Olaf’s Frozen Adventure (2017)

Directed by: Kevin Deters, Stevie Wermers | 21 minutes | animation, adventure, comedy, short film, family, fantasy, musical | Original voice cast: Josh Gad, Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, Ashley Silverman, Margaux Calla Susi, Cassidy May Benullo

Oh, oh, oh. In the history of the Pixar/Disney short, a film has never suffered as much as ‘Olaf’s Frozen Adventure’, the Disney animation short that is shown in the cinema prior to the Pixar gem ‘Coco’. Admittedly: with a running time of more than twenty minutes, the film is really too long for a pre-movie, but ‘Olaf’s Frozen Adventure’ does not deserve to be slammed like that.

Arendelle, the last days before Christmas. It’s the first time Anna and Elsa have been able to celebrate Christmas together again since the gates reopened after the events of ‘Frozen’ (2013). The ladies have spared no effort to make it a big party and just like the old days, as Elsa can still remember, the festivities are announced by the ringing of the Yule bell. Olaf the snowman is over the moon and can’t wait to let out his ‘SURPRISE’. After several false starts, the time has finally come. What Anna and Elsa don’t know, however, is that the residents of Arendelle don’t feel the need for a royal feast at all, they are far too busy with their own traditional Christmas activities. When Olaf notices this, he is disappointed with himself in the first place, but he soon sees that Anna and Elsa are struggling with the fact that they do not have a Christmas tradition of their own as a family. Together with Sven, Kristoff’s reindeer, Olaf sets out in search of the best Christmas tradition so that Queen Elsa and Princess Anna can appropriate it. His well-intentioned mission soon degenerates into a disastrous adventure…

The older animation fans will find the tension too weak and the story too superficial, but ‘Olaf’s Frozen Adventure’ is pure entertainment for the youngest ‘Frozen’ fans. All the beloved characters make an appearance, with a shining starring role for arguably the sweetest snowman in movie history. There’s slapstick galore, the animations are gorgeous, the songs by no means memorable, but bet your little ‘Frozen’ fan is bouncing on the chair at the sight of the Christmas-themed kingdom? It’s completely understandable why people are disappointed after this movie, but really you can only blame Disney for bad movie marketing or timing, not making a bad movie. Had ‘Olaf’s Frozen Adventure’ been released as a standalone film, direct to DVD, Blu-ray or a VOD provider, people would have been much more lenient with this film. Incidentally, the film was shown in England as a double bill with ‘Frozen’, which was re-released for the occasion. Also better.