Olaf (Disney)
| Olaf | |
|---|---|
| Frozen character | |
 |
|
| First appearance | Frozen |
| Created by |
Chris Buck Jennifer Lee |
| Voiced by | Josh Gad |
| Information | |
| Species | Sentient snowman |
| Gender | Male |
Olaf the Snowman is a fictional character from the 2013 animated film Frozen, produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios.
The Disney studio made their first attempts to adapt Hans Christian Andersen's fairytale, "The Snow Queen", as early as 1943, when Walt Disney considered the possibility of producing a biography film of the author. However, the story and the characters proved to be too symbolic and posed unsolvable problems to Disney and his animators. Later on, other Disney executives had made efforts to translate this material to the big screen, however these proposals were all shelved due to similar issues.
In 2008, Chris Buck pitched Disney his version of the story called Anna and the Snow Queen, which was planned to be traditionally animated. This version was "completely different" from Frozen; it had a storyline that stuck much closer to the original material and featured an entirely different Olaf character. However, by early 2010, the project was scrapped again. On December 22, 2011, Disney announced a new title for the film, Frozen, which would be released on November 27, 2013, and a different crew from the previous attempt. The new script, which employed "the same concept but was completely rewritten", finally solved the long-term problem with Andersen's story by depicting Anna and Elsa as sisters.
Josh Gad, a Tony-nominated actor best known for his performance as Elder Arnold Cunningham in Broadway's The Book of Mormon (which was co-written by the film's co-songwriter Robert Lopez), was cast to voice Olaf. Gad later expressed that getting a part in a Disney film was "kind of a dream come true" for him, as he has always been a fan of Disney films in general and their animated productions in particular. "I grew up during the second golden age of Disney animation, when every movie that came out was an event – The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King," he said. Impressed by the performances of comedic relief sidekicks such as Timon and Pumbaa in The Lion King, or the Genie in Aladdin, Gad set the goal to play characters of this type since his early age: "I remember [...] saying, "I want to do that one day. I really want to do that,"" he recalled.
...
Wikipedia