and what I loved about it was the humor of Bambi and Thumper playing on the ice mixed with the intense drama and range of emotions during Bambi's mothers death.

Bobby: The Lion King. Which is strange because I hadn't seen the film until about a month or two before we came to work on Frozen. I loved it so much and decided that The Lion King would be my standard for a great Disney song.

Kristen: The original Winnie the Pooh shorts from the 60's OR The Little Mermaid. They both used song in such an incredible way.

Chris: Pinocchio! I saw it in a re-release, not the original. I was Four years old. I fell in love with the movie, the characters, the journey, the emotional roller coaster and that everything could work out and have a happy ending.

Jennifer: Wreck-It Ralph.

Was the twist with Hans planned from the beginning?

If not, how did the movie originally end?

Chris & Jennifer: He always had noble reasons but they were shallow so it wasn't necessarily a flip.

Bobby: He always turned out to be the bad guy in the end but it wasn't always a big surprise.

What are your opinions on making the film in the traditional 2d hand-drawn artistic style as opposed to 3d? The 3D in Frozen was amazing, but I always find myself missing the Disney of the 90s.

Chris: I love hand drawn animation, it's where I started. We brought hand drawn sensibility to Frozen, we had Mark Henn one of our premiere hand drawn animators working with us in the animation dailies room to achieve the appeal of hand drawn. We also have some hand drawn effects in the movie.

Peter: I love the fact that at the Studio we have the rich hand drawn that we can draw on and the CG and we can draw on the two. We're one of the only studios that can do that.

Whose parents/family are the trolls based on? They're too real to be baseless.

All: It's a combination of Book of Mormon and Kinky Boots cast members. It's not a coincidence that Stephen Oremus directed both ;)

Hey Jennifer, this one's for you!

According to your IMDB you haven't had too long of a track record in the industry up until recently at Disney, where you've been at the helm of two incredible pictures. Has there been a secret to your success or is there stuff IMDB isn't telling us?

I'd also like to throw out that i'm a big fan of all of your guys work, as a writer with a penchant for fairytales and the ilk, the worlds you all create are great inspiration and I one day hope to be able to achieve some of what you have!

Jennifer: I've actually been at this for a decade. I've had films optioned and go into turn around. You keep trying and trying. There's more failures than successes in this industry. for me it's been a long road but a full one with a lot of opportunities some of which came to fruition. The key is to just keep trying.

What's the sequel called...HEATED??????

Thawed.

Kristen: Microwaved! Bobby: ReFrozen!

You had a concert last night in Beverly Hills. Will the same concert be held for Oscar Week?

Jennifer: Probably not because last night was something the cast put together for us.