Frozen 2's bold, large scope surprised a lot of people when it released in November 2019. However, the creators had a hard time putting it together, as is shown in the documentary Into the Unknown: The Making of Frozen 2.
The story was confusing at first and took a while to pin down. The creators also had to live up to the hype of the first film. Since animators spend so much time on small details - details that most viewers won't notice - it takes a lot of passion and time to put an animated picture together. If some fans weren't aware of these things, then they will surely be interested in what else Into The Unknown revealed.
The Environment Is In Use For Olaf
Olaf uses the environment around him when he recaps the first story for the Northuldra and the Arendellian soldiers. It's a very quick scene, but a great use of animation. The scene was a late addition to the film, but also garnered some of the biggest laughs in theaters. Olaf uses nature and his own body parts for various sections of his costumes as he acts as Pabbie, Elsa, and Anna.
Ryder Is Named For Chris Buck's Late Son
Something Into the Unknown spends a significant amount of screentime on is celebrating the life of Ryder Buck, co-director Chris Buck's son, who was killed in a car wreck in 2013.
Minor character Ryder, of the Northuldra, was named after Buck, who was a musician. Naming the character after his son was a way for Chris Buck to honor his life.
"Show Yourself" Was The Hardest Song To Get Right
The beginning of the documentary dealt heavily with the mess that was "Show Yourself," at the time. The directors and songwriting team knew that it was going to be Elsa's big song where she finally understood her purpose, but they weren't quite sure how to get there.
The idea that a mysterious voice was calling Elsa worked, but no one was sure who exactly the voice was, or if that should be revealed at all. Was Elsa being called by herself? By someone else? Everyone was confused. Eventually, the music was worked out, along with the gorgeous animation of the glacier Ahtohallan. Elsa is being called by the spirit of her mother to ultimately become the fifth spirit of magic.
Some Of The Animation Was Too Realistic At First
The animation of the natural world in Frozen 2 is beautiful and occasionally near-realistic. Any of Elsa's scenes where she is near the water, in particular, share that quality. The animation of the water was occasionally so real-looking that it needed to be downgraded so Elsa didn't look too cartoony and out of place.
Disney animation has spent the past decade improving its techniques in various aspects. For Tangled, it was hair, for Frozen, snow, and ice. Evidently for Frozen 2, it's the environment around the characters and water in particular.
Elsa Imitated a Skater
Animator Malerie Walters knew there needed to be some kind of movement when Elsa is reaching for the voice on the cliff while singing "Into the Unknown" - but she wasn't sure what to use.
She filmed herself doing various runs and jumps to make sure the movement was natural, and eventually landed on a skater's slide. After Elsa extends the cliff with ice, she slides on the transition between rock and ice. It's an elegant motion that also indicates the end of the song and scene.
"The Next Right Thing" Is Personal For Kirsten Bell
Anna's main solo in the film is a song of both hope and despair after she loses both Elsa and Olaf. She is trapped in a dark cave and is unsure how to get out, and is also overcome by grief. However, she remembers advice to simply "do the next right thing" and manages to bring herself out to relative safety.
Voice actress Kirsten Bell shared, while recording, that the song is deeply personal for her. She opened up about her experiences with depression and stated how the mantra is useful to her as well in real life.
The Film Was Being Rewritten Practically Up To Release
Since the film took a while to cohesively come together, it was still being rewritten and reanimated at the same time. The audience reaction screening gave the creators plenty of feedback that assisted in finishing the film in a good direction. Though this meant rewrites and scenes ending up on the cutting room floor, it also meant that the film was nearing completion.
The Middle Took Work
The first act of Frozen 2 is fairly easy to plot out: Elsa hears a strange voice that causes her to wake the spirits at the Forest, and the main characters head out to fix the destruction said spirits caused.
However, once we got into act two, the filmmakers needed a way for all three groups, Elsa and her friends, the Arendellian soldiers, and the Northuldra, to be on the same page. At first, this took the form of a song for the Arendellian soldiers about seeing the sky, but that was eventually scrapped in favor of dialogue and Olaf reenacting the first film.
Animators Take Years To Work On Seconds Of The Film
Animator Malerie Walters worked on the scene of Elsa reaching out on the cliff during "Into the Unknown" and a sequence of Kristoff's solo "Lost in the Woods".
She recounted in the documentary that animators spend years working on 10 seconds of the film, and that during the screenings, she would nudge family members when her scenes came up. That ratio really shows just how much this work is a passion project for animators, just as fan art is for fans.
Everything Is Done Separately And Brought Together At The End
One of the last sections of the final episode discusses bringing in Foley artists, who record all the natural sounds of the film: rocks grinding together, water rushing, etc. The documentary emphasizes how a movie like this gets made: parts happen in stages and by separate people, before being brought together into the finished product.
Animators spend years animating, while the orchestra and songwriters work on the music, and so on and so forth. Eventually, there is an animated picture that hundreds of people have worked on to make the best it can be.