[Lee] Having an audience preview, we've learned a lot.
[Buck] The last few weeks have been clarifying things,
making things much simpler.
Elsa's song, "Show Yourself," is a big moment.
-Something is not quite right. -Something's a little off.
I think the key to cracking "Show Yourself"
really came with us finally making a decision about the voice.
So now it's just a race to the finish line to get to the opening.
[no audible dialogue]
[Lee] We're in the absolute final stages of production.
We're still animating. We're still building effects.
We're still building Ahtohallan and that dress transformation.
This is when we hit 14-hour days full of production, so there's no time to rest.
I've got the script. I'm literally going page by page, and I'm still writing.
There's a lot of long days and everybody putting in a lot of overtime.
[Unten] A lot of us are working six days a week right now.
[typing]
Most of the day we're either in meetings or going on rounds or dailies,
or we're supporting the animators,
so our own animation time, it's usually after-hours.
♪ Every inch of me is trembling ♪
♪ But not from the cold ♪
[Unten] Usually I'll go home, put the kids to bed, help my wife out
and then come back and then work.
But I enjoy animating, so it's actually this nice treat at the end of the day.
So, I'm gonna keep working. [chuckles]
[no audible dialogue]
[Lee] So we got great notes from the audience preview.
Most of them were actually addressed. We just jumped on them right away,
but there are a few outstanding pieces we're moving around right now.
It was hard to understand the beginning of the movie.
Our prologue was really complicated.
The information was there, but it wasn't playing how we wanted it to play.
[Agnarr] Far away, as north as we can go, once stood an enchanted forest.
[Del Vecho] The old prologue
wasn't necessarily the best entrance into the movie,
because we introduce the audience to a world that wasn't familiar to them,
and we introduced characters that they didn't know.
[Agnarr] And there roamed a nomadic people called the Northuldra.
[Del Vecho] And it started with a narrator,
which is a voice that they also didn't know.
[Agnarr] As our kingdom of Arendelle grew, the Northuldra seemed to welcome us.
[Del Vecho] So they were very confused. You could feel a sigh of relief, almost,
when we actually got to the characters that they knew.
Whoa, Papa!
So that made us realize very quickly
that we need to introduce Young Anna and Young Elsa earlier.
[Buck] Almost all our movies, with our prologues or opening sequences,
it's usually the last sequence to go into production,
because once the movie finds itself,
then you just have to figure out what's the best way to set it up.
We flipped the entire prologue, and then all of a sudden it goes click.
And then you try it, and you go, "Oh, I feel it."
♪ Where the Northwind Meets the sea ♪
The hardest thing is we love the lullaby. It's one of our favorite songs,
and we need it to anchor the whole story.
So we wanna show it to Bobby and Kristen, 'cause the music's gonna have to evolve.
[laughing]
-Hi. -Hello. How you doing?
Our biggest issue was the prologue.
The easiest thing is to just play us what you have and tell us how we can help.
Part of our problem is we don't have a lot of it, but here's what we're doing. Um...
We're gonna craft where you come in,
and the first thing you see is little Young Elsa's face and a burst of magic.
And then, "Girls, who wants a bedtime story?"
And she gets up and runs, and then you go,
"It's a bedtime story, and it's the dad telling it."
But then we had another problem, which is people loved the lullaby,
and particularly how it folded into the whole film,
but people don't like how the lullaby-- where it sits in the prologue.
So I think we wanna show you a mock-up of that.
[Anderson-Lopez] Hi, Chris.
-[Latham] It's mock-ups. -[Lee] It's mocked up.
So, there's some rough stuff mocked in.
[Iduna] ♪ Yes, she will sing To those who hear ♪
♪ And in her song All magic flows ♪
It does feel like you, kind of, want a full orchestra.
Yeah. Like the logo-- We're still working on that.
We'd have to get that worked out, and then you can do whatever you want to it.
I think if we really orchestrate and you get...
[imitates orchestra]
♪ Can you face what the river... ♪
♪ Knows... ♪
-[dialogue overlapping] -[imitating music building]
-"Where the North--" -[imitates orchestra]
-They got it. -[Del Vecho] They can feel it.
[people laughing]
-I knew you would figure it out. -[people chuckling]
-Okay, guys. Great work. Amazing. -[people] Yay.
Thank you.
[Iduna] ♪ Where the Northwind Meets the sea ♪
♪ There's a mother Full of memory ♪
So now that we have the song, the script is locked.
I can't believe I'm saying that after four years of working on it.
