Tag: olaf presents

Josh Gad Fought for Some of His Lines in ‘Olaf Presents’

The upcoming Disney+ series Olaf Presents features the Frozen franchise’s beloved snowman sidekick retelling classic Disney films. Actor Josh Gad famously voices Olaf in the films and will be reprising his role for the series.

While actors and voice actors alike often truly embrace their characters, Gad seems to have gone above and beyond while bringing Olaf to life in Olaf Presents. At a press conference for the series, the actor talked about his recording experience:

“What I love to do is just play and run free, which I’m sure is what [directors] like the least. But they really, you know, gave me the opportunity to just go crazy and [Director Hyrum Osmond] from day one would just let the mic roll and allow me [to do that]. And at first I was recording it all from home–I was my own sound engineer throughout. And it was just one of those things where it was like 45 minutes for a one minute short of just me being an idiot.”
Josh Gad

Even though he was given plenty of leeway in how he went about voicing Olaf for the series, he apparently also had to fight for some of his performances. Gad explained:

“There were definitely a lot of moments where [Producer Jennifer Newfield] and Hyrum said ‘No, Josh. No, no, no.’ My favorite moments [were] early on figuring out what the boundaries were…I was like, oh, no, I’m going to Bob Iger with this. I’m going to the shareholders with this.”
Josh Gad

Olaf and Gad seem to be one of those rare castings where they not only seem inseparable, but the actor has the ability to influence the character in major ways outside of the writing process. Director Hyrum Osmond recognized that many of the choices as to what elements to bring into each episode “came down to we had Josh kind of just say it all.”

Olaf Presents is now streaming on Disney+.

November 12, 2021
‘Olaf Presents’ Highlights Disney+’s Collaborative Power

The upcoming Disney+ series Olaf Presents features the Frozen franchise’s famous Olaf the snowman sidekick retelling classic Disney movies like The Little Mermaid, Tangled, and The Lion King. While Olaf Presents’ main goal seems to be to get a laugh through less-than-two-minute-long shorts, it highlights the collaborative power of the Disney+ streaming platform.

While Disney is always free to allow collaboration among its different projects and properties, Disney+ might make it easier. At a press conference for the upcoming series, Producer Jennifer Newfield spoke about being able to build on pre-existing Disney tales:

“It’s nice to [be able to build] off of ourselves as Disney, like using some of the tales that we’ve told that are so familiar, and which are building off of fairy tales that existed even before the time of Olaf…so the self-referential piece [] almost like grows with [Olaf’s] knowledge and self-awareness…”
Jennifer Newfield

When audiences have the ability to seamlessly move back and forth from projects like Olaf Presents to the actual films that are presented in the series, it changes the way content is produced and what kind of content is produced. Newfield went on to say:

“Because I think as a lot of people probably noticed the common collective idea of that sequence in Frozen II…we kind of knew that something needed to get bigger and become a bit of some films being integrated. And so [Director Hyrum Osmond] knew that there were other people in the studio, who also had that same thought…[there was] an insane amount of collaborative ideas as we went through every script together.”
Jennifer Newfield

As a relatively young platform, Disney+ is likely only just beginning to realize the new opportunities it has when all of its properties are housed together. Olaf Presents starts streaming on the platform on Disney+ Day on November 12.

November 11, 2021
‘Olaf Presents’ is the Latest Example of Disney+’s Creative Freedom

The upcoming Disney+ series Olaf Presents features the Frozen franchise’s famous snowman sidekick retelling classic Disney tales in bite-sized episodes. At a press conference for the series, Olaf Presents’ producer, director and star Josh Gad all praised the creative freedom the show enjoyed. Producer Jennifer Newfield discussed how “Let’s Play” was a guiding creative concept:

“Being able to play I mean, I think I think that was throughout the entire production is let’s play. And I think that our collaboration efforts come in the way that we went about it was in that way. And we knew that we could take liberties which is not often the case, especially in animation, we have to be very precise with our decisions. And I think the playfulness of the whole the whole way through from the script, writing to the recording sessions, all the way to animators really being able to kind of take the reins a little bit and yeah, be able to just enjoy that freedom is so nice.”
Jennifer Newfield

Gad expressed that one of his favorite parts about voicing the titular character is that the creators just “let [him] go crazy.” Director Hyrum Osmond doubled down on the creators’ philosophy in making the show:

