‘Frozen’ Casts Idina Menzel As Snow Queen, Hires ‘Book Of Mormon’ Co-Writer Robert Lopez To Write Original Music
An animated adaptation of theHans Christian Andersenfairy taleThe Snow Queenhas been in the development at Disney on and off for about a decade now, but a few encouraging signs suggest we’re finally getting pretty close to seeing the story hit the big screen. Well, relatively speaking.
Late last year, the studioannouncedaNovember 27, 2013release date for a revampedCG versionof the project, and followed up a few months later bycastingKristen Bellin a lead role. This week brings several more big updates:Idina Menzelhas landed a major part opposite Bell, while the music department has added some exciting fresh blood in the form of husband-and-wife duoRobert Lopez(Book of Mormon) andKristen Anderson-Lopez(Winnie the Pooh). And on top of all that, we also have a new official synopsis. More details after the jump.
In “Frozen,” a prophecy traps a kingdom in eternal winter, so Anna (voice of Bell) must team up with Kristoff, a daring mountain man, on the grandest of journeys to find the Snow Queen (voice of Menzel) and put an end to the icy spell. Encountering Everest-like extremes, mystical creatures and magic at every turn, Anna and Kristoff battle the elements in a race to save the kingdom from destruction.
The role of Kristoff has not yet been cast, though I’m sure Disney won’t have any trouble attracting solid talent. Menzel is a Tony Award winner best known in the theater world for starring in the original Broadway productions ofRentandWicked. Onscreen, she was most recently seen playing Shelby Corcoran onGlee.Frozenwill actually mark Menzel’s second time being turned into an animated character by Disney — she had a supporting role in 2007’s mostly live-actionEnchanted, during which she appeared briefly in animated form.
Equally promising is the hiring of Lopez and Anderson-Lopez to write original songs forFrozen. Though Lopez is best known for his irreverent (and Tony Award-winning) work onBook of MormonandAvenue Q, he’s had some experience with more family-friendly fare as well; he and his wife teamed up to write several songs for 2011’sWinnie the Pooh. Anderson-Lopez, meanwhile, has also written music for a stage version ofFinding Nemo.
