Disney is looking to return to the top of the box office on a regular basis after a handful of misfires and, earlier this year, CEO Bob Iger doubled down on that when he announced plans for new Frozen and Toy Story movies.
While Jennifer Lee won't return to direct the former (alongside Chris Buck) due to her commitments as an executive, it sounds like the threequel is rapidly starting to take shape. Speaking at the BFI London Film Festival, the Disney Animation Chief Creative Officer said she's "blown away" by what she's seen thus far.
"Every morning last week they carved out space for me to work with the creative team on it and I am blown away and I am so excited," Lee revealed. "I don’t know what I’m doing on it yet - I’m not doing nothing - except doing what I do now, which is we work on every project as as team and I’m in there with creative. But with ‘Frozen,’ just a little bit more."
It's good to hear she'll remain hands-on with the franchise she helped create, especially as in addition to co-directing Frozen and Frozen II, she also penned the screenplays. Lee also wrote Disney's highly anticipated Wish starring Ariana DeBose and Chris Pine.
"From the first image of the film, he’s portrayed like a hero - and he may very well be at that moment," the filmmaker and studio boss said of the latter's villainous character. "There’s a moment in the film, and there’s a song Julia [Michaels] wrote that’s incredible, where Asha and Magnifico are completely philosophically aligned.|
"And that’s been a dream of mine to get to do, having the protagonist and villain completely aligned. And then the minute they learn more, you see that change and each makes different choices."
"We’ve never done this expansive of a whole journey of the villain," Lee continued. "And Chris Pine also brought that to it, because that’s what he needs to get inside the meat of the character emotionally. So he was such an incredible partner to do that. He’s so smart and he can sing, so he just kept coming alive more and more every day."
After Strange World unexpectedly bombed, Disney Animation will be looking to make up for that with Wish and early buzz points to the musical adventure being a hit.
The movie is set to be released in theaters on November 22, while Frozen III's debut is currently "TBD."