If you’ve seen Pixar’s latest offering, Coco, in the theater, you were likely greeted by a new short featuring Olaf from Frozen that is meant to bridge the gap between Frozen and its sequel that is set for release in 2019. While it seems like it was a good idea to place Frozen in front of Pixar’s latest film to maximize the audience, the response to this decision has been negative at best. There are few rare slices of praise for Olaf’s Frozen Adventure, but most are having none of its 21-minute runtime or its musical view of the holidays.
According to most of the critic responses online, the short was not screened ahead of time and almost came as a surprise for some after Coco was released. Some are even trying to determine how late you can show up to see the film and miss the short entirely.
https://twitter.com/alissamarie/status/934192942805340168
Didn’t hate it, but was supremely annoyed. My Mom and I looked at each other with a “Really?” expression several times. Halfway through she even asked, “How long does this last?” We just wanted to see COCO.
— Ethan Anderton (@Ethan_Anderton) November 25, 2017
My friend's response 😂 pic.twitter.com/ldBrEEDfnT
— Caroline Madden 🦄 (@crolinss) November 25, 2017
Tonight a friend could not stop talking about how much he hated it. He wants me to see it so I can hate it too.
— Eric D. Snider (@EricDSnider) November 25, 2017
Someone in our audience involuntarily exclaiming "oh my GODDDDD" when Elsa started to sing again was the hardest I've laughed at the theater in 2017 https://t.co/pBVngdwnfg
— Ross Kroeber (@RossKroeber) November 24, 2017
But it shouldn’t have been a surprise if they had listened to audiences in Mexico who had similar complaints about the short. Several reports indicate that fan reactions in Mexico to the short led to its removal ahead of Coco, with Cinemex confirming theaters were now showing a version of the film without the short included.
According to animator/artist Julieta Colás, she waited until the short was removed from the film in Mexican cinemas before seeing the film and had heard many complained about the length of the featurette compared to the shorts attached to Pixar films in the past.
Overall dislike in Mexico was big and loud enough that it's no longer screening in some theatres.
— Julieta Colás 🐰🌷 (@jujujulieta) November 4, 2017
Imagine the most obvious of capitalist ploys to sell toys failing to the point of an entire country asking it to not be shown anymore
— Julieta Colás 🐰🌷 (@jujujulieta) November 4, 2017
Some reports seem to note that it might be a limited engagement in theaters alongside Coco, but that is unconfirmed. What is sure is Olaf’s Frozen Adventure was meant to be a television special for ABC before the decision was made to include it with the Pixar film, due to the popularity of Frozen and the apparent connection it will have to Frozen 2. No matter what the intentions are, audiences who went to see Coco didn’t seem too pleased by its inclusion.
It was *at least* twice as long as anyone in my theater wanted. Did they make it as a TV special, then someone said “eh, just put it in front of COCO?”
— David McGinnis (@dav_mcg) November 25, 2017
Me watching the Frozen short before #Coco pic.twitter.com/3NucnX0H9Q
— benafflecksmoking.jpg (@neontruths) November 25, 2017
https://twitter.com/eveewing/status/934191528557338624
My 8-year old nephew, after the excruciating 20 minute Frozen short in front of Coco: “Nobody asked for that”
— The Perry Bible Fellowship (@PBFcomics) November 25, 2017
https://twitter.com/itsAbel_dfo/status/934672439602237440
https://twitter.com/jackninivaggi/status/934776812307124224
And others expressed their desire to see more separation between Disney efforts and Pixar efforts, something that seems like a longshot considering Disney is in charge here.
https://twitter.com/zachdicks0n/status/934264864104763393
It is safe to say that nobody would be complaining if they got a 21-minute Avengers: Infinity War prologue here instead of Frozen, so maybe it is just Frozen exhaustion. We’ll see when the sequel is released in 2019.
