Walt Disney Animation Studios has been on a roll these past couple years, making both the enchanted fairy tale Tangled and the wonderfully creative Wreck-It Ralph, and today they want you to get to know the characters of their next big feature, Frozen.
Disney's Official Blog has posted character art and bios for nine key members of the animated movie's cast. First on the list - and seen at the top of this article, is Anna, the heroine voiced by Veronica Mars' Kristen Bell. The description of her character throws around adjectives like, "daring," "optimistic," and "caring," which means she will likely stand true to the long history of righteous Disney characters. Her quest is to reconnect with her sister Elsa, whom Anna hasn't seen since their childhood. This is made complicated by a magical secret that Elsa unleashes that brings eternal winter to the entire kingdom of Arendelle.
Which now brings us to Elsa The Snow Queen, voiced by Indina Menzel. As you might have guessed from Anna's description, Elsa's has a secret ability to create ice and snow. When the two princesses were children Anna was actually almost killed by her sister, which led Elsa to keep herself in isolation and simply work to control her growing powers. When her powers end up causing a permanent winter, she grows fearful that she may become a monster whom nobody can help.
Next up we have Kristoff, voiced by Jonathan Groff. He lives high up in the mountains and harvests ice for a living. He's described as the "strong, no-nonsense type," but haw one soft spot - his loyal pet reindeer Sven.
Continuing the tradition of anthropomorphic animals in Disney movies, we now arrive at Sven's intro. Kind of like the Chewbacca to Kristoff's Han Solo, he doesn't communicated with human words, but serves as both best friend, and a conscience for his friend. As you can imagine, he's also apparently quite handy when it comes to pulling a sleigh.
Now we come to the story's other male lead. This is Hans, a royal from a neighboring kingdom voiced by Santino Fontana. He comes from a family with 12 brothers, so for much of his life he has felt invisible. He comes to Arendelle for Elsa’s coronation, but could end up with a closer relationship to Anna.
Elsa's powers not only created an eternal winter - it also apparently created living snow men. This is Olaf, who is voiced by Josh Gad. He has the ability to disassemble himself, as you can tell by the picture, which is both a handy skill and kind of a nuisance at times. The blog also adds this little tidbit: "He may also have the world’s most impossible dream, but what he doesn’t know won’t melt him—or will it?"
If Olaf is the friendly snowman, then Marshmallow is the yin to his yang. Also born out of Elsa's powers, he serves as her bodyguard and keeps intruders away from her ice palace. And he's quite good at what he does.
The Duke of Weselton, voiced by Alan Tudyk, is one of the movie's central villains. After discovering Elsa's powers, he works to try and get her own kingdom to turn against her - and he does so by calling on a monster.
Lastly there's Oaken (Chris Williams), the operator of Wandering Oaken’s Trading Post and Sauna. When Elsa's powers hit in mid-July, he's finds himself overstocked with equipment for summer. But while Oaken is a nice guy and very helpful, don't try to take him for a sucker or he will kick you out without hesitation.
Frozen is directed by the duo of Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee and will be in theaters on November 27th.
