So long, Olaf! Disney’s taking the Frozen short out of future Coco screenings
By Buckie Wells
Speaking of death, that 21-minute Frozen short, “Olaf’s Frozen Adventure,” has been killed by Disney and will no longer air ahead of Coco screenings.
Frozen pretty much dominated the holiday season when it came out in 2013 and basically remained Disney’s heaviest hitter until 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Whether that was by design or not, people went crazy for Frozen, and per the Disney mandate, they squeezed every penny out of it that they could. We have shorts and theme park rides, and many fans still get a little teary-eyed whenever Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel team-up and do anything together.
Unfortunately, however, Disney’s latest Frozen cash-grab fell through (the ice).
Ahead of Disney/Pixar’s release of Coco (which also features songs written by Frozen‘s own Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez), Disney put Olaf’s Frozen Adventure as their pre-movie short. Now, these are the same folks who brought us For the Birds and Geri’s Game, so audiences expect a specific level of quality. Though Olaf’s Frozen Adventure was originally intended as an ABC special, John Lasseter decided it was “too cinematic to not inhabit the big screen.”
Apparently, it was too cinematic for cinemas, too.
While I actually enjoyed it and found it to be a good emotional set-up for the sobfest that was Coco, people seemed to have had a really bad reaction to the long runtime of the short. Mexican theaters took it out almost immediately, and now, Disney’s doing the same starting on Dec. 8.
Don’t feel bad for Disney, though, since:
"The request from Disney also asks that theaters use the newly freed-up time to hold extra screenings of Coco each day."
Will this hurt Frozen 2‘s release next year? Doubt it. But it does go to show that every few millennia, the House of Mouse takes an L. And subsequently, bounces back.
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Also, don’t let this deter you from seeing Coco anytime before Dec. 8. But if you’re going after next Friday, at least you won’t plan to be 20 minutes late.