Today the Walt Disney Company announced that Jennifer Lee is leaving her position as Chief Creative Officer at Walt Disney Animation and will be returning to the FROZEN franchise to write and direct FROZEN 3 (officially titled FROZEN III – I think Jennifer Lee likes Roman numerals) and write FROZEN 4 (officially FROZEN IV) – along with writer/producer Marc Smith.
Internet speculators and pundits have been predicting Lee’s exit from the WDA CCO role for the past year, especially after the respective failures of STRANGE WORLD and WISH (both films which I quite enjoyed, especially WISH) though it was unknown at the time who might replace her or what she might do should she leave the position. Although RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON was beloved by many, and spawned a new Disney Princess, it was released at the beginning of theaters re-opening post 2020 closures and unfortunately was never able to catch fire at the box office.
She was replaced by Jared Bush, the co-director and writer of both ZOOTOPIA and ENCANTO (ironically Jennifer Lee’s biggest success while she has been the CCO of WDA) and who also worked on MOANA and the WRECK-IT RALPH series. I’ve seen Jared speak in person before and I do think he will be a better fit for the CCO role. He is smart, passionate, level-headed and extremely commercially-minded – and he is a very effective communicator.
I will miss the specific quality of originality, emotion and soul that Jennifer Lee seemed to infuse into every film that she worked on during her tenure. Say what you will about STRANGE WORLD and WISH but I believe they were both wonderfully original works with distinct points of view laden with real emotion. Unfortunately we are in a time when the measure of an IP matters far more in an animated world post-2020, a world where parents must decide if a film is “worth” their money and time when it will be streaming in 2-3 months.
Luckily Jennifer Lee has one of those IPs that she helped to create back in 2013 with FROZEN. Along with the Lopez’s and Chris Buck, she is one of the primary creative forces of the franchise. Though I would argue that she is actually THE creative force behind the franchise and the one who knows Anna and Elsa the best. She certain cares about them and was clearly a bit hesitant to turn the proverbial franchise car keys over to other artists, as was evident in her comments at the London Film Festival and which we previously discussed on this site. She was clearly apprehensive and even I wondered if she was having second thoughts about eschewing her directing career to become a film executive at Disney Animation.
And when she showed up at D23 to present the third and fourth FROZEN films and explain where they might be headed (which we discussed on this site), it was clear that she had a passion and emotional connection to the franchise that could not be denied. In fact her appearance at D23 might be an indication that his decision had been in the works for a while, possibly as far back as the London Film Festival in early 2023 – or shortly thereafter.
Nonetheless, the natural question is whether or not Jennifer Lee’s return to the franchise is a good thing. I think so, in fact I think it is a GREAT thing. Jennifer Lee went to school at Columbia University and studied filmmaking, not business. I think she is an artist at heart. And the FROZEN stories that have not been directly written or shepherded by her, things like OLAF’s HOLIDAY ADVENTURE and even the recent FROZEN: FORCES OF NATURE podcast which I covered in detail on this site, were just missing something from that artist. And I think Jennifer Lee’s voice truly IS FROZEN. There is nobody that knows Elsa and Anna better, and specifically the dynamic of their relationship, than Jennifer Lee. There is also nobody who knows the lore of Elsa, the forest spirits, the Northuldrans, and the history of Arendelle as Jennifer Lee.
The FROZEN franchise is a great franchise but it is also a delicate and personal franchise like STAR WARS with parts cribbed from Norse history, parts cribbed from the tales of Hans Christian Anderson, and parts taken from Jennifer Lee’s personal outlook and view on the world. In my opinion it is Jennifer Lee’s hand that is able to modulate all of these things and create the characters and world that are FROZEN and make them so authentic to all of the FROZEN fans in the world.
I personally think FROZEN and FROZEN 2 are both great with FROZEN 2 being a masterwork and the best sequel since TERMINATOR 2 and possibly EMPIRE STRIKES BACK in the way that it grew the world and changed the audience’s view of the world. I could not imagine a RETURN OF THE JEDI that did not have George Lucas’ involvement (and frankly if you have read a lot of George Lucas bios, you would have wanted him more involved in that film) so I am thrilled that Jennifer Lee is coming back to make sure that the third and fourth film will ultimately stand as one larger work of the FROZEN world.
What do you think? Are you a FROZEN fan? Are you excited Jennifer Lee is coming back? Let me know in the comments below. And what do you want to see in FROZEN III and IV?
For more ideas about what we might expect in FROZEN III click here for D23 coverage and recap or here for 10 potential FROZEN 3 and 4 storylines.
No Scoops Club 