We're just over a year away from the release of Frozen 2 and we just got a big update on one of the most important parts of the movie, the music. The Oscar-winning team of Bobby Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez is back once again to create the music for the sequel and director Jennifer Lee has confirmed that the movie already has four songs, including one that was just completed, which apparently bowled over the director. According to Lee...
We have a new song that I think is an evolution. It's its own song...Bobby [Lopez] and Kristen [Anderson-Lopez] just delivered it three weeks ago. We've been working with them for two years and this song just came in and I love it.
Four songs have already been chosen for the film, including this one which Jennifer Lee tells Variety is an "evolution." It's not entirely clear what that means, but she clearly thinks this particular song is quite special, making one wonder if Frozen 2 will have it's own hit song that you won't be able to get out of your head, or get your kids to stop singing, for two years.
Frozen was a massive hit for Disney and a large part of the reason for that was the remarkable soundtrack. That included "Let it Go" the song that became an anthem and won an Oscar for Best Original Song. The pressure is almost certainly on to match the success of the first film in every way possible and that will include making a soundtrack that's just as memorable as the first film.
The production of Frozen 2 has been going on for years, Jennifer Lee says she's been working with the songwriters alone for the last two years. There have likely been numerous songs attempted in that time that have had to change. Either it was decided that the song wasn't quite right, or the story of the movie actually changed to the point that the song no longer fit.
While scripts need to be finished before any real work can begin on filming a live-action movie, in the case of animated movies, stories are often reworked again and again as it's decided that certain things don't work.
In the case of the original Frozen, the script originally had Elsa as a more traditional villain rather than simply being misunderstood. Some of the music that was originally written but scrapped made it on to the extended version of the Frozen soundtrack and we'll likely get the same for Frozen 2.
The original Frozen had seven main songs, and one would assume that the sequel will follow suit, so there are probably at least a couple more on the way from the Frozen 2 songwriters. The sequel is ever so slightly closer than it had been, the release date was recently moved up, from November 27 2019 to November 22.
