7 things we learned during Disney’s Frozen 2 press event

Elsa’s got a brand new look

Much has changed in the three years since Elsa (voiced by Idina Menzel) became Queen of Arendelle, most especially her wardrobe and hairstyle. For Disney, everything in an animated film has to have a narrative function, letting the audience know who the characters are, and that includes wallpaper, furniture, and costumes.

Frozen 2’s visual development artist, Brittney Lee explained that the characters have changed, and their costumes are reflective of that. In the first Frozen, Elsa “has higher collars, and gloves, and long sleeves, and longer hemlines, and her colors get darker, and darker” as she becomes more isolated from others.

With Frozen 2, Elsa retains her glamour, but she’s not “restricted by real-world materials…we have more freedom to use ethereal materials, so she gets some tulles and some silks, and that’s meant to support who she is as the Snow Queen.” There’s also a heavy emphasis on transitioning Elsa away from the jeweled tones reflective of snow in the first film and into deeper, richer magentas.

There’s also a shift in how Elsa performs her magic. Chief creative officer of Walt Disney Feature Animation and Frozen 2’s director, Jennifer Lee, urged the animators on the character to draw inspiration from modern dancer Martha Graham. Her energy flows from “the inside out,” creating a spiraling sense of power in comparison to her more balletic origins in the first feature according to Elsa’s animation supervisor, Wayne Unten.