“But I think one of the things is so great, you know, we talked about the inspiration of these films, but it’s also just taking the liberty to not take ourselves too seriously. And I think that is just so fun. And especially when you start telling these things, from the perspective of this, the sort of naive Olaf, right, like the way he sees it. I mean, you can’t help but have some of these fun moments.”
Hyrum Osmond

The Frozen spin-off isn’t the only new Disney+ animated series to apparently be allowed extensive creative freedom. Marvel Studios’ What If… ? head writer A.C. Bradley often said similar things about her experience:

“When I took the job, one of my rules was let’s be free. We’re in the multiverse — we should be as free as can be and go and run into the wild, into the stories the movies will never do, into the stories the TV shows will never do, and show both Disney and the fans all the possibilities of these characters.”
A.C. Bradley

Maybe Olaf Presents is another hint as to how Disney+ intends to handle some of its original series, particularly animated ones. Allowing writers and actors to simply have fun with a project can undoubtedly be rewarding for the studio and audience alike.

Olaf Presents starts streaming on the platform on Disney+ Day on November 12.

November 10, 2021
REVIEW: ‘Olaf Presents’ is a Lovable Recycling Project

Olaf Presents is the latest in Disney’s obsession with rehashing and recycling the bottomless financial well of its animated films. Despite the lingering question of what exactly is the goal or purpose of the mini-series, it does manage to be genuinely delightful. Josh Gad’s Olaf of the Frozen franchise fame is a golden nugget of a character and is special enough that his overuse and excessive commercialization can be forgiven enough to truly enjoy this series. With its home on Disney+ within the complete collection of the films, the talking snowman “presents” places it in a much-needed external context. Instead of being a cute, but empty isolated concept, it feels much more like a worthy piece of the larger animated Disney film tapestry.

With each episode sporting a runtime of under two minutes, the length of each mini-story is perfect. It’s enough to get a laugh, but it ends almost exactly when it starts to get old. In fact, everything about Olaf Presents is miniature. The writing comes in super abrupt chunks and the editing emphasizes it. The blink-and-you’ll-miss-it narrative sections combined with the harsh edit to the next one to two-second section is quite funny. Gad is as triumphant as the silly sidekick as ever, and it’s one of those rare castings that seem irreplaceable. Gad and Olaf in Olaf Presents only need to find a way to be funny in micro-bursts, and they can do that on repeat in this series.

Much of the humor comes from Olaf’s more removed takes on some of Disney’s most classic animated movies. He describes scenes or plot points in ways that the “ordinary” person might. The dark, dramatic, and detailed description of Mufasa’s death in The Lion King that emphasizes just how brutal the famous scene actually is is a perfect example. Our goofy snowman surely makes people think, “Look! He’s saying what we’ve always thought!”

Poking fun at its own films is a refreshing move from Disney at least. The mini-series is able to call out some outdated, overly corny, or otherwise laughable themes and storylines that work best for older movies, such as 1989’s The Little Mermaid. It is interesting, though, how Olaf Presents can make an audience laugh at the absurdities in Disney movies by taking cues from the Frankenstein’s Monster of Disney movies’ culmination of their absurdities.

The series is a nice way to promote classic films by using a more recent but future classic as a vehicle to reintroduce them either to a younger audience who did not grow up on some of the older animated classics or to an older audience that has left them behind. The presentations are undoubtedly far less enjoyable—if at all—to a person who hasn’t seen the movie being presented. So, to that extent, it’s unclear if Olaf Presents can persuade a newbie to scroll to another part of Disney+ to watch a feature-length film for context.

Olaf Presents is honestly a funny, cute, and amusing collection of bite-sized episodes for the Disney animated film fan. Olaf’s humor will not disappoint his fan base and it’s surely more than enough to make Olaf-indifferent audiences laugh. Poking fun at classic, and even more recent, movies for about a minute and a half proves to be entertaining. However, those who aren’t already familiar with the movies may not get much out of the series. While the series is a blatant recycling project that highlights ongoing Disney’s death grip on its iconic properties, the fact that Olaf Presents finds itself as a tiny piece within the Disney+ platform makes it feel like a more inspired addition to the conglomerate.

Olaf Presents premieres exclusively on Disney+ on Nov. 12.

November 9, 2021