How Olaf’s Frozen Adventure Bridges The Gap Between Frozen And The Upcoming Sequel

still from Olaf's frozen adventure

It's no secret that Disney is on top of the world of entertainment. Between the MCU, Star Wars franchise, and its animated features, the House of Mouse has a ton of very popular properties on its hands. But the musical animated features are the crux of what makes Disney so magical, with Frozen still massively popular years after its release. While we'll have to wait a while until its sequel arrives, you can go back to Arendelle through the short Olaf's Frozen Adventure, which is currently accompanying Coco in theaters. And now we know how how this short may influence the upcoming sequel.

Producer Roy Conli recently spoke to Collider about the process of navigating the narrative of the short, while also collaborating with Frozen 2 director Jennifer Lee.

We set out to further the mythos of Arendelle and their relationship. For the first several months, as we were developing, we had Jennifer Lee, Chris Buck and Peter [Del Vecho] come in about every two weeks. We'd say, 'This is where we're going,' and they'd say, 'Well, Olaf wouldn't do this.' There was a point where we said, 'We need to have a little leeway," and we had this wonderful negotiation process. I think the world now is a little more open for Arendelle. I think that [Jennifer], as she's writing Frozen 2, will probably subconsciously have some inspiration come out of what happened [in the short].

While Olaf's Frozen Adventure won't necessarily tease any of the events of the upcoming sequel, it seems there will be connective tissue between the two newest Frozen additions. And since Jennifer Lee has been privy to the development and plot of the short film, it may end up influencing what happens when Frozen 2 finally arrives in theaters.

Disney fans are eager to learn anything they can about Frozen 2, mostly because the studio has revealed essentially nothing about the highly anticipated sequel. Because it's not set to arrive until 2019, there's years of waiting and sneak peeks ahead of the generations of Frozen fans. I recently had the chance to speak with actress Kristen Bell about the sequel, and was able to squeeze a few tidbits out of her. While assuring that the quality of the script is great, she also teased new characters that fans should expect to fall in love with.

Olaf's Frozen Adventure revolves around the Christmas season in Arendelle, with Elsa and Anna attempting to make their own family traditions. You can see the short film in theaters now, accompanying Pixar's latest musical blockbuster Coco. This will likely help the hardcore Frozen fans get through the next few years, as we've all seen the original film countless times by this point.

Frozen 2 will arrive in theaters on November 27, 2019, starring the original cast. In the meantime, check out our 2018 release list to plan your trips to the movies in the New Year.

Corey Chichizola
Movies Editor

Corey was born and raised in New Jersey. Graduated with degrees theater and literature from Ramapo College of New Jersey. After working in administrative theater for a year in New York, he started as the Weekend Editor at CinemaBlend. He's since been able to work himself up to reviews, phoners, and press junkets-- and is now able to appear on camera with some of his favorite actors... just not as he would have predicted as a kid. He's particularly proud of covering horror franchises like Scream and Halloween, as well as movie musicals like West Side Story. Favorite interviews include Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, Jamie Lee Curtis, and more.