Conception , director and writer
Jennifer Lee, and director
Chris Buck at
Frozen 2013 premiere|alt=Three people smiling for a photograph before a Frozen-themed red carpet backdrop Producer
Peter Del Vecho said on March 31, 2014, that he,
Chris Buck, and
Jennifer Lee collaborated well, and he envisioned another
Frozen-related project. The following month,
Walt Disney Studios chairman
Alan F. Horn said that a sequel would not be immediately forthcoming because the studio was focusing on a
Broadway musical adaptation of
Frozen. In a May 2014
CNBC interview with
David Faber,
the Walt Disney Company CEO
Bob Iger said that the company would not force the development of a sequel, because it was concerned about not living up to the first film. Iger said that the
Frozen franchise "is something that is kind of forever for the company", similar to
The Lion King. On June 10, 2014, Lee confirmed that Walt Disney Studios
CCO John Lasseter had authorized her and Buck to explore a possible sequel. While working on the short film
Frozen Fever (2015), they realized that they missed the characters. Meanwhile, Del Vecho had been asked by fans about
Frozen future. Lee, Buck, and Del Vecho discussed the possibility of a sequel. They decided on ending the sequel with Anna becoming the queen of Arendelle, while Elsa would be "free". The production team traveled to Norway, Finland, and Iceland for background research; they decided to make Elsa a "
mythic hero" with magic ice powers and Anna a "
fairytale hero" who lives in a magical world but has no magic powers. They concluded that the first film successfully combined the two elements.
Allison Schroeder was hired to assist Lee with the script in August 2018 after Lee succeeded Lasseter as Disney Animation's CCO; Lee was credited as the film's screenwriter, and Schroeder was credited with additional screenplay material. The film's story contributions were made by Lee, Buck, Marc Smith,
Kristen Anderson-Lopez, and
Robert Lopez. although Menzel started a couple of weeks later due to a concert tour. That month, Gad announced his role in the sequel with Buck, Lee, Del Vecho, and Lasseter. In July 2018,
Variety reported that Wood and Brown were in talks to join the cast. Their roles were later disclosed as Iduna Wood was cast because her voice resembled Menzel and Bell's. The voice of Agnarr was changed from
Maurice LaMarche to Molina. The Voice's four-note call, derived from the Latin
sequence "
Dies irae", is delivered in a manner resembling the Scandinavian music form
kulning.
Frozen 2 first completed scenes were
test screened at the
Annecy International Animated Film Festival in June 2019, where
Becky Bresee and effects-animation head Marlon West said that the film was "still in production, with seven weeks of animation to be completed and 10 weeks of special effects". The filmmakers collaborated with Sámi experts on the depiction of the Northuldra tribe with Verdett, an advisory group which was the result of an agreement between the Walt Disney Company, the transnational
Saami Council, and the
Sámi parliaments of Finland,
Norway, and
Sweden. Anderson-Lopez confirmed that Elsa would have no female love interest in the film, despite some fans' desire for one. Lee later explained to
The New York Times reporter
Maureen Dowd that Elsa's main audience did not seem ready for such a relationship. Lee also stated in a press conference that
Frozen 2 would not acquire elements from the television series
Once Upon a Times
Frozen storyline, which was part of its
fourth season.
Frozen 2 underwent significant revisions after its first test screening in
San Diego; Disney Animation discovered that although adults liked the film, children found it hard to follow. The production team realized they needed to clarify the identity of the Voice and the point of Elsa's transformation, and add more comedy and shots of Bruni (the fire salamander). A scene of
expository dialogue in which the lead characters explained to the people trapped in the Enchanted Forest why they had come there was replaced with Olaf's humorous recap of
Frozen. Due to the changes, the animators needed to create 61 new shots and redo another 35. An undisclosed number of shots were cut from the finished film; about a dozen animators and artists worked for two months on an elaborate resurrection scene for Olaf before it was cut. Megan Harding directed an official documentary series on the production of
Frozen 2, which depicted the process of Del Vecho and Lopez determining The Voice's identity. Once the production team settled on Queen Iduna, the lyrics of "Show Yourself" finally began to come together, but then the studio's artists, designers, and animators needed to quickly figure out how to stage the dramatic culmination of Elsa's journey towards becoming the Snow Queen.
Design Costume and character designs underwent several revisions before they were finalized. According to designer Griselda Sastrawinata-Lemay, the process was the most intricate of any animated film. Technological advancements allowed the designer to create more-detailed outfits, with extra beads and sequins. The team used Marvelous Designer, a
computer-generated imagery (CGI) program, to drape each character's clothing. The animation team used a curve-based method for the intricate embroidery. A program interpreted
two-dimensional visual designs as line strokes,
rendering them as curves. This allowed quick changes, minimizing manual work during design modifications. It also supported free-form stitching with threads of various widths, colors, and densities, crucial to the production of a variety of embroidery styles.
Animation About 800 people, 80 of them animators, were involved in the production of
Frozen 2. Tony Smeed and Becky Bresee were the film's heads of animation;
Frozen 2 made use of advancements in technology, artistic performance, and
skeletal animation. Elsa's graceful movements were modeled on
Frozen and
modern dance, particularly
Martha Graham's work. As well as making the Enchanted Forest vegetation autumnal, the effects team applied two internally developed applications (Vegetation Asset and Fire Tree) to enhance the film's vegetation and fire animation. Lighting and special effects were applied to glacial ice, spirit magic, and memory. The first step for the animation team was to study the screenplay and understand the characters.
Blocking (creating key poses) was next, followed by CGI and
layout.
Frozen 2 animation software was influenced by the software in several other Disney films. Anna's hair was animated with Quicksilver, developed for
Moana (2016) to deal with wind; for Elsa's hair, the lighting software
Beast was used. A vocal coach instructed the animators on how a singer would breathe. The animators then spent about eight months creating Nøkk, which has a liquid appearance, with effects supervised by Erin Ramos.
Jötunns had a long rigging process to avoid making rocks distracting. To create Gale, the wind spirit, a tool called Swoop was developed. They later received real-time feedback from the supervisors, directors, and producer.
Music Lopez and Anderson-Lopez returned from
Frozen to write songs for the sequel, and
Christophe Beck returned as composer. The soundtrack album was released on November 15, 2019, after the release of
Panic! at the Disco's version of one of the film's songs, "
Into the Unknown". The seven-song album also contains a remix of "
Reindeer(s) Are Better Than People" from
Frozen. Anderson-Lopez described the album's theme as a "meta-story". Although Harding sent a camera crew to the Lopez home in Brooklyn to document their songwriting and composing, the composers found the crew intrusive and did most of their work off-camera. == Thematic analysis ==