1. Frozen, an adaptation of Andersen’s 1845 fairy tale The Snow Queen, was actually in development at Disney for nearly a decade (it was briefly considered as a hand-drawn animated feature in 1937).
The first modern attempt was made in 2002, and again in 2003, followed by many more attempts over the years. “Frozen” began to take off when Tarzan director Christopher Bach was hired in 2008, but the film was commissioned in 2011 after the box office success of “Rapunzel.”
In 2012, Jennifer Lee, who originally participated as a screenwriter, was named co-director, making her the first woman to direct an animated film for Walt Disney Animation Studios.
2. The film was to be titled The Snow Queen, after the original fairy tale, but the filmmakers denied that they were inspired by Rapunzel, explaining to Bleeding Cool, “Because for us, that represents the movie. Frozen is not only playing on the level of ice and snow, but also frozen relationships, frozen hearts that have to be thawed,” producer Peter Del Vecho explained to Bleeding Cool. (The title of Snow Queen was still used overseas.)