And so, it's a sprint, and it's a sprint with this real high energy of,
"We know what to do. We know where to go."
[Smith] I'm working on my last scene and can't believe that it's almost over.
[Elsa] I took an oath to always do what's best for Arendelle.
Luckily, I know just what that is.
[Smith] Appropriately it's when Anna and Elsa
say goodbye to one another in the forest,
so I will also say goodbye to Anna and Elsa.
This is a new moment that came out of the audience preview,
when you go back to Anna and she's queen.
It felt like it was too rushed to a lot of people,
so we're just padding that out a little bit.
It's a little sad to just move on from these characters,
but as soon as this goes out into the world,
that's where I feel like it comes alive.
So then I get to just watch it and enjoy it, the same way as everyone else.
You're gonna try to make me cry. [chuckles]
Okay. Right.
I think we finally put Frozen II's story to rest, which is good
because we gotta let the rest of the departments make the movie now.
It's funny to look back at these things, actually.
It's a reminder of how much work and iteration
has gone into making the story what it is today.
Goodbye, "Show Yourself" version 2,041.
Goodbye, "Show Yourself" 3,062.
Here we go. That's from April.
Oh, it-- This one choked on it. Nope.
This really symbolizes our story process.
How much we don't use that we, over the past several years,
have boarded and reboarded,
and it's really testament to how much blood, sweat and tears it takes.
[Lee] To get the movie done, we're here on weekends,
and even the cast is coming in weekends, even if it's to pick up a line or two.
Every piece of dialogue we don't have is a shot that can't be animated.
[Latham] It's Saturday! It's Saturday! We're all doing it.
[Bell] Thank you, Saturday people.
[Lee] You guys just saved our Animation ass.
I've worked about 20 days in a row, so I selfishly say thank you.
Absolutely.
And I don't wanna be too like, "We're getting close,"
because then I always feel like I get slapped.
[Bell] Of course.
We had done this a long time ago, but not with the way Pabbie leads in, so...
Okay.
"But the next right thing is to go to the Enchanted Forest and find that voice.
I believe it wants to help us."
"Help us? How can you say that?
Look at our kingdom."
"Help us? How can you say that? Look at our kingdom."
Wonderful. And do you mind, like, we get a couple a little stronger,
just where you're real definitive in his eyes versus the harshness.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Take two.
"I won't let anything happen to her."
Love it.
-[Lee] Feel good? -[Buck] Yeah.
-Thank you, guys. -[Buck] Thank you.
Once we have everything recorded, it's a mad dash to the finish.
[Del Vecho] We finally locked the story, albeit maybe a little bit later
than we had planned. Our release date doesn't change however.
[Lee] On top of the fact that we're finishing production,
in a few weeks we are headed to D23 Expo.
[Del Vecho] It's our chance to kinda show our core fans behind the scenes,
and we pull out all the stops.
We call out the cast, the directors.
We show footage from the movie that hasn't been shown before.
They're gonna see actual scenes from the film,
and they'll be the first audience in the world to see that.
We know expectations are high.
We've seen so much love for Frozen, and we don't wanna let the fans down.
And these are the biggest fans.
♪ Show yourself ♪
[clears throat] What do you think will be the big hit, Pedro?
"Show Yourself" or "Into the Unknown"?
"Into the Unknown" is a pretty awesome song.
[mumbles] Could be Kristoff's song for all we know.
They're all good.
[Perez]
Oh, God! I'm on standby. Oh, my gosh.
[people chattering, chuckling]
[woman] So first off we have Brian with 255.
-Hey, Brian. -Hey, guys.
♪ Where the Northwind... ♪
[Lee] This is probably one of the most insane times.
You're nearing the home stretch, but you can't let up at all
because this is the final chance to make changes, to elevate everything you can.
♪ Come, my darling, homeward bound ♪
♪ I am found! ♪
In the screening, um, there was still confusion of who the voice is.
[Scott] Mm-hmm.
And I wonder if we should have her mouth the word "Mother."
-It wasn't that everyone was confused... -[Scott] Right.
...but there were enough people that said it that I'm like,
"I don't want them to miss that. That's such a beautiful thing."
♪ There's a river ♪
[angelic voice vocalizes]
Because this reads so well, I wonder if she's doing this the whole time.
You know, the first one she's already-- It could be with the same hand.
But maybe what you wanna do, since this note we have is the first one,
is to the left there.
-Or... [vocalizes] -[Scott] And then-- [stammers]
And then... [vocalizes] right at Elsa.
[applause]
Thanks for the notes, guys. Appreciate it.
