“feel like one of us” In an email sent in response to fact-checking questions, a spokeswoman for Walt Disney Animation Studios wrote that Lee “had written a draft of the script already in April [2012 in] which Elsa was a more sympathetic character but there was still a plan for her to turn evil halfway through the film. [“Let It Go”] first appeared in [an] August 2012 screening. “Let It Go” helped shift the tone of the Elsa character. It should be noted that John Lasseter felt a personal tie to this as well—when thinking of Elsa, he thought of his son, Sam, and his juvenile diabetes. When Sam was getting poked and prodded as a child, he turned to John and said, ‘Why me?’ It wasn’t Sam’s fault he had diabetes, just as it is not Elsa’s fault she has these icy powers.”
“It had to feel real” In an email sent in response to fact-checking questions, a spokeswoman for Walt Disney Animation Studios wrote that Chris Buck had a vision for how the film would end. “The ending—making it work emotionally[—]was a puzzle. By October 2012, Jennifer had the ending envisioning the four main characters in a blizzard of fear, which story artist John Ripa boarded. Ripa’s boards received a standing ovation from John Lasseter in the room. As Jennifer says, ‘We knew the end, we just needed to earn it.’?”
pressure that comes from deadlines Teresa M. Amabile et al., “Assessing the Work Environment for Creativity,” Academy of Management Journal 39, no. 5 (1996): 1154–84; Teresa M. Amabile, Constance N. Hadley, and Steven J. Kramer, “Creativity Under the Gun,” Harvard Business Review 80, no. 8 (2002): 52–61; Teresa M. Amabile, “How to Kill Creativity,” Harvard Business Review 76, no. 5 (1998): 76–87; Teresa M. Amabile, “A Model of Creativity and Innovation in Organizations,” Research in Organizational Behavior 10, no. 1 (1988): 123–67.
“Lee a second director” In an email sent in response to fact-checking questions, Catmull wrote that it is important to emphasize that Lee was a second director, not a “codirector,” which has multiple meanings in Hollywood. “There is an actual title of ‘Codirector’ which is at a lower level than ‘director.’ At Disney we frequently have two directors who both have the title of ‘director.’ In this case, both Jenn and Chris were equal directors….Jenn was made director along with Chris.”
spinning in place In an email sent in response to fact-checking questions, Millstein wrote: “Jenn’s promotion to an equal directing partner with Chris provided an opportunity to alter the team dynamics in a positive way and their receptivity to potential new ideas….Jenn is a very sensitive and emphatic filmmaker. Her sensitivity to team dynamics, her role and voice and deep need to maintain a deep collaboration is what helped make Frozen successful.” One additional factor influencing the decision to promote Lee to director, according to Buck, was that at that time, one of his children had a health issue that required attention, and as a result “John and Ed and Andrew saw my personal need, and they asked me, right before, what would you think of having Jenn as a codirector? And I said yes, I said absolutely, I would love that.”
ecologically bland I am indebted to the help of Stephen Palumbi of Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Station and Elizabeth Alter of the City University of New York for their assistance in my understanding of the intermittent disturbance hypothesis.
distributed so unevenly Joseph H. Connell, “Diversity in Tropical Rain Forests and Coral Reefs,” Science, n.s. 199, no. 4335 (1978): 1302–10.
intermediate disturbance hypothesis Like many scientific theories, the intermediate disturbance hypothesis has many parents. For a more complete history, please see David M. Wilkinson, “The Disturbing History of Intermediate Disturbance,” Oikos 84, no. 1 (1999): 145–47.
“nor too frequent” John Roth and Mark Zacharias, Marine Conservation Ecology (London: Routledge, 2011).
staple of biology For more on the intermediate disturbance hypothesis, including the perspectives of those who challenge the theory, please see Wilkinson, “The Disturbing History of Intermediate Disturbance”; Jane A. Catford et al., “The Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis and Plant Invasions: Implications for Species Richness and Management,” Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 14, no. 3 (2012): 231–41; John Vandermeer et al., “A Theory of Disturbance and Species Diversity: Evidence from Nicaragua After Hurricane Joan,” Biotropica 28, no. 4 (1996): 600–613; Jeremy W. Fox, “The Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis Should Be Abandoned,” Trends in Ecology and Evolution 28, no. 2 (2013): 86–92.
Lee sat down with John Lasseter In an email sent in response to fact-checking questions, Catmull wrote that figuring out Frozen’s ending was a team effort. John Ripa, an animator at Disney, storyboarded the ending. “This was a powerful and influential part of the development of the story….[In addition] there was a particularly impactful offsite where a great deal of progress was made.”
“tell the team,” said Lasseter In an email sent in response to fact-checking questions, a spokeswoman for Walt Disney Animation Studios wrote: “Jennifer feels this is very, very important: This was a story Jennifer and Chris did together. This was a partnership. [The emails] Kristen shared were based on conversations Jennifer was having with Chris daily. Chris is just as much a part of these conversations as Jennifer, Kristen and Bobby….This is [Chris Buck’s] film, first and foremost.”
CHAPTER EIGHT: ABSORBING DATA
multiplication quiz “Dante Williams” is a pseudonym used to protect the privacy of a student who was a minor when these events occurred.
“Peace Bowl” Ben Fischer, “Slaying Halts ‘Peace Bowl,’?” Cincinnati Enquirer, August 13, 2007.
guide Cincinnati’s efforts Marie Bienkowski et al., Enhancing Teaching and Learning Through Educational Data Mining and Learning Analytics: An Issue Brief (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Technology, October 2012), https://tech.ed.gov/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/edm-la-brief.pdf.
“we were on board” For more on Elizabeth Holtzapple’s research and Cincinnati Public Schools’ approach to data usage, I recommend Elizabeth Holtzapple, “Criterion-Related Validity Evidence for a Standards-Based Teacher Evaluation System,” Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education 17, no. 3 (2003): 207–19; Elizabeth Holtzapple, Report on the Validation of Teachers Evaluation System Instructional Domain Ratings (Cincinnati: Cincinnati Public Schools, 2001).