Kristen Bell’s dreams of portraying a Walt Disney heroine have come true now that she will give voice to the klutzy but true-hearted Anna in the animated adventure epic “Frozen.”
“Since I was 4 years old, I dreamed of being in a Disney animated film,” Bell says. “It was the first goal I ever set for myself. It seemed like it would be a very unrealistic one.”
In Frozen, due Nov 27, Anna heads out on a treacherous quest to find her older, more powerful sister, Elsa, the Queen of Arrendelle (Idina Menzel). Elsa has fled after accidentally setting off a curse, leaving her kingdom in perpetual winter. The story is based on a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale.
Anna is the sibling who doesn’t normally get that much attention and is used to kind of just spazzing out on her own. But she’s forced into a position where her sister needs her and she has to step up to the plate.
Bell brought her own ideas to directors Chris Buck (Surf’s Up, Tarzan) and Jennifer Lee (a screenwriter on Wreck-It Ralph) about how to play her character.
“She’s not a good fighter, she doesn’t have good posture, she’s not very elegant, and she’s constantly putting her foot in her mouth,” she says. “But she’s a good person and she’s utterly determined.”
“She doesn’t have any superpowers,” adds Lee. “But Anna is one of these ordinary people doing an extraordinary thing.” Anna has help on her quest to find Elsa, including an assist from rugged mountain man Kristoff (Jonathan Groff), whose friendly steed is a reindeer named Sven. The group is joined by talking snowman Olaf (Josh Gad), who provides further comic relief.
And there is romance. After all, “Frozen” features the charming Prince Hans (Santino Fontana, who is currently starring as Prince Charming in Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella on Broadway).
The animators traveled to Norway to scope out the winter world firsthand and incorporated the look into Frozen’s 3-D-enhanced scenery. Buck says his team had “a blast” re-creating the beauty on-screen.