No, thank you.
[Lee] "Show Yourself" is the culmination of Elsa's journey.
And that dress transformation is something I love, a transformation I love.
And in "Let It Go," she threw away being the perfect girl
into something where she just exploded with ice and sparkle.
And it's a true rebellion.
The thing I love in this film that makes this transformation so unique,
is this is a maturing. It's a pretty important moment.
[Giaimo] The transformation of Elsa is an exciting challenge.
When Elsa transforms in Ahtohallan with this gown,
one thing that I want to do
is to take those four elements of nature that we saw throughout the film.
Air, fire, water, earth. [gasps]
[Giaimo] Those four elements as diamond shapes rise up
and actually infuse themselves on this new dress,
and then she becomes the fifth element.
Not only is it just a dress transformation, it's not that at all.
What it really is, is the culmination of Elsa as Snow Queen.
[Lee] So, Mike, maybe we can talk through what you wanted with the dress.
Okay.
So we're thinking of the transformation starting from the top down.
Oh, okay.
And then the diamond events that attach to the dress
-are bottom up. -[Lee] After that.
But the one missing part we don't have is that Dan Lund in Effects
is working on how they rise up and form on the dress.
["Show Yourself" plays]
[music stops]
I'm an effects designer.
I take that dress and the dress design
and come up with an idea for how it gets transformed.
And it becomes our road map for every other department.
♪ Let it go! Let it go! ♪
I was lucky enough to be part of the first film's dress transformation.
In Frozen I, I had a year,
but with this, it's been four days.
People think that we have a big button. We just hit it and make a hit movie,
but you wake up every morning and you're standing in your shower like,
"What if I don't have an idea today?"
[woman 2] We're all here to talk about the dress transformation in "Show Yourself."
Dan's done a couple drawings about how her dress transforms
-for Effects to get started. -[Lee] Mm-hmm.
So I thought we could start bringing in a little light,
and it would start from the out and go in towards her while she's singing this note.
It kinda supports that note.
So then I thought, uh, maybe these crystals do some bigger grand gesture
that, kind of, maybe starts to go back.
I just wanna feel an emotional transformation,
-which I think is-- -Yeah.
My main concern is that, if there's too much of this stuff floating around,
that we won't get this energy from the ground up.
As soon as Mike started saying "floating stuff,"
I was like-- [groans] "You don't have to say another word."
I didn't pitch something that was as elegant as I thought it was,
because now it's being described as "floating stuff." [chuckles]
I want to try something new now.
It'll be fun to see if we can come up with new ideas.
I was proud of the pitch a few days ago, but it didn't land.
So then I thought about it and, um, sketched up some new ideas and came back,
so hopefully I'm coming at it with a fresh perspective.
So really the part that I wanted to talk about or get buy off on if it's working
is just the basic dress transformation.
I was also thinking maybe we do the bottom,
and then, if there was a flare up of energy,
that brings on the other, sort of, secondary decorations.
And I'm certainly open for that, because I realize we don't have a lot of time,
but the dress section, I think, um, at this point works really well.
So we just got the dress idea approved.
It was exciting but stressful that...
something that is gonna be so iconic, hopefully.
Um, I mean, we're all still, kind of, biting our nails.
[Lee] Steve Goldberg is our visual effects supervisor,
and he's in charge of every single technical and creative part of production.
My job is really to umbrella the entire movie, start to finish.
What looks like a very linear process can get really messy sometimes.
And then he swoons and goes...
[Goldberg] We start getting into more and more of a time issue
as we continue racing towards the deadlines.
I'm, kind of, the department head of the department heads, if that makes any sense.
My job is to make sure that the film looks like it's all done by the same hand
at the same level of quality from the first shot in the movie till the last.
After Dan Lund has shown his designs for the dress transformation,
then we get those designs over to the animators,
and they start doing their work.
As an effects animator, I animate the way the different jewels fly through the air,
land on her dress in a very specific, just aesthetically beautiful way.
We go from Animation into Tech Anim.
They take what Animation's done,
and then they'll run simulations for what the hair will be doing
and what the clothing will be doing.
With Frozen, the dresses, the outfits, and costumes of these characters
tell the story just as much as anything else in the film.
So for this shot,
we know that Elsa's cape has to move with this ethereal, magical quality,
so we're trying to see how a similar piece of fabric
would unfold and behave in the wind.
We study things like wrinkle quality, the speed of the ripples traveling through,
and the individual shapes that the capes make.
That's what Tech Anim's doing on a shot-per-shot, frame-by-frame basis
before it gets on to Lighting.
