Will Olaf’s latest snow adventure forever tarnish Disney’sFrozenlegacy? Disney has recently been in the middle of some controversy with the release ofOlaf’s Frozen Adventure, a 21-minute cartoon, in front of Pixar’sCoco. Moviegoers took to social media and spoke to movie theater managers to demand answers about why audiences were subject to watching a 21-minute “short” after nearly 20 minutes of previews. The debacle has brought up similarities to another botched holiday special that Disney coincidentally now also owns. The TV special in question is the 1978Star Wars: Holiday Special, which is also noted for an extremely negative reaction from fans and critics alike.
Olaf’s Frozen Adventurewas made with the intention to be shown as a TV special back in 2016. The 21-minute cartoon was still going to be released to ABC as recently as June of this year, but Disney decided to switch gears with the project and instead have put it in front of Pixar’sCoco, a decision that has backfired and hasforced Disney to pull the shortfrom theaters due to the overwhelminglynegative backlash. The length apparently isn’t the only problem that moviegoers are having with the newFrozenadventure. The songs in the holiday special have been deemed inferior to those of the originalFrozenmovie and the story has been called pointless, leading to many asking if it’s the newStar WarsChristmas Special.
The only redeeming quality of the 1978Star WarsChristmas Special over time has been the introduction of Boba Fett, but that wasn’t realized at the time. So, it is possible thatOlaf’s Frozen Adventuremight have a gem of something good in it that will be revealed 40 years later. Olaf is already pretty widely compared to Jar Jar Binks, which begs the question why he was given his own special in the first place. It’s comparable to Han Solo and Chewbacca going back to the Wookie’s home planet of Kashyyyk to celebrate Life Day. It’s at that point where we are introduced to Chewie’s dad, wife and son, Itchy, Malla, and Lumpy, respectively. Talk about tarnishing theStar Warsuniverse, and only one year after theA New Hopehit theaters.
What both theFrozen franchiseandStar Warsin 1978 benefitted from is that they released their crappy stuff before a sequel was put out in theaters. They both had insanely popular brands to work with and, ultimately save with sequels. In the case of theStar WarsChristmas Special, not too many people except for diehard fans even know that it exists, though it’s very easy to track down on YouTube these days (see below).Olaf’s Frozen Adventureon the other hand, has a disadvantage for coming out at a time where it seems that it will never go away completely, like chronic athlete’s foot.
The good news for Disney is thatFrozen 2is currently in the works and if done correctly, it will erase the damage thatOlaf’s shorthas done to the brand.Star Warsbounced back with ease after the release of 1980’sThe Empire Strikes Back, but had to endure nearly 2 years of embarrassment for the 2 hours of horrible variety show antics. With the Porgs coming up, Disney doesn’t need to bring in a Jar Jar Binks into its animated world to lead his own special, which is hopefully very evident now. If you’d like to read further about theOlaf’s Frozen Adventurebacklash, head over toLooper.
