Disney are set to cause a commotion in the entertainment industry, with their announcement that a sequel is to be made of the blockbuster computer-animated fantasy success Frozen. The news was made known at the annual shareholder meeting, by the chief creative officer, John Lasseter. Whether the follow-up can match the attention afforded to the original and all of the spin-off merchandising, that boosted the vast revenue stream from the movie takings alone, is questionable, but clearly the opportunity to "Let It Go" again was just too tempting for the company to pass up on.
With the original Film making almost $1.3 billion (approximately £870 million at current exchange rates) at the box office alone, it became the highest-grossing in history for an animated movie and an amazing fifth highest of all time across all genres of film created.
Released in November 2013, Frozen became something of a phenomenon with its mainly young fan base. Taking its inspiration from Hans Christian Andersen's classic The Snow Queen, it took the literary fairy tale to the big screen and smashed records in so doing, besides stimulating the imagination of countless children along the way. The basic storyline involved an interesting mixture of characters, obviously designed to appeal to all types of children, as a fearless princess called 'Anna' set out to find her sister, 'Elsa', to release the kingdom from an eternal winter that she had helped to create.
She is joined in her quest by an iceman called 'Kristoff', in addition to his pet reindeer and a snowman named 'Olaf'.
The film won two Academy Awards, one (unsurprisingly) for Best Animated Feature, while the catchy song that featured in the movie called "Let It Go" also picked up an award for Best Original Song. It also picked up a Golden Globe, a BAFTA award and two Grammy Awards, such was its appeal.
Merchandise from Frozen proved so popular, that many of the toys became the 'must haves' for Christmas 2014, including dolls, action figures, teddy bears and even fancy dress costumes. The company announced that their income was helped by the sales to such an extent, that it had risen 19% for the last quarter of 2014.
No planned release date has yet been made known, but the sequel is expected to see Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee return as directors and Peter Del Vecho continuing his producer role from the original film.
A short film sequel (lasting around seven minutes) , Frozen Fever, was to be released today in the United States (13th March) featuring the stars of the original, ahead of Disney's Cinderella being shown, starring Lily James and Cate Blanchett.