What Lighting does is we have software with a virtual set,
so it's pretty much the same as lighting on stage,
except we're just doing it on the computer.
So you can see there are a ton of different lights in the shot.
Here's what we get before anything is lit.
So as you can see, there are effects happening there, but it's not very clear.
So this is where we ended up with this particular shot.
Our goal is always making sure
that we are just supporting the story and what action is happening,
but sometimes we get to dazzle the audience, and that is the fun part.
You really see the addition of each and every department,
and we string together about 1,200 shots, and then we've got a final film.
♪ Show yourself ♪
♪ Step into your power ♪
♪ Grow yourself ♪
♪ Into something new ♪
Well, well, well, well, well!
-How you doing? -Good, and you?
I love coming to the recording sessions.
[chattering]
We are about to record several singers.
So the first one is called the "Forest Vuelie."
If you saw the original Frozen,
we call it the "Hey Anna" song because it's the, "Heyana, heyana."
We're gonna find out in this one where this song came from.
And it's a magical moment.
Elsa's snow magic is, sort of, all around them,
and it starts to swirl around and twinkle, almost like fireflies through the forest.
[vocalizing]
[Buck] Christophe Beck is our composer.
He writes all the score, all the music that is in the film that isn't the songs.
[Beck] For a movie musical like Frozen II,
the Lopezes are involved before any scene is animated.
'Cause in a good musical,
the songs are integrated very tightly into the story.
The nature of my work is that I come in at the end,
and I write the instrumental score that occurs in between all the songs.
[vocalizing]
Working with the choir is a little bit different,
takes a little bit longer,
because the human voice is such a personal form of expression.
[chanting yoik]
The original performance was much too, um, strident and loud.
-The excitement builds. -[man] Yeah.
And as they start singing, they start to get more excited.
Yeah.
I mean, there's certain places that I can hear, like the very last part,
where you could really, kind of, not explode
-but get big just to fill that. -Yeah. Yeah.
Okay.
The filmmakers wanted a more organic build to the piece.
All right, guys. Let's do just two singers at bar four,
and then let's add a third at bar five and the rest at six.
[choir leader] Okay. All right. Here we go.
[two men chanting yoik]
[third man joins]
[more men join]
[women join]
[chanting continues]
You really get the sense now that it's just a couple of people that started off,
and then a group of singers join in,
and then they're arm-in-arm, and it's all very affecting.
[chanting yoik together]
Got it.
It's happening!
-[man] I know, right? -Fast! It has to.
[Buck] D23 is amazing, but I don't know what to expect this time.
This is probably going to be pretty overwhelming.
The largest Disney fan event in the world starts today
with lots of big announcements.
[Buck] I love seeing all the costumes.
I love seeing all the people. They're so excited.
[Elsa cosplayer] We saw the trailer, and we said--
[Anna cosplayer] Many times. The teaser, the trailer...
Freeze-framed every picture and went and got the fabrics,
and did our best trying to nail it down as much as possible.
Yeah.
-Morning, Jenn. -Morning. How are you?
Are you having a good time?
-We're having an amazing time. -Yeah?
Oh, that's so kind of you.
Yeah. Of course. Of course.
-Thank you so, so much! Oh, my God. -Sure. Sure.
What's so amazing to get to do is connect with fans,
where they can come and tell you what Frozen meant to them.
Hi there! How are you today? Thanks for coming today.
-Are you having a good time? -Yes.
-Where are you from? -[both] Thailand.
-[Lee] Oh, from Thailand! -[Del Vecho] So you're...
Hi there. Nice to meet you too. I'm Chris.
Peter from Hungary.
-From Hungary! -From Hungary!
It's one of the most emotional things, to get to meet the audience directly.
-We were going through a hard time and... -Thank you. Well, I hope you--
Y'all brought us together when we needed it.
-Aw. -Oh, thank you.
[Lee] It's not something you can ever really process.
The idea that the story could have that kind of an impact.
It's hard to get through the day, uh, without crying.
-Oh, my God, you guys look incredible! -Ohhh! Elsa and Anna in their new outfits!
Thank you.
We wanna thank you because you have given us something that is larger than--
I am going to start crying.
-We met here two years ago at D23. -Oh, you did?
And we became friends, and we've been talking every day ever since. She's...
We're still finishing the film.
And then there are people coming up to us
and they're wearing the new travel costumes of Anna and Elsa.
Just that people put the time and love into [stammers] the costumes, um...
it blows you away.
