1. An adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen‘s 1845 fairy tale The Snow Queen, Frozen was actually in development at Disney for almost a decade (and was briefly considered for a hand-drawn animated feature back in 1937).
The first modern attempt happened in 2002, and when 2003 also proved unsuccessful, more stalled attempts followed over the years. Frozen really didn’t start coming together until Christopher Buck, who directed Tarzan, came aboard in 2008, but the film wasn’t commissioned until 2011 following Tangled‘s box office success.
And in 2012, Jennifer Lee, who initially came on as a screenwriter, was named co-director, making her the first woman to direct an animated film by Walt Disney Animation Studios.
2. The movie was going to be titled The Snow Queen after the original fairy tale, but the filmmakers decided to change it to Frozen “because, to us, it represents the movie. Frozen plays on the level of ice and snow but also the frozen relationship, the frozen heart that has to be thawed,” producer Peter Del Vecho explained to Bleeding Cool, denying it was inspired by Tangled. (The Snow Queen title was still used overseas.)
