But the pair also granted us a bit of extra time to chat in more detail about the film.
Right from question one, in fact.
There arespoilers for Tarzan and Frozen below.
After Olaf, youre on your own…
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Can I start with you, Chris?
Jennifer:Its true!
Ive never thought of that.
Chris:Im not the only one!
Jennifer:This is an epiphany!
Chris:Im not responsible for those!
Its clearly your fault.
But its an interesting story decision, and not one to be picked as first choice necessarily.
Tonally, too, it makes an immediate impact.
So whats your thinking, and why go that way?
Chris:Theres a reason for it, and its in a lot of stories.
A coming of age for these characters.
And you have to get characters out of the way that are still helping them grow up.
you better let them go out on their own.
But was it harder to get through inTarzan, for instance?
You come to it this time, and there are some high profile precedents in big budget animated films.
Chris:Tarzan, you had to.
Its in the story, and you have to do that, so he can be raised by apes.
Appreciating that though, its pretty brutal how it comes across.
Chris:Its in the original story.
Chris:We really did.
Because even if theyre not necessarily in all the action, theyre back there, theyre behind the scenes.
You always want to go back to them.
What are mom and dad thinking?
Why arent they getting involved in this?
Jennifer:And theres putting the most pressure on your main characters.
I think we all understand something like that.
They have that feeling of being on their own.
Thats the whole movie.
So they had to go…?
I think you address loneliness in both films exceptionally well.
Venellope in Wreck-It Ralph is the stand-out character for me there.
But there are the films that should be addressing things such as that, arent that?
So how do you see it?
Jennifer:Oh definitely.
Certainly not in a way to preach or to have some big lesson.
But I do think that to me the way into good stories is the characters.
And the way into good characters is real characters.
Meaning that theyre going through hard stuff and good stuff.
Theyre funny by just being people.
Because people are funny.
They often dont mean to be, and thats what makes it even more endearing.
We go through mourning and longing.
We make some bad choices sometimes because were desperate for something, and thats okay.
Thats part of life.
For us, that is really what makes a story resonate for generations.
Its not just entertaining, but its willing to go there, and let you take that away.
And in those moments when you have a hard time, its there for you.
My nephew has Aspergers, and Vanellope means the world to him.
And he has her to go to.
So we always wanted our characters to be that for someone.
It is important for us.
How wary are you of that?
Chris:I think were always aware.
We know the Disney films inside out.
And if were not aware of it, our story artists certainly are!
Jennifer:And our directors.
And youre lost in the moment, and what feels right for the story.
Chris:If it gets too close, we do something that makes it different.
As you say, there are certain things, archetypal things, that all these stories have.
But how do you do it so its different, and feels fresh?
And usually when you do that you realise that its something different.
So what you then do is you steer it to confirm thats what youre showing.
Going back to the issue of loneliness.
Vanellope, for better or worse, you know why shes so lonely.
Elsa knows why shes lonely.
Anna has no idea.
For me it did.
One of the deleted songs from the film was from the moment when Anna arrives at Elsas palace.
Jennifer:TheLifes Too Shortsong, yeah.
Shes lonely with a smile on her face.
Jennifer:Shed be a different person.
Jennifer:When I first started [onFrozen], thats where you guys were.
Chris:We were looking for something that would be our way in to feeling for that character.
And in that version it was someone who was just a spare.
I dont really have much, nobody thinks anything of me.
That was that first version.
Jennifer:It was interesting, because it was hard to sympathise with her.
Because she was royal, and her life wasnt very hard.
But loneliness kept coming in.
We kept going back to loneliness.
But wed say thats Ralph.
You tend to do that as youre having conversations.
And we just kept saying shes lonely.
And the truest understanding of love, the greatest understanding of anyone.
That was the journey.
We really fought for it.
I know we can do it again, I know we can love again.
Your heart goes out to someone like that.
You root for them.
Its almost 15 years ago in film-time that she was happy.
Thats the only potential.
And so her sisters a greater desire.
Can we talk briefly about directing music?
The music is doing a lot of the story work here.
And its just before Idina puts the full throat behind it.
Thats the pivotal bit of a pivotal transformation song.
So how tightly do you direct it, and when do you defer?
Jennifer:Its a balance.
Jennifer:We went to Bobby and Kristen (songwriters) first every day, two hours a day.
And I was always looking for those threads so that it feels cohesive and the storytelling is always going.
We did that constantly.
Chris:[Nods, laughing].
John Lasseter actually was with us forLet It Go, because he felt so close to that song.
So were that involved.
But we definitely….
Chris:We definitely defer to the experts!
And theyre looking at us not necessarily for the technical things, but the emotional things.
Are we feeling good about how thats working in the story?
Jennifer:Its such a team, we were really lucky.
[We get the warning that were nearly out of time.
I try my intense glare of charm, but it does not buy us extra minutes.
Final question, then.
Really, a lot.
In a way that suggests this is not part of the deal] I wouldnt count on that!
Jennifer:For now we do…!
As I understand it, the problem with that was the second act.
Here, you made Anna and Elsa sisters, which was clearly a story breakthrough.
But its also the start of the hard bit, isnt it?
Once youve got that, youve still got 50 minutes of story to tell.
So once youd made that breakthrough, how did you find your second act?
We split them apart so that the audience is always hoping.
So at least in the back of the audiences head, that emotion is there.
So theyre always yearning for that.
Jennifer:We always said that the key was always to get back to this is Annas story.
So shes always slightly out of reach in a way, just as she is for Anna.
But I think the cue is that Annas got two journeys.
They all come together at the end.
But theres the journey thats about the eternal winter and her sister.
And then she has this journey of leaning about what love is.
About growing, maturing, and coming of age.
So for us, that carried us through the moments that she couldnt be with Elsa.
Everybody would go I want to know more about Elsa, I want to know more about Elsa.
But Anna, as we always said, is our ordinary hero.
Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee, thank you very much!
Frozen is out in UK cinemas now.