-This is overwhelming already. -It's overwhelming. I mean--
-I don't mean that. I mean their stories! -Everything.
-[Buck] It's like... -[Lee] I know.
"You brought us together. You did us--"
-Hi. How are you? -Hi there.
That's why we do these movies, is to connect with people.
Hi. I'm Jenn...
To be able to have that time with them was really, really special.
[Buck] Today we're showing one of the songs, "Into the Unknown."
[Lee] With our cast singing "Some Things Never Change."
Yeah, we get to introduce Evan. We get to introduce Sterling.
This is the official announcement of them in the cast.
Oh, Iduna.
[Buck] I can't wait to see what the response is. I'm very, very excited.
Hello, D23! And welcome to our studio spectacular.
[cheering, applause]
I hope they have some cheers left in them by the time we get out there. [chuckles]
So that brings us to Walt Disney Animation Studios.
[cheering, applause]
And with Chief Creative Officer Jennifer Lee at the helm...
[applause]
...the Disney Animation team continues to make amazing films
that resonate around the world.
Stand by.
So Jenn, chief creative officer, the stage is yours.
-Go. -[fanfare playing]
[cheering, applause]
-Hi, D23 Expo! -[fanfare stops]
Are you having a good time?
♪ Some things never change ♪
♪ Turn around and the time has flown ♪
♪ Some things stay the same ♪
♪ Though the future remains unknown ♪
♪ May our good luck last May our past be past ♪
♪ Times moving fast, it's true ♪
There's one more film we'd like to talk about today.
[applause]
In 2012, legendary animator and director, Chris Buck,
invited me to join as writer and, soon after,
director with him on a project inspired by The Snow Queen.
Please welcome my mentor, collaborator and partner, fellow director, Chris Buck.
-[fanfare plays] -[applause]
All right!
I was afraid they're going to make us sing,
-but... -We're not gonna sing.
Are you gonna take...
We're giving away all of our trade secrets right now.
Right. Yeah, we are.
-I feel peer pressure. I'm going to do it. -[Gad] Do it.
So ladies and gentlemen,
please give a warm welcome to Evan Rachel Wood and Sterling K. Brown!
[crowd cheering]
[Wood laughs]
It's surreal. I can't wait to see this film.
I can't wait to see something!
-You know what I'm saying? -[Wood] Anything!
[Buck] Oh, there it is!
-[Buck] All right. Let's take a look. -[Lee] All right. Let's take a look.
♪ I've had my adventure I don't need something new ♪
♪ I'm afraid of what I'm risking If I follow you ♪
♪ Into the unknown ♪
[Buck] Our actors hadn't seen these clips yet.
And they're all huddled around this little monitor.
They were enjoying the film, sort of, for the first time,
just like the audience was.
♪ How do I follow you ♪
♪ Into the unknown? ♪
[applause, cheering]
[Buck] So, as we said in Frozen II,
our gang confronts change, and in the end, nothing will ever be the same.
But luckily some things never change,
like our incredible original cast for Frozen I back for Frozen II.
Ladies and gentlemen, Jonathan Groff, Idina Menzel, Kristen Bell and Josh Gad!
[applause, cheering]
["Some Things Never Change" playing]
♪ Yes, the wind blows A little bit colder ♪
♪ And we're all getting older... ♪
[Lee] Just watching this moment, the excitement and the cast together,
this was the first time they'd ever performed together,
so it was a huge thing.
♪ And my leaf's A little sadder and wiser ♪
♪ That's why I rely... ♪
They have as much fun as the fans do, doing these events.
♪ The leaves are already falling ♪
♪ Sven, it feels Like the future is calling ♪
[as Sven] ♪ Are you telling me tonight You're gonna get down on one knee? ♪
[Lee] You could feel the love they have for each other. I'll never forget that.
That'll be a highlight I'll remember forever.
♪ Some things never change ♪
♪ And I'm holding on tight to you ♪
♪ Holding on tight to you ♪
-♪ Holding on tight to you ♪ -♪ Holding on tight to you ♪
♪ I'm holding on tight to you ♪
[crowd cheering]
-[Gad] Yeah! -[Horn] Thank you.
-Thank you, performers. -[Gad] Love you guys, thank you!
D23 Expo, it blew me away.
[Del Vecho] But now that's behind us. Now we're focusing forward.
We have so much work to do to finish the movie.
[Lee] Probably one of the most challenging times is right now.
[Buck] We've got effects and lighting still left to do,
but it's only a couple more weeks.
[Del Vecho] We have a release date. We have to hit that. There is no choice.