movie everyone is talking about For my understanding of Frozen’s development, I am particularly indebted to Ed Catmull, Jennifer Lee, Andrew Millstein, Peter Del Vecho, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Bobby Lopez, Amy Wallace, and Amy Astley, as well as other Disney employees, some of whom wished to remain anonymous, who were generous with their time. Additionally, I relied upon Charles Solomon, The Art of Frozen (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2015); John August, “Frozen with Jennifer Lee,” Scriptnotes, January 28, 2014, http://johnaugust.com/2014/frozen-with-jennifer-lee; Nicole Laporte, “How Frozen Director Jennifer Lee Reinvented the Story of the Snow Queen,” Fast Company, February 28, 2014; Lucinda Everett, “Frozen: Inside Disney’s Billion-Dollar Social Media Hit,” The Telegraph, March 31, 2014; Jennifer Lee, “Frozen, Final Shooting Draft,” Walt Disney Animation Studios, September 23, 2013, http://gointothestory.blcklst.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Frozen.pdf; “Frozen: Songwriters Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez Official Movie Interview,” YouTube, October 31, 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzZ77n4Ab5E; Susan Wloszczyna, “With Frozen, Director Jennifer Lee Breaks Ice for Women Directors,” Indiewire, November 26, 2013, http://blogs.indiewire.com/womenandhollywood/with-frozen-director-jennifer-lee-breaks-the-ice-for-women-directors; Jim Hill, “Countdown to Disney Frozen: How One Simple Suggestion Broke the Ice on the Snow Queen’s Decades-Long Story Problems,” Jim Hill Media, October 18, 2013, http://jimhillmedia.com/editor_in_chief1/b/jim_hill/archive/2013/10/18/countdown-to-disney-quot-frozen-quot-how-one-simple-suggestion-broke-the-ice-on-the-quot-snow-queen-quot-s-decades-long-story-problems.aspx; Brendon Connelly, “Inside the Research, Design, and Animation of Walt Disney’s Frozen with Producer Peter Del Vecho,” Bleeding Cool, September 25, 2013, http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/09/25/inside-the-research-design-and-animation-of-walt-disneys-frozen-with-producer-peter-del-vecho/; Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace, Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration (New York: Random House, 2014); Mike P. Williams, “Chris Buck Reveals True Inspiration Behind Disney’s Frozen (Exclusive),” Yahoo! Movies, April 8, 2014; Williams College, “Exploring the Songs of Frozen with Kristen Anderson-Lopez ’94,” YouTube, June 30, 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftddAzabQMM; Dan Sarto, “Directors Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee Talk Frozen,” Animation World Network, November 7, 2013; Jennifer Lee, “Oscars 2014: Frozen’s Jennifer Lee on Being a Female Director,” Los Angeles Times, March 1, 2014; Rob Lowman, “Unfreezing Frozen: The Making of the Newest Fairy Tale in 3D by Disney,” Los Angeles Daily News, November 19, 2013; Jill Stewart, “Jennifer Lee: Disney’s New Animation Queen,” LA Weekly, May 15, 2013; Simon Brew, “A Spoiler-Y, Slightly Nerdy Interview About Disney’s Frozen,” Den of Geek!, December 12, 2013, http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/frozen/28567/a-spoiler-y-nerdy-interview-about-disneys-frozen; Sean Flynn, “Is It Her Time to Shine?” The Newport Daily News, February 17, 2014; Mark Harrison, “Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee Interview: On Making Frozen,” Den of Geek! December 6, 2013, http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/frozen/28495/chris-buck-and-jennifer-lee-interview-on-making-frozen; Mike Fleming, “Jennifer Lee to CoDirect Disney Animated Film Frozen,” Deadline Hollywood, November 29, 2012; Rebecca Keegan, “Disney Is Reanimated with Frozen, Big Hero 6,” Los Angeles Times, May 9, 2013; Lindsay Miller, “On the Job with Jennifer Lee, Director of Frozen,” Popsugar, February 28, 2014, http://www.popsugar.com/celebrity/Frozen-Director-Jennifer-Lee-Interview-Women-Film-33515997; Trevor Hogg, “Snowed Under: Chris Buck Talks About Frozen,” Flickering Myth, March 26, 2014, http://www.flickeringmyth.com/2014/03/snowed-under-chris-buck-talks-about.html; Jim Hill, “Countdown to Disney Frozen: The Flaky Design Idea Behind the Look of Elsa’s Ice Palace,” Jim Hill Media, October 9, 2013, http://jimhillmedia.com/editor_in_chief1/b/jim_hill/archive/2013/10/09/countdown-to-disney-quot-frozen-quot-the-flaky-design-idea-behind-the-look-of-elsa-s-ice-palace.aspx; Rebecca Keegan, “Husband-Wife Songwriting Team’s Emotions Flow in Frozen,” Los Angeles Times, November 1, 2013; Heather Wood Rudulph, “Get That Life: How I Co-Wrote the Music and Lyrics for Frozen,” Cosmopolitan, April 27, 2015; Simon Brew, “Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck Interview: Frozen, Statham, Frozen 2,” Den of Geek!, April 4, 2014, http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/frozen/29346/jennifer-lee-chris-buck-interview-frozen-statham-frozen-2; Carolyn Giardina, “Oscar: With Frozen, Disney Invents a New Princess,” The Hollywood Reporter, November 27, 2013; Steve Persall, “Review: Disney’s Frozen Has a Few Cracks in the Ice,” Tampa Bay Times, November 26, 2013; Kate Muir, “Jennifer Lee on Her Disney Hit Frozen: We Wanted the Princess to Kick Ass,” The Times, December 12, 2013; “Out of the Cold,” The Mail on Sunday, December 29, 2013; Kathryn Shattuck, “Frozen Directors Take Divide-and-Conquer Approach,” The New York Times, January 16, 2014; Ma’ayan Rosenzweig and Greg Atria, “The Story of Frozen: Making a Disney Animated Classic,” ABC News Special Report, September 2, 2014, http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/fullpage/story-frozen-making-disney-animated-classic-movie-25150046; Amy Edmondson et al., “Case Study: Teaming at Disney Animation,” Harvard Business Review, August 27, 2014. 207 surprised by all the criticisms In an email sent in response to fact-checking questions, Andrew Millstein, president of Disney Animation Studios, wrote: “These are the kind of notes that fuel our creative process and help propel the forward progress of all of our films in production. The creative leadership on any film often gets too close to their films and loses objectivity. Our Story Trust functions like a highly critical and skilled audience that can point to flaws in the story-telling and, more important, provide potential solutions….You’re describing a process of experimentation, exploration and discovery that are key components of all our films. It’s not a question of if this will happen, but to what degree. This is a constant part of our process and the expectation [of] every filmmaking team. It is what contributes to the high standards that our films set.”
Book of Mormon In an email sent in response to fact-checking questions, Bobby Lopez made clear that Kristen was a sounding board for him in writing Avenue Q and Book of Mormon but was not formally credited on those shows.
dozens of others popped up In an email sent in response to fact-checking questions, a spokeswoman for Walt Disney Animation Studios wrote that the studio wished to emphasize “how typical this process is for every film at Disney Animation since John [Lasseter] and Ed [Catmull] have become our studio leaders—the screening process, the notes sessions, the taking apart of the film and putting it back together. This is typical, not atypical.”