Did you know that Frozen originally had a much darker ending?
Director Peter Del Vecho reveals details of how the animated film came to be
PHOTO:FILE
Frozen fans, take heed! Peter Del Vecho, the director of the highest-grossing animated film of all time, has revealed the original ending of the superhit and it’s quite a shocker.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Peter detailed the different ideas Disney initially had in mind for ice queen Elsa and her relationship with Anna. “So when we started off, the two weren’t sisters. They weren’t even royal,” he said. “Anna was not a princess. Elsa was a self-proclaimed Snow Queen, a villain and pure evil.”
According to him, Elsa became wicked after being stood up at the altar on her wedding day. She decided to freeze her own heart against future heartbreak and this would have led viewers to believe that she was bound to destroy the town of Arendelle, as stated in a prophecy. “We started out with an evil female villain [Elsa] and an innocent female heroine [Anna] and the ending involved a big epic battle with snow monsters that Elsa had created as her army,” Peter continued.
Box Office: 'Beauty and the Beast' smashes records with towering $170 million debut
However, Disney felt something was still missing. “The problem was that we felt like we had seen it before. It wasn’t satisfying,” Peter added. “We had no emotional connection to Elsa; didn’t care about her because she had spent the whole movie being the villain. We were just not drawn in. The characters were not relatable.”
The team then decided that Frozen must explore love and fear, rather than good versus evil. The new and improved ending – wherein Elsa saved Arendelle from a blizzard after accidentally freezing Anna’s heart – was devised by cowriter Jennifer Lee and storyboard artist John Ripa. “When he pitched that ending to Disney, everyone stood up and gave him a standing ovation,” Peter revealed. “He helped crack visually how we were going to depict that ending.”
Well, whatever the ending, we’re certain the movie would have turned out amazing, either way!
Have something to add to the story? Share it in the comments below.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Peter detailed the different ideas Disney initially had in mind for ice queen Elsa and her relationship with Anna. “So when we started off, the two weren’t sisters. They weren’t even royal,” he said. “Anna was not a princess. Elsa was a self-proclaimed Snow Queen, a villain and pure evil.”
According to him, Elsa became wicked after being stood up at the altar on her wedding day. She decided to freeze her own heart against future heartbreak and this would have led viewers to believe that she was bound to destroy the town of Arendelle, as stated in a prophecy. “We started out with an evil female villain [Elsa] and an innocent female heroine [Anna] and the ending involved a big epic battle with snow monsters that Elsa had created as her army,” Peter continued.
Box Office: 'Beauty and the Beast' smashes records with towering $170 million debut
However, Disney felt something was still missing. “The problem was that we felt like we had seen it before. It wasn’t satisfying,” Peter added. “We had no emotional connection to Elsa; didn’t care about her because she had spent the whole movie being the villain. We were just not drawn in. The characters were not relatable.”
The team then decided that Frozen must explore love and fear, rather than good versus evil. The new and improved ending – wherein Elsa saved Arendelle from a blizzard after accidentally freezing Anna’s heart – was devised by cowriter Jennifer Lee and storyboard artist John Ripa. “When he pitched that ending to Disney, everyone stood up and gave him a standing ovation,” Peter revealed. “He helped crack visually how we were going to depict that ending.”
Well, whatever the ending, we’re certain the movie would have turned out amazing, either way!
Have something to add to the story? Share it in the comments below.