ALL ABOUT FROZEN FEVER + SONG + TRIVIAS

Cast, Production and Reception:

Cast

Kristen Bell as Anna

Idina Menzel as Elsa

Jonathan Groff as Kristoff

Josh Gad as Olaf

Chris Williams as Oaken

Paul Briggs as Marshmallow

Production

The short and its song were first announced on September 2, 2014 during ABC's one-hour special The Story of Frozen: Making a Disney Animated Classic. Variety announced on the same day that the short's release would be in spring 2015 under the title "Frozen Fever", along with Lee and Buck coming back as directors, Peter Del Vecho returning as the producer, and Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez writing the song. The short's summary is as follows: "...it's Anna's birthday and Elsa and Kristoff are determined to give her the best celebration ever, but Elsa's icy powers may put more than just the party at risk." Olaf, the snowman, also made an appearance in the toon. In a mid-October interview, Idina Menzel revealed that the cast had already recorded their vocal tracks: "We just worked on a short for Frozen." On December 3, 2014, it was announced that Aimee Scribner would be a co-producer and that Frozen Fever would debut in theaters with Disney's live-action Cinderella film on March 13, 2015. In late December, the directors told the Associated Press: "There is something magic about these characters and this cast and this music. Hopefully, the audiences will enjoy the short we're doing, but we felt it again. It was really fun." At around the same time, Dave Metzger, who did the orchestration of the first film, stated that he was already doing work on Frozen Fever.

Hyperion, a new rendering system which was used for Big Hero 6, was used to render Frozen Fever.

The song in the short was revealed to be "Making Today a Perfect Day". Josh Gad made an apology to parents at the El Capitan Theatre premiere of Frozen Fever and Cinderella for releasing another catchy song on their children, while his wife Ida Darvish noticed that he still hummed it only two days after his lines were recorded.

It was first revealed by the directors during a March 2015 interview with BuzzFeed that Walt Disney Animation Studios came up with the possibility of a short in April 2014, but were reluctant due to wondering why Frozen became very successful. However, they made an agreement to begin possibilities of brainstorming. Following early discussions focusing on Olaf, Marc Smith got an idea about what would happen if Elsa got a cold, which became the short's basis.

Reception

The short was rated three out of four stars by USA Today's Claudia Puig, who described "Making Today a Perfect Day" as "pleasant",adding that even though the short "is not as exhilarating and inventive as the original, it's still a treat to see an abridged tale of these two sisters in a warmhearted spinoff." The song was also called "catchy and fun" by Natalie Jamieson, a writer for BBC News' Newsbeat. Forbes' Scott Mendelson mentioned that the short was "cute" and "really sweet", opining that it "works just as well as a gorgeous and funny romp for those who just want to spend another five minutes in the world of Arendelle [sic]